VanCon2015: Sunday
Sep. 2nd, 2015 09:12 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
hells_half_acreWoo! Sunday started bright and early. I don't remember the J2 Gold Panel being this early in past years, but I guess it always was. :P
Still, I made it down to the convention centre in plenty of time. We all filed into the theatre and then it was J2 time.
Jared and Jensen Gold Panel
Now, I DO miss the old Gold Panel room at the Sheriton, because it feels more intimate when the boys DON'T have bright spot lights on them (Jensen: "Doesn't it look like an airplane is coming at us." Jared: "IS there an airplane coming at us?!")
The first topic of conversation was, of course, the concert last night. With Jared asking who was there, and who didn't come and regretted it (Jared raised his hand here). They then told us that we'll have to post videos so that Jared can see it.
Jared asked the crowd how many of us were Canadians. We wooped. Jared thinks he and Jensen are like honourary Canadians now (I have no problem with this) because Jared's spent 1/3 of his life in Canada.
Jensen is thankful that it's been "warm Canada" rather than Ontario where it's freezing. They asked if anyone was from cold Canada, I think, and someone from the audience yelled out "Saskatoon!"
Jared: "That's a fake word!"
Jensen: "We could be filming in Nunavut"
Jared: "I'll have nunathat."
*smattering of laughter*
Jensen: "The Canadians were like *imitates chuckling* 'ha! Nunavut - nunathat', everyone else is like, 'what the hell is he saying?'"
They then opened up the panel to questions shouted randomly from the audience.
The first question was about the ClickHole article/quote that Jared linked to the other day, where it was saying that he was quoted as saying "volcanoes are like mountains that have volcanoes" - they wanted context for the quote.
-Jared explained that Clickhole is a satirical site and none of its articles are real - but he saw that one and it made him laugh, so he posted it. And he never went to college.
-Jensen asked what he was talking about, so Jared explained the quote to him, and Jensen had a laugh about it too.
The next question was about Jensen's non-existent music career and how we want it to exist and for him to release an album.
-Jensen: "That would require me to have music"
-The fan suggested he uses Rob's songs. Jensen laughed, and mimicked telling Rob that he was stealing all his songs.
-Jensen went on to talk about how he thinks he kinda blacked out last night, because he got off stage was like "what just happened?!" But that it was a huge rush. That's why "it's the number one job... rock star."
Jared: "It's why people do it into their 70s. What's Mick Jagger, 93?"
The next question was about the scream in Yellow Fever and how long it took.
-Jensen told us about how Phil just told him to scream as long as he possibly could and go over the top with it. Jensen: "I don't know why I trusted him..." Jensen said that at one point he ran at Jared.
-Jared laughed and said that Jensen screamed so long that Jared thought he could just relax, but then suddenly Jensen was running at him and jumping into his arms.
-Jensen then recounts how they had to film the dialogue scene after ("You know who does that? Crazy people!" scene [which is ironic]) and his voice was shot.
-They then said that ironically, the only one scared in that episode was Jared, because of the snake. Even though it was crawling over Jensen's shoulder, not Jared's.
- Jensen then explained that the snake didn't want to go over the back of the couch, so the snake wrangler was basically trying to force it, wrestling it behind the couch and shoving at it to get it to go over.
Jensen: "Yeah, that's good - anger it and then send it over to me!"
- Jensen then mimicked the snake coming over his shoulder, by curling his hand into a fist and moving it over Jared's shoulder.
Jared *shrugs shoulders*: "That felt good." *turns his back to Jensen* "Can you do the other one?"
*Jensen shoves him hard in the middle of his back*
*Jensen then imitates Jared fleeing the snake*
Jared: "I'm not going to die for a shot that I'm not even in!! [...] If I die, it has to be on camera!"
If they could take a Road Trip somewhere, where would they go?
-Jared would go to Montana or "North of Montana - Canadia" - because he used to drive across the states all the time, but the highway he took was super flat and boring, and he thinks driving through the mountains would force him to slow down and enjoy the view.
- Jensen really likes the Southern Oregan Coast and Northern California. They used to drive back down to LA at the end of each season, or up to Vancouver at the beginning of each season, and Jensen liked driving along the coast for that section of the trip.
- One year they convoyed down - each driving their own car, but following the other person. They had walkytalkies.
Jared: "Purely for the novelty of having walkytalkies - we had cellphones at the time!"
- They then started imitating their walkytalky conversations.
Jared *imitating Jensen calling him on the walkytalky*: "Ch- what's your 20?"
Jared: "Ch- I'm still right behind you!"
(Oh man, if only fandom had known these things in the hayday of J2 shipping. But that aside even - MY GOD, the friendship between these two is adorable!)
