SPN--SeaCon 2018--Day 3
And finally, J2 Day!
Supernatural Seattle Con--Sunday 3/25/18
J2 Gold Panel
Jared and Jensen came on stage looking very fine. Jared reached to grab the mike without looking and missed it completely because it was set too low. ‘Has Richard been here?’
They heard Lisa Berry killed it at the Saturday Night Special. Jared said that even though she’d been a big fan of the show before coming on it, she was intimidating when they first rehearsed together. Jensen asked if Gil had been at the concert, then corrected himself that he’d just gotten a text from Gil asking if Jensen had any recommendations for the ski town he was in, but Jensen had never been there.
Jared: ‘All three of my kids were born in Seattle. They’re Seattlites.’ Jensen: ‘Satellites?’ Jared proceeds to wave his arms in the air.
They like coming to SeaCon because it’s so close to Vancouver and it’s in the same time zone. Jensen: ‘Look at me! No coffee!’ Jared held up his iced Starbucks: ‘Look at me! Coffee!’
Fan: Who did Misha bribe to make Scooby cartoon Cas taller than Sam? Jared: ‘I’m wondering the same thing.’ Jensen mimed the animators smoking weed. Jared and Jensen snuck in the side door of the theater at Paleyfest so they could experience watching the episode with the crowd. Jensen: ‘It was surreal-it was like going to a movie premiere of your own movie…that you’re animated in.’ Jared: ‘They didn’t tell the people why there were empty seats, so it was excuse me, pardon me,’-mimes fan looking up-‘Oh my God!’
Jensen talks about why Jared isn’t allowed to drive the Impala any more. Jared asks if we know the phrase ‘Drive like it’s stolen?’ Well, that’s him…Some of the vehicles they use aren’t licensed for actually driving on streets, only for when the street is blocked off for filming. Jared disregards this rule. In the season 13 episode when Dean is under the love spell of the two young witches, Sam comes driving up to them to rescue Dean. Jensen explained that Jared’s stunt double, Mike Carpenter drove up, the director yelled ‘pause,’ Mike got out and Jared got in, ‘action’ and Sam got out of the car. Jensen asked why they didn’t just have Jared drive up? Kevin Parks said ‘Because there are people in front of the car!’ Jensen immediately understood.
Fan asked Jensen a trick question-at the Hawaii con, Jensen mimed shooting vampires. Why would he do that? Jensen answered without pausing to think: ‘Because I still dream of having the Colt.’ He then mimed his relief at having had a good answer.
Jensen was asked if he would consider music as a career when the show ends. He enjoys music but doesn’t see it as something he would pursue. What does Jared want to do after it’s over? He said he knows it might sound arrogant, but he wants to see what calls he gets and choose from projects he gets offered. One of the fun things about SPN is the wonderful guests stars they’ve worked with…Maybe he could be a journeyman actor and gets roles on other shows. Neither one of them is focusing on what comes next simply because they have no idea where the finish line is, and therefore can’t project what circumstances will be.
Other cartoon crossovers? Jared wanted to crossover with ‘The Simpsons.’ He could also see a crossover with ‘King of the Hill’, and said that on ‘Family Guy’ they made fun of the character Dean from ‘Gilmore Girls.’ He said that James Franco made a movie called ‘Disaster Artist’ in which Franco’s character tries out for ‘Gilmore Girls’ and when he loses the role to Jared, Franco and his friend sit there and make fun of him. Jared got a call asking if he would be okay with being made fun of, and he said sure, but he had to sign three pages of contracts that he wouldn’t sue for defamation. Jensen said ‘Puppy Pals,’ ‘Paw Patrol,’ ‘Lion King.’ ‘And we’d destroy them all.’
Jensen thought it would be cool for the brothers to be in the alternate universe, see John Winchester only it’s really Neegan from the ‘The Walking Dead’-‘What happened to Dad?’
They were asked what does Jensen do to help when Jared’s feeling down? Jared couldn’t think of anything specific, ‘it’s not like he sends me a rose.’ Jensen: ‘Behind the scenes at Supernatural feels very much like ‘The Bachelor.’ Jared then said it’s more like knowing you are not alone. Jensen: ‘I tend to be pretty…’-he paused looking for a word and a fan yelled ‘You are!’ Jared mimed a mic drop for the fan. After laughing, Jensen continued that he likes to think he is pretty perceptive to the energy and feelings of people around him, especially someone he’s known so long. So he notices when Jared is having a bad day ‘and I’m sure he does the same for me.’ Instead of saying what’s going on, hey talk to me-‘like guys do so often’-Jensen tries to lift Jared’s spirits with a joke, hang out in his trailer and try to get his mind off what’s bothering him. ‘Be a friend. Be around. If he wants to talk, listen… Or I’ll just show up with a whiskey and he’s like dude, it’s ten o’clock in the morning…’
Jensen said that in season one a magazine wanted to do a feature story on them, what they do off set, what hobbies they have. At that point all they were doing was working, all their hobbies were gone. Jared: ‘And still are.’ Jensen: ‘Our new hobbies are kids.’ Jared: ‘And sleeping.’ So all Jared could come up with was that when he’s not on set he takes his dogs out to pee. Jensen felt he had to come up with something better, so he borrowed equipment from the props master who was into heavy, hard-core mountain biking. ‘Sure, I know how to ride a bike.’ Jensen shows up for the shoot thinking it will be like jumping a curb-and the trail is like double black diamond skiing. ‘I was young and stupid…’ He put on the gear and figured he’d see how it goes. He tells the camera guy he’s going to come down and turn right at the camera and it will be an awesome shot…He takes off at the wrong angle and is heading straight for a station-wagon-sized boulder…he lets the bike go and just ‘takes it’-acts out plowing shoulder-first into the boulder-‘and I pop up and say let’s go again! If that happened to me now I would be broke for life!’
Jared mentioned breaking his hand in season two-Jensen: ‘That was user error.’ Jared: ‘I’m not gonna say anything because of insurance reasons…’ He whispered something to Jensen who laughed and then said ‘Mistakes were made.’
Again talking about the episode with Dean under the love spell, Jensen tackled Jared onto the hood of the Impala, which Jared said is springy, except along the spine in the center. Jared threw himself back as he was tackled and instead of landing on the smooshy part, the right side of his back hit the spine and he ended up with a big bruise. Jensen said that fight wasn’t choreographed-they were told ‘just wrestle, guys,’ so they did. Jared caught Jensen in the chin with an elbow.
Why don’t they still use the phrase ‘Christo’ to detect demons? Jared identified that the fan was asking about the episode ‘Phantom Traveler.’ Jensen said it was too easy, but they still talk about it and in fact Bob Singer brought it up the other day. Kripke also didn’t like when the boys used umbrellas in season one so they have to stand in the pouring rain and their make-up runs. Jared: ‘Um, director, why can’t we stand under the awning three feet away?’ Director: ‘Because of the light.’ Jared: ‘Oh, right.’
Jared then said the reason he knew the name of the episode with ‘Christo’ was because he was in the hotel gym after Paleyfest using the treadmill, and ‘French Mistake’ was on the treadmill screen, followed by ‘Phantom Traveler.’ Every time someone would walk behind him he’d change the channel so it didn’t look like he was watching himself. Jensen said he does the opposite, he puts Supernatural on the treadmill screen and then calls out ‘Hey, something’s wrong with the screen here-hi, I’m Jensen.’
