Category: Supernatural Cast and Crew

The Magicians’ Sera Gamble on What She Learned from Supernatural and What’s Next!

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Once you’re part of the SPNFamily, you’re always part of the SPNFamily – so my recent trip to Comic Con included lots of catching up with some of the people who have shaped the show in important ways. Sera Gamble started as a writer on Supernatural, working closely with Eric Kripke, and later took over as showrunner when Eric left after Season 5. I first met Sera when I was writing Fandom At The Crossroads and Fangasm Supernatural Fangirls – in fact, she was one of the very first people to grant us an interview, and her insights were instrumental in encouraging us to keep writing. There’s an amusing scene in Fangasm (okay, there are LOTS of amusing scenes in Fangasm, whatever…) – anyway, there’s an amusing scene in Fangasm where Kathy and I arrive at the WB booth at Comic Con to interview Eric Kripke and find that he’s brought Sera with him.

Eric: Oh! These are the two who sent me the porn!

Sera: (cocks eyebrow)

It’s a long story, but let’s just say that was an interesting interview.

Sera is now writer and showrunner on The Magicians, which just began filming its third season on SyFy. For those who aren’t familiar, The Magicians is based on the books of the same name by Lev Grossman, and airs on SyFy in the US. The magical Brakebills University in the series is a mash up of “Hogwarts and Harry Potter for adults” and Narnia with a little Supernatural mixed in, darker and more adult oriented than the first two and more consistently magical than the last. The main characters include Quentin, who discovers that the books he has always loved are in fact not fantasy or fiction after all; Julia, his childhood friend who isn’t allowed into the magical world and whose life is marked by significant trauma; Alice, who is overcome by too much magic in Season 2 with dire consequences; Eliot, the reluctant king and Margo, the queen trying to find her way and her identity. The cast also includes Penny, the traveler, a villainous character known as The Beast, and the Dean of Brakebills, played by Rick Worthy (known to Supernatural fans as the Alpha Vamp).

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Supernatural at Comic Con 2017!

Supernatural at Comic Con 2017!

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For the past decade, there’s been one show that has inspired me to brave the insanity that is San Diego Comic Con again and again. Pretty sure you can all guess which show that is.

In 2007, it was the prospect of seeing Jensen Ackles and Jared Padalecki in person that made me throw caution (and possibly good judgment) to the wind and fly all the way across the country with almost no notice just to hopefully sit at the feet of the two actors who brought to life the characters that had entirely captured my heart. My friend Kathy and I slept on the sidewalk to get in early and raced through the hallways to the room where the Supernatural panel was, breathless but triumphant. This was long before SPN had proven itself able to fill the gigantic Hall H, so they were relegated to the much smaller Room 6CDE. Little did Comic Con know, Supernatural was already a fan favorite, with the line of SPN fans wrapped around and around the building and many disappointed fans unable to get into the room. Jared wasn’t able to come that year, but Kathy and I made it in and sat there beaming at Jensen Ackles and Eric Kripke sitting right in front of us. I managed to snag an autograph ticket through all sorts of machinations, and thus had my first actual conversation with Mr. Ackles, after which I found Kathy and immediately burst into tears. Fangirl problems, what can I say?

I’ve been back to Comic Con almost every year since, in the audience for the Supernatural panel as others began to notice the show’s passionate fan base and move the panels into ever larger rooms, until finally we were in Hall H itself.  If you’ve never experienced Hall H, it’s something to behold. The first time I walked in, my jaw dropped – the sheer size of it is overwhelming. I felt a swell of pride the first time Supernatural was deemed worthy of Hall H, and that feeling has never gone away. This year was no exception.

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Celebrating Supernatural Season Finale Night — with a Chat with David Haydn-Jones!

Celebrating Supernatural Season Finale Night — with a Chat with David Haydn-Jones!

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So who’s ready for tonight?? Hands?? Anyone??

I’ve done this many times now, but the mix of dread and anticipation and exhilaration that is Supernatural season finale night never gets old. I’ve stocked up on tissues, have a nice bottle of wine, and we’ve ordered pizza – maybe I’ll get some pie to go with it too. But no matter how many times I do this, or how prepared I am, I’m still unable to sit still. Too many emotions! So what better way to get ready for the finale than by posting my recent chat with this season’s most fascinating villain, Mr. Ketch?

When you decide to interview someone who plays a villain on your favorite show, you’re never entirely sure whether it’s going to be a conversation that makes you laugh or one that makes you grind your teeth. I was in the midst of grading a gigantic stack of papers when I took a break a few weeks ago to chat with Supernatural’s David Haydn-Jones, so I really wasn’t in the mood for any more teeth grinding – and frankly, I sort of needed a laugh. Luckily, despite playing Mr. Ketch, who’s not very funny, Jones himself proved to be a lot of fun. Also, not British.

Lynn: You’re giving me a break from grading papers, so thank you.

David: Good! Any time you can have a break from grading papers, that’s a good day.