A fan asks about the photo Jared tweeted where we can see Sam's tattoo - does this mean Sam has it again!?
Jensen *to Jared*: "Have you been taking shirtless selfies again? I thought we both agreed that we were going to leave that to Sheppard."
Jared explained that it wasn't a selfie, because he was with Amell - *to Jensen* "It was when we stole your jetskies."
*Jensen laughs*
-Jared said that we do see the tattoo, but it's not a current version of Sam, it's a flashback of sorts.
Fan: Why doesn't he get the tattoo again? He's "messing around with strange demons without protection and that's dangerous...!"
Jared: "He's Sam Fucking Winchester!"
[...]
Jensen: "Because he's Sam Winchester, not Sam Losechester."
Jared laughed and mentioned how giddy he was with that joke at ComicCon.
Are their kids able to understand that their parents are on a TV show yet?
- Tom doesn't understand, and one day he was on the iPad watching Dinosaur Train or something, and there must have been a side video with Jared's face on it that Tom clicked on, because he ended up watching a scene from the show - and it was a scene where someone was beating the crap out of Sam. It apparently only took a minute for Genevieve to realize what was going on, and stop the clip, but the damage was done, because Tom was upset - and said "That man hurt Daddy!"
- Meanwhile, Jared was on set, and when he got back to his trailer he had 6 missed text messages from Gen telling him he had to FaceTime her as soon as possible, so Jared freaked out and called, and had to reassure Tom that he was okay and that it had all been pretend.
- Jared often has to do that, because he likes to FaceTime his family at least once per day, and he doesn't always have time to take the make-up off (or he can't, because it's between takes and they don't have time to redo it), and so he calls with blood on his face and then has to explain that it's all pretend.
- JJ doesn't understand yet. Sometimes if a commercial comes on, she'll say "Oh hey! There's Daddy!" and then she'll just go back to what she's doing.
Jared: "Oh hey, it's Daddy!... Put back on Ice Age."
Jensen: "Oh hey, Daddy!... Can we watch planes?"
I missed hearing exactly what the next question was, but it must have been about how they balance work/life, when they have such busy jobs that take them away from their families for 9 months of the year.
- Jared explained that a lot of his anxieties come from trying to balance everything at once. He tries to just focus on one thing at a time. When he's "acting as Sam Fucking Winchester then I'm Sam Fucking Winchester" but when he's home, he's just Daddy, Husband, Friend, etc. He can't multitask the two.
- Jensen related that both their families have been in Vancouver for the past month, because of the better weather here than Texas, and that Jensen's on a schedule where he works for 12 hours, then comes home and sleeps, and then goes and does it all again. Danneel, the other day, was like "you've been distant these past couple days." And this was on Thursday - and Jensen realizes that it's because during the working week, he's in work mode, and it's only when he (usually flies home to Texas) that he leaves it behind and goes into Dad mode. During the working week, he's either working, or preparing for tomorrow's work day.
- Jared mentioned how he read once in a book about dog training that you need to spend at least 15 minutes a day with your focus on your dog to maintain a good relationship with it, and he applies that to all his relationships now and he makes sure that he gives his kids time every single day, even if it's just five minutes.
- They also both praised their very patient wives who understand because they're actresses themselves.
- Jensen said that sometimes Danneel will say, "hey, pay attention to [JJ]" and Jensen will realize that he's mind isn't there with his daughter, and he's missing moments with her while she's developing so fast.
- Jared then thanked the questioner for acknowledging the fact that they do work hard and it's a crazy thing to balance.
The next questioner was from Texas and commiserated about enjoying the weather in Vancouver far more right now.
Jensen: "That's why our wives are here."
Jared: "They're not here to see us!"
The questioner then went on to thank them for their charity work in the Always Keep Fighting and Attitudes in Reverse campaigns, because she herself suffers from depression and anxiety and her family doesn't know because she's struggling with the social stigma of it all. Do they have any other causes too?
- Jensen told the questioner that her now her spn family knew about her struggles and they would support her.
-Jared thanked her and talked about how they've been given a great opportunity to affect change. He also talked about how if someone doesn't understand, you have to try to show them forgiveness for it, though it's hard. "Have forgiveness for people who don't understand - give them the forgiveness you want to get from them.... give them time to learn and grow, like you took time to learn and grow."
I didn't really get the next question exactly, because I was still writing down what Jared had said about forgiveness, because I liked it. But it was a question about their old friends in LA.
- Jensen talked about how he imported some friends to LA, because he had this friend Ty who he was supposed to go to college with - and they had been assigned a dorm room together and everything, and then Jensen decided to move to LA, and Ty was like "what the...?!" Ty didn't want to go to college alone, so he didn't.
