Lynn and Kim do PittCon – Part 3, Jared and Jensen Sunday!

Sunday at Pittcon was J2 day, as always. It would have been J3 day, except Jeffrey Dean Morgan wasn’t able to come. Though I guess it was still J3 day, since Jim Beaver filled in for him last minute.

Lynn: I still get nervous on Sundays, even after all these years and even after working with all three of these J’s on writing their chapters of Family Don’t End With Blood. I guess that’s a good thing though – if my tummy is ever totally okay on a con Sunday, that might mean it’s time to hand in my fangirl card. I live tweeted the morning gold panel including some phone pics, but didn’t bother taking out my camera – since Kim was sitting right beside me.

Kim: I don’t usually take a lot of pictures during the gold panel. Partly because it is quiet in the theater, and I suddenly feel self conscious about the clicking of my camera. But mostly I don’t take a lot of pics because Jensen tends to stand right in front of the mic, which is frustrating, and Jared tends to move around a lot… so basically most of the gold panel pictures suck. Unless you stan the mic. Lol

 

Jensen confessed right off the bat that he was tired, since he couldn’t sleep the night before. Even reading something boring didn’t work.

Jensen: Like Jared’s texts…

Lynn: They are currently filming episode 6 with Nina Lopez Corrado, which made me squeal out loud. Red Meat, which she also directed, is one of my all time favorite Supernatural episodes, so I’m thrilled to have her back. Both Jared and Jensen have said how much they love working with her too.

Jared said they’re still waiting for the official call for Season 14. What are you waiting for, Warner Bros/CW??

A fan asked an interesting question – what’s their earliest memory?

Jared said he had just relived his first day of kindergarten and had a flood of emotion after dropping off Tom to Kindergarten last week.

Kim: I get it, Jared. I still remember sending my kids off to kindergarten… wait, was that college? Oh the tears. Oh my heart.

Lynn: I remember my son walking onto the bus that first day of school, swinging his little lunch box and trying to look super brave while his little lip quivered. Of course mine was quivering more.

Jensen said he got up for his 6^th birthday dressed like he usually was, in a sheriff’s outfit. With his pistols and a sheriff star.

Lynn: Six year old Jensen wearing pistols and a sheriff star every day though. #LittleDeanWinchester

Kim: I’d totally have taken pictures of that, let’s be honest.

Lynn: His parents got him a pony to ride around the yard for the day. That spurred him to talk more about riding (see what I did there?) (sorry). While he never had a horse of his own, they had family friends who did, so he rode regularly. When he moved to LA, he had a friend who had horses, and Jensen would offer to ride them when they needed exercise, in the trails in the Hollywood hills. Imagine running across that sight when you were out for a walk??

There was also a question about dreams, which is something I’ve talked to Jensen about a few times. Jared said he dreams about Kim Manners sometimes.

Lynn: My heart.

Both Jared and Jensen said they’ve never dreamt as Sam or Dean.

Kim: I’ve had dreams about Sam and Dean… wait, did I say that out loud? Sorry. Not really.

Lynn: No shame. We’ve all been there.

Jensen then proceeded to just about destroy the composure of everyone there with this little admission.

Jensen: There are times my wife says “don’t use the Dean voice.”

He paused, a ghost of a smirk appearing on that handsome face.

Jensen: And times she says, “please use the Dean voice…”

Kim: Damnit, Jensen, I’m literally trying to focus (my lens) and I do not need this kind of distraction!

Lynn: —– (that was me struck speechless)

 

Jared related the story of being told he’d be soulless Sam in person by showrunner Sera Gamble. He was dumbfounded, and had to poker face it at first because they were face to face.

Jensen said he wouldn’t rule out doing theater again.

Lynn: OMG flashback to my very first time laying eyes on Mr. Ackles, when he was doing a regional theater performance of A Few Good Men in Fort Worth. I just about fainted when he came onstage. Kinda like what just happened when he did that Dean voice thing…

Someone asked what they’d binge watched, and Jensen said he just finished binge watching Ozark, and told Jared to do the same.

Jared: I’m gonna binge watch Ozark.

A repeated question at this con was “unicorns or dragons”?

Jared: Unicorns because they can’t kill me. And they fart rainbows.

Jensen: Dragons.

Jared: I fart rainbows, you know it’s true.

Jensen: There’s so much I wanna say right now…

Everyone: (is all ears)

Jared and Jensen were both hungry, so it was probably painful that a fan recommended Burgatory as a great place to get food.

Jensen: (deadpans) Are there any exits?