Jared then noticed they were getting ‘the vampire decapitation sign’ and they had to go.
Our Jensen and Jared Photo Ops
Although you may not see it very well, Adrienne made the appliques for my Moose and Squirrel shirt!
(Because we were at the meet and greet we missed the Sunday Rich and Rob welcome and Mark Pellegrino’s second panel.)
Ruth Connell
I am having a hard time coming up with a way to describe Ruth and her panels. She is very tiny, with that awesome red hair and delightful accent…and in the group panels she seems fairly normal. But on her own…The word I want to use is fey…Like she’s in her own world and the fans are visiting her stream-of-consciousness meanderings, and it all makes sense to her even if we’re baffled…
She came on stage wearing a pair of fairy wings, the kind you find among the Halloween costumes for little kids. However, she was a butterfly…and she ‘butterfly walked’ across the stage, which involved thrusting her shoulders back and forth to make the wings flutter while she walked, and then pausing to kick one heel up behind her. And didn’t we know that was how butterflies walk? Why were we acting surprised?
She wore the wings to promote her charity, The Hope Chest, which provides reconstructive breast surgery to women after mastectomies who cannot afford it. She talked about how they’ve helped 68 women so far, which seems like a small number but it’s life-changing for those women.
Of course someone asked about pranks, and Ruth regaled us with the time someone from Creation called and asked if she had any use for 2000 Misha calendars. She said yes, sure that she would come up with something. At that point Alaina came out on stage to help tell the story. Ruth got a call from Customs asking about the calendar shipment. Ruth asked if the Customs agent ever heard of the show Supernatural? Turns out he was a fan and he let the calendars through without charging the duty fee. Ruth had the idea of putting the calendar pictures of Misha’s face in Mark Sheppard’s trailer, and asked Alaina for help to get it done before Mark got back. Ruth was very impressed with Alaina’s efficiency-Ruth had been tacking the pictures up here and there, but Alaina went to work just covering the walls with rows of Misha. They put them everywhere, even covering the floor. Then they hid outside when Mark went in. Ruth thought he might be mad, but he just laughed.
One other time she tried a prank-they use lube whenever the script calls for holy water, so she walked on set holding a bottle of lube but didn’t get much reaction till Misha picked her up and carried her off-‘so Misha saved my joke!’
If she could have her own TV show, what would it be called and who would be on it? ‘Rowena-starring Ruth Connell’ and everyone from Supernatural would be on it. Maybe it would be about Rowena’s life back in the Middle Ages when they were burning witches.
Scariest monster on SPN? The Khan worm, she couldn’t even watch it. As Ruth she has a hard time with things like stabbing people-‘sorry’-but as Rowena she’s tough, and Ruth loves learning how to be tough from Rowena.
Now what you need to picture is, as she is answering these questions, she randomly stops in the middle to do the ‘butterfly walk’ before continuing, and after she answers each question she roots through her bag of stolen hotel toiletries to find the right one to give the questioner-‘Are you a shampoo girl or a body wash girl? That wasn’t a very good question, so I’m going to give you the half-used body lotion…’ Her decision on what to give them could take as long as answering the question did…And she is completely unself-conscious as she carries on, as though she is gifting us with the running commentary in her head. And while it could be annoying, somehow she makes it endearing. Maybe it’s the accent…
She is having so much fun on Supernatural that she is forgetting to try out for other roles
J2 Main Panel
The boys started as usual with their jump at the end of Louden Swain’s intro.
Jared: ‘Hi Seattle!’ Jensen, with a Spanish accent: ‘Hola Seattle’ (pronouncing it Se-at-lay.). Rich to Jensen: ‘I didn’t know you spoke Spanish!’ Jensen: ‘Neither did I.’ Rich: ‘Neither did all the people who speak Spanish in this room.’
Jared repeated that all his children were born in Seattle.
Jensen asked who is excited for the episode coming up (Scoobynatural.) Jared raises his hand. They mention again about watching it live with the fans at Paleyfest and how Jared was laughing throughout. Jensen said it was an awesome experience to watch it for the first time with a room full of fans.
The first questioner held up her phone and said ‘My mom couldn’t be here but she’s on the phone-could you say hi Debbie?’ The boys looked nonplussed but said ‘Hi Debbie.’ The fan then said ‘Okay, Mom, gotta go, bye’ and the boys cracked up at how hit-and-run random that was to the person on the other end of the phone. The fan then asked if Jeffrey Dean Morgan had known about the Lucille reference (the baseball bat wrapped with barbed wire) that had been in one of last season’s episodes. Jensen said it was scripted and he didn’t believe JDM knew about it but that he probably would have appreciated it.
Fan: ‘Working on the show for so long’ -J2: ‘So so so long…’ Fan: ‘Besides each other, who is the closest to you on set?’
Jared: ‘I’m real close to the chick who played Ruby…’ Jensen (duh look): ‘Well, Sister Jo…Oh, you mean other than our wives?’ Jensen then continued: ‘There’s certainly a family that exists with this cast and crew. It’s great we get to reconnect with each other here, too. We have been very fortune to reconnect every few weeks…’ Clif comes on stage from behind the curtain and J2 act surprised. Jensen: ‘Bizarro Santa Claus? You’re here a bit early.’ Jared: ‘Security!’ After the laugh Jensen added: ‘We’ve got a solid group of people’ -he runs down names-‘it’s a pretty awesome group and it keeps growing.’
When directing recently, Richard referred to Jared as Sam when telling him to stand somewhere. Jared protested Speight should know his name by now-‘we stopped the trains in Europe together!’
Of course they are asked about pranking. Jared said the best prank was the two weeks Misha directed-having him in abject terror. Jensen said their pranks aren’t heavily thought out, more a ‘constant array of shenanigans’-Jensen screwing with the camera, Jared fondling body parts…Jensen likes to rearrange lines when the camera is on the other actor’s coverage, he did that to Rich recently and it’s like ‘rolling a grenade into Rich’s mind.’ Jensen: ‘It’s not pranking. It’s just a way of life.’
Do they feel bad when a character dies and they won’t be able to work with that actor any more? Jared: In the beginning they took it hard, but ‘the great thing about Supernatural is we don’t get all emotional when a character dies because they might come back…it’s more like, see you later. And if you don’t come back we’ve forgotten you.’ Jared did take Bobby’s death hard because it was a proper sendoff and they didn’t know then Bobby was coming back. Jared mentioned Charlie as someone else he missed. Jensen looked at Jared and said ‘Ruby. You probably should have led with that one.’ Jared joked he felt sad when he died for the first time on the show because he loved working on SPN and then was happy when he found out he came back in the next episode. Jensen: ‘Yeah, I felt bad the first sixty times Dean died…’
Fan: If your wives were here, what bad habits would they say you have? Jensen: ‘None.’ Jared: ‘How much time do you have?’ When Jensen is getting ready for bed, he tends to do things mechanically and loudly. Hitting the faucet to turn it on, slamming the toothpaste, banging the door with his hip-he wasn’t even aware of doing it until recently when Danneel hollered what are you doing? You’re so loud! ‘Apparently I go all Tom Cruise when I’m brushing my teeth…it annoys the hell out of her and I’m not gonna stop…’ Jared: ‘At home, I leave the door open.’ Jensen interrupted to point out spiders, mosquitos…Jared added ‘air conditioning bill…’ When traveling, when Jared goes to the gym and sweats, and then he showers with his clothes on to wash the sweat off them, and then leaves them all over the bathroom to dry-a sock over the faucet, shorts over the showerhead, and Gen gets so mad ‘your stuff is all over the bathroom!’ and she’ll bundle it up and throw with non-workout clothes which annoys him. Jared also keeps the air conditioning on super cold, but Gen is always freezing. Jensen said the thermostat is a constant battle at his house too.