Lynn: I’ll say. So, I’ve got a few questions. The reception to your character has been much more complicated than usual – at first, everyone hated the notorious Mr. Ketch. Then you invested him with so much charm that some people started to sort of like him. Then he slept with Mary and shot Mick and now he’s about to torture Mary, so most people are back to hating him. How have you negotiated that roller coaster?

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A Chat With Shoshannah Stern –Bringing Kickass Hunter Eileen Back to Supernatural

A Chat With Shoshannah Stern –Bringing Kickass Hunter Eileen Back to Supernatural

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I’m not alone in loving the return of Eileen Leahy on Supernatural a few weeks ago, so I couldn’t wait to interview Shoshannah Stern again. She’s crazy busy right now (with all good exciting things) but still took the time to answer my questions – which just proves all over again how awesome she is.

In her most recent Supernatural episode, the character of Eileen gets to flirt with Sam Winchester, prove what a badass hunter she is by singlehandedly taking out a demon, fire the Colt, and accidentally kill a particularly annoying British Man of Letters, for which she needs a Sam hug. As you do.

Lynn: Eileen was a fan favorite by the time that first episode in Season 11 (Into the Mystic) was over, and fans—me included–were so excited to have her back. What is it about the character that you think has clicked so much with fans?

Shoshannah: I know that for me, when I got the first draft of the script for Into the Mystic, Eileen leaped off the page and into my heart. There were just so many dimensions to her. I love that both of her episodes so far haven’t really been about her taking down monsters, but the different sorts of emotional baggage that’s left behind in their wake. There’s a side to her that’s hard, and I think that’s the side you see first, but then there’s another that’s vulnerable, and it’s kind of surprising. I also love that she can take some things seriously and take the piss out of others. And yeah, she’s deaf and shoots a Colt. None of these things are exclusive.

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Behind the Scenes of Supernatural with Director Richard Speight Jr.

Behind the Scenes of Supernatural with Director Richard Speight Jr.

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I had the pleasure of chatting with one of my favorite people at the Nashville Supernatural convention last month – Supernatural actor and director Richard Speight, Jr. I’ve known Richard since his very first Creation con appearance almost a decade ago, and I always enjoy his thoughtful insights about the show. Nashville is a particularly fun place for Richard to be, since it’s also his hometown. In fact, he was busy planning a tour for a small group of lucky fans for the next day when we met up at the green room backstage. Turns out there were a bunch of very tired people catching a few minutes of much-needed sleep in the green room, so we resourcefully pulled some chairs off a stack in the hallway and made our own little interview area (the backstage area of the hotel is literally a series of hallways that thread through the kitchen and storage areas and then spill out into the main hall, which is fairly typical for convention hotels. Not exactly scenic, but you take what you can get!)

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Richard: Sorry.

Lynn: Not my first rodeo. Look how versatile I am (balancing an audio recorder precariously on a ledge and an iPad on my backpack)

Richard: (cocks an eyebrow) Yeah, you’ve got a lot of machinery there…

Lynn: So how are you?

(The audio recorder tumbles off the ledge, followed by the iPad falling off the backpack)

Lynn: You know, I thought I was being so smart and resourceful…

Richard: (Goes to get another chair)

Lynn: Thanks.

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Jerry Trimble Brings Ramiel to Life on Supernatural

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I was fascinated by Ramiel on the recent Supernatural episode ‘Stuck In The Middle With You’ – in just one episode, actor Jerry Trimble, along with director Richard Speight Jr. and writer Davy Perez, created a memorable character who most fans would be happy to see more of. So I was thrilled to have a chance to ask Jerry about his experience on the show.

Lynn: Congrats again on the amazing job you did on Supernatural. As you probably read in my review on Fangasm, I’m a big fan of the original ‘Yellow Eyed Demon’ who was portrayed by Fred Lehne. I got to know Fred from interviewing him for Fangasm and for the books I’ve written on Supernatural, and was always impressed by his ability to make the character compelling as well as scary. You managed to do the same in one episode with Ramiel.

So I’ve got a few questions for you. I’ve known Richard Speight for years, and am looking forward to hearing his thoughts on directing this episode (stay tuned for that!), but I’d love to hear your thoughts on being directed by him. Were there some notes he gave you that were particularly helpful?

JT:
Richard was one of the best directors I’ve had the pleasure of working with, he’s an actor’s dream director. Probably because he’s an actor as well and a fantastic one at that. He was so helpful and pivotal in helping me to create the character of Ramiel, Prince of Hell. There were times when I was going too dark and hard, and then Richard pulls me aside and says, dude, back off and BAM Ramiel comes alive. Richard was collaborative in the coolest way. Some directors I work with are too into their comfort zone and just want to pump it out. They settle for less than the best, whereas Richard had an idea, I had an idea, we meshed them together and as you saw from the episode, it was magic. Loved working with him.