Jared: "It's all his fault! *points to Jensen* Destroying education one at a time."
- Ty went to community college instead, but then Jensen got really homesick and asked Ty to come out to LA, promising that Jensen could get him a job in production (not realizing how difficult it was to actually do that.) But it worked out, because Ty moved out and ended up becoming the Production Coordinator on the Rosie O'Donnell show at the tender age of 19.
- Jensen actually ended up with an all southern group of friends - Arkansas, Oklahoma, Texas.. it helped him stay clear of the wrong paths.
- Jared also had a great group of friends in LA who allowed him to be who he was, and he just survived by keeping his feet moving, and fighting until he figured out what he was fighting for.
- The longest Jensen went without a job was 4 months, and it was "too long"
Jared: "That'll never happen again!"
And with that, the panel came to a close.
[TMI storytime!So, recently, I've been having some health problems - the main symptom of which has been that my body decided to shut-down the baby-making factory. So, I hadn't have my period in months.... now, apparently, as soon as my body saw J2, it was like "whoa, let's start the factory up again! Quick, clear out the old crap in here so we can get up and running!" Now, since the baby-making factory had been closed for months, I was ILL PREPARED. And this is all to say that I have never been more thankful that the Supernatural fandom skews female in its demographics - and I would like to thank all the girls waiting in the photo-op line for their sympathy and, most importantly, for giving me their spare supplies - you saved the day! ]
Since I wasn't getting photo-ops, I had some time to kill. I typed up my breakfast notes into report form while they were fresh in my head, and then I went to lunch, (stopping to buy some much needed painkillers on the way.)
When I got back, it was time for the afternoon entertainment:
The New World Order
So, Richard is hilarious, and he honestly had me in tears here... because, well, I'll get to it...
Richard and Rob started the afternoon MCing by talking about the concert the night before. Specifically though, Richard wanted to talk to us about a gross oversight that had occurred that morning. Jensen's performance had gotten some press, specifically Entertainment Weekly had run a little story about it. In the article, it credited Mark Sheppard on the drums, and Richard Speight Jr "on the bass", but it didn't mention Rob or Louden Swain at all.
Richard tasked us with tweeting EW immediately to correct this oversight. Billy Moran (the guitarist), suggested we use the hashtag #dontforgetabouttheband
Rob: "We're joking!"
Richard: "I'm not joking!"
Richard: "Sunday people! Usually I spent the first 20 minutes putting you down-"
Rob: "Me or them?"
Richard: "Both."
- Richard had spared putting down the Sunday people in favour of supporting the band.
Then Richard checked backstage to see if people were ready. He discovered that not only were they not ready, no one back there. He wondered if some disaster had occurred outside the room and we were now the only humans left on each.
It was now up to us to repopulate, and the girls obviously outnumbered the guys. Richard looked at the men on stage and declared that "we are going to be the shortest race of people."
Richard: "Sorry, Sunday people - should have been here Friday and Saturday, I hope you brought your birthing hips."
Rob sputtered at that.
Richard: "Let's be honest, this got weird. I blame EW - we were just having a good time, next thing they're suggesting we mate with fans!"
Rob's bass player laughed, drawing Richard's attention - and Rob realized that the new race would all be partially Phillipino, with an average height of 5'5''.
Then they launched into the Rules and Regulations bit, except that Richard started every rule with "In the new world order..."
- "All abled bodied women must mate with the band."
- "You must film everything on stage, including all able bodied women mating with the band."
- "The Jared and Jensen banners will become our blankets and our flags"
- "The children will ask, 'were they really over 6 feet tall, father?' and we will answer, 'No, they weren't - that's a myth, just like Santa and Misha Collins'"
Rob wondered how scary Richard's beard would get in this post-apocalyptic future. Richard figured that it would be too scary for the women, and they'd prefer to mate with the Philippino bass player.
Richard: "Even in the New World Order, locked in a biodome, I can't score."
So, yes, at this point, I was crying laughing as I tried to take notes. :P
SPN Fan Movie
(I totally forgot to take pictures)
This panel was with Clif and Mitch Kosterman and Jason Fischer, who together, have been making a documentary series/film about the Supernatural fandom. Clif is best known to fans as Jared and Jensen's bodyguard since S3 or S4 (I forget which), before that, he played Tiny in S2's Folsom Prison Blues. Mitch is his brother and a filmmaker. Jason works behind the scenes on Supernatural, I believe as a production coordinator.
For this panel, Gary from Creation came out to ask the questions, before they showed the trailer. I'm not sure why they did it this way, but *shrug* it worked, I guess!
