If you don’t know why everyone keeps calling this place Nash-Vegas, just Google the Gaylord Hotel:)
We unexpectedly ended the night with some fun time with Brian, Jared, Jensen and the gang in the green room. More from those chats shortly — for now, some highlights of Jared and Jensen’s semi-private Q and A’s (thanks to our fellow fan who was kind enough to report on Jared’s!)
Jared was looking quite dapper, though he credited Gen – who is now helping him buy his clothes (Thanks for this one, Gen!) Of course at Jared’s Q&A, the first question was about his brand new Twitter, which he said Sebastian Roche has been ‘working on him’ for a long time to get. (This probably explains why one of his first tweets was to Seb). We had the pleasure of talking to Jared’s lovely wife Gen last night and it seems she also encouraged him to join the Twitterati. They were both surprised to find out that not only was “Jared Padalecki” was taken – so was “Jared Padalecki1”, “Jared Padalecki2”…..
Jared was also hit with the question that nobody ever wants to be asked – “What was your most embarrassing middle school moment?”
No middle school moments, but he did share that when he was a high school freshman, he asked a girl out and she said no. That’s hard enough to believe, but the reason is even more unbelievable — because at the time he was 5’7” and 120lbs and constantly getting picked on. He may have gotten his revenge on many of them the following year when he suddenly measured 6’2”.
Jared also shared the story behind taking the moose picture tweeted earlier today. Not that an explanation is really necessary – who wouldn’t want their picture taken with a moose! Nevertheless those witnessing Jared’s impromptu photo op thought he was a bit odd. Jared didn’t mind and neither did the moose. As Jared said “The moose didn’t really fight back.”
Next up was Jensen, who started out talking about Jared. Apparently Jared called him last night to say “Hey! Let’s go out!”
Jensen reminded Jared they had to get up early in the morning to come to the con, and decided to stay in. This morning Jensen got up, had a nice breakfast with Danneel, went to the gym . . . As he was leaving, in comes Jared, looking a little sleepy.
Jensen: “You know we have to be at the con in forty minutes?”
Lynn observed: “That explains why we started a bit late.”
Jensen protests: “It wasn’t me!!”
A fan then asked the obvious question about the filming of “Frontierland”.
“Why didn’t you ride a horse?”
Jensen: “My thoughts exactly! I mean, Jared kinda knows how to ride, which they obviously played with, but I really do know how to ride and I was like, Throw me on a horse! Let’s have some fun here!”
Alas, it didn’t happen that time, but as Jensen said, now the boys know how to go back to the Old West, what’s to stop them from going back in the future?
A fan pointed out that Castiel wouldn’t be sending them back next time, to which Jensen replied, “Cas who?”
Fans: GASP!
Jensen then reminded us that Castiel wasn’t the only angel available to send them back — they still had Balthazar.
Fans: Wait, so Balthazar is alive?
Jensen: Spoiler alert! (Laughter!) No, I honestly don’t know. I haven’t seen a script or talked storylines yet.
They all hope Sebastian is coming back though, because he really fit in with the group up there. As Jensen said, “He was a good addition.”
Another fan asked whether there were any behind the scenes stories he hadn’t told about “Frontierland”.
Jensen: When I saw the outfit that they had pulled for me, I was very upset. I was like ‘Come on!’ This was before the production script had come out so I hadn’t read it yet – I just knew that we were doing a western. So Diane, our costume designer, started pulling things. She gets all excited when something like this comes up, because as you know Sam and Dean wear the same damn things all the time.
Fan: (innocently) What was wrong with the original costume?
Jensen: Wellllll…..It was a poncho. (Laughter) It was an Australian cowboy hat and I had GAP jeans on.
Fans: So where did Dean get the more authentic clothes that he wore later?
Jensen: (dryly) Why the General Store of course. And they happened to all fit him. It’s one of those liberties we take in television.
Jensen then went on to talk about how much fun the episode was to shoot and recommend that we all ask Guy Bee about it tomorrow. Duly noted.
He did tell one anecdote about the first day of filming.
Jensen: It was a beautiful day, and I was so excited – they had this town all westerned up. I was thrilled and excited. And then the next day it was just downpour rains, and we were slopping through the mud and I was like ‘This is definitely not as good as I wanted it to be.’
Another fan asked if Jensen was thinking of transitioning more into directing.
Jensen: No. I’m obviously more comfortable acting, but this was an opportunity. The producers showed great faith in letting me do it. It’s not something I set out to do, but I got bit by the bug. I wanted to try it out and now that I have, I want to explore as far as I can while I have the opportunity. And if that parlays itself into another opportunity, I’ll jump at it whole-heartedly.
Lynn: So since you’re directing a second time, is there anything you’re particularly looking forward to, or anything you’d do differently?
Jensen: There are things that I learned. I think two of the biggest things I can think of off the top of my head probably won’t mean a lot to you guys, but one of them is just the use of longer lenses that brings the frame of vision into a shorter span. So if I’m shooting a particular scene and I really want to draw the audience’s attention to this person then I’ll use a longer lens and it throws the background a little out of focus so that the attention of the audience is forced to go to this one person, whereas if you shoot with a wider lens there is a lot more in focus and the audience can get distracted by something in the background. I thought I did a fairly decent job with the frame size at least, but I think now I can get a little bit more creative. And the second thing is pace – as an actor I turn very much into an audience member when I’m watching somebody give a good performance. The scenes between Mark Shepard and Jim Beaver, there was a lot of dialog, and for me as a director I knew every peak, every word of that scene, so I’m hanging on every word, watching this performance. But as a general audience member it might feel a little slow. For some people who might not be as interested in the show it might not be nearly as captivating because the pace isn’t there. I think I didn’t notice it as a director because I was captivated (makes captivated face) –
Lynn: I think that’s how we all watched it too (makes identical captivated face). . . . So are you going to direct Jared this time?
