Chad Lindberg's Question and Answer at 2008 Dallas Supernatural Convention
This is the question and answer session from the 2008 Dallas Convention. For a complete blog on the weekend, see here.
One of the first questions was whether or not Jared and Jensen have pulled a prank on him, and he said that they have not.
Someone asked about the mullet and what it was like to wear it. He stated that it was itchy and had to be clipped on. Between takes, he had to wear it, so he couldn’t exactly go back to the trailer and lie down. The question was asked about similarities between his and Ash’s personalities, he stated that there is a little of him in Ash, but when he put on the mullet, “all Hell broke loose.” He says that he was excited when he heard that he would be playing a character with a mullet. When he plays different roles, he likes to look different. For example there was a time when his character was supposed to have a receding hairline, and he had to have two patches shaved in his head. After the shoot it looked a little odd, though. He was asked if he ever wore the mullet “around town”, to which he answered, “no, but I should have.”
It was pointed out that he’s played a lot of intelligent characters, and was asked if this was a conscious decision or not. He said that he just tended to get cast as the computer geek, but that beyond taking a keyboarding class in high school, he’s not very tech savvy. He laughed that he also doesn’t know a lot about cars either.
There were several questions asked about Ash’s character, for example, what was the story behind Ash’s entrance on the pool table? Chad said that Ash had been drinking the night before, and the pool table looked like a comfy place to lie down.
Initially, the character of Ash was supposed to be this drunken psychic, kind of like a Jack Sparrow-type character. They even filmed a few scenes this way, but it was decided that the character was too busy, so they brought Chad back to re-film, and (Chad sighed) gave him a computer. One of his favorite scenes for Ash was in this initial footage when he crashes off the pool table rather than just getting off.
When asked to hypothesize about Ash’s back story, for example the expulsion from MIT for fighting, he hesitantly offered that maybe Ash was mad about a bad grade. He did say that he imagines Ash out there fighting demons in his jeep with the top down (so that the wind can run through his hair), finding the Roadhouse, and deciding that he needed a break and this might be a cool place to stay. Apparently there were plans to have a loft where Ash lived, but they never got to that.
Someone asked him what he thought about the theory that Ash purposefully lost his watch in a poker game and then got the “hell out of Dodge” before the Roadhouse burned down. He agrees that’s a likely scenario. He says it’s hard to believe that Ash would be so smart about fighting demons and then taken out so quickly. He would like someday for the boys to be in a perilous situation, (and he acted this out for us) Ash would kick down the door, pull out his crossbow, dispose of the bad guys, save the day and then walk out without saying a word.
About other roles, he said that he liked working on the X-Files. He didn’t interact with Gillian Anderson very much, but David Duchovny had a very dry sense of humor, and was a lot of fun. On CSI he said that he would get the scripts and practice spouting off the technical jargon, but many times when he showed up the next day to shoot, the lines had been changed and they were all pretty much crazy to pronounce.
When he talks about being recognized, he says that most of the time it’s pretty cool, but sometimes it’s a little inappropriate. Like when he’s in the bathroom. After the Fast and the Furious came out, he became recognized more often. He says of the paparazzi that in some ways it validates you, but sometimes it can get quite annoying.
Under the heading of more random questions, when asked what he’d do for a Klondike bar, he said “I’d say ‘Please? May I have a Klondike Bar?’” He then stated that he was a more cookies and cream guy. Asked between Sam, Dean and Andy who he would kiss, kill and marry, he said that he didn’t want to kill anyone, Sam looked a little more sensitive and curious to kiss, and Dean would be a good provider to marry. He’d marry Andy too. Also when asked who would win a fight between Dean and Dominic (from The Fast and the Furious), Chad looked out at us all and “I think I’d better say Dean.” He laughed and said that it would be a pretty fair fight, but he was going to go with Dean because he wanted to walk out of there.
Chad also showed us his tattoo on his arm which is a stylized version of the breast cancer ribbon which he got after his mom battled breast cancer.
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