Kim: (side note: I’m pretty sure I overheard CE team members talking about bringing in Burgatory for J2 to have after the gold panel, and I could have misunderstood, but if it’s true then kudos to CE staff)

Lynn: I thought they were getting Burgatory for themselves actually. In which case, also kudos to CE staff.

Once Jared and Jensen went off to be fed, it was Jim Beaver’s turn.

Kim: Jim never stops moving, so he was as hard to photograph as Richard!

Jim coming back at the end of Season 12 was apparently such a big secret that they called both character and actor ‘Charlie Grace’ on the finale script. Even the crew didn’t know Jim was back!

When Bob Singer called Jim to tell him about Bobby’s demise, the conversation went like this:

Bob: Bad news, you die. Good news, it’s a great script. If this wasn’t on the CW you’d get an Emmy.

Kim: Seriously, my head canon is that there will be an entire Emmy show where SPN literally wins every single award of the night.

Lynn: Seems legit.

He said he laughs the most on set watching the boys mess with Misha, which seems like a common thing amongst anyone else who’s acting with the three of them.

Fan: Favorite scene?

Jim: Kissing Jody. She kept wanting retakes…

(Jim also gave a shout out to the writer of his favorite Bobby fanfic, which I gather might have some shipping involved)

Who would Jim trade places with as a character on the show?

Jim: Dean, I have a feeling he does all right…

Lynn & Kim: Mm hmm

Jim’s panel was laugh out loud funny, by the way. Cases in point:

Fan: are you tired of cleaning up after John Winchester?

Jim: Apparently not, here I am doing it again!

Kim: This is probably the single best thing I’ve ever personally witnessed at a con

Next Fan: Thank you for your service.

Jim: You have no idea how tough the war of 1812 was…

Next Fan: Would you have wanted to stick around longer as a ghost?

Jim: Sure it would’ve been great to stay around as a ghost…. or a turtle…

Lynn: I literally choked laughing.

Kim: I was not prepared for Jim’s sharp as a knife wit!

Fans were just as sharp though, gotta say.

Bobby cosplaying fan to Jim: What do you call Sam and Dean on a carousel?

Jim: IDK

Fan: An idjit spinner.

Lynn: #Badumdum

Kim: Okay, this is literally the funniest thing I’ve heard in months!

Jim said he really likes the idea of being on every season

Kim: Same, Jim. Same.

In between panels there were photo ops of all sorts and meet and greets that we can’t talk about and lots of meeting awesome people at the FDEWB vendor table. I made a cameo appearance on Alana King’s (@_KingBooks_) Pittcon vlog, and caught up with Megan Padalecki – we ate our lunches together and caught up a little in about five minutes flat in the midst of vending. A bookseller’s work is never done – especially not at a con!

Then it was time for the J2 Main Panel!

Kim: Side note: I swear I’ll get a good pic of their epic jump someday… I’m a sports photographer, I can handle movement! I have the right lens, I just didn’t have it with me *face palm*

Lynn: Ummm, but look at all these other pretty pictures…

Jim Beaver headed across the skyway shortly after they began their panel, with J2 yelling for him to come back. I think he scoffed. And possibly muttered “idjits”.

Jared apologized for having back problems. They were asking all of us not to ask Jared to bend down at all in photo ops, since he was hurting.

Jensen: What did you do?

Jared: I think I turned 35 and everything stopped working.

Lynn & Kim: (synchronized eyeroll)

There was a sweet moment when Jensen said that Danneel had been calling him repeatedly in photo ops, which doesn’t usually happen, so he stepped away to call her back. Turns out she wanted to face time right away.

Jensen: Because Arrow, my daughter, was saying “Dada”.

Kim: Oh my heart. Bless their wives and their kids for allowing them to have this time with us.

Lynn: I think it’s a family agreement for sure, but it must be hard at moments like that.

A fan asked what were their favorite episodes.

Jared: French Mistake, Changing Channels, Hollywood Babylon.

Hollywood Babylon because they brought in bigger trailers for the actors in the episode after repeatedly telling Jared and Jensen that they couldn’t find any bigger trailers.

J2: “We’ll take them.”

(They didn’t get those actual trailers, but they did get bigger ones).

A fan asked if anything from their work day ever makes it into their dreams.

Jensen: What we do is different from what most people do, it’s not just work, it’s our life. We have our on set life and our home life, and those blend together kind of seamlessly.

Fan: Is it ever hard to transition from Dean to Jensen?

Jensen said that they’ve both been living with these characters so long that they’ve become very good at turning them off when they need to and also getting back into character.

Jensen: As far as keeping the reminder of who we are, we have pretty good reminders – each other.

Someone asked how it was working with kids, and Jared said it depends on the parents, and is logistically challenging because they can only shoot so many hours,

Jared: It’s tough when kids don’t seem into it but have pushy parents but great when the kids love acting.