Jensen then volunteered his pet peeve about what Jared does-Jared comes into Jensen’s trailer to chat or hang out, he’ll walk up to the counter and put his gum on Jensen’s counter. ‘No joke-every single time he puts his gum on my counter and I’ll say why?’ Jared: ‘I’m not done with it!’ Jensen: It’s like he’s taking his shoes off when going into someone’s house-he puts his gum on the counter-and then he puts it back in his mouth when he leaves!’ Audience gave a pronounced ‘EWW’ and Jensen said ‘Right?!’ Jared protested that it tastes better after oxygenating-smacking makes it taste better and they (the fans) are all going to go home and give it a shot and realize he was right. Audience: No!
Jared told a story of Gen going through customs when Tom was a baby and the family in front of her had a four-or-five-year-old boy who was trying to get something from under the bottom of the counter. Finally he pulled off a piece of gum and stuck it in his mouth and Gen was ‘oh god!’ Jensen: ‘And Jared was, hey, any more down there for me?’
What kind of whiskey would they add to a desk whiskey collection? Bullet Bourbon whiskey.
What were their most embarrassing moments on set? Jared: Ripping his pants. Jensen: ‘Jared ripped his pants and then laughed louder than all of us at himself.’ Jensen: ‘I don’t get embarrassed about much…a lot of the show is smaller sets with not a lot of additional performers, so I’m really used to minimal surroundings…so when there’s a ton of people it gets a little more intimidating, trying to give a motivational speech and then falling on your face…’ but he works with people who wouldn’t exploit that by putting it on the gag real-four times! (He was referring to the Braveheart speech Dean gives at the end of 8.11 ‘Larp and the Real Girl’ and his fall in the mud.) This cracked Jared up.
Jared added that sex scenes are kind of weird around the crew because they are like family and they’ve known them for over a decade. People on set want to avoid looking at him when he takes his clothes off, but ‘that’s all right, buddy, we’ve all got ‘em…’ Jensen: ‘But there are some people that are like-‘ and he hides behind the curtain and peeks out-‘Tell Clif to go back out to the parking lot.’
Fan: How was working with Shoshannah? How much sign language did you learn? Jared said that when Shoshannah was there she was a new mom and had her hands full with mothering and acting and she was awesome! Jared and Gen had watched ‘Signing Time’ (sign language for babies tapes) and Jared knew ‘milk’ and a few other words but ‘nothing I could talk to another adult about.’ Jensen said communicating with her was effortless. Jared: ‘All the love, from us to her.’
Fan asked if, when the season three writers’ strike happened, did Jensen feel he might be stuck in hell forever? The last scene they shot before the strike was the one in ‘Mystery Spot’ when they talked simultaneously. They were pretty confident that whenever the strike did end that they’d get another season-Jensen said that all the shows on the air at that time got a free pass because no one was writing any new shows, so whatever was already on the air was pretty sure to continue. Jensen shaved his head at that time just because he could and he knew his hair would grow back fast enough.
What’s the favorite thing they’ve found of themselves on line? Jared immediately said the L’Oréal meme. He was mesmerized and he forwarded it to every single person he knew. His other favorite is the ‘nine hairstyles of Sam and Dean over the years.’ Jensen loves how many gifs there are of Dean reactions-when he figured out how to include them in messages he started sending them to all his buddies who would get angry and say ‘you can’t gif yourself!’ and he would answer ‘I can!’ Jared added that he’d gotten a post that had ‘Bless you’ with an image that he realized was Pellegrino and when he pointed out that it was an SPN gif his friend got really annoyed.
Fan: When will Adam get out? J2: When we let him! But bringing Adam out opens a big can of worms, ‘even when we met him he wasn’t alive.’ Jake is awesome, though.
How do they balance work with time with their kids? Jared: ‘Our wives do the lions’ share of kid rendering, so our six children have a chance…’ He struggles with not being able to take the kids to school and stuff like that, but he’s been told by experienced parents that it’s quality, not quantity of time, so he tries to be present when he’s with them-chasing tarantulas, jumping in the pool, playing on the swingset…. He’s learned since time is so precious with the kids, it’s play time with them.
How will the Supernatural family continue when show ends? Jensen: ‘We don’t know where finish line is, so to start making plans is premature. I don’t know where we’re gonna be personally-but what we’ve built (gesture to the audience) is not something that dissolves when the show stops.’ Jared: ‘This show has meant a lot to us as well-I love hearing people say we’ve been friends online and we just met for first time-so even when the show ends the relationships will carry on, and I hope we’ll still get to see you a few times a year.’
Fan: ‘My name is Jenille…’(pronounced Genneel)-boys made her spell it. Jensen: ‘Do you have a sister Jenared?’ Norton gave Jensen a rimshot on the cymbal. Jared: ‘Are your parents named Jemary?’ He looked for his rimshot and pouted when he didn’t get one. The fan asked how would they see a crossover of SPN and Buffy? Jensen: ‘Well, how would you see it?’ Fan: ‘Well, I’m not a writer.’ J2 simultaneously: ‘Well neither are we!’ They asked who would play Angel? Jared: ‘Would it be an angel?’-looked again for a rimshot that he didn’t get. Jensen shook his head-and got one. The fan said that she read stories that have Dean with Buffy. Jared asked what is Sam doing? Jensen said ‘walking Scooby’ and got another rimshot.
The next fan said she put her name in the question drawing as a joke and the boys immediately said ‘Joke’s on you! Tell us a joke.’ She didn’t have one so Jared stepped up: ‘A man walks into a butcher shop and orders steak and kidley pie. The butcher says ‘you said kidley’ and the man says ‘no I didly!’ No rimshot. ‘I can row a boat-canoe?’ Still no rimshot.
The fan asked if there is a TV show or reality show they enjoy watching on their down time? Someone in the audience yelled ‘Housewives’ and Jensen said there’s only one Housewives-New York. They explained that the DVRs in their trailers are spliced so that whatever is recorded shows up on both of them. Jared: ‘I didn’t record thirty episodes of ‘Below Deck.’ Jensen: ‘My wife watches stuff and on weekends I’m subjected to it and I start saying ‘I thought this woman was with that man and now I’m stupidly interested. My mother would watch ‘All My Children’ when I was growing up-‘ Jared: ‘Not ‘Days of Our Lives?’ Jensen: ‘Yes, and that was a point of contention.’ When he would come in the room while his mother was watching she would make him leave, and that was a good thing because ‘I would have been sucked right in.’ He’s watched ‘Game of Thrones,’ ‘Peeky Blinders,’ ‘Taboo,’ anything with Tom Hardy, ‘Ozark.’ Jared watches ‘The Bachelorette-‘ Jensen: ‘For all the pretty dudes.’ Jared: ‘That’s why I took this job next to you. Only one pretty dude in my world.’ Jensen: ‘Yeah, when you look in the mirror!’ Jared continues that he watches ‘Tosh.0,’ ‘John Oliver,’ ‘Futurama,’ ‘Altered Carbon.’ Fans started calling out suggestions. Jensen: ‘She asked us the question. If you have shows you want to suggest, write them down and put them in the trash can in the back of the room.’