Clif started making the documentary 3 years ago, but quickly discovered that he couldn't do it on his own and he brought in his brother and then Jason to help.
Was there an overriding theme to begin or did they have to discover it as they went?
- Mitch - They discovered themes as they filmed. The themes just emerged, mainly, the theme of SPN family was the strongest.
- Clif - When he first started, he wanted to explore how the stereotypes of fans being "geek, nerds, dorks," was incorrect. He wanted to show the reality of it - the fact that fans are intelligent and great people.
Jason informed the crowd that the movie is going to be offered in multiple languages. They have 10 so far. They want to release the film world-wide.
- Mitch agreed that it was very important to them. In fact, it was the main thing that Jared and Jensen advocated for when they talked to them about the film - that it should reach as many fans as possible.
Was there a difference between making this documentary and their previous experience on scripted productions?
- Mitch said that it was very different from scripted things. Documentaries are more about discovery and journalism, rather than already knowing what you are saying. "You don't finish a documentary, you stop making it."
- Clif said they have 10 episodes so far, but have enough footage for many more.
How involved were the actors?
- Clif said that when they first started out, they just wanted the fans, not the cast. Once it started though, they saw how much more to it there was... they showed it to Jared and Jensen and asked if they would contribute, and Jared and Jensen both said to work a little more on it and then bring it back to them.
- Mitch told us that Rob, Richard, and Misha talked with them at the beginning of making it, but Jared and Jensen wanted to wait a bit... But that eventually changed after a bit, and Jensen and Jared were enthusiastic about helping. Jensen actually ended up crying a bit in their interview with him, which Mitch said surprised the both of them. As Jensen was leaving the room, Jared was coming in, and Jensen said "watch out for that interviewer, he'll make you cry!" As Mitch was telling this to us, he looked back at Clif and said, "I'm saying too much, aren't I?" and Clif nodded.
- They ended up getting tons of the cast interviewed, because they had one fan ask early on if they had interviewed any of the female cast - and they hadn't - so they put out a call to them, and a lot of other cast members offered to be interviewed too as well as the female cast members.
Then they showed the trailer, which you can watch here.
So, I'm not going to lie, maybe it was the lack of sleep, maybe it was the fault of the TMI-story earlier, but the trailer totally made me cry. In fact it made a lot of us cry. Mainly, because I guess it really did appear to show the fandom as we see it and want it to be - a predominately positive place where we find friends, are creative, and are unashamed in our love for things.
It was also really fun to be sitting in an audience of fans watching it, because occasionally a fan would show up in the trailer and there'd be a section of the audience that would scream because it was them or their friend!
The entire audience gave the trailer a standing ovation... and that made the guys on stage get emotional too. Especially Clif, who is the main person getting very teary that I noticed. Which then made me cry a little more, because you could tell that they were probably a little nervous about how the documentary would be received by the fans - and then to have us love the trailer so much obviously was a huge deal to them.
They then opened the mics for fan questions.
The first questioner is someone who is often at vancon, and often asks questions, and she always prefixes her questions with a small complement to the person she's talking to, along with their name. Now, it was quite obvious that the trailer had greatly affected her as much as it had affected a lot of the audience, because she was obviously full of emotions that she needed to express through words - but hadn't had the time to work on them before hand. So, she did her best to articulate what we were all feeling - that we don't care if people judge us, because we know that fandom can be really awesome... but, her attempt to say it DID go a little long and, since I find sincerity uncomfortable, I got really uncomfortable 3/4 of the way through her talk. But, she's lovely! Her main statement was that fandom has always been a safe place for her, even though she suffers from PTSD and other problems.
- The filmmakers thanked her and told her that it was one of the themes they explored in the film.
They then took a moment to introduce the crew who worked on the film - who were all women (yay!)
It must have been hours of footage, how did they organize?
- Mitch said they had 55-60 hours of video. Jason assigned 4 taggers to review the footage and tag segments that addressed the themes they were exploring.
How did they get Louden Swain to do the soundtrack?
Clif: "We have to stick with the family!"
- Clif asked Rob casually, and then Mitch emailed him to formally ask, and within an hour Rob was sending Mitch dropbox links to music.
Did they interview Kripke?
- Mitch said that no, they'd be happy to, but WB people haven't been available to them.
- Clif clarified that it's not like they ASKED. They haven't approached the WB at all about talking to Kripke or the writers. The movie is about the fans, so they wanted to keep the focus on the fans. The reason they have the cast and crew is just because of the access Clif has to them through Conventions and being Jared and Jensen's bodyguard (so they can do it all informally.)
How was it funded?
- Mitch held up his mastercard.
Did they interview Rachel Miner?
