After hearing that several genre conventions had to cancel because of poor ticket sales, owing to this down turning economy, I was concerned that Creation Convention’s LA Salute to Supernatural wouldn’t have a very big audience. After all, the line-up featured only one TV show (plus two gorgeous lead actors). But that worry shouldn’t even have crossed my mind.
The Supernatural con, a three day event held at the Marriott LAX Hotel was packed. Fans came from all over the world; New Zealand, Australia, England, France and of course from around the United States from New York to Orange County, California. The two leads, Jensen Ackles (Dean Winchester) and Jared Padalecki (Sam Winchester) could only be there on Sunday — they literally wrapped filming at 4 am that morning for the 4th Season’s final episode of Supernatural and flew in directly from Vancouver, Canada. But Creation kept the fans busy with breakfast meetings, a Karaoke party, Saturday night celebrity concert (with Steve Carlson and Jason Manns), a late night dessert party, a costume contest, music videos, and Q&A sessions with some of the reoccurring and guest stars from the show: Gabriel Tigerman, Julie McNiven, Aldis Hodge, Alona Tal, Richard Speight, Charles Malik Whitfield, Samantha Smith, and Misha Collins.
Unfortunately, Eric Kripke couldn’t attend this year. As the creator, producer, writer and director his is the ultimate last word on Supernatural, but he was stuck in Vancouver finishing up directing the cliff hanger finale.
The best thing about a dedicated fan following is they generally ask rather intelligent questions — though I would have preferred more questions about the show then some of the more clever esoteric ones. Here is a sample from Sunday’s session with Jensen and Jared. Enjoy.
PART 1 — JENSEN ACKLES Q&A
JENSEN ACKLES: We are done with season 4. I have one more scene to shoot tomorrow. But that doesn’t really count. It’s second unit stuff. I think it’s our best season. They kind of pulled out all of the stops with this one. With your support we’ve got another one coming. And it’s good to have a job these days.
POP CULTURE ZOO: In making up your audition reel what film clips would you use?
ACKLES: My entire three years on Days of Our Lives. I don’t know. There are a lot of scenes that are kind of close to me. Obviously the emotional ones are the ones I kind of remember…you put a lot of yourself into them. The scene where Sam is laying on the bed dead and I’m talking to him, telling him that I’m sorry and all that kind of stuff. Kim directed that episode and I remember going up to his office and saying, “I don’t know how many takes I can do. So what are your camera angles, how many shots are you seeing because I don’t know how much gas I’ll have to do this scene more then a couple of times.” And he adjusted his camera angles and closed off the set and kicked everybody out and allowed me to do my thing and it was kind of cool.
Another one was the grave yard scene in “What Is and What Should Never Be” where I’m on top of my Dad’s grave. And that was [Eric] Kripke. He set it up where it was going to be one shot with two dolling cameras back and forth; one tight and one a little wider. So I basically came in and it was two in the morning and I just walked up and hit my mark and gave it. I really liked how that turned out.
PCZ: If we didn’t know Jared at all do you have a story that would describe him to us?
ACKLES: Going through all my files of Jared stories. There are so many. I could tell you a story about any aspect of Jared. I can tell you when he gets angry how he is. I could tell you when he gets sad how he is. Or if he’s having a fight with a girl friend. With all of those he is a very passionate person about what he does. He loves his family and friends, he loves his dogs…and they love him.
I feel responsible for teaching him this… how he has managed to make it to 26 years and not come across anyone who has not wanted to pull his finger. I unfortunately showed him the ‘pull the finger trick’ and now he does it all the time. We’ll be sitting in the Impala while they’re fixing the camera lens, and he look at me and goes (wiggling his fingers — much to the delight of the audience) all the time.
PCZ: In “Lazarus Rising” the opening scene at the gas station, the windows blow out and you can see in one of the scenes that you have a Band-Aid on your arm and maybe scars. Any comments on that injury?
ACKLES: The great Kim Manners directed that episode. He had a knack for really making things real. If you remember some of his episodes like “Bugs.” He came up to me prior to the episode and asked, “Are you allergic to bees? Because we’re going to have thousands of really stinging bees in this scene.” But in this particular scene he wanted to use real glass instead of candy glass. Because candy glass doesn’t really shatter like tempered glass. So with the windows blowing [up] you kind of see a high and wide shot, that’s actually my stunt double, Todd Scott, who came out of there just completely bloody. But there was still glass all over the ground and I had to fall into frame at one point. So I fell right on a bunch of glass. There were other nicks and cuts and my arms were pretty bloody too. I turned to Kim, “Are you happy?” And he just goes, “Get that cleaned up. We’re going to need you in the next shot.” So I have something to remember him by. [Kim Manners died on January 25, 2009.]
PCZ: If you had a chance to play one of all the Supernatural creatures which one would it be?
ACKLES: I think I’d want to be an angel. Those guys are cool. The way they’ve created and written the angels this year is really neat . They’re all different and when the lights flash and they’ve got the big giant wings…they’re cool. (Pause) Or a vampire!