Jensen: It’s nice to have innocent energy on set. Child actors don’t overthink characters like adults do.

Suddenly there were helicopter like noises in the giant hall.

Jensen: TRANSFORMERS EVERYONE GET DOWN!!!

Billy Moran: Uses guitar like a machine gun.

Next time it happens:

Jensen: BILLY!!!!

Someone suggested a crossover with Arrow, which is something Stephen Amell has said he’d be up for.

Jensen: I don’t know how it would work though. The Winchesters don’t live in a world with superheroes. They live in a world with real heroes.

Lynn: Damn right.

Jensen then riffed on the whole crossover idea, calling Amell a “crossover slut”.

Jensen: He needs to lock it up.

Lynn: lol

Who were some of the guest stars they liked working with?

Jared: Gabriel, Richard….and Ruby.

Jensen liked working with Briana Buckmaster.

Jensen: She lets me exercise my comedic muscles.

Kim: Again, I’m not a shipper, but I am here for THIS.

Lynn: So is Briana. She favorited my tweet of that so fast it hurt with ‘FANGIRLING’. Yes, this is why I love Briana.

Favorite lines?

Jensen: I’m a posse magnet…

Jared: Dude, you’re confusing reality with porn again…

Reactions when they found out they killed so many characters in finale?

Jared: I don’t like it, but it makes great TV.

Jensen said his reaction is the same as when he reads a script and finds out he dies: “Meh. They’ll be back.”

Kim: Tbh, this gives me hope about Crowley. Because hope is really all I have at this point.

Lynn: Pretty sure that ship has sailed.

Someone asked how much they shoot that they don’t use, and Jensen said they’ve gotten it down to a science.

Jensen: We don’t shoot stuff we don’t use.

He also said he’s pretty sure that there is enough gag reel footage for a 30 min gag reel just from the first 2-3 episodes of the new season!

Kim: Oh for the love of all that is holy, I will edit this together, just send it to me!

Lynn: J2 seem as on board with that as the rest of us, actually. I’m fairly certain we could raise enough money to get it done in a kickstarter in about .5 seconds.

Who are their favorite big bad characters?

Jared: Lucifer.

Jensen: And Azazel. And Alastair.

Kim: I don’t see Lucifer as a big bad, I think Mark Pellegrino has done a good job in making him a relatable character, but Alastair was definitely a good bad guy.

Lynn: What?! Lucifer is definitely a big bad. I mean, he’s Lucifer! But Alastair was great at being truly creepy, and Azazel was awesome – shout out to Fred Lehne from back in the day!

They were asked about favorite scenes, and Jensen said that one of his favorites was when Dean was talking to Chuck about his feelings at the end of Season 11.

Lynn: The time when Jensen got even more emotional than it was scripted. Oh my heart.

Kim: SAME, I just wanted to hug Dean, damnit, he deserved better.

Lynn: Well, I pretty much always want to hug Dean…

One of the funniest moments was when a fan got up and told them that she binge watched the entire show in an alarmingly short amount of time, possibly three weeks? Jared and Jensen’s mouths and eyes were so wide, it was comical. And kinda adorable.

They also acted out how they messed with Misha (and each other) during filming on Friday night. Jared was giving Misha a hug (as Sam and Cas) and had to sort of squat down a little to get lower. Jensen was standing behind him…

Jensen: And he sort of squatted down, so I just thought, hmmm..

And brought his foot up right between Jared’s legs and gave him a little tap.

Jensen: And then you said, “I hope that was you.” To Misha!

Jared: I was trying to make him laugh!

Later Jared was filming a scene sitting down while Misha was standing and his foot ended up in Misha’s crotch beneath his trench coat…

Jensen: Just kinda moving things around in there…

All the while Jared and his foot were off camera, so everyone was just like ‘Misha, what the hell is wrong with you?’ when he broke.

I don’t know how Misha does it, I swear.

Jensen joined Rob for the Last Question song, and then the last question was, is there any actor, living or dead, who you’d like to work with?

Jensen: “I already worked with the actor I wanted to work with.”

Jared immediately went “aww” and launched himself at Jensen for a big hug.

Jensen: (deadpans) Actually, my dad…

It was a nice way to end a panel.

We got one more Winchester on Sunday afternoon too — Samantha Smith! She answered lots of questions about her portrayal of Mary, because fandom remains split as to how we feel about Sam and Dean’s mom. Samantha said that she expected people to be sad when Mary left in Episode 3 last season, but not to wish for her to be dead!

Sam has clearly worked hard to make sense of the character.

