Transcript of Meet and Greet with Jensen at Chicago Con
So like I mentioned earlier, I was one of the crazy people who paid that astronomical price to take part in a private meet and greet with Jensen at the Chicago convention.
But you know what? SO WORTH EVERY PENNY. :-)
I mean, I was like a foot and a half away from him for 30 minutes, listening to him speak and interact with all of us, instead of the 2.5 seconds we get with him in the autograph line. It was awesome. Oh, and did I mention he was looking hotter than I'd ever seen him before? Squee! LOL!
And he's just such a nice guy. Friendly, funny, soft spoken. Just a genuine guy. But we all knew that. :-) It was just nice to experience it up close and personal.
We were raising our hands to ask questions and he was picking different people and when he chose me I thought I'd died and gone to heaven. Trust me when I say there's nothing like having that intense Ackles gaze directed directly at you for several minutes. I'm truly surprised that there wasn't just a pile of fangirl goo on my seat after he finished answering me. :-)
If anyone's interested, below the cut is a transcript of the meet and greet. Thankfully there was only one inappropriate question/request, but I still wanted to smack this girl for wasting everyone's time. But other than that it was a very nice Q&A.
So there was maybe 20-25 of us in the meet and greet, with chairs arranged in two rows of half circles with one very tall chair at the front. Jensen comes into the room, all smiling and dressed in black and looking FINE. :-) He says hello to all of us and thanked us for being there since it was kind of last minute.
Now Jared's meet and greet had just been in that same room prior to ours, so I had to laugh when Jensen looked at the very tall Jared-sized chair and decided to move it out of the way and sit on a chair that was the same size as ours. :-)
After he sits down he looks at us and goes, "Ok, we're going to start class today with a reading…" :-) He then told us cleaning the erasers was his favorite thing to do, as it got him out of class - an hour later and they're clean! Ha!
First question was about working with the babies in Two and a Half Men - the black baby was NOT fond of him. When he held it up it just screamed. LOL! They finally had to get a different baby. This one just sat there and looked at him. Awww! He joked and said that babies are just really bad actors - they don't care whether you're rolling, whether you have a line. :-)
Two outtakes that made it into the final episode - Was it scripted that he cry back at the baby? No. Was it scripted that he dip his finger in the whisky and give it to the baby? No. Jensen's father used to do that with coffee with young Jensen. How cool that they kept both of those in!
How has it felt to Jensen and Jared playing Sam and Dean in season six when they don't have that easy dynamic/chemistry between the brothers anymore? It's been difficult but not in a bad way. Poses an obstacle. To have that taken away is crippling.
Took a minute to talk about the "interview" where he said that he was upset with how Dean was being written. Wanted to explain that yes, he did say some of those things but his facial expressions and tone of voice didn't come through correctly. He wants to assure everyone that he's not upset. He's happy with his job. Show's doing fine. Sera's doing a great job. Said Sera read the interview and called him. He told her to stop reading that crap. :-) Said he had just talked to her about Dean and that he told her it's odd, he's not quite sure how he's doing this season, he's really having to think hard about how to play Dean because Dean doesn't have that chemistry that he's grown accustomed to having. He's having difficulty, but he's working around it. So she read the interview and thought that he was upset. He's not, It's just more challenging. He did plead with her to give Sam his "soul" back because this isn't working. I was SO happy that he said this. Let's hope Sera listens to him.
Question about Jensen saying that Dean read softer on the page - was that correct? Yes, because Dean was being written in this domestic light, with a girl and a kid and a regular job. He should have specified that Dean was reading differently and by softer he meant that he's not the hard edged hunter he once was. He's reading more like a regular Joe. It's a hurdle to try and keep Dean Dean in this different setting. It was reading so foreign to him because he wasn't used to reading Dean as a domesticated guy. How could he read those scenes and keep true to the Dean we all know and love but keep the story correct? So that's what he meant by Dean was reading soft.
Someone wanted to know if he had to wear any glitter - in regards to an upcoming episode. (I won't spoil it here) and he laughed and said no and the moment they do he'll be walking. :-) He said it's gonna be a funny episode.
Question wanting to know if it was difficult working off and on again with the actress who plays Lisa. He said no, Cindy is a great actress and they just fell back into it. It was more difficult for him internally, to get Dean in the domestic situation. Everyone (except me) praised Lisa and Dean's relationship and he was surprised by that, saying he always assumed it would get a negative response because it was taking Dean away from the life he'd always been involved in.
