*lunch break*
This isn't what I meant to write; I had meta along the lines of Sam and Dean and bondage (not that kind) on the brain when I left for work yesterday. But I was inspired by astri13. Who was inspired by wank. Which will never end, but there will also always be a silver lining somewhere, as lemmealone might say. Darn tootin'.
So. Here are a few things done right by the Ackles. 10 according to others; 10 according to me.
Vague spoilers for Dark Angel, Devour, Smallville and Supernatural. (I didn’t go all the way back to DOOL, because I've only "seen" it via imjinnie’s hilarious parodies, or into Dawson's Creek and Blonde, neither of which I've watched a second of.)
1. As Alec in the episode Bag ‘Em, he says to the boy who will become Bullet, “You do that.” It’s softer and less arrogant than I expect; there’s a touch of empathy shadowed by a casual hand gesture, which tells me Alec’s as warm as he is cool. It’s the moment I think, He’s good.
2. What’s amazing is they cast a hand double, a piano player who could play. And, ultimately, we never used any of that footage. Because the work that Jensen did on the piano was better.
-Janice Tashjian, Dark Angel, from "The Berrisford Agenda" commentary.
3. There's a moment during an early scene in Borrowed Time. Alec and Logan are playing pool; Alec back-steps and brushes by Logan's face, blowing on the tip of his cue as if it's a smoking gun. It's cutesy cool, and I smile. Then I hear a few rumors about the backstage politics, for this scene in particular, and it's suddenly more than cute. It's sassy and sharp and it's a little mocking, and he's being less than passive victim, whatever the truth. I find myself liking that. He's a guy who'll take my protective panties and boogie out the knot. I sit back, relax, and enjoy the show.
4. There was actually... in this encounter that’s coming up, when the guy says “Simon Lahane,” I had written a line where Alec says “That’s my alias; don’t wear it out,” which was a line I just thought was really funny. And Jensen actually asked if he could not say it because he thought it was too flip given what’s going on. And he was… he was ab... his instincts were absolutely right.
-Moira Kirland Dekker, Dark Angel, from "The Berrisford Agenda" commentary.
5. I wonder why I'm watching Devour. It's killing me. Not a good way to go. Then Jensen Ackles starts to cry. He's in a hospital, seeing the woman who raised him sitting crippled in a wheelchair, and he breaks down. It's different from the Alec tears. Different from the Dean tears to come. But that's the envelope. What touches me here is simply that I've stood in those shoes. The movie is forgotten as soon as it's seen, but that image lingers, like it does whenever I see it, anywhere. It's nothing to do with him, but I feel connected to that moment, and he is holding my place in it.
6. He's a great guy, too. A real team player. (Yeah, he really is.) Very popular with the crew.
-John Glover (and AG? MM? KH?), Smallville, from the “Transference” commentary.
7. Cary Grant would have been far more suave in the last scene of Smallville's Gone, but he's not playing Cary Grant here. The way he looks at Lana after she takes the roses and as he pulls out the note is another moment like Bag 'Em. Only this time, it's harder than I expect, and guarded instead of wounded. Given what type of scene it is, and what his character has not yet become, it's quite a nice thing that he is once again refusing to create a victim. That's what most would have done, but not him. It's how Bogie might have played it, and it doesn't freak me out.
8. Jensen could not have been more approachable, more humble or more ingratiating. Quite simply, he gave every impression of being one of the nicest, most down-to-earth young actors I've interviewed over the past five and a half years... (read more).
-Jeff Bell, Northwest Indiana Times, from a JRAUnlimited exclusive letter.
9. Asylum. Faith. Nightmare. Provenance. Dead Man's Blood. Devil's Trap. Pick a scene.
10. This post by tightropegirl.
(Thank you for pointing it out, Kunju! *hugs*)
11. It started in Wendigo. I dismissed it as a fluke. Then I saw it again in Hook Man. It continued on through Scarecrow. It backfired for Sam in Faith. It came back in full force in Nightmare. It's Herder/Herdee. It's me unable to look at pictures like this now, without seeing Dean and Sam. It's me wanting to adopt my second Border Collie, if only to name it "Dean." It's me writing a SPN fanfic about Dog and Sheep. It's the most unexpected and refreshingly unstaged characteristic of Dean's, and I love Jensen Ackles for it more than I could ever say.