If they went back to a prior project, what have they learned in SPN that they would take back? Jensen answered ‘Dark Angel’ without hesitation, because ‘I’ve learned how to create an environment that is healthy and fun to work in.’ He said it was nobody specifically’s fault, there was a lot of pressure on that show. He would have like to have seen it go on, there were a lot of good things in it. Jared would redo ‘House of Wax’ because he had come from ‘Gilmore Girls’ where ‘I had always been acting with human beings’-he hadn’t been used to acting to a blank wall for special effects and it intimidated him. Jensen asked ‘Do they have fancy drama schools that deal with green screen acting?’ and fans yelled that they should start it. Jensen: ‘The Supernatural school for acting to nothing-and I don’t mean him’-rimshot-then elaborated: ‘Green tape is the vamp, blue tape is the demon…’Jared said something to Jensen off the microphone and Jensen laughed very hard.
Last question: Why don’t Sam and Dean wait until the body is burned and recover the grav so the cops would have one less thing on them? Jared started to come up with a reason that it keeps the cops looking for them in a place they’ve already left… Jensen then jumps in: ‘We put fire retardant all around the grave and we dig it so that as the fire burns the dirt will backfill in, and we go to the diner, have a burger and piece of pie, and go back and finish the job. But we can’t show all that ‘cause it’s only a 42 minute show.’ Jensen then mocked wiping the sweat off for coming up with a good answer on the fly. He then asked if anyone’s ever tried to dig a six foot hole? It’s not pretty-‘but ours are dug with laser precision.’
Rich and Rob then announced that before the boys leave, they are going to auction off the LOVE hoodie that Jared has been wearing all day for IMAlive. Rich said it is definitely soaked in the musk. Rich turned the auctioneering over to Rob and said payment can be in credit cards, cash, or Bolivian coke-Rob glared at him, and then protested that he was not an auctioneer…He asked for a starting bid of $100. As bidding went up, Jared took the hoodie off and rubbed it on Jensen’s face so that it would be more valuable. Rich stopped the bidding and said that Matt’s moose knuckle unitard went for $2300 (actually $2500) so that had to be the starting bid. Jensen took off his leather jacket and put on the hoodie and then started strutting around the stage in exaggerated modelling poses. When the bidding hit $7000, Jared mouthed ‘wow’ and looked stunned. He helped Jensen take the hoodie off very awkwardly. It ended up going for $8000, and when the winner came on stage Jared put his beanie on her too.
Their panel ended with Jensen saying to the guys on stage: ‘Gentlemen, thank you very much. Mr. Padalecki, let’s get out of here.’
Richard and Rob-Kings of Con
It is so awesomely clear what good friends Rich and Rob have become…A fan said she met her fiancé through fandom, what have Rich and Rob gotten from SPN? Rich said Supernatural changed his life-he has made so many close friends among the cast and crew, gotten to perform with a top-notch band, become a director-all because he did five episodes of this show. Rob said simply SPN saved his life-Rich being there when he had his stroke is why Rob is still here. And the friendships-they both know that this is a lightning-in-a-bottle experience, completely unique, and they are very grateful. Rich said what has happened in fandom-the connections that never would have been made-is mirrored behind the curtain (gesturing backstage.)
Rob said it was his idea for Gabriel to come back with his mouth sewn shut.
Which comes first when Rob writes his songs, music or words? He says for him the melody comes first and then the feeling he gets from it prompts words. He takes what he’s done to the band and they tinker with it. Sometimes the end result is very different, sometimes barely anything is changed.
My question for Rob was, Jensen and Robin from props are credited with writing the song ‘Fair’ on the album ‘No Time Like the Present.’ How did that come about? Rob said during filming of the episodes he was in for season 11, he was hanging out in Jensen’s trailer with him. Jensen got called to set and told Rob to ‘write a song’ while Jensen was gone. Rob went ‘Shit, I gotta write a song! Rob, think-Em-B…’ So he noodled a melody and the first verse and chorus, and when Jensen came back he and Robin finished the lyrics.
If they had the powers of their characters, what would they do with them? Rich started talking about how he needs a new van because his minivan is falling apart, and he literally went into a sales pitch for a Chrysler Pacifica, talking about all the bells and whistles, and the upgrades, and he wanted it in blue, and could the fans make sure someone at Chrysler saw this clip from the panel? He would seemingly be done talking and Rich would start to say what he would do and Rich would start talking again. After this happened several times, Rob finally got to talk and he said he would use his powers to make Rich’s Pacifica turn back into his old van, and he snapped his fingers ‘Poof!’ Rich immediately fired back he would use his powers to bring it back and then they poofed back and forth several times until Rich had to admit that God had more power than Gabriel. He then referenced getting the Pacifica randomly for the rest of the panel, tying it in to whatever question was asked.
Why did Rich hate Seattle? Rob immediately jumped in with backstory to this question. Several cons ago, Rich randomly made a statement that ‘Rob hates Perth (Australia)’ to fans. When Rob was asked later why he hated Perth, he protested that he didn’t hate it, in fact it was a lovely place and Rich had made that up…but his denial never got spread around like Rich’s original statement did and Rob is still getting grief about hating Perth WHICH HE DOESN’T. So on the Thursday Seattle bus tour, when someone asked why Rich wasn’t there, Rob said it was because Rich hates Seattle. At this point Rich speaks up and says, yes, he does hate Seattle for many reasons, one of them that it is where Starbucks was invented, and what that has done to the simple act of ordering a coffee is unforgiveable. But Rich loves Bellevue (which is the suburb of Seattle where the con is actually held.) Rob became very annoyed that every time he tries to get back at Rich it backfires and he (Rob) is the one who ends up in trouble.
They then sang ‘It’s the end of the con as we know it’- except that Adrienne and I still had our J2 autographs to get.
J2 Autographs
Most of you know about the incredible book Sandy and Tedra made of all my SPN stories, and the whole reason I bought gold tickets was to get Jared and Jensen to sign it. Last year in Chicago, Tedra gave Jared a copy of ‘Family Don’t End with Blood’ that she had rebound with an exquisite leather cover, and she sent Jensen’s brewery a leatherbound guest book with the FBBC logo.
I paperclipped a photo of the FDEWB book on the page facing where Jared was going to sign, and as he pulled my book in front of him, I said ‘My book was made by the same woman who made this for you’ and I pointed at her picture. Jared said ‘I still have that! What’s her name?’ ‘Tedra.’ ‘Tell Tedra I keep it next to my bed in Vancouver.’ That exchange made me so happy! I did the same thing with the photo of the FBBC guest book, telling Jensen that the woman who made my book had sent this (pointing to picture) to the brewery. Jensen looked at the picture and said ‘I haven’t seen it yet, I haven’t been there for a couple weeks.’ I said she’d sent it a while ago and he said again that he hadn’t seen it. (But now that he knows it’s there, maybe he will notice it.) Adrienne made a cross-stitch of our boys and had them sign the mat. She got a wink from Jared.
And that truly was the end of the con. It was wonderful!