Sam: I love Mary. I understand her. I have to in order to play her.

Lynn: I can totally understand that, but I continue to struggle with the character myself. I do believe she loves Sam and Dean, and it makes sense to me what Samantha says, that there’s love there but she doesn’t know them. I don’t expect her to be perfect, but some of the episodes last season were hard to swallow.

Sam and Dean (and thus Jared and Jensen) have struggled too. Samantha said that when they filmed the big argument scene in the bunker, there was so much negative emotion that even between takes it was there. When they finally finished, Jared and Jensen said “I’m sorry.”

Samantha: Me too.

There was healing at the end, though, so I’m going into Season 13 hopeful about how Mary’s relationship with her sons will play out. Fingers crossed!

And that was Sunday. But wait, we have a little bonus episode for you. Kim had a few photo ops this con, and even Lynn had more than one, which is unusual. So here are Kim’s photo op recollections – what she can remember of them anyway!

Kim:

I’m an adult. I am a grown up. So why is it so hard to form words during ops with Jensen? I go into the room fully determined to act like a grown up, but then I completely lose all ability to word as I get closer to him.

But not this time, friends. Not. This. Time.

In my solo op with Jensen, I actually said good morning to him. And it actually came out sounding like good morning.

Later I had 3 ops with Jared and Jensen. For the first one, I went with my friend who had a low numbered ticket, so we were close to the front of the line… we did a selfie pose. Then I headed back to the fdewb table to gather Lynn because I was making her do a J2 op with me… meaning, she had to actually be *in* the photo with me.

Lynn: The word MAKING is the operative word here. Everyone knows I don’t actually get IN photo ops.

She had a high numbered ticket, and by the time we got up to the photo op room, we were pretty close to the end of the line, we might have even been last.

I walked up to Jared and Jensen and I said to them… well, I said to Jared, “I have 2 ops, and for the first one, I’d like a sandwich hug.” And I put my arms around *gasp* Jensen’s waist and we hugged.

Normally, once the op is over, you are supposed to walk away. But I still had another op with Lynn. So I said, “Now I have another one with her” and I turned to point to Lynn.

(Please note that Jensen still has his arm around my shoulder) (oh my heart)

When I turn to point at Lynn, she is already talking to Jared.

I turned to look back at Jensen. God bless, he’s confused. He says, “What’s happening?”

And then a miracle happened.

A legit, bonafide miracle.

I actually had a short little conversation with Jensen. Like real actual words. And he was listening to me. And he was looking right into my eyes. And I didn’t die.

I explained to him that I was making Lynn do this op, and that I was making her actually be in the picture, because people should see her face sometimes and not just read her words. Jensen replied, “Damn right!”

But then he said, “wait, why are you making her do this?”

I said, “because I’m her PA.”

Jensen: “What do you mean you’re her PA?”

So I explained that I help her do things, for Fangasm, things like remind her of things on her schedule, watermark photos for her, help her with some of the writing and posting sometimes… just PA stuff.

And then I said, “because, ya know, I’m the best PA Ever.”

And Jensen cracked up. And he said, “Damn right you are!”

Then he said, “Good for her. She needs a PA. Good that you’re doing this for her.”

Lynn: Hey, wait a minute! What did he mean, I need a PA??

The whole time we’re talking, Lynn is talking to Jared about the book, and other stuff, because Lynn and Jared are friends, and Jared is a talker, lol, and thank you Jared for that!

Because the whole time they’re talking means that’s the whole time I’m talking one-on-one with Jensen, and he’s got his arm around my shoulder and he’s looking at me, and I’m looking at him, and I’m forming words like a fucking grown up.

Lynn: Holy crap, Kim used the F word! This clearly really was a momentous occasion!

It’ll probably never happen again. And that’s ok. Because in this moment, I was actually just me… wait, no, I was Me.

Thank you Lynn, and Jared, and thank you, Chris, for being patient, but mostly, thank you, Jensen for putting me at ease as I talked about my friend.

Lynn: And now I’m all emotional. And you know what? Best PA ever. (Not really. More like pretty amazing friend). Because that’s what cons are all about, right? As much as they’re about panels and photo ops and autographs with the actors we love, it’s about spending time with our friends and fellow fans. It’s about being ourselves and not feeling judged, letting ourselves burst into tears after a photo op (I’m looking at you Alana, because I love how much you love that Jared guy…) or hugging our friends because we’re just so damn happy. It’s about all that, and more. Read Family Don’t End With Blood and you’ll get it.

–Lynn & Kim

Check out the powerful personal essays written

by Jared, Jensen, Misha and many more in Family

Don’t End With Blood at the links on this page for

more on what it’s all about! #SPNFamily