I’m finally catching up with posting about the most recent Supernatural conventions before I head to Austin for the 150th Supernatural con there this weekend (please wish me luck surviving the Texas heat…)
Mid July was a convention in San Francisco, which for me also means flying out a week early to spend time with my daughter – so this con was family of all kinds, both the ends-with-blood kind and also my SPNFamily, the don’t-end-with-blood kind!
I made it to the con hotel on Friday early enough to catch some karaoke, which drew a good sized and very passionate crowd. Lots of the cast joined the fun, including of course master of ceremonies DJ Qualls and Matt Cohen. Lisa Berry, Osric Chau, Samantha Smith and Adam Rose also helped make every single song sound pretty damn good.
The theme was “prom” so we had some beautiful prom dresses and tuxes and Matt Cohen in a prom king crown because of course he was!
I was a happy camper because we got not one but two Abba songs, including my favorite Dancing Queen.
Sounds pretty good, doesn’t it?
https://x.com/FangasmSPN/status/1811984612740202556
I had no idea Adam Rose was such a talented performer – he sang a rendition of Sonofabitch or whatever that song is actually called that may have rivaled Jensen Ackles! Helped along by Matt Cohen.
https://x.com/FangasmSPN/status/1811987672535302195
If you haven’t been to con karaoke in a while, check it out – it feels reinvigorated, with lots of the cast having a blast with the fans. Similar to how it started way back when!
And at this con, you got your very own crown or tiara to take home if you took the stage.
We also got the good news on Friday at the con that Season 2 of ‘Tracker’ will be premiering in October – and that Jensen will be back as Russell in at least two episodes! That definitely put everyone in a good mood.
Saturday I caught Misha Collins’ panel, as I always try to do. For some reason he and Rob re-enacted Richard Speight Jr. touching Misha’s jacket backstage. Creepily.
He told some parenting stories, as he often does, including that time he took infant West to a rave – and had the horrifying realization in the middle of the chaos that perhaps they did need to change the way they were living their life a bit now that they were parents.
Oops.
And then jokingly contemplated giving a course on parenting.
Someone asked him what were his favorite Castiel moments.
The audience started shouting them out, and Misha told them to keep going.
Misha: So many choices… the orgy, learned it from the pizza man, assbutt, covered in bees, telling Jensen I love you….actually that wasn’t Jensen, that was Dean who Cas was saying that to… saying that he’s gay for Dean, what else? Oh, I’ll interrogate the cat, that was good…
https://x.com/FangasmSPN/status/1812216090921246959
His actual favorite Castiel moment was in The French Mistake.
Misha: It was a very funny moment on set, I’m playing Misha Collins the actor playing Castiel playing on this TV show Supernatural, and what ended up onscreen is this footage of hair and makeup putting makeup on me right before I step into character and I pushed the hair and makeup person away. I don’t even know if it was hair or makeup, which just portrays how insensitive I actually am. But the funny thing is, I did not know the cameras were rolling at that point, that was just me behaving as I behave.
He looked around at the audience; I was giggling.
Misha: I think 75% of the audience just believed that…
https://x.com/FangasmSPN/status/1812217026708164658
Most important story arc for Castiel?
Misha: When he was human. It helped him understand humans in a way he hadn’t before.
I liked that story arc too, and always wished there was more of it.
Misha: Our characters evolved over time and Jared, Jensen and I just folded those new things into them.
He also reminisced about the assbutt scene of throwing the fake glass bottle and it kept not breaking, and thus smashing into poor Jake Abel’s chest!
Ouch.
And he talked about the time he had to miss work for his son to be born and then lost his passport and couldn’t get back into Canada. The studio had to pay to get him back in!
Another episode he loved filming? ‘Baby’ – he was “in it” but only by recording something on his phone. He recorded it in his closet and they paid him the same as usual!
I’m always fascinated to hear about Misha’s unusual childhood. He said his senior photo was of him at age four on a spring horse eating ice cream. It said ‘You can have your ice cream and eat it too.’
My favorite tweet from his panel:
Fan: My little sister’s favorite thing about Castiel is how confused he always looks.