Jensen: I don’t know.
Fans: *crossing fingers*
Has Jensen thought about writing?
Jensen: I’ve sat down with some friends a couple of times over the years and I’ve come to the conclusion that I’m just not good at conceptualization. I feel that I have a strength in fine tuning, taking a scene that’s already down and tweaking it to make it more realistic.
Fan: Way back in season two when John whispered in Dean’s ear, did you know what he said? Did the writers ever tell you?
Jensen: No. Because we shoot at such a rapid pace, and there’s no break between episodes, the writers are ahead of us – sometimes five scripts. There were times in Season One when I’d call Eric —
Jensen: So Eric, in this scene –
Eric: What scene?
Jensen: In this scene with Bobby –
Eric: What scene with Bobby?
Jensen: In episode 14 –
Eric: Wait. Hang on.
Jensen: (hears in the background) “Jennifer! Get me episode 14!!”
Eric: You know, I’ll just get back to you.
Jensen goes on to explain: So because of that ever evolving storyline, the writers just throw out scenes, possible roads we could travel down. Some really hit with the viewers once they’re produced and some just don’t have that reaction. So they’ll just go with the road that gets the biggest reaction. So there’s a lot of unanswered things that happen in television. That particular moment (that Dean might have to kill Sam) they did tell us. They had that one planned.
Jensen really is a fan of the show too –
Jensen: But a lot of times I don’t like to call and ask, I just like to find out when I read the script. I’ve been a fan of the show since season one, since the pilot episode. I love the story, I love the characters. So, in a sense I’d rather just read it. In fact, we had a guest star on the show once – the guy from Yellow Fever with the snake was a fan of the show and he refused to have the script sent to his house – he just wanted the scene so it wouldn’t spoil him watching that episode.
Now that’s a serious fan.
Another fan asked if he had trouble remembering the Latin. Sometimes he does. In fact, he says, Jared’s better since he took it in school. The Season Six finale had to be shot in bits and pieces because of that long string of Latin that Dean says to Lisa.
Jensen: I don’t even know what I’m saying. It’s just words. And the words don’t make sense.
Fans: Yeah, but it sounds so cool when you’re saying them.
Fan: Did he pattern Dean as a vampire off any other performance he’d seen?
Jensen: No. No. Are there any out there? (Laughter) Shows about vampires? That’s a good idea. Somebody ought to make that. Actually, and don’t throw anything at me – I’ve never seen an episode of Vampire Diaries, Twilight movie or book, or True Blood. It’s not that I’m boycotting them – I just don’t think I’m the target audience. Oh, wait – I’m on a show called Supernatural.
Fans: On the CW!
Jensen: I don’t get the whole “Oh, I’m so dark and troubled.” I’d rather watch the guys who beat the shit out of those guys – like Sam and Dean. No, to answer your question there was nothing I patterned it after. I think the last vampire movie I watched was Interview with the Vampire. So that was just whatever darkness there was that Jensen could come up with. (beat) That’s how scary I am.
Fan: Favorite book?
Jensen: I’ve got a couple going now. I actually haven’t finished a book in about five months. I gave a book to my dad and my brother in law as Christmas gifts called The Lone Survivor that I was riveted by. Most of the time that I have by myself I either try to catch up on reading my scripts, talking to Danneel or playing guitar. (deadpans) But at least I’m not in an alley doing heroin, so at least there’s that.
Fan: What did you think of the season finale?
Jensen: I thought Jared did a really good job.
Fan: (undeterred) But what did you think of the storyline?
Jensen: You mean where it ended? I don’t know. I mean I didn’t know last year either – it ended and I was like ”What now?”. I’m kind of in that same boat. My feelings about it are going to be determined by where it picks up. So I’ll have to answer that question in a couple of months.
Fan: What’s your favorite TV show. I know you don’t like Glee.
Jensen: I like Leverage, and not just because Chris is on it or Aldis. I actually really like Chris’s character – he and Dean would probably get along just fine. (Fanfiction alert!) I don’t watch a lot of TV. Danneel and I have actually started watching this show – it’s not a scripted show of course — called Oddities. It’s about an oddities shop in New York City called Obscura and it’s just about this couple who go around buying objects for this shop and the customers who come in who are truly bizarre people. Even in the promo, this guy comes in and he’s like (creepy voice here) “Is that a straightjacket?” It’s like an antiques shop, but a really kooky antiques shop – skulls, bones, old medical equipment. And I’m like, I could steal half the set dec and make a fortune! People will be like, I think I have something for your shop and they’ll pull out a pig with three heads and deformities in a glass jar in fluid and the guy’s like “Oh, I love it!”
Don’t be surprised when something Supernatural ends up on Oddities. Eyeball scooper, anyone?
Check back soon for our coverage of Jensen and Steve’s incredible jam session, and our chats with Matt Cohen, Brian Buckley, and more!