12. Our characters have to physically fight a lot, but he’s always so careful with me. That’s his main appeal: He’s a good person. I think people can tell that.
-Nicki Aycox, TV Guide Magazine.
13. It took me until 15:24 of Phantom Traveler. Then I watched an eleven-second scene, the same scene that would charm each and every one of my friends and family members who would watch it with me afterward. I can’t explain it very well, except to say that Dean’s heartbeat felt, for the first time, very candid and... well... lived-in. He’d done that, with a cheery smile slip-sliding into a wounded frown. By the time I watched minute 37:53 of Bloody Mary, his Dean would be the solid anchor of a show I had fallen madly in love with.
14. Three scenes (the Talk in Shadow, the final scene of Faith, the phone call from Home), one strip-tease gross-out (Skin), and one behind-the-scenes joke (“noise” on the set of Wendigo).
-Members of the Paley panel compiled this list when asked what their favorite scene was. They each picked a moment highlighting Jensen Ackles. (Pheromones or talent? You decide.)
15. He protested the Shadow Talk. And, to me, it’s beside the point that he understands Dean better than Dean’s own creator. What I hear, and what I remember all these weeks after hearing about it, is simply that he cares. I don’t know how much he cares (I doubt he’s obsessed like us cool kids), but he cares enough to have made a stand when he felt his character was being pushed askew. SPN may be a job and he may consider its story less than educational TV, but by his conduct, he’s shown that he takes his part of that job and his character’s place in that story seriously. People who don’t care, don’t protest a rare, juicy EMO! scene... or an easy paycheck.
16. In terms of Dean’s evolution, Jensen is doing such an unbelievable job because this character started out very brash and Han Solo-like, still has that Devil-may-care attitude, but as the series goes on you’re catching these careful, quiet glimpses of the absolutely screwed-to-Hell psyche that’d create a personality like that.
-Eric Kripke, Dreamwatch Issue 139
17. How he delivers the little line "Yeah, I would" in Something Wicked is, in my opinion, the best delivery of any line in Supernatural. It is a Bag 'Em/Done moment, again. Less confident than I expect and softened by a tired vulnerability, but also matter-of-fact and steady. Fanfic might have weakened that line, or made it boldly macho. He just says it the way he does, and he's showing me that he isn't a flash in the pan, but an actor who gets his character and walks at his pace.
18. I really lucked out. Jensen is a good, down-to-earth guy. He's a Texas boy who likes to watch sports, play guitar and drink beer, much like myself. We're both dudes from Texas who like to act and are interested in having a good time. He's friendly and he'll rib you. If you make fun of him, he'll make fun of you right back, which I really like.
-Jared Padalecki, Cult Times Issue 129
19. If I could tell you in a brief paragraph how I feel about the physical language he's created for Dean, I would. But I can't. It's too much. The arc he took Dean on from Asylum through Devil's Trap, from being burnt to being cautious to being vulnerable to being open to being an equal... it's beyond anything I could have expected. It's beautiful, it's rewarding, it's deep, and he didn't do it alone. But how he played Dean has been the catalyst for that love language they've shared. And that is something done quite right by me.
20. He’s got a great energy about him, you know? I mean, I think who he is in real life comes across on the screen. He just… he’s just a down-to-earth country boy from Texas.
-Jeff Woolnough, Dark Angel, from the “Hello, Goodbye” commentary.
Point?
Jensen ain’t the Baby Jesus in pink pajamas, but, y’know, he’s done a few things right. He's done his job right, and he's left an impression on those who have worked with him as a human being who's worth spending a little bit of time and effort to praise. That's all I could hope for, for myself. That simple standard is more difficult to live up to than any of us are comfortable with. We may be too cool to care, but on a basic human level, it matters that people think highly enough to say it.
That’s a few things done right.
[/ends glowy fangirling]
ETA, because we mustn't forget: The Paris Hilton Imitation.
Because Dean also does a few things right, exploiting the JA Pretty.
What’s he done right by you? Want to share your top 10? Various quotes?