Misha:
Like many of us, Misha is watching The Boys. Unfortunately a friend’s thirteen year old was watching with them when that insane scene of Homelander getting revenge on the scientists who “raised” him was playing.
Oof.
He suggested that if the show brings Rob back, they could include Misha as one of the body doubles (for the human centipede scene lol)
Misha: One of the Robs is just, like, five inches taller… They’d have to obviously digitally replace my face…and my genitals…
Fan: I hope we can make that happen.
Misha: Thank you?
https://x.com/FangasmSPN/status/1812222967973290309
He also talked about acting and how tenacious you have to be, saying he developed the mindset of enjoying the process because it took ten years before he was successful.
Jensen Ackles and Jared Padalecki have written about their struggles with anxiety and depression in their chapters in Family Don’t End With Blood. Misha talked about his own struggle with panic attacks at this con, and how being aware of early warning signs and using meditation have helped him.
He said he isn’t sure what he wants to do next. With all the changes in his life recently, he’s been thinking about it a lot, and has also been doing a lot of writing.
Speaking of his writing, Misha wrote chapters in two of our books, Fan Phenomena Supernatural and Family Don’t End With Blood. Both are about fandom. He’s been fascinated by fandom ever since he encountered it in his first season of Supernatural – our first sit down chat with him was just a few months after he started filming, and we talked about it in depth. At this con, he reminisced about his first convention in New Jersey and how the parasocial relationships he encountered there seem to have been replaced by more communal fan relationships.
I had a little chat with him later that day about that first con, both of us remembering how nervous he was. Kathy and I had just met him in Vancouver a few weeks before and had a lovely long chat with him at the Sutton Place bar, so we were familiar faces – when he got to the NJ con hotel he sat between the two of us in the bar/restaurant most of the night since he didn’t know anyone else. That was a long time ago!
Anyway, fandom has always been communal too, but in a long term fandom like Supernatural those bonds with other fans do become even more important than celebrity interaction over time.
Misha thanked the fans with enthusiasm.
I caught a bit of the Louden Swain vendor jam after Misha’s panel – I love that the band still does that at every con.
I had a lovely lovely dinner with my friend Alana King and her dad and our friend Lauren at the con hotel – she’s got a new full time gig keeping her busy, but Alana and her dad took a detour on a motorcycle trip they’re on to come hang out a little.
Miss you, bestie!
Then it was Saturday Night Special time!
Kim Rhodes rocked out with the band, as she loves to do – fierce! Obviously.
So did birthday girl Briana Buckmaster, in kickass red boots!
It really was an SNS for the ladies to rock out, because Lisa Berry was next with Rollin’ On The River.
Jason Manns joined Rob and Billy for some beautiful harmonies on Hallelujah, with the audience singing the chorus per usual.
Mark Sheppard was impressed by Jason Manns’ high note – I think this was on a Station Breaks song. I love having Mark back onstage drumming with the band again!
And we got a Richard Speight Jr. number from his album too!
The encore was a rousing rendition of getting by with a little help from my friends. And then one of my favorites, Medicated, complete with kazoos.
Take a bow, Louden Swain!
And then it was Sunday.
No Jared at this con unfortunately, so Rob joined Jensen for the morning gold panel. Insulted by his mic height lol. But hey, it would’ve been worse if it was Jared height!
Jensen on doing a panel alone: I don’t wanna!
They talked about the difficulty of wearing lifts in your shoes, which Jensen said he tried on once – and demonstrated.
Since Rob and Jensen have both been unclothed on The Boys, they of course had to compare notes.
Jensen: The interesting thing about The Boys. It used to be that like middle aged men don’t necessarily, they’re kinda past the point of getting naked or shirtless or bottomless on television. That’s a young man thing. But not on The Boys!
Rob: It’s Eric Kripke’s MO!
https://x.com/FangasmSPN/status/1812551100060578104
So true. Love you, Kripke.
Rob said he had to do all kinds of fight training for his scenes on The Boys and the big fight scene itself took a week to film! (If you want to hear more about it, check out his interview with Matt Cohen on his MC On The Mic podcast for some hilarious bts stories).
