Jared and Jensen at Rising Con: Satin Panties, Secret Spy Names, and Fan Serenades, Ole!

‘Highway to Hell’ boomed through the panel room bright and early at 9 am to kick off Day Two of Rising Con in Barcelona. Good thing too, as many of us were a bit sleep deprived. (We caught some of last night’s concert, which was an hour plus of classic SPN music, from “Wanted Dead or Alive” to “Eye of the Tiger” – several hundred fans rocking out hard enough to make the floor shake and singing along to every word. Awesome.)

Jensen, on the other hand, was less sleep deprived after a good night’s sleep, and in a great mood. He apologized for being a bit jet lagged yesterday, though we don’t think anyone was complaining. Today he was laid back and smiling. Also, he says ‘awesome’. A lot. Which Lynn thinks is awesome, and which she is free to say as many times as she wants in this post since Kathy isn’t there to stop her.

Some highlights from Jensen’s panel:

Jensen’s advice to a fangirl whose husband wants to be like Dean: “Get a cool car, listen to kickass music, gotta cut your hair short apparently – and take what you want when you want it, especially with women. Of course, that’s Dean talking,” he hastened to add. We’re not sure that fangirl wanted to take all that patented Dean Winchester advice home to her husband though.

As the crowd loosened up a bit, there were a few more interesting questions today. When asked who came up with past!Dean’s secret shared with future!Dean (the infamous pink satin panties), Jensen shook his head sadly. “Oh Eric, he’s a funny one,” he answered, then asked the audience, “Did you like it?” The consensus was a unanimous yes, though his tossed off ‘well, it’s better than a birthmark’ made some of the audience rethink their answer. Clearly it would depend on where….you know what? Never mind.

Season Six newsflash that may be good news for some and really not good news for others: Lisa Braden will be back for at least an episode “or two or three” next season. Make of that what you will.

Someone asked about Ben – Jensen doesn’t have any inside info, but if he had to guess he’d say no, Ben isn’t Dean’s son. Though he thinks it would be interesting to see what Dean would do in a father role. Of course, the fandom already knows the answer to that – who else raised Sammy?

Speaking of kids, Jensen says working with kids is great, because they come to set and are wide eyed and excited to be there, and don’t bring any egos, and it reminds you how much fun this (acting) is.

Of course, that’s when fake blood isn’t involved. There’s a running joke on set about how much Jensen hates the stuff. So let’s count out the number of times Dean Winchester has been bruised and bloodied this season, shall we? One, two, three….okay, forget it. We don’t have that much room here.

Season Five’s finale is a good example. Jensen gave a detailed description of the prosthetics needed for Dean’s battered face, which they made by pouring plaster over his face, then cutting out a space for a fake eye, a nose piece, cotton balls stuffed in his mouth so it looked swollen, and Jensen’s favorite – fake blood. Apparently it tastes like crap, and they keep having to squirt it between your teeth before each take. Not to mention having to keep one eye closed for seven hours, so that when you can finally have bi-optical vision again, you can barely walk in a straight line (demonstrated admirably by Mr. Ackles onstage). Once Sam and Adam got pulled into the hole, the scene really became difficult for Jensen. Dean crawls forward to pick up the rings, and it was such an emotional scene that Jensen was crying under the prosthetics. Unfortunately the tears started to melt the glue, which then got into his eye and was pretty painful.

“Why is it always Dean who gets beat up?” Jensen lamented. “When Dean’s bloody, Jensen’s not happy.”

Unfortunately for him, Sera Gamble and the fangirls usually are.

Throughout the con, the fans talked about the guests and the guests talked about the fans. Without a single exception we can think of, there was admiration and appreciation on both sides. Cases in point:

A fan asked whether he was still able to walk around (like anyone else) or had that changed since the show. Jensen: “As far as popularity, being ‘somewhat famous’ … I wasn’t much for the public eye before, I like to live a pretty private life, and I still can. Supernatural fans are very respectful. I got lucky to be on a show that has such cool fans.” The crowd started to cheer, but Jensen stopped them and went on. “No really, I wanna reiterate that – on a day to day basis if someone comes up to me, they’re respectful, intelligent, and they ask great questions. Not screaming or throwing themselves ….I’ve seen that and I don’t know how I’d deal with that.”

He shared a recent fan encounter, with a non-stereotypical fan: ”There was this security guy at the airport checking my passport, and he was old enough to be my grandfather. And he was very serious, just doing his job, and he looks down at the passport, looks up at me, looks down again, puts on the stamp, and then he goes “I love your show.’ And it took me by surprise, I was like, ‘Thank you! That’s fantastic! Uhh, can I go now?”

Someone asked if there were limits to what he’d do onscreen. Jensen gave a thoughtful answer about limits being something you strive to overcome. We have a feeling the fan might have been asking about a different sort of limits though. Perhaps more clothing related. Or less clothing related. Ahem. Maybe it’s just as well he misunderstood.

A fan asked what he thought of people saying ‘Oh my Dean’ instead of ‘Oh my God’ or ‘what would Dean Winchester do?’ Jensen wasn’t sure whether to be flattered or offended, but settled on taking it as flattery, noting that it was definitely better than ‘Oh my Sam’. After the fan sat down, he grinned “Oh you guys, you always keep me smiling.”

Back at ya, Mr. Ackles.

Jensen again spoke about how much the writing and production staff listen to the fans, and ended his Q&A with a “See you all in a few – love you!”

From the volume of ‘oh noes, not yet’, and cheering, clearly the feeling is mutual.