(And who the hell is Kris Pope, who once called the Ackles "mint"? Dark Angel alumni?)
Note: Salvation will be up this weekend. RL concerns made it impossible to have it finished last night. Sorry!
So. Here are a few things done right by the Ackles. 10 according to others; 10 according to me.
Vague spoilers for Dark Angel, Devour, Smallville and Supernatural. (I didn’t go all the way back to DOOL, because I've only "seen" it via imjinnie’s hilarious parodies, or into Dawson's Creek and Blonde, neither of which I've watched a second of.)
1. As Alec in the episode Bag ‘Em, he says to the boy who will become Bullet, “You do that.” It’s softer and less arrogant than I expect; there’s a touch of empathy shadowed by a casual hand gesture, which tells me Alec’s as warm as he is cool. It’s the moment I think, He’s good.
2. What’s amazing is they cast a hand double, a piano player who could play. And, ultimately, we never used any of that footage. Because the work that Jensen did on the piano was better.
-Janice Tashjian, Dark Angel, from "The Berrisford Agenda" commentary.
3. There's a moment during an early scene in Borrowed Time. Alec and Logan are playing pool; Alec back-steps and brushes by Logan's face, blowing on the tip of his cue as if it's a smoking gun. It's cutesy cool, and I smile. Then I hear a few rumors about the backstage politics, for this scene in particular, and it's suddenly more than cute. It's sassy and sharp and it's a little mocking, and he's being less than passive victim, whatever the truth. I find myself liking that. He's a guy who'll take my protective panties and boogie out the knot. I sit back, relax, and enjoy the show.
4. There was actually... in this encounter that’s coming up, when the guy says “Simon Lahane,” I had written a line where Alec says “That’s my alias; don’t wear it out,” which was a line I just thought was really funny. And Jensen actually asked if he could not say it because he thought it was too flip given what’s going on. And he was… he was ab... his instincts were absolutely right.
-Moira Kirland Dekker, Dark Angel, from "The Berrisford Agenda" commentary.
5. I wonder why I'm watching Devour. It's killing me. Not a good way to go. Then Jensen Ackles starts to cry. He's in a hospital, seeing the woman who raised him sitting crippled in a wheelchair, and he breaks down. It's different from the Alec tears. Different from the Dean tears to come. But that's the envelope. What touches me here is simply that I've stood in those shoes. The movie is forgotten as soon as it's seen, but that image lingers, like it does whenever I see it, anywhere. It's nothing to do with him, but I feel connected to that moment, and he is holding my place in it.
6. He's a great guy, too. A real team player. (Yeah, he really is.) Very popular with the crew.
-John Glover (and AG? MM? KH?), Smallville, from the “Transference” commentary.
7. Cary Grant would have been far more suave in the last scene of Smallville's Gone, but he's not playing Cary Grant here. The way he looks at Lana after she takes the roses and as he pulls out the note is another moment like Bag 'Em. Only this time, it's harder than I expect, and guarded instead of wounded. Given what type of scene it is, and what his character has not yet become, it's quite a nice thing that he is once again refusing to create a victim. That's what most would have done, but not him. It's how Bogie might have played it, and it doesn't freak me out.
8. Jensen could not have been more approachable, more humble or more ingratiating. Quite simply, he gave every impression of being one of the nicest, most down-to-earth young actors I've interviewed over the past five and a half years... (read more).
-Jeff Bell, Northwest Indiana Times, from a JRAUnlimited exclusive letter.
9. Asylum. Faith. Nightmare. Provenance. Dead Man's Blood. Devil's Trap. Pick a scene.
10. This post by tightropegirl.
(Thank you for pointing it out, Kunju! *hugs*)
11. It started in Wendigo. I dismissed it as a fluke. Then I saw it again in Hook Man. It continued on through Scarecrow. It backfired for Sam in Faith. It came back in full force in Nightmare. It's Herder/Herdee. It's me unable to look at pictures like this now, without seeing Dean and Sam. It's me wanting to adopt my second Border Collie, if only to name it "Dean." It's me writing a SPN fanfic about Dog and Sheep. It's the most unexpected and refreshingly unstaged characteristic of Dean's, and I love Jensen Ackles for it more than I could ever say.