Both Jensen and Rob sung Kripke’s praises as a showrunner and the creator of Supernatural, which never fails to make me emotional.
Jensen: Kripke had such a clear understanding of the world that he was building that everyone was like, go to the oracle, he knows everything. He was so definitive about the lines he drew the playbook with, and not all showrunners or writers are like that. You ask a question like is this consistent with this character to be friendly with this other character and a lot of them are like oh I hadn’t thought about that, but not Kripke.
Rob: And everything was like down to like what kind of watch would he wear.
Jensen: Minutiae.
Rob: He wasn’t in Toronto when we were shooting but every single decision…
Jensen: Gets emailed to Kripke, and he touches everything.
https://x.com/FangasmSPN/status/1812557258754273653
No clue at this point what the context was for this, but I think Jensen was regretting some of his agreeing to questionable choices as a very young actor/model.
Jensen: Brick pants? Sure…
This is entirely a self indulgent hair appreciation post.
Can you blame me though?
And this was when I almost expired. Can you blame me for that either??
Jensen also told a story about when he was in high school and wanted to have a pierced ear. He had his buddy do it for him, but when he got home his dad was like, nope not in my house.
Fandom everywhere: DAMN.
The most bizarre moment of the con came when a fan asked Jensen to read some thirsts tweets. It had the potential to be hilarious but the thirst tweets themselves were so weird that it was just….awkward.
Rob: Do you have any for Chuck?
https://x.com/FangasmSPN/status/1812553927612907799
They did make another attempt, with Jensen looking at the photo of him and deciding it was a photo shop.
Rob: It looks like you…
https://x.com/FangasmSPN/status/1812699818118316296
There wasn’t as much reminiscing about Supernatural since Jared wasn’t there, but Jensen did talk a little bit about that memorable reverse 180 that he did in Baby.
Jensen: They sprung the reverse 180 on me that morning and I only got to practice it a few times.
Rob (and all of us): Wow.
Jensen: I always wanted to do the stunt stuff, but insurance doesn’t allow it.
Rob: Yeah, but now I’m like yep, have the stunt double do it!
Someone asked about the Family Business brewery, which I think we’re all going to miss as a sort of fandom “home base” in Austin. He said they’re focusing mostly on distribution but are looking for another space for a tap room.
Rob and Jensen gave each other props for a panel well done at the end.
I caught a bit of Ruth’s panel in the afternoon. She did some reminiscing about Supernatural too, and Rowena’s incredible wardrobe.
Ruth: The boys didn’t have to go in and keep trying on flannel shirts… I had to go in every Friday to try on wardrobe, but they were wonderful.
Ruth: I wanted to buy some dresses and auction them for charity at some point. There may have been a few spirited away by the lovely wardrobe ladies…
Awwww.
Ruth’s journey with Rowena and Supernatural is such a moving one – she writes all about it in her chapter in Family Don’t End With Blood, which I love. She told the story of how she created a backstory for her character – and it turned out to be mostly true!
Ruth: I would have loved to have seen Rowena in the past, in the time when women were killed for being witches.
Me too.
She joked that she’d wanted to study Latin, but everyone said oh, you’ll never use that… lol. Jokes on them!
Ruth talked about fangirling herself, over both Simon Pegg, who she worked with, and others.
Ruth: I worked with Simon Pegg and tried really hard to be normal… I saw an actress on a show that meant a lot to me and just cried and couldn’t even say hello.
Me: Can relate…
I also caught some of Mark Sheppard’s panel. Someone asked what makes him happy.
Mark: When Jensen Ackles, who never makes a mistake, has to say the slapped by a girl in a Zorro mask and then it’s 38 takes later…
Mark is passionate about fandom and loves to talk about what a unique and positive thing it can be, especially the Supernatural fandom. He has a chapter in Family Don’t End With Blood that’s all about that, and I always feel inspired when he talks about it at cons.
Mark: A Supernatural convention is one of the safest places you can be. You can be who you are and love whoever and no one cares. And we’re proud of everything that you all have gotten behind and accomplished.
He loved the end of Season 3, which he found very powerful.