- Yes, also Mark Pelligrino, Timothy Omundson, Briana Buckmaster, Erica Carroll, and a bunch more.
How do we watch it?
- Right now they have an indigogo up, launched that morning, where you can pre-purchase the film or merchandise. You can find it at spnfanmovie.com.
Do they have any suggestions about how fans who can't afford to go to conventions can participate more in fandom?
- Clif said that they were actually working on something to do with that, but he didn't want to talk about it, because he didn't want anyone to steal his idea, and it's still in development.
Will there be close captioning for the deaf and hearing-impaired?
- Already done, thanks to Jason.
And with that, the panel came to a close. I believe we gave them another appreciative round of applause.
Rob then had to fill a bit of time, because Jared and Jensen were running late - and he sang us three songs, even though he was losing his voice. I mean, it was REALLY rough - still, he didn't hold back at all, and he ran around the whole audience making sure everyone was amped up and happy. My favourite though was that as Richard was leaving the stage after the second song to see if the boys were reading yet, Rob said, "Hey Rich? In the New World Order, some water for Daddy?" And I burst out laughing, because I spend too much time on the kinkmeme, apparently.
Jared and Jensen Afternoon Panel
The boys appeared and the panel began. Jared did the finishing jump prematurely, which just went to prove that the band takes their cues from Jensen when it comes to the end up.
Jensen and Rob were both dressed the same, which they noticed immediately and had a laugh about.
Jensen: "We dress together... not like together, the same. Oh, who am I kidding, it's like this, *mimics adjusting his colour in a mirror, then turns around to look at Rob* How's this look, honey?"
Then Rob tells the real truth about them dressing the same.
Rob: "My ladder barely fits outside the window."
Then they did a little comedy routine of Rob looking in the window, just picking over the ledge while his friends hold the ladder.
Jared then did his usually who's first time question (he's always happy with the answers). Jensen said that usually they say how great it is to visiting the city they're in, but they live in Vancouver for most of the year. Jared agrees that it's really nice, because he forgot his phone this morning and they could just send a car to his apartment to pick it up.
They mention, like Rob, the article from EW, that forgot to mention Rob. This turned into a funny comedy bit about all the people they did credit - with Jensen throwing out a reference that I didn't get (and now can't remember) but made Richard laugh really hard and commend Jensen for not even needing to get out his "comedy elbows" before delivering that punchline.
(For anyone who doesn't follow the news from every single con - hello mum! - at MinnConn last weekend, Rich let is on Jensen's mannerism of shaking out his elbows when he's about to do or say something that he thinks is funny.)
They promised that next year for the concert, they'd bring a cow bell for Jared. Jared seemed genuinely enthused about this idea. Jared and Jensen then referenced the famous cow bell fever sketch.
Then they turned the panel over to questions, and Rich and Rob left the stage.
The first question was "If Dean and Sam become girls, which actresses would you want to play them?"
- Jensen made a little fun of the delivery of the question and how fast the questioner said the "became girls" part.
- Jared started to try to think of "someone tall..."
Jensen: "Geena Davis?"
Jared: "Geena Davis! Thanks Jensen."
-Jensen picked Madonna. Someone else suggested that Jensen's sister do it, and he sarcastically replied, "yeah, she'd love that."
-They then turned the question back on the questioner and asked who she thought should play them. She suggested they do it in drag, which made everyone laugh, including the boys.
Jensen: "I would wear a wig, but he could just braid his hair."
Jared *rolls his eyes*
Jensen *sighs lovelingly*: "I'd braid it for you."
What's Sam's favourite music?
Jared: "I'm stealing this from Jared..."
Jensen cocks an eyebrow at Jared for referring to himself in the third person, and then they make more jokes about the fake volcano quote,
- Jared says that Sam would listen to singer-songwriters and his favourite musician right now would be George Ezra.
The next question came from a girl who preambled with a story about how she'd been diagnosed with cancer, lost the ability to walk, was supposed to die, but then survived and ended up in a depression where she was walled off emotionally from her family and little sister - and Supernatural helped her reconnect to her emotions and also to her little sister. Her question was a mythological one - in hell, when demons cut into humans to torture them, are they cutting out the good parts of their soul?
- Jensen said it was a good question, and they've never addressed it in that much detail on the show, so he doesn't know - but it's an interesting idea - and when the writers steal that idea from her she can sue them.
- Jared agrees with Jensen, but went on to make sure that the questioner new that in real life, even if things feel like they're cutting into you, or you're cutting into yourself, it's not possible to cut out the good in your soul - because souls are strong and they'll always keep fighting to survive, and that's what happens on the show too in a way, you always see the souls fighting to survive. (I've paraphrased heavily here, fyi... for those who read this and then watch videos, or vice-versa.)