Jensen talked about his directing job - in the meet and greet with Mark Sheppard (which I also attended), he praised Jensen, saying Jensen was a natural at directing. Jensen was a bit humbled by that and said that Mark was a great guy. Jensen said he went at the project in a way that he thought would make Kim Manners proud (awww!!) in the way that he was so prepared - stayed up all night breaking down scenes, seeing everything through a camera's eye. He and Jared are hardly in the episode and he said Jared loved it because he got a week off. :-) He said he was lucky to have Jim and Mark as his two leads because you can put them anywhere and they'll just knock it out of the park. They were willing to do whatever he wanted them to do. Everyone was so supportive of him. He had all of his shot lists already prepared and Mark and Jim said "yeah, you tell us what you want us to do and we'll do it."
They wrote that episode with him directing in mind, then put it on the shooting schedule first so he could have time to do his prep. It's really involved - talking to location scouts, walk around the sets and talk to the construction guys, very involved. He had blueprints of all the sets laid out and had to make notes of what he wanted. He was disappointed because he didn't get to do post-production because he had to start shooting the season premiere. One of the other editors put together a cut and sent it to him and he went through scene by scene and made notes and it was re-edited to his specifications.
Here came the facepalm moment. One gal asked if Jensen would talk to her friend on the phone because she was going through some kind of hard time. So Jensen, being the gracious guy that he is did and it was on speaker phone and the girl completely flipped out. I mean, her reaction on the phone was funny and cute, but I was pissed at this girl for wasting all our time. I paid good money to talk to him, and I thought it was rude that she'd ask him to do that.
Does Jensen like to play any board games? Jensen told us that Jared is SO addicted to playing on-line chess on his phone that he does it pretty much between every take - quick, pull out his phone and make a move. Here's how their amusing conversations go:
Jensen: "Dude, what are you doing?"
Jared: (innocent) "Nothing."
Jensen: "Could we focus on our work?"
Jared: (distracted) "I am focused on our work."
Ha! Jensen likes Trivial Pursuit. Favorite category is History but what he's good at is Entertainment. :-)
The director of My Bloody Valentine compared Jensen to a young Steve McQueen and the gal wanted to know if it was flattering or more distracting. Jensen said flattered, "Until you read his biography and realize what a jerk he was". Jensen told us he would do things in scenes that weren't scripted to draw attention to himself instead of the other actors, who were supposed to be the focus. But yes, it's still flattering to be compared to him as a great actor.
Does Jensen see himself going more into directing after SPN? He wants to explore the directing side more but feels he'll always be more of an actor. Acting is something he feels comfortable with and he's very confident whereas directing he was a fish out of water. He compared it to performing in a Few Good Men. (I spoke up and told him he was excellent in that and he thanked me *g*) Said that it was one of those things where he got there and started rehearsing and was like, "This is a big mistake" because he was so out of his element but he was going to buckle down and get it done. (I told him he really impressed everyone with his performance and he thanked me again). He'd never done a professional stage play or directed but he knows he did what he set out to do and he's happy with it. He'd definitely direct again even though he exhausted himself.
It was finally my turn to ask a question - I told him I really enjoyed his voice over work in Under the Red Hood and wanted to know if he'd like to do more voice work in the future. He said he'd love to do it again. It was such a different ballgame. He was in the recording studio all by himself. No other actors, no screen, nothing to look at. It was headphones, a microphone, a music stand and papers with his dialogue on it. Each line had a number, they'd tell him "Go to line 138 and give us three different reads on that line", etc. He never met any of the other actors. So it's very different not to have any kind of rhythm/chemistry with another actor but still try and get the scene across. But it was a cool challenge and he really enjoyed it. Talked about that this is what his dad has always done, has a studio in his house. Jensen grew up watching his dad do this. He wants to get his foot in the door - the voice over community is a tight knit group.
Last question was about the SPN anime - in Japan in the studio it's multiple actors in there at the same time. When he and Jared record their episodes, will they be working together or apart, like with Red Hood? He assumes they'll do the scenes together, the ones that they share, but he doesn't know yet.