With director Richard Speight Jr. and company on set

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Tahmoh Penikett (Battlestar Galactica, Supernatural) on Innovative New Series Deep Six

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It’s been a while since I had the pleasure of chatting with Tahmoh Penikett, who memorably played Ezekiel/Gadreel on Supernatural a few seasons ago. Tahmoh just finished shooting on a new digital sci fi adventure series called Deep Six, which caught my attention as a unique and exciting project. Deep Six is a digital sci fi adventure series that follows a group of astronauts and their military escort on the first deep space mission. They find themselves stranded after an unanticipated accident, and – wouldn’t you know it – also confronted with a first encounter that may not be very friendly. What makes the series unusual is its focus on realism – the creator is a scientist, and the show has two real life experts as consultants, including a professor of astrophysics and a space historian. With their help, Deep Six aims to portray space in all its beauty and majesty as well as its terrifying silence and endless expanse. Much as sci fi classics like 2001 and Alien anchored their stories in realism and thus amped up the terror, Deep Six aims to be both accurate and scary. Sign me up!

I caught up with Tahmoh today after a week of our schedules absolutely refusing to mesh and me coming down with a truly horrifying cold. But we persevered!

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Alaina Huffman on Supernatural, Directing, Social Change – and Fangirling Nichelle Nichols!

Alaina Huffman on Supernatural, Directing, Social Change – and Fangirling Nichelle Nichols!

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I finally had the chance to catch up with Alaina Huffman (Supernatural, Stargate Universe and Smallville) at the Supernatural Burbank convention. Our paths have crossed many times, but we had never had a chance to sit down and chat until then – and what a fun conversation it was!

After playing Abbadon on Supernatural for multiple episodes, Alaina had just returned to that set to shadow director Phil Sgriccia. I couldn’t wait to hear all about that, but first we had to gush a little about the SPN Family. The Burbank convention in particular feels like a family affair, since many of the cast are local and can bring their families along.

Lynn: It really does feel like everyone is family at the cons.

Aliana: Especially here, everyone has their family and their kids here.

Lynn: OMG Matt Cohen’s son Macklin is so cute.

Alaina: SO cute!

[Yes, we were gushing. If you’ve seen Macklin, you totally understand why. There followed a brief pause for both of us to grab another handful of Doritos from the bag on the table between us]

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Osric Chau on New Show Dirk Gently and Why He’ll Always Be Available for Supernatural

Osric Chau on New Show Dirk Gently and Why He’ll Always Be Available for Supernatural

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I still haven’t managed to find the time to post my con wrap up for this year’s Supernatural NJCon – suffice it to say, it was a whirlwind weekend and the whirlwind hasn’t slowed down since. One of my favorite parts of the weekend was sitting down with one of my favorite people in the universe, Osric Chau. His amazing new show Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency is on tonight, so I wanted to share our chat in celebration.

The first part of our interview, as often happens with me and my interviewees, was not an interview at all. I was flustered and rather miserable, since my beloved phone had died right smack in the middle of the Kim, Briana and Osric panel that day. In between trying to work the vendor table for the books and cover the panels, I raced to the nearest Verizon store, only to be told “oh yeah it’s broken.” NO KIDDING! The replacement would be delivered on Tuesday, which needless to say, did not help me at the con. So I wasn’t my usual upbeat self when I sat down with Os.

Gotta say, I feel very lucky that the Supernatural cast is pretty much the only cast I ever interview – because when you sit down with one of them and you look miserable, they are suddenly your friend instead of your interviewee. Osric is wise beyond his years, and empathic as any therapist I know (and that’s what I do, so I know a lot), which was lucky for me – he spent ten minutes calming me down, talking me through the remnants of my technology-failure-induced panic attack and just generally reminding me that the world won’t end because I can’t live tweet a convention. I don’t like feeling like I’m letting people down, but he also reminded me that the Supernatural fandom is a family, and that means everyone understands when bad shit happens to you.

Of course, he was totally right.

He then proceeded to fix my iPad, which was also malfunctioning that weekend. (You see why I was a bit panicked, right? Multiple technology failures in one afternoon? Too much for me!)

Fixing my ipad...
Fixing my ipad…

Interestingly, that’s not the first time Osric has had to fix my technology in the middle of an interview. Have I mentioned I feel lucky??

Lynn: Thank you for the therapy and fixing my technology. Ok let’s talk about Dirk Gently.

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Rob Benedict on Playing God on Supernatural and Himself (Sorta) on Kings of Con!

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Warner Bros/The CW
Warner Bros/The CW

Supernatural fan favorites Rob Benedict and Richard Speight Jr. premiere their new web series, Kings of Con, on ComicConHQ on November 15, which is only a few days away. Both Rob and Rich play fictionalized versions of themselves, and if the trailer is any indication, it’s going to be hilarious. I can’t wait for that, but in the meantime, I had some questions for Rob about his work on last season’s Supernatural. His return to the show as Chuck/God made a lot of fans very happy, including me. And he really had a chance to show off his acting chops in some of those pivotal episodes!

Lynn: Toward the end of last season, some of those episodes you were in were just so powerful. I talked to Curtis Armstrong (who played Metatron) about some of those scenes and to Jensen [Ackles] as well, so I’m eager to hear your thoughts. Curtis said that he got unexpectedly emotional in the scene where God is telling Metatron that he was just the angel closest to the door and Metatron replies that he doesn’t care. To his great surprise, Curtis started to cry in rehearsal and then teared up again when filming the scene. What was your reaction to his emotion? Were you surprised?

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