The signed page in my book
Adrienne’s signed cross-stitch
Supernatural Seattle Con--Sunday 3/25/18
J2 Gold Panel
Jared and Jensen came on stage looking very fine. Jared reached to grab the mike without looking and missed it completely because it was set too low. ‘Has Richard been here?’
They heard Lisa Berry killed it at the Saturday Night Special. Jared said that even though she’d been a big fan of the show before coming on it, she was intimidating when they first rehearsed together. Jensen asked if Gil had been at the concert, then corrected himself that he’d just gotten a text from Gil asking if Jensen had any recommendations for the ski town he was in, but Jensen had never been there.
Jared: ‘All three of my kids were born in Seattle. They’re Seattlites.’ Jensen: ‘Satellites?’ Jared proceeds to wave his arms in the air.
They like coming to SeaCon because it’s so close to Vancouver and it’s in the same time zone. Jensen: ‘Look at me! No coffee!’ Jared held up his iced Starbucks: ‘Look at me! Coffee!’
Fan: Who did Misha bribe to make Scooby cartoon Cas taller than Sam? Jared: ‘I’m wondering the same thing.’ Jensen mimed the animators smoking weed. Jared and Jensen snuck in the side door of the theater at Paleyfest so they could experience watching the episode with the crowd. Jensen: ‘It was surreal-it was like going to a movie premiere of your own movie…that you’re animated in.’ Jared: ‘They didn’t tell the people why there were empty seats, so it was excuse me, pardon me,’-mimes fan looking up-‘Oh my God!’
Jensen talks about why Jared isn’t allowed to drive the Impala any more. Jared asks if we know the phrase ‘Drive like it’s stolen?’ Well, that’s him…Some of the vehicles they use aren’t licensed for actually driving on streets, only for when the street is blocked off for filming. Jared disregards this rule. In the season 13 episode when Dean is under the love spell of the two young witches, Sam comes driving up to them to rescue Dean. Jensen explained that Jared’s stunt double, Mike Carpenter drove up, the director yelled ‘pause,’ Mike got out and Jared got in, ‘action’ and Sam got out of the car. Jensen asked why they didn’t just have Jared drive up? Kevin Parks said ‘Because there are people in front of the car!’ Jensen immediately understood.
Fan asked Jensen a trick question-at the Hawaii con, Jensen mimed shooting vampires. Why would he do that? Jensen answered without pausing to think: ‘Because I still dream of having the Colt.’ He then mimed his relief at having had a good answer.
Jensen was asked if he would consider music as a career when the show ends. He enjoys music but doesn’t see it as something he would pursue. What does Jared want to do after it’s over? He said he knows it might sound arrogant, but he wants to see what calls he gets and choose from projects he gets offered. One of the fun things about SPN is the wonderful guests stars they’ve worked with…Maybe he could be a journeyman actor and gets roles on other shows. Neither one of them is focusing on what comes next simply because they have no idea where the finish line is, and therefore can’t project what circumstances will be.
Other cartoon crossovers? Jared wanted to crossover with ‘The Simpsons.’ He could also see a crossover with ‘King of the Hill’, and said that on ‘Family Guy’ they made fun of the character Dean from ‘Gilmore Girls.’ He said that James Franco made a movie called ‘Disaster Artist’ in which Franco’s character tries out for ‘Gilmore Girls’ and when he loses the role to Jared, Franco and his friend sit there and make fun of him. Jared got a call asking if he would be okay with being made fun of, and he said sure, but he had to sign three pages of contracts that he wouldn’t sue for defamation. Jensen said ‘Puppy Pals,’ ‘Paw Patrol,’ ‘Lion King.’ ‘And we’d destroy them all.’
Jensen thought it would be cool for the brothers to be in the alternate universe, see John Winchester only it’s really Neegan from the ‘The Walking Dead’-‘What happened to Dad?’
They were asked what does Jensen do to help when Jared’s feeling down? Jared couldn’t think of anything specific, ‘it’s not like he sends me a rose.’ Jensen: ‘Behind the scenes at Supernatural feels very much like ‘The Bachelor.’ Jared then said it’s more like knowing you are not alone. Jensen: ‘I tend to be pretty…’-he paused looking for a word and a fan yelled ‘You are!’ Jared mimed a mic drop for the fan. After laughing, Jensen continued that he likes to think he is pretty perceptive to the energy and feelings of people around him, especially someone he’s known so long. So he notices when Jared is having a bad day ‘and I’m sure he does the same for me.’ Instead of saying what’s going on, hey talk to me-‘like guys do so often’-Jensen tries to lift Jared’s spirits with a joke, hang out in his trailer and try to get his mind off what’s bothering him. ‘Be a friend. Be around. If he wants to talk, listen… Or I’ll just show up with a whiskey and he’s like dude, it’s ten o’clock in the morning…’
Jensen said that in season one a magazine wanted to do a feature story on them, what they do off set, what hobbies they have. At that point all they were doing was working, all their hobbies were gone. Jared: ‘And still are.’ Jensen: ‘Our new hobbies are kids.’ Jared: ‘And sleeping.’ So all Jared could come up with was that when he’s not on set he takes his dogs out to pee. Jensen felt he had to come up with something better, so he borrowed equipment from the props master who was into heavy, hard-core mountain biking. ‘Sure, I know how to ride a bike.’ Jensen shows up for the shoot thinking it will be like jumping a curb-and the trail is like double black diamond skiing. ‘I was young and stupid…’ He put on the gear and figured he’d see how it goes. He tells the camera guy he’s going to come down and turn right at the camera and it will be an awesome shot…He takes off at the wrong angle and is heading straight for a station-wagon-sized boulder…he lets the bike go and just ‘takes it’-acts out plowing shoulder-first into the boulder-‘and I pop up and say let’s go again! If that happened to me now I would be broke for life!’
Jared mentioned breaking his hand in season two-Jensen: ‘That was user error.’ Jared: ‘I’m not gonna say anything because of insurance reasons…’ He whispered something to Jensen who laughed and then said ‘Mistakes were made.’
Again talking about the episode with Dean under the love spell, Jensen tackled Jared onto the hood of the Impala, which Jared said is springy, except along the spine in the center. Jared threw himself back as he was tackled and instead of landing on the smooshy part, the right side of his back hit the spine and he ended up with a big bruise. Jensen said that fight wasn’t choreographed-they were told ‘just wrestle, guys,’ so they did. Jared caught Jensen in the chin with an elbow.
Why don’t they still use the phrase ‘Christo’ to detect demons? Jared identified that the fan was asking about the episode ‘Phantom Traveler.’ Jensen said it was too easy, but they still talk about it and in fact Bob Singer brought it up the other day. Kripke also didn’t like when the boys used umbrellas in season one so they have to stand in the pouring rain and their make-up runs. Jared: ‘Um, director, why can’t we stand under the awning three feet away?’ Director: ‘Because of the light.’ Jared: ‘Oh, right.’
Jared then said the reason he knew the name of the episode with ‘Christo’ was because he was in the hotel gym after Paleyfest using the treadmill, and ‘French Mistake’ was on the treadmill screen, followed by ‘Phantom Traveler.’ Every time someone would walk behind him he’d change the channel so it didn’t look like he was watching himself. Jensen said he does the opposite, he puts Supernatural on the treadmill screen and then calls out ‘Hey, something’s wrong with the screen here-hi, I’m Jensen.’