And that was that! Man, those 30 minutes flew by! Like I said, it was insanely expensive and I'll probably never be able to justify the expense ever again, but I'm really, really glad I did it. :-)
Now pardon me while I go to my happy place where Jensen was looking right at me. ;-)
But you know what? SO WORTH EVERY PENNY. :-)
I mean, I was like a foot and a half away from him for 30 minutes, listening to him speak and interact with all of us, instead of the 2.5 seconds we get with him in the autograph line. It was awesome. Oh, and did I mention he was looking hotter than I'd ever seen him before? Squee! LOL!
And he's just such a nice guy. Friendly, funny, soft spoken. Just a genuine guy. But we all knew that. :-) It was just nice to experience it up close and personal.
We were raising our hands to ask questions and he was picking different people and when he chose me I thought I'd died and gone to heaven. Trust me when I say there's nothing like having that intense Ackles gaze directed directly at you for several minutes. I'm truly surprised that there wasn't just a pile of fangirl goo on my seat after he finished answering me. :-)
If anyone's interested, below the cut is a transcript of the meet and greet. Thankfully there was only one inappropriate question/request, but I still wanted to smack this girl for wasting everyone's time. But other than that it was a very nice Q&A.
So there was maybe 20-25 of us in the meet and greet, with chairs arranged in two rows of half circles with one very tall chair at the front. Jensen comes into the room, all smiling and dressed in black and looking FINE. :-) He says hello to all of us and thanked us for being there since it was kind of last minute.
Now Jared's meet and greet had just been in that same room prior to ours, so I had to laugh when Jensen looked at the very tall Jared-sized chair and decided to move it out of the way and sit on a chair that was the same size as ours. :-)
After he sits down he looks at us and goes, "Ok, we're going to start class today with a reading…" :-) He then told us cleaning the erasers was his favorite thing to do, as it got him out of class - an hour later and they're clean! Ha!
First question was about working with the babies in Two and a Half Men - the black baby was NOT fond of him. When he held it up it just screamed. LOL! They finally had to get a different baby. This one just sat there and looked at him. Awww! He joked and said that babies are just really bad actors - they don't care whether you're rolling, whether you have a line. :-)
Two outtakes that made it into the final episode - Was it scripted that he cry back at the baby? No. Was it scripted that he dip his finger in the whisky and give it to the baby? No. Jensen's father used to do that with coffee with young Jensen. How cool that they kept both of those in!
How has it felt to Jensen and Jared playing Sam and Dean in season six when they don't have that easy dynamic/chemistry between the brothers anymore? It's been difficult but not in a bad way. Poses an obstacle. To have that taken away is crippling.
Took a minute to talk about the "interview" where he said that he was upset with how Dean was being written. Wanted to explain that yes, he did say some of those things but his facial expressions and tone of voice didn't come through correctly. He wants to assure everyone that he's not upset. He's happy with his job. Show's doing fine. Sera's doing a great job. Said Sera read the interview and called him. He told her to stop reading that crap. :-) Said he had just talked to her about Dean and that he told her it's odd, he's not quite sure how he's doing this season, he's really having to think hard about how to play Dean because Dean doesn't have that chemistry that he's grown accustomed to having. He's having difficulty, but he's working around it. So she read the interview and thought that he was upset. He's not, It's just more challenging. He did plead with her to give Sam his "soul" back because this isn't working. I was SO happy that he said this. Let's hope Sera listens to him.
Question about Jensen saying that Dean read softer on the page - was that correct? Yes, because Dean was being written in this domestic light, with a girl and a kid and a regular job. He should have specified that Dean was reading differently and by softer he meant that he's not the hard edged hunter he once was. He's reading more like a regular Joe. It's a hurdle to try and keep Dean Dean in this different setting. It was reading so foreign to him because he wasn't used to reading Dean as a domesticated guy. How could he read those scenes and keep true to the Dean we all know and love but keep the story correct? So that's what he meant by Dean was reading soft.
Someone wanted to know if he had to wear any glitter - in regards to an upcoming episode. (I won't spoil it here) and he laughed and said no and the moment they do he'll be walking. :-) He said it's gonna be a funny episode.
Question wanting to know if it was difficult working off and on again with the actress who plays Lisa. He said no, Cindy is a great actress and they just fell back into it. It was more difficult for him internally, to get Dean in the domestic situation. Everyone (except me) praised Lisa and Dean's relationship and he was surprised by that, saying he always assumed it would get a negative response because it was taking Dean away from the life he'd always been involved in.