What would happen if Priestly from Ten Inch Hero ended up in the SPN universe? How long would he survive?
Jensen: "A long time! And here's why..."
- If Priestly met the Winchesters. Dean would keep Priestly locked up in the bunker making sandwiches. He'd become the Winchester's personal chef.
Has Jensen ever considered writing?
- Jensen tried to take a crack at writing an episode, but...
*Jared pretends to fall asleep*
Jensen: "..and that's what happened."
- Jensen doesn't feel like he has any skills as conceptualizing - which is required for being a good writer. His strengths don't lie in "pen and a white piece of paper"
Jensen: "...or a computer..."
-This launched Jared making fun of Jensen being stuck in "1983" when it comes to writing and maybe that's why he doesn't think he's good at it. This launched a quick fire teasing round (with Jensen teasing himself)
- Quill and ink, and he keeps running out of ink.
- Sending his scripts by pigeon
- Jensen then joked that he couldn't write because he lost his signet ring, so he can no longer put his seal on the writing.
Jensen: "I wrote a script. It's traveling on horseback through Siberia..."
SPN is influenced by On The Road - has Jared and Jensen ever read it? In preparation for the show?
- Jared didn't read it for the show, he read it for school (not college, he reminds us - he never went to college). Jared then talked about how his mother was a teacher and he read a lot about Heros, Myths and Legends. (He stumbled over the words here, and then said: "Man, say that four times fast" to which Jensen replied: "Say it once!") Jared also read Joseph Campbell about architypes and watched a lot of Star Wars to prepare for SPN.
- Jensen "got Jared to tell me about all that."
Are there any traditions that they want to pass onto their kids?
- Jared was momentarily thrown by the question, and Jensen made fun of him for it being something "he's obviously given a lot of thought to".
- Jared then listed a bunch of stuff he used to do with his family - holidays, football and breakfast tacos and very american things that he rattled off too fast for me write down.
- Jensen has a tradition with Danneel.
Jared: "I hope this is G rated."
- Jensen and Danneel have a dance party on Christmas morning, where they open all the doors in the house and dance from room to room, through the whole house. He thinks his daughter is going to love it this year.
- Jensen then got up and laughingly imitated his daughter "dancing" - which was him running around in a tiny circle with his arms out and giggling.
Jensen: "Which is funny, because that's exactly the way I dance."
Since Sam and Dean are angel vessels, does that mean they have any special traits or powers that might help them defeat their enemies?
- Jared says that we're actually going to see a bit of what being a vessel means this season, but can't say more.
- Jensen looks overly surprised - "Are you serious?"
Jared: "But you didn't hear it from me! You heard it from him!"
Jensen joked about Jared reading ahead in the scripts when Jensen doesn't: "He's supposed to tell me when he reads stuff like that!"
The next questioner prefaced her question by saying that the other day she was searching the internet for Sam's hair throughout the seasons.
Jensen: "That is a great time!"
The question is: "Why did you grow it out even more after the first season?" because she realized that the long hair had to be a choice Jared made, given that it wasn't that long in S1 and S2.
- Jared explained that it was scripted that Sam should have shaggy hair, whereas Dean should have a military look. Jared thinks that Sam just grew up, and with that grew his hair out. He also started talking about how he used to wet shave, but now he dry shaves "with a machine" (and then he mimics and electric shaver) but Jensen laughed and explained that Jared shaves by putting his head completely inside a machine that shaves his face like in the jetsons. And they had a laugh about that.
- Jensen then went to interrupt and say that he'd tell us the REAL reason that Jared grew out his hair - "It had to do with his wife." Gen said "I like your hair longer" and Jared said "Okay."
- Jared laughs, and says that Gen likes him to have a beard in the summer, so that he doesn't look like Sam, but the long hair doesn't look that long when you have a beard, but then when you shave it suddenly you realize how long the hair is.
The next question was about how Jensen originally auditioned for Sam, and what would he have done differently with Sam?
- This sparks a little "details" argument between the boys, because Jared didn't think that it was technically an audition for Sam - or that it counted as one - because they were ONLY auditioning for Sam. Jensen kind of agrees with him, they wanted to cast Sam first, so they only released Sam's sides - but Jensen went in and auditioned and then right away told them that he knew they were casting Sam, but he had read the character outline for Dean and thought that might be a better fit for him, in case they wanted to have him back to audition for Dean when the time came. And they never asked him to audition for Dean - the next audition was the "network" audition when it was just him and Jared as Dean and Sam, respectively.
Jared: "We got it! We booked it!"