Jared then noticed they were getting ‘the vampire decapitation sign’ and they had to go.
Our Jensen and Jared Photo Ops
Although you may not see it very well, Adrienne made the appliques for my Moose and Squirrel shirt!
(Because we were at the meet and greet we missed the Sunday Rich and Rob welcome and Mark Pellegrino’s second panel.)
Ruth Connell
I am having a hard time coming up with a way to describe Ruth and her panels. She is very tiny, with that awesome red hair and delightful accent…and in the group panels she seems fairly normal. But on her own…The word I want to use is fey…Like she’s in her own world and the fans are visiting her stream-of-consciousness meanderings, and it all makes sense to her even if we’re baffled…
She came on stage wearing a pair of fairy wings, the kind you find among the Halloween costumes for little kids. However, she was a butterfly…and she ‘butterfly walked’ across the stage, which involved thrusting her shoulders back and forth to make the wings flutter while she walked, and then pausing to kick one heel up behind her. And didn’t we know that was how butterflies walk? Why were we acting surprised?
She wore the wings to promote her charity, The Hope Chest, which provides reconstructive breast surgery to women after mastectomies who cannot afford it. She talked about how they’ve helped 68 women so far, which seems like a small number but it’s life-changing for those women.
Of course someone asked about pranks, and Ruth regaled us with the time someone from Creation called and asked if she had any use for 2000 Misha calendars. She said yes, sure that she would come up with something. At that point Alaina came out on stage to help tell the story. Ruth got a call from Customs asking about the calendar shipment. Ruth asked if the Customs agent ever heard of the show Supernatural? Turns out he was a fan and he let the calendars through without charging the duty fee. Ruth had the idea of putting the calendar pictures of Misha’s face in Mark Sheppard’s trailer, and asked Alaina for help to get it done before Mark got back. Ruth was very impressed with Alaina’s efficiency-Ruth had been tacking the pictures up here and there, but Alaina went to work just covering the walls with rows of Misha. They put them everywhere, even covering the floor. Then they hid outside when Mark went in. Ruth thought he might be mad, but he just laughed.
One other time she tried a prank-they use lube whenever the script calls for holy water, so she walked on set holding a bottle of lube but didn’t get much reaction till Misha picked her up and carried her off-‘so Misha saved my joke!’
If she could have her own TV show, what would it be called and who would be on it? ‘Rowena-starring Ruth Connell’ and everyone from Supernatural would be on it. Maybe it would be about Rowena’s life back in the Middle Ages when they were burning witches.
Scariest monster on SPN? The Khan worm, she couldn’t even watch it. As Ruth she has a hard time with things like stabbing people-‘sorry’-but as Rowena she’s tough, and Ruth loves learning how to be tough from Rowena.
Now what you need to picture is, as she is answering these questions, she randomly stops in the middle to do the ‘butterfly walk’ before continuing, and after she answers each question she roots through her bag of stolen hotel toiletries to find the right one to give the questioner-‘Are you a shampoo girl or a body wash girl? That wasn’t a very good question, so I’m going to give you the half-used body lotion…’ Her decision on what to give them could take as long as answering the question did…And she is completely unself-conscious as she carries on, as though she is gifting us with the running commentary in her head. And while it could be annoying, somehow she makes it endearing. Maybe it’s the accent…
She is having so much fun on Supernatural that she is forgetting to try out for other roles
J2 Main Panel
The boys started as usual with their jump at the end of Louden Swain’s intro.
Jared: ‘Hi Seattle!’ Jensen, with a Spanish accent: ‘Hola Seattle’ (pronouncing it Se-at-lay.). Rich to Jensen: ‘I didn’t know you spoke Spanish!’ Jensen: ‘Neither did I.’ Rich: ‘Neither did all the people who speak Spanish in this room.’
Jared repeated that all his children were born in Seattle.
Jensen asked who is excited for the episode coming up (Scoobynatural.) Jared raises his hand. They mention again about watching it live with the fans at Paleyfest and how Jared was laughing throughout. Jensen said it was an awesome experience to watch it for the first time with a room full of fans.
The first questioner held up her phone and said ‘My mom couldn’t be here but she’s on the phone-could you say hi Debbie?’ The boys looked nonplussed but said ‘Hi Debbie.’ The fan then said ‘Okay, Mom, gotta go, bye’ and the boys cracked up at how hit-and-run random that was to the person on the other end of the phone. The fan then asked if Jeffrey Dean Morgan had known about the Lucille reference (the baseball bat wrapped with barbed wire) that had been in one of last season’s episodes. Jensen said it was scripted and he didn’t believe JDM knew about it but that he probably would have appreciated it.
Fan: ‘Working on the show for so long’ -J2: ‘So so so long…’ Fan: ‘Besides each other, who is the closest to you on set?’
Jared: ‘I’m real close to the chick who played Ruby…’ Jensen (duh look): ‘Well, Sister Jo…Oh, you mean other than our wives?’ Jensen then continued: ‘There’s certainly a family that exists with this cast and crew. It’s great we get to reconnect with each other here, too. We have been very fortune to reconnect every few weeks…’ Clif comes on stage from behind the curtain and J2 act surprised. Jensen: ‘Bizarro Santa Claus? You’re here a bit early.’ Jared: ‘Security!’ After the laugh Jensen added: ‘We’ve got a solid group of people’ -he runs down names-‘it’s a pretty awesome group and it keeps growing.’
When directing recently, Richard referred to Jared as Sam when telling him to stand somewhere. Jared protested Speight should know his name by now-‘we stopped the trains in Europe together!’
Of course they are asked about pranking. Jared said the best prank was the two weeks Misha directed-having him in abject terror. Jensen said their pranks aren’t heavily thought out, more a ‘constant array of shenanigans’-Jensen screwing with the camera, Jared fondling body parts…Jensen likes to rearrange lines when the camera is on the other actor’s coverage, he did that to Rich recently and it’s like ‘rolling a grenade into Rich’s mind.’ Jensen: ‘It’s not pranking. It’s just a way of life.’
Do they feel bad when a character dies and they won’t be able to work with that actor any more? Jared: In the beginning they took it hard, but ‘the great thing about Supernatural is we don’t get all emotional when a character dies because they might come back…it’s more like, see you later. And if you don’t come back we’ve forgotten you.’ Jared did take Bobby’s death hard because it was a proper sendoff and they didn’t know then Bobby was coming back. Jared mentioned Charlie as someone else he missed. Jensen looked at Jared and said ‘Ruby. You probably should have led with that one.’ Jared joked he felt sad when he died for the first time on the show because he loved working on SPN and then was happy when he found out he came back in the next episode. Jensen: ‘Yeah, I felt bad the first sixty times Dean died…’
Fan: If your wives were here, what bad habits would they say you have? Jensen: ‘None.’ Jared: ‘How much time do you have?’ When Jensen is getting ready for bed, he tends to do things mechanically and loudly. Hitting the faucet to turn it on, slamming the toothpaste, banging the door with his hip-he wasn’t even aware of doing it until recently when Danneel hollered what are you doing? You’re so loud! ‘Apparently I go all Tom Cruise when I’m brushing my teeth…it annoys the hell out of her and I’m not gonna stop…’ Jared: ‘At home, I leave the door open.’ Jensen interrupted to point out spiders, mosquitos…Jared added ‘air conditioning bill…’ When traveling, when Jared goes to the gym and sweats, and then he showers with his clothes on to wash the sweat off them, and then leaves them all over the bathroom to dry-a sock over the faucet, shorts over the showerhead, and Gen gets so mad ‘your stuff is all over the bathroom!’ and she’ll bundle it up and throw with non-workout clothes which annoys him. Jared also keeps the air conditioning on super cold, but Gen is always freezing. Jensen said the thermostat is a constant battle at his house too.
