Jared and Jensen and Lots of Smiles at ChiCon

Happy Halloween, SPNFamily! Here are some treats to celebrate…

It was a real one-two Supernatural knockout punch to come off the high of Chicon and then have an episode like ‘Baby’. I barely survived all the good feelings! Before the next con and its undoubtedly epic happenings takes place (I’m counting on you guys to keep me up to date since I won’t be there at Denvercon!), I wanted to share some of my favorite photos from Chicon, and a few of my favorite moments too.

This will be post no. 1 – the J2 version. Frankly, I could watch Jared and Jensen banter and tease each other and crack each other up until the cows come home. Somehow, after more than ten years of working together and spending most weekends together at conventions (or now at home in Austin), they clearly still enjoy each other’s company as much as ever.

When they’re laughing, it’s pretty much impossible for me not to laugh too. They both laugh with abandon, often throwing their heads back and just giving into the pure joy of it. It’s infectious, because it’s genuine and spontaneous, so that most of the audience is in a good mood too just watching.

They still look at each other with such fondness, even if sometimes with bemused patience.

When one is being serious, the other immediately stops to listen, and often to corroborate.

When things get too heavy, the other is there to step in and reassure with a pat on the back or a tap on the shoulder, or to make a joke to break the tension. I talked to Jensen a bit at Chicon about the way they’re always tuned in to each other and making sure everything is okay.

“That’s the shorthand I was talking about earlier,” Jensen said, referring to the way they communicate. It’s seamless, after all these years, and often nonverbal. But no less effective; perhaps even more.

It’s a rare thing, I think. I can’t even imagine how much it impacts their acting – or how much it’s impacted the Show staying on the air all these years. Or, for that matter, how much it contributes to the fact that we absolutely 1000% believe that Sam and Dean are brothers who love each other. That’s on Jensen and Jared, as much as it is on a brilliant script like Robbie’s for last week’s episode.

The very first time we sat down to talk to Jared and Jensen, on our first visit to the Supernatural set, they both talked about their friendship. That was in season 4, and now here we are in season 11. Alot has changed for both of them — and for most of us — but this one thing, their epic friendship, has not.

Jared: I know that [the fans] enjoy that we are great friends, because we ARE great friends and that comes across. That’s why Oceans 11 did so well, because it just looked like they were having such a fun time. They’re goofing around and it’s fun to watch and see people really laughing and having a good time.

Jensen: For Jared and I, God, it’s a good friendship. I think we knew right away it wasn’t going to work if we didn’t get along…. We’ve got each other’s backs.

–from ‘Fangasm: Supernatural Fangirls’

Even then, they talked about being brothers in real life.

Chicon also had a lot of funny moments. One of the funniest was Jensen making fun of himself by referencing Richard Speight’s imitation of him. That is, Jensen’s “oh, we’re doing a bit” along with the now infamous “comedy elbows” that Jensen apparently uses to preface jumping in to join in said bit. I love that all the actors don’t take themselves too seriously, and are just as willing to make fun of themselves as of each other.

I also loved Jensen’s retelling of the Tough Mudder race – in particular, the part where Jason Manns had to scale the wall and was just like, yeah, not gonna happen. So he stood on Jensen’s shoulders (and Jason at the time was not a small guy…) and then said “I’m gonna have to jump.” Poor Jensen! Of course, he didn’t let his friend down. Just like they took turns carrying Osric when his knees gave out.

I laughed so hard when Jensen said that Rob needed to cut back the footage of the Mudder, since they had too much.

Audience: NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Jensen (realizing his mistake) Oops, wrong room.

I’ll say.

I loved the moment when Misha came onstage to bust them and it didn’t go exactly as planned. I think Misha got busted more than he did any busting, and now that I’ve seen last week’s episode, the whole shtick about Misha “phoning it in” is even more hysterical.

Jensen trying to help Jared with his phone was also hilarious, for his endlessly patient but put upon expression if nothing else.

No amount of exasperation ever seems to stick when it comes to these two, though. I mean, really, who could resist Jared when he grins like that??

There was also Jared striking a pose.

And Jensen raising his hand in victory over something a fan said about being a man and having a daughter.

Of course, Jared immediately raised his hand too, even though he has two boys.

And there was some joke that Jared made about Jensen being the mayonnaise in that sandwich, which without its context just sounds dirty.

Actually even with its context it sounded pretty dirty.

The panel ended, as it often does, with Jensen singing ‘Your Love’ along with Rob Benedict and Louden Swain, and Jared playing along on his personalized cowbell. It’s become a bit of a tradition, so I tend to wait eagerly as soon as Rob starts in singing that song. Jensen does too, I think, bounding back onstage as soon as he’s finished signing the giant banners that hang on the sides of the stage.

Any tradition that involves Jensen Ackles singing is one I’m 100% behind.

Of course, Jensen also did some singing the night before, at the Saturday Night Special, but I’ll save that for tomorrow’s post.

Check back for much more from Chicon, including some pretty pictures of Misha, Mark, Osric, Rob, Matt, Ruth, Richard, Briana, Kim, Travis and Tyler!

Photos by me
Edits by @arkine13

–Lynn

To read more of our chats with Jared, Jensen and
Misha and our adventures on the Supernatural set,
check out ‘Fangasm Supernatural Fangirls’ by
clicking the links on our home page!