- They then realized they hadn't answered the question, and decided that Jensen's Sam would be difference because "he'd be shorter"
Jensen: "Yes, I'd be shorter and I wouldn't change anything else."
How have Sam and Dean grown from S1-S10.
- Jared said that the brothers have restablished their connection. He also talks about how early Sam didn't want to hunt, and was more afraid of some things, but now it's a job to do and he's not afraid of anything.
Jensen: "I agree"
Have they had any inspiring teachers?
- Jared had an inspiring drama teacher who taught him that he should be questioning in life, and open to learning. "If you're not open to learning or admitting you're wrong then this is as smart as you're going to be." Jared also went on to talk about how it's important to learn to be who you are - and that he just finished reading Felicia's book and that's what she talks about to.
- Jensen explained that he was never the smartest guy in class. He tried really hard, but he got mainly Bs, and one of his hardest subjects was english. He couldn't write papers, or book reports, or whatever... but his 10th grade English teacher took him aside and spent time with him and tried to find a way for him to approach the material differently, and it helped a lot - "Oh, I don't have to feel bad about myself anymore.... It's just that I have to come at it from a different approach."
The next questioner told them that she first wanted to thank their parents for having them. And Jared and Jensen both did a bit of silent comedy with their faces at that line that made Jared laugh.
Have they had any in-character dreams?
Jared: "I dream about Ruby a lot!" and then he wakes up and she's there!
Jensen: "I wonder if she dreams of Sam or...?"
Jared: "Don't say it!"
- Jensen doesn't dream of Dean, but he has a recurring nightmare where he's in an apocalyptic scenario - like the trailer for the Owen Wilson movie coming out soon - where he's being chased by military people while carrying someone injured. If there are any people in the audience that can interpret dreams, don't tell him what it means, because he probably doesn't want to know. [And once again, I'm sitting there as someone who actually does do dream interpretation, biting my tongue...]
- Jared said he's going to make a recording of that movie trailer and put it under Jensen's pillow.
- Jensen pointed that he always wins in the dream - he hasn't lost yet!
Jared: "you're not Dean Losechester!"
3 words to describe each other?
Jared: "We've known each other for a long time in a pretty thorough way."
*they then laugh at the innuendo there*
- Jared tries for words like diligent, stalwart, dedicated...
Jensen: "Are you giving me ideas for you?"
- Jared says if he wants, and then continues to list words, throwing out the 3 word rule and describing Jensen as talented, loyal...
- An audience member suggests "Shorter than me" for Jared to use, which Jared corrects to "Shorter Than I" to cheers. And then Jared tells Jensen that Jensen is free to use "Grammar Nazi" as two of his words, if he wants.
- Jared then throws out the three word rule and describes Jensen as loyal to a fault, dedicated to his family, and he's genuinely caring guy.
- Jensen points out that he Jared has gone way over 3 words, and they make jokes that they need long german words.
- Jensen decides on the words "A good friend."
The next questioner had a prop from the show that they bought at a prop sale. [When, why didn't I hear about it? Damn it!] It's a surfboard from Biggerson's. She was wondering if they knew what episode it was from, because she tried to find it but couldn't.
- Jensen doesn't recognize it, but has her bring it to the stage to have a look. He suggests that it might have never been seen. A lot of the time the Art Department will decorate a set all 360 degrees, just in case the director changes their mind on the framing of the shot, so you end up with a lot of details that don't ever make it on the show.
What made you want to audition for the part?
- Jared wanted to do something different then the show he was on. And he liked horror, but didn't want to do campy horror. So, he thought it would be fun to do one episode... ONE.
- Jensen said they should be honest and just admit that they were in their 20s and they were looking for work. "There's a show that wants to cast me? Where do I sign?" They've just been extremely lucky for how it turned out.
What would Sam and Dean do in an another Alternate Universe episode like It's a Terrible Life?
- And audience member yells out that Dean should work at Toys'r'us. Jensen laughed at that and thought that it would be better if they stayed away from retail. Jensen then acted out some little dialogue with "retail Dean" working at a Home Depot or something, it was funny, but too quick for me to write out. I remember one of his answers to a customer query was "Figure it out!"
and an answer to "do you mind if I get that thing off the top shelf?" was "I don't mind if you shoot someone in front of me."
- Jared thinks Sam would be a good maintenance guy, because he's always being asked to get things off high shelves and to screw in lightbulbs.
- Another audience member yells out "Strippers!"
Jared: "Like Paint Strippers?"
Jensen: "Paint Strippers at the Body Shop?"
Jared: "Yeah, the BODY SHOP."