Jensen then volunteered his pet peeve about what Jared does-Jared comes into Jensen’s trailer to chat or hang out, he’ll walk up to the counter and put his gum on Jensen’s counter. ‘No joke-every single time he puts his gum on my counter and I’ll say why?’ Jared: ‘I’m not done with it!’ Jensen: It’s like he’s taking his shoes off when going into someone’s house-he puts his gum on the counter-and then he puts it back in his mouth when he leaves!’ Audience gave a pronounced ‘EWW’ and Jensen said ‘Right?!’ Jared protested that it tastes better after oxygenating-smacking makes it taste better and they (the fans) are all going to go home and give it a shot and realize he was right. Audience: No!
Jared told a story of Gen going through customs when Tom was a baby and the family in front of her had a four-or-five-year-old boy who was trying to get something from under the bottom of the counter. Finally he pulled off a piece of gum and stuck it in his mouth and Gen was ‘oh god!’ Jensen: ‘And Jared was, hey, any more down there for me?’
What kind of whiskey would they add to a desk whiskey collection? Bullet Bourbon whiskey.
What were their most embarrassing moments on set? Jared: Ripping his pants. Jensen: ‘Jared ripped his pants and then laughed louder than all of us at himself.’ Jensen: ‘I don’t get embarrassed about much…a lot of the show is smaller sets with not a lot of additional performers, so I’m really used to minimal surroundings…so when there’s a ton of people it gets a little more intimidating, trying to give a motivational speech and then falling on your face…’ but he works with people who wouldn’t exploit that by putting it on the gag real-four times! (He was referring to the Braveheart speech Dean gives at the end of 8.11 ‘Larp and the Real Girl’ and his fall in the mud.) This cracked Jared up.
Jared added that sex scenes are kind of weird around the crew because they are like family and they’ve known them for over a decade. People on set want to avoid looking at him when he takes his clothes off, but ‘that’s all right, buddy, we’ve all got ‘em…’ Jensen: ‘But there are some people that are like-‘ and he hides behind the curtain and peeks out-‘Tell Clif to go back out to the parking lot.’
Fan: How was working with Shoshannah? How much sign language did you learn? Jared said that when Shoshannah was there she was a new mom and had her hands full with mothering and acting and she was awesome! Jared and Gen had watched ‘Signing Time’ (sign language for babies tapes) and Jared knew ‘milk’ and a few other words but ‘nothing I could talk to another adult about.’ Jensen said communicating with her was effortless. Jared: ‘All the love, from us to her.’
Fan asked if, when the season three writers’ strike happened, did Jensen feel he might be stuck in hell forever? The last scene they shot before the strike was the one in ‘Mystery Spot’ when they talked simultaneously. They were pretty confident that whenever the strike did end that they’d get another season-Jensen said that all the shows on the air at that time got a free pass because no one was writing any new shows, so whatever was already on the air was pretty sure to continue. Jensen shaved his head at that time just because he could and he knew his hair would grow back fast enough.
What’s the favorite thing they’ve found of themselves on line? Jared immediately said the L’Oréal meme. He was mesmerized and he forwarded it to every single person he knew. His other favorite is the ‘nine hairstyles of Sam and Dean over the years.’ Jensen loves how many gifs there are of Dean reactions-when he figured out how to include them in messages he started sending them to all his buddies who would get angry and say ‘you can’t gif yourself!’ and he would answer ‘I can!’ Jared added that he’d gotten a post that had ‘Bless you’ with an image that he realized was Pellegrino and when he pointed out that it was an SPN gif his friend got really annoyed.
Fan: When will Adam get out? J2: When we let him! But bringing Adam out opens a big can of worms, ‘even when we met him he wasn’t alive.’ Jake is awesome, though.
How do they balance work with time with their kids? Jared: ‘Our wives do the lions’ share of kid rendering, so our six children have a chance…’ He struggles with not being able to take the kids to school and stuff like that, but he’s been told by experienced parents that it’s quality, not quantity of time, so he tries to be present when he’s with them-chasing tarantulas, jumping in the pool, playing on the swingset…. He’s learned since time is so precious with the kids, it’s play time with them.
How will the Supernatural family continue when show ends? Jensen: ‘We don’t know where finish line is, so to start making plans is premature. I don’t know where we’re gonna be personally-but what we’ve built (gesture to the audience) is not something that dissolves when the show stops.’ Jared: ‘This show has meant a lot to us as well-I love hearing people say we’ve been friends online and we just met for first time-so even when the show ends the relationships will carry on, and I hope we’ll still get to see you a few times a year.’
Fan: ‘My name is Jenille…’(pronounced Genneel)-boys made her spell it. Jensen: ‘Do you have a sister Jenared?’ Norton gave Jensen a rimshot on the cymbal. Jared: ‘Are your parents named Jemary?’ He looked for his rimshot and pouted when he didn’t get one. The fan asked how would they see a crossover of SPN and Buffy? Jensen: ‘Well, how would you see it?’ Fan: ‘Well, I’m not a writer.’ J2 simultaneously: ‘Well neither are we!’ They asked who would play Angel? Jared: ‘Would it be an angel?’-looked again for a rimshot that he didn’t get. Jensen shook his head-and got one. The fan said that she read stories that have Dean with Buffy. Jared asked what is Sam doing? Jensen said ‘walking Scooby’ and got another rimshot.
The next fan said she put her name in the question drawing as a joke and the boys immediately said ‘Joke’s on you! Tell us a joke.’ She didn’t have one so Jared stepped up: ‘A man walks into a butcher shop and orders steak and kidley pie. The butcher says ‘you said kidley’ and the man says ‘no I didly!’ No rimshot. ‘I can row a boat-canoe?’ Still no rimshot.
The fan asked if there is a TV show or reality show they enjoy watching on their down time? Someone in the audience yelled ‘Housewives’ and Jensen said there’s only one Housewives-New York. They explained that the DVRs in their trailers are spliced so that whatever is recorded shows up on both of them. Jared: ‘I didn’t record thirty episodes of ‘Below Deck.’ Jensen: ‘My wife watches stuff and on weekends I’m subjected to it and I start saying ‘I thought this woman was with that man and now I’m stupidly interested. My mother would watch ‘All My Children’ when I was growing up-‘ Jared: ‘Not ‘Days of Our Lives?’ Jensen: ‘Yes, and that was a point of contention.’ When he would come in the room while his mother was watching she would make him leave, and that was a good thing because ‘I would have been sucked right in.’ He’s watched ‘Game of Thrones,’ ‘Peeky Blinders,’ ‘Taboo,’ anything with Tom Hardy, ‘Ozark.’ Jared watches ‘The Bachelorette-‘ Jensen: ‘For all the pretty dudes.’ Jared: ‘That’s why I took this job next to you. Only one pretty dude in my world.’ Jensen: ‘Yeah, when you look in the mirror!’ Jared continues that he watches ‘Tosh.0,’ ‘John Oliver,’ ‘Futurama,’ ‘Altered Carbon.’ Fans started calling out suggestions. Jensen: ‘She asked us the question. If you have shows you want to suggest, write them down and put them in the trash can in the back of the room.’