Mark: That’s when I knew we had a cohesive show and that nobody could break it. If we wanted to, we could make it the best thing we could make it. And who would believe that here we are, almost five years later, and people are here who are brand new to Supernatural conventions!
Sunday was packed, with Jim Beaver also taking the stage.
Jim to Rob: Good to see you…with your clothes on…
(Rob got ribbed about his….revealing…scene as Splinter in The Boys all con long and it was glorious)
Of course Jim has been on The Boys from the start, playing (once again) Bob Singer! (He has a great chapter in Supes Ain’t Always Heroes all about how that came about and all about his own love for the show and what Kripke is trying to accomplish with it).
He talked about the difference between fiction and real life (something fandom sometimes struggles with), saying that he doesn’t have to be a surrogate father to two grown men in real life to know how to say those lines.
Someone asked about the books that were in Bobby’s house – they were mostly either fake books or books on Canadian land law lol.
Favorite episode?
Jim: Weekend at Bobby’s. It was very cool watching Jensen exhibit this expertise directing that nobody knew he had.
I love how much they all appreciate each other, truly.
At the time of this convention, The Boys season 4 finale was about to air – which of course included Jim getting to pay a little homage to the other Bobby Singer character.
Jim: There’s an episode in which I get to do a couple of call backs to Supernatural.
Everyone: YAY!
Jim: Filtered through a certain amount of profanity, so that was pretty cool. It wasn’t in the script and it wasn’t my idea, but Kripke was directing and he was like, throw that in! I was like, really? It’s not the same guy, you know…
Lol
We love you, Kripke. You get us. When I was watching that episode for the first time, I literally squealed when Jim said those lines.
Jim: I love working with Eric Kripke. He’s one of the brightest, kindest people I know and I’ll do anything for him. Except what Rob did…
Lol
Someone asked about Bobby’s kiss with Crowley, and Jim’s with Mark.
Jim: The kiss didn’t bother me. I mean, I kiss Mark all the time…
He apparently worked with Jensen back in the day on Days Of Our Lives, but didn’t have lines and then didn’t see him again until Supernatural.
Jim: He was like eleven!
He reminisced about the fun they all had on Supernatural, which yes, they all really did!
Jim: I realized early on that the boys were gonna try to crack me up. I thought eventually they’d get tired of it, but they took it as a challenge (that he didn’t).
So of course they had to keep trying!
Then it was time for the main panel of the day with Jensen and Misha. Jensen decided to torment Misha to kick things off, pushing their chairs together. Misha used a quip from the show with a character switch lol.
Misha: Personal space…
Jensen: Over rated…
Also Jensen: We are children…
Jensen also accused Misha of once falling asleep in a self driving Tesla, which he vehemently denied.
There was a lot of arm appreciation going on during this panel, btw. I think you can see why.
Also Misha’s shirt had a tough time not being more revealing than intended.
Also yes, Jensen was wearing a Season 4 ‘The Boys’ cap – because of course he returned at the end of Season 4, like I knew he would.
I love the way he likes to toss out little hints though.
Jensen reminisced about when the Impala did not have a big engine.
Jensen: On the show, post production would lay in the sound of the muscle car engine that was not Baby. So people who came to watch the show film were excited to see the car pull up, but didn’t hear what they heard on TV, they heard splutter splutter splutter. It was very embarrassing being the person driving, and you could see the disappointment on these people’s faces.
https://x.com/FangasmSPN/status/1812637960741003726
I love that he cared so much about disappointing the fans. They really do get it sometimes.
Someone asked their favorite Metallica song. Here’s Misha patiently waiting to hear Jensen’s.
They both talked about how lucky they feel to have cast members who are not only great actors, but great people too.
Someday I’m gonna send that casting agency the world’s biggest fruit basket!
Jensen talked about how much he enjoys making honey peanut butter toast for his kids, aww.
Jensen: Spreading peanut butter on toast is so satisfying, it’s like patching drywall.
Why is that endearing? I have no clue but it is. Also? Understandable.
Misha and Jensen interrupted their panel to campaign for a ping pong table in the green room at one point, both of them quite passionate about this being a necessity and promising that if they have to go do photos, they will of course pause the game and come right away. Pretty sure no one from Creation believed them. Actually pretty sure no one believed them at all. Lol
https://x.com/FangasmSPN/status/1812641202220745067
Someone asked what their favorite Supernatural episodes were.