Jared took the stage next, and was asked a provocative question right away – Does he find it scary that fans like the show so much and spend so much time online and writing fanfiction and don’t have a real life? Jared immediately protested that he never said that, to which the fan replied ‘no, that was me.’ We had a moment of cringing, as fan shame reared its ugly head. Luckily Jared didn’t buy in. He went on to say that what really scares him is that it’s stressful to come to conventions because “when you see people who enjoy it so much, it’s a great responsibility. I still get nervous to meet you guys. It’s scary when you know someone likes something so much because you don’t want to disappoint them.” Now that’s a classy answer – no wonder this is the show we follow.

Jared also fessed up to his part in the prank wars on Misha. Since the boys have a longstanding agreement not to prank each other, Misha and Jim seem to bear the brunt of their fun and games. Mayonnaise under his car door handle, pushing Misha’s car with his own to get it stuck, letting the air out of his tires….amusingly, we didn’t sense any regret in his voice as Jared gleefully regaled us with his exploits. In fact, he talked about the necessity of goofing off to deal with the emotional scenes he and Jensen have to play. To shake it off, they try to have a laugh, “it’s so dark so much, you have to make funny faces and fart a lot.” And prank your costars. Watch your back, Misha.

One fan asked how it felt to “kill your wife” at the end of Season Four. Jared laughed, but gave what at first seems a surprising answer. “Gen and I had grown close, we were dating, so it was easy. Same with me and Jensen, because we’re such good friends, it’s just easy to work together.” He also said Eric had far too much fun directing that scene. We’ll leave those jokes to your imagination.

Jared also shared a few more behind the scenes filming tidbits, which we – like most fans – love hearing. For instance, there have been times that he and Jensen messed up and it ended up staying in the scene. Their little banter of ‘World Weekly News’ uhh ‘Weekly World News’ uhh ‘yeah, Weekly World News’ wasn’t scripted. It was Jensen flubbing his line and Jared correcting him and keeping right on going. And the end of that intense scene in Born Under A Bad Sign, where Dean hauls off and punches a back-to-himself Sam? Maybe that’s why it comes off so perfectly.

Echoing Jensen’s complaint about Dean always getting beat up, one fan asked why Sam hits Dean every time he’s possessed? Jared didn’t miss a beat. “Because demons are scared of Dean.” Hell yeah.

The fans love nothing more than the boys being on the same page, and one fan asked why we can’t just have Sam and Dean back together again? Jared was skeptical about them going back to Season One SamnDean after having been through so much, but he definitely gets why the fans want it – and why the writers don’t. “It’s nice to see the dynamic when Sam and Dean fight, it’s like a tragedy, it’s heartbreaking to see these two brothers who love each other fight. So the writers like to make us clash and fight each other, because as much as Supernatural is about hunting ghosts and demons, it’s really the story of two brothers who are trying to go through life together.” Yep, he gets it.

When Jared was told about the full page ad fans raised money to place in the Hollywood Reporter thanking Eric Kripke for this incredible five year ride, he was clearly dumbfounded, and asked to keep the copy so he could show Jensen. We chatted with Jared later about the ad, and how remarkable this fandom is. I think the word we agreed on was unprecedented. Go fandom!

The last panel of the day was the J2 farewell show, but before that there was a successful charity auction. Misha Collins proved himself a talented auctioneer. And that he looks quite fetching in a red futbol jersey. (A fan had them made for all the guests, and they all immediately put them on. We don’t know how she got their sizes, but everyone’s jersey fit them like a glove. A very attractive glove).

The crowd and the boys were feeling pretty good by this time, so we laughed through much of the last panel. As one fan spontaneously exclaimed, “You’re funny!”

Jensen: “yeah, he’s funny looking and I’m funny haha”

More amusing moments:

Jared playing Dean and Jensen playing Sam. Complete with running and skipping and flailing and….you get the idea.

Their spy names for each other? Cowboy Sid (Jared) and James Westfall (Jensen). Is there subtext here that we’re missing??

The boys spent a good part of the panel good-naturedly ribbing each other, as they do. Jensen made the mistake of saying that he found time to read (part of) a book on his honeymoon. Jared replied with a smirk and a “Well, when I was on my honeymoon…” which Jensen interrupted with “Not a lot of reading going on there….”

Their teasing is always a mix of competitive and genuinely supportive though. Jensen on what Jared might have studied at college: “I’m gonna brag on him a bit, he’s like a math savant. It’s a little creepy.” These two can get competitive for fun, and love nothing more than hamming it up for photo ops with one of them hugging a fangirl and the other arms crossed and pouting, but when it comes down to it, they never fail to go out of their way to sing each other’s praises. We very much approve.

A fan talked about their chemistry, “both brother chemistry and in person” and wondered if they’d ever had that kind of chemistry with anyone else they’ve worked with. Jensen: “No, because we haven’t had the time he and I have had together to have the kind of chemistry that we have. We got along well from the beginning too.” Pause for comic timing. “Misha? Not so much.”

More good natured ribbing: Jensen on the “Yellow Fever” cat scene. “You mean where I acted so macho?” He claims he learned the girly scream from Jared – or maybe Misha. And that the poor cat was a lot more scared than they were.

Near the end of the panel, a fan came forward to teach Jared and Jensen the meaning of “Ole” in this beautiful country, and then led the entire auditorium of fans in a rousing chorus, everyone on their feet and singing out their appreciation. The boys seemed genuinely overwhelmed by the display of emotion, and jumped up to do an impromptu Texas-inspired dance, linking arms and swinging each other, to much fannish glee.

When someone asked how this convention and Spanish fans were different, they both answered “Well, we’ve never been serenaded before.” Clearly the outpouring of emotion left an impression. As everyone came onstage to say their goodbyes, Jensen summed it up. “People are different everywhere – but there’s this one crazy little show that brings us all together.”

Couldn’t have said it better ourselves.
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Stay tuned! Much more from the boys, Misha, Jim and Samantha comi

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