If they went back to a prior project, what have they learned in SPN that they would take back? Jensen answered ‘Dark Angel’ without hesitation, because ‘I’ve learned how to create an environment that is healthy and fun to work in.’ He said it was nobody specifically’s fault, there was a lot of pressure on that show. He would have like to have seen it go on, there were a lot of good things in it. Jared would redo ‘House of Wax’ because he had come from ‘Gilmore Girls’ where ‘I had always been acting with human beings’-he hadn’t been used to acting to a blank wall for special effects and it intimidated him. Jensen asked ‘Do they have fancy drama schools that deal with green screen acting?’ and fans yelled that they should start it. Jensen: ‘The Supernatural school for acting to nothing-and I don’t mean him’-rimshot-then elaborated: ‘Green tape is the vamp, blue tape is the demon…’Jared said something to Jensen off the microphone and Jensen laughed very hard.
Last question: Why don’t Sam and Dean wait until the body is burned and recover the grav so the cops would have one less thing on them? Jared started to come up with a reason that it keeps the cops looking for them in a place they’ve already left… Jensen then jumps in: ‘We put fire retardant all around the grave and we dig it so that as the fire burns the dirt will backfill in, and we go to the diner, have a burger and piece of pie, and go back and finish the job. But we can’t show all that ‘cause it’s only a 42 minute show.’ Jensen then mocked wiping the sweat off for coming up with a good answer on the fly. He then asked if anyone’s ever tried to dig a six foot hole? It’s not pretty-‘but ours are dug with laser precision.’
Rich and Rob then announced that before the boys leave, they are going to auction off the LOVE hoodie that Jared has been wearing all day for IMAlive. Rich said it is definitely soaked in the musk. Rich turned the auctioneering over to Rob and said payment can be in credit cards, cash, or Bolivian coke-Rob glared at him, and then protested that he was not an auctioneer…He asked for a starting bid of $100. As bidding went up, Jared took the hoodie off and rubbed it on Jensen’s face so that it would be more valuable. Rich stopped the bidding and said that Matt’s moose knuckle unitard went for $2300 (actually $2500) so that had to be the starting bid. Jensen took off his leather jacket and put on the hoodie and then started strutting around the stage in exaggerated modelling poses. When the bidding hit $7000, Jared mouthed ‘wow’ and looked stunned. He helped Jensen take the hoodie off very awkwardly. It ended up going for $8000, and when the winner came on stage Jared put his beanie on her too.
Their panel ended with Jensen saying to the guys on stage: ‘Gentlemen, thank you very much. Mr. Padalecki, let’s get out of here.’
Richard and Rob-Kings of Con
It is so awesomely clear what good friends Rich and Rob have become…A fan said she met her fiancé through fandom, what have Rich and Rob gotten from SPN? Rich said Supernatural changed his life-he has made so many close friends among the cast and crew, gotten to perform with a top-notch band, become a director-all because he did five episodes of this show. Rob said simply SPN saved his life-Rich being there when he had his stroke is why Rob is still here. And the friendships-they both know that this is a lightning-in-a-bottle experience, completely unique, and they are very grateful. Rich said what has happened in fandom-the connections that never would have been made-is mirrored behind the curtain (gesturing backstage.)
Rob said it was his idea for Gabriel to come back with his mouth sewn shut.
Which comes first when Rob writes his songs, music or words? He says for him the melody comes first and then the feeling he gets from it prompts words. He takes what he’s done to the band and they tinker with it. Sometimes the end result is very different, sometimes barely anything is changed.
My question for Rob was, Jensen and Robin from props are credited with writing the song ‘Fair’ on the album ‘No Time Like the Present.’ How did that come about? Rob said during filming of the episodes he was in for season 11, he was hanging out in Jensen’s trailer with him. Jensen got called to set and told Rob to ‘write a song’ while Jensen was gone. Rob went ‘Shit, I gotta write a song! Rob, think-Em-B…’ So he noodled a melody and the first verse and chorus, and when Jensen came back he and Robin finished the lyrics.
If they had the powers of their characters, what would they do with them? Rich started talking about how he needs a new van because his minivan is falling apart, and he literally went into a sales pitch for a Chrysler Pacifica, talking about all the bells and whistles, and the upgrades, and he wanted it in blue, and could the fans make sure someone at Chrysler saw this clip from the panel? He would seemingly be done talking and Rich would start to say what he would do and Rich would start talking again. After this happened several times, Rob finally got to talk and he said he would use his powers to make Rich’s Pacifica turn back into his old van, and he snapped his fingers ‘Poof!’ Rich immediately fired back he would use his powers to bring it back and then they poofed back and forth several times until Rich had to admit that God had more power than Gabriel. He then referenced getting the Pacifica randomly for the rest of the panel, tying it in to whatever question was asked.
Why did Rich hate Seattle? Rob immediately jumped in with backstory to this question. Several cons ago, Rich randomly made a statement that ‘Rob hates Perth (Australia)’ to fans. When Rob was asked later why he hated Perth, he protested that he didn’t hate it, in fact it was a lovely place and Rich had made that up…but his denial never got spread around like Rich’s original statement did and Rob is still getting grief about hating Perth WHICH HE DOESN’T. So on the Thursday Seattle bus tour, when someone asked why Rich wasn’t there, Rob said it was because Rich hates Seattle. At this point Rich speaks up and says, yes, he does hate Seattle for many reasons, one of them that it is where Starbucks was invented, and what that has done to the simple act of ordering a coffee is unforgiveable. But Rich loves Bellevue (which is the suburb of Seattle where the con is actually held.) Rob became very annoyed that every time he tries to get back at Rich it backfires and he (Rob) is the one who ends up in trouble.
They then sang ‘It’s the end of the con as we know it’- except that Adrienne and I still had our J2 autographs to get.
J2 Autographs
Most of you know about the incredible book Sandy and Tedra made of all my SPN stories, and the whole reason I bought gold tickets was to get Jared and Jensen to sign it. Last year in Chicago, Tedra gave Jared a copy of ‘Family Don’t End with Blood’ that she had rebound with an exquisite leather cover, and she sent Jensen’s brewery a leatherbound guest book with the FBBC logo.
I paperclipped a photo of the FDEWB book on the page facing where Jared was going to sign, and as he pulled my book in front of him, I said ‘My book was made by the same woman who made this for you’ and I pointed at her picture. Jared said ‘I still have that! What’s her name?’ ‘Tedra.’ ‘Tell Tedra I keep it next to my bed in Vancouver.’ That exchange made me so happy! I did the same thing with the photo of the FBBC guest book, telling Jensen that the woman who made my book had sent this (pointing to picture) to the brewery. Jensen looked at the picture and said ‘I haven’t seen it yet, I haven’t been there for a couple weeks.’ I said she’d sent it a while ago and he said again that he hadn’t seen it. (But now that he knows it’s there, maybe he will notice it.) Adrienne made a cross-stitch of our boys and had them sign the mat. She got a wink from Jared.
And that truly was the end of the con. It was wonderful!
The signed page in my book
Adrienne’s signed cross-stitch