Jensen talked about his directing job - in the meet and greet with Mark Sheppard (which I also attended), he praised Jensen, saying Jensen was a natural at directing. Jensen was a bit humbled by that and said that Mark was a great guy. Jensen said he went at the project in a way that he thought would make Kim Manners proud (awww!!) in the way that he was so prepared - stayed up all night breaking down scenes, seeing everything through a camera's eye. He and Jared are hardly in the episode and he said Jared loved it because he got a week off. :-) He said he was lucky to have Jim and Mark as his two leads because you can put them anywhere and they'll just knock it out of the park. They were willing to do whatever he wanted them to do. Everyone was so supportive of him. He had all of his shot lists already prepared and Mark and Jim said "yeah, you tell us what you want us to do and we'll do it."
They wrote that episode with him directing in mind, then put it on the shooting schedule first so he could have time to do his prep. It's really involved - talking to location scouts, walk around the sets and talk to the construction guys, very involved. He had blueprints of all the sets laid out and had to make notes of what he wanted. He was disappointed because he didn't get to do post-production because he had to start shooting the season premiere. One of the other editors put together a cut and sent it to him and he went through scene by scene and made notes and it was re-edited to his specifications.
Here came the facepalm moment. One gal asked if Jensen would talk to her friend on the phone because she was going through some kind of hard time. So Jensen, being the gracious guy that he is did and it was on speaker phone and the girl completely flipped out. I mean, her reaction on the phone was funny and cute, but I was pissed at this girl for wasting all our time. I paid good money to talk to him, and I thought it was rude that she'd ask him to do that.
Does Jensen like to play any board games? Jensen told us that Jared is SO addicted to playing on-line chess on his phone that he does it pretty much between every take - quick, pull out his phone and make a move. Here's how their amusing conversations go:
Jensen: "Dude, what are you doing?"
Jared: (innocent) "Nothing."
Jensen: "Could we focus on our work?"
Jared: (distracted) "I am focused on our work."
Ha! Jensen likes Trivial Pursuit. Favorite category is History but what he's good at is Entertainment. :-)
The director of My Bloody Valentine compared Jensen to a young Steve McQueen and the gal wanted to know if it was flattering or more distracting. Jensen said flattered, "Until you read his biography and realize what a jerk he was". Jensen told us he would do things in scenes that weren't scripted to draw attention to himself instead of the other actors, who were supposed to be the focus. But yes, it's still flattering to be compared to him as a great actor.
Does Jensen see himself going more into directing after SPN? He wants to explore the directing side more but feels he'll always be more of an actor. Acting is something he feels comfortable with and he's very confident whereas directing he was a fish out of water. He compared it to performing in a Few Good Men. (I spoke up and told him he was excellent in that and he thanked me *g*) Said that it was one of those things where he got there and started rehearsing and was like, "This is a big mistake" because he was so out of his element but he was going to buckle down and get it done. (I told him he really impressed everyone with his performance and he thanked me again). He'd never done a professional stage play or directed but he knows he did what he set out to do and he's happy with it. He'd definitely direct again even though he exhausted himself.
It was finally my turn to ask a question - I told him I really enjoyed his voice over work in Under the Red Hood and wanted to know if he'd like to do more voice work in the future. He said he'd love to do it again. It was such a different ballgame. He was in the recording studio all by himself. No other actors, no screen, nothing to look at. It was headphones, a microphone, a music stand and papers with his dialogue on it. Each line had a number, they'd tell him "Go to line 138 and give us three different reads on that line", etc. He never met any of the other actors. So it's very different not to have any kind of rhythm/chemistry with another actor but still try and get the scene across. But it was a cool challenge and he really enjoyed it. Talked about that this is what his dad has always done, has a studio in his house. Jensen grew up watching his dad do this. He wants to get his foot in the door - the voice over community is a tight knit group.
Last question was about the SPN anime - in Japan in the studio it's multiple actors in there at the same time. When he and Jared record their episodes, will they be working together or apart, like with Red Hood? He assumes they'll do the scenes together, the ones that they share, but he doesn't know yet.
And that was that! Man, those 30 minutes flew by! Like I said, it was insanely expensive and I'll probably never be able to justify the expense ever again, but I'm really, really glad I did it. :-)
Now pardon me while I go to my happy place where Jensen was looking right at me. ;-)