Misha: I can’t remember titles…
Jensen:
They both reminisced about working with Jared, which was sweet because we were missing him too.
Jensen: If Jared was going to open the door…
Misha (laughing fondly): That’s right, I forgot about that.
They both start imitating what would happen on set if that was the case.
Misha: Will Jared be operating this door?
Jensen: Okay I’m gonna go get some more hardware from the truck. It’s not like he came in like Kramer, he just broke stuff all the time, literally a moose in a china shop.
They both laughed so fondly remembering and it warmed my heart. We missed you, Jared!
https://x.com/FangasmSPN/status/1812642006184915387
Jensen talked a little bit about The Boys.
Jensen: A good friend of mine directed the Herogasm episode, and I thought, that’s gotta be fun! I was jealous of Nelson, but he knocked it out of the park.
Can you imagine Jensen directing that one? I can.
Misha talked about how challenging it was to play Lucifer after Mark Pellegrino had. He asked Mark about how he played him and Mark said that in every scene you’re trying to figure out do I want to kill them or fuck them?
Misha also had some nice things to say about Jensen, including that he established a tone of courtesy and kindness and inclusivity on the set of Supernatural that is very unusual.
Jensen also had some nice things to say about Misha.
Jensen: It’s rare to find between the lines nuance. It’s part of why the Dean and Cas relationship skewed to where it was.
He also said that he became an audience member himself, watching Misha act in his last scene of the show.
Misha tried to give him a hug in response to Jensen talking about their friendship, which Jensen tried to escape because they are constantly teasing like good friends do.
They both reminisced about working with Bob Singer (the actual Bob Singer…)
Misha: There was nothing to tip you off, you didn’t know which way it was going, like what the fuck did you just do or that was great we’re moving on, and what you wanted him to do was clap.
Jensen: Yeah, if he clapped and started looking around, that means he’s thinking about the next shot, which means we got that one, we’re moving on.
They were clearly good at Singer speak (or non speak) eventually!
https://x.com/FangasmSPN/status/1812647960657936823
Having visited the set and sat behind Bob Singer while he directed, I can vouch for the fact that he’s a director of few words!
Jensen looked back on the first season and finding who Dean is and how to play him, especially during Phantom Traveler.
Jensen: The third episode, Dean and Sam on a plane, the first time we find out Dean’s afraid of flying. The other few episodes Dean’s been this macho guy and nothing scares him, he’s facing down ghosts and monsters, and now he’s on a plane and he’s scared? So I thought okay well that’s a good comedic opportunity, but how comedic are we gonna go with this, we don’t wanna be campy. So I was a little unsure of myself and I did one take in the airplane where I kinda went for it from a comedy standpoint, then I walked over saying that was probably too much, this guy’s cooler than that, second guessing myself and I walked up to Bob and said how was that, was it too much, should I dial it back? And I didn’t know Bob, I only knew of him.
If I recall correctly, Jensen has said that Singer was like oh no are you gonna be one of those actors?
Lol
https://x.com/FangasmSPN/status/1812649282622861516
He also did a great Bob Singer imitation, more of those nonverbals that they all came to be fluent in.
https://x.com/FangasmSPN/status/1812649908706673145
And when they got it right?
Bob Singer: See, that’s good directing.
God, I miss my Show.
Rob and Jensen pulled Misha into singing the Last Question song with them.
https://x.com/FangasmSPN/status/1812651478731137370
They signed off with a thank you to the fans.
For me it was back to family time after that whirlwind weekend. Next year instead of San Francisco, Creation is returning to Vancouver for a con. Wouldn’t it be amazing if we had news of a reboot by then? At any rate, I’ll be excited to be back in beautiful Vancouver where I have so many fond memories.
–Lynn
You can find the books with chapters
written by the Supernatural actors at
the website below, and the new book
on The Boys at the links on the home page here!
I haven’t been to a con but your writings make me feel as if I was there. Thanks for keeping up these reminiscings! Now to go read the tweets you linked in this article.