12. Our characters have to physically fight a lot, but he’s always so careful with me. That’s his main appeal: He’s a good person. I think people can tell that.
-Nicki Aycox, TV Guide Magazine.
13. It took me until 15:24 of Phantom Traveler. Then I watched an eleven-second scene, the same scene that would charm each and every one of my friends and family members who would watch it with me afterward. I can’t explain it very well, except to say that Dean’s heartbeat felt, for the first time, very candid and... well... lived-in. He’d done that, with a cheery smile slip-sliding into a wounded frown. By the time I watched minute 37:53 of Bloody Mary, his Dean would be the solid anchor of a show I had fallen madly in love with.
14. Three scenes (the Talk in Shadow, the final scene of Faith, the phone call from Home), one strip-tease gross-out (Skin), and one behind-the-scenes joke (“noise” on the set of Wendigo).
-Members of the Paley panel compiled this list when asked what their favorite scene was. They each picked a moment highlighting Jensen Ackles. (Pheromones or talent? You decide.)
15. He protested the Shadow Talk. And, to me, it’s beside the point that he understands Dean better than Dean’s own creator. What I hear, and what I remember all these weeks after hearing about it, is simply that he cares. I don’t know how much he cares (I doubt he’s obsessed like us cool kids), but he cares enough to have made a stand when he felt his character was being pushed askew. SPN may be a job and he may consider its story less than educational TV, but by his conduct, he’s shown that he takes his part of that job and his character’s place in that story seriously. People who don’t care, don’t protest a rare, juicy EMO! scene... or an easy paycheck.
16. In terms of Dean’s evolution, Jensen is doing such an unbelievable job because this character started out very brash and Han Solo-like, still has that Devil-may-care attitude, but as the series goes on you’re catching these careful, quiet glimpses of the absolutely screwed-to-Hell psyche that’d create a personality like that.
-Eric Kripke, Dreamwatch Issue 139
17. How he delivers the little line "Yeah, I would" in Something Wicked is, in my opinion, the best delivery of any line in Supernatural. It is a Bag 'Em/Done moment, again. Less confident than I expect and softened by a tired vulnerability, but also matter-of-fact and steady. Fanfic might have weakened that line, or made it boldly macho. He just says it the way he does, and he's showing me that he isn't a flash in the pan, but an actor who gets his character and walks at his pace.
18. I really lucked out. Jensen is a good, down-to-earth guy. He's a Texas boy who likes to watch sports, play guitar and drink beer, much like myself. We're both dudes from Texas who like to act and are interested in having a good time. He's friendly and he'll rib you. If you make fun of him, he'll make fun of you right back, which I really like.
-Jared Padalecki, Cult Times Issue 129
19. If I could tell you in a brief paragraph how I feel about the physical language he's created for Dean, I would. But I can't. It's too much. The arc he took Dean on from Asylum through Devil's Trap, from being burnt to being cautious to being vulnerable to being open to being an equal... it's beyond anything I could have expected. It's beautiful, it's rewarding, it's deep, and he didn't do it alone. But how he played Dean has been the catalyst for that love language they've shared. And that is something done quite right by me.
20. He’s got a great energy about him, you know? I mean, I think who he is in real life comes across on the screen. He just… he’s just a down-to-earth country boy from Texas.
-Jeff Woolnough, Dark Angel, from the “Hello, Goodbye” commentary.
Point?
Jensen ain’t the Baby Jesus in pink pajamas, but, y’know, he’s done a few things right. He's done his job right, and he's left an impression on those who have worked with him as a human being who's worth spending a little bit of time and effort to praise. That's all I could hope for, for myself. That simple standard is more difficult to live up to than any of us are comfortable with. We may be too cool to care, but on a basic human level, it matters that people think highly enough to say it.
That’s a few things done right.
[/ends glowy fangirling]
ETA, because we mustn't forget: The Paris Hilton Imitation.
Because Dean also does a few things right, exploiting the JA Pretty.
What’s he done right by you? Want to share your top 10? Various quotes?
(And who the hell is Kris Pope, who once called the Ackles "mint"? Dark Angel alumni?)
Note: Salvation will be up this weekend. RL concerns made it impossible to have it finished last night. Sorry!