- Then, of course, the Band started playing a sexy beat and Jensen stood as if to dance - only swaying his hips a little - he put his finger tip on Jared's knee, like it was a sexy move or something, Jared was just busting up laughing. Then they both started laughing at "Magic Winchester XXL"
- Back to the question, Jared thinks Sam would want to be a teacher, but that might just be because that's what Jared would like to be.
- Jensen says Dean would be a surf instructor.
What has been their favourite moment from the set?
Jensen: "That's like asking, what's your favourite memory from the last ten years of your life!"
Jared: "She's like, 'that's easy - last Monday."
- Jared said that his favourite day of each year is the last day of filming, because there's this cool feeling that wells up around midday where you realize that it's ending. It's like graduating high school or college, where a large amount of work is coming to a close. A sort of "We did it" feeling.
Jensen: "It's over!"
Jared said that otherwise, with other episode, when they're wrapping one, they're already thinking of the next one, and theres no real break in work. So, at the end of the year, it's like the tunnel ends and there's light.
- Jensen then decided to give us a very sweet answer and said that his favourite memory, since Jared wasn't going to say it - was watching Jared fall in love with his wife.
Crowd: "Awww..."
Jensen: "Because it was pathetic." ..."Poor Gen... all of a sudden she had this tail." Jensen went on to explain how Jared just followered her around, and Jensen would be on set he'd look across the set to where Gen was sitting in her chair reading a book, and Jared would be sitting cross legged at her feet staring at her and smiling, and Jensen was like "Well that's happening."
Jared: "One of my pet peeves is people interrupting me while I'm reading-"
Jensen: "I think you and Gen share that..."
Jared: "We do!"
- But Jared would still interrupt her with a "what are you reading?" "Hemmingway" and then Jared would go research a bunch of Hemmingway quotes and be like, "you know..." and then Jared tried to imitate himself doing it, but was a bit too shakespearing in his word choice, which made Jensen bust up laughing.
- Jensen's other favourite memory is the time that Kim Manners got in the room with them with all the bees, to both show them that he had their back, and also prevent them from complaining about it - because they couldn't let this little guy out-man them.
Jensen: "But I could sit here for hours and talk about [this stuff].."
Jared: "And one day we will."
Have Siblings ever got them interested in anything? (Like a sibling introducing the questioner to SPN)
- Jared's brother was the one who got into grunge and introduced Jared to Pearl Jam's music.
- Jensen was quite young when he left home. His sister was 11, and his brother was already in college, so he doesn't think they had too big an influence on him. But his brother was into the 80s hair-bands and that did eventually bleed into Jensen listening to older rock.
- Jensen and his siblings have always had great distances between them geographically, but his brother tries to keep up with the show. He's way behind though, and he'll calll Jensen up and say things like. "I just finished watching episode 10 in season 4" and Jensen will be like "Season 4! You know we're in season 11 now, right?" - but both Jensen and Jared agree that it's hard on their siblings to feel like they need to keep up with the show in order to be connected to them. Jared's brother is a surgeon, and "I don't have to watch an hour of his surgery 23 times a year."
Since they're such WONDERFUL and DEDICATED fathers, do they have any cute stories about their kids?
- Jared definitely latched onto the part of this question that praised their fatherhood, because Jared immediately decided that we should know the reality of it.
Jared: "As a very dedicated father, I was throwing my son on he bed and I put his head in the wall."
- Jared went on to relate a story about buying Tom a T-Rex plastic dinosaur toy that had a pointy tail and they went to the park, and Tom kept rolling the T-Rex down the slide, and Jared would tell him not to, and Tom would do it again, and he thought it was a great game. And then Jared decided that he would make the T-Rex go UP the slide so that Tom could catch him, instead of just handing him the T-Rex. So, Jared launched the T-Rex up the slide, and it bounced and hit Tom in the face. Tom immediately put his hand to his eye, doubled over, and started screaming "My eye! My eye!" Jared told us that his legs just went out from under him, and he was nearly convulsing with how horrified he was, thinking he had just poked his son's eye out. Thankfully, when they got Tom's hands away from his face, the puncture wound was just above the eye, and the eye was fine.
Jared: "And had it been a centimeter different I would have blinded my son [...] so I am just a really good father."
- Jensen then told a story in a similar vein, about taking JJ to a little farm that you could tour around. And there was a goat pen that Jensen discovered you could go right inside.
Jensen: "Oh this is cool, you can walk right in and hang out in the goat pen!" - Jared then laughed at Jensen for saying that sentence. Then, they got into the pen and Jensen was playing with the goats, and everything was great, until Jensen looked over and saw these two goats squaring off against each other - and then ramming each other HARD with their horns. And Jensen was like "And we're going!" because all he could see was JJ getting completely smashed by an angry goat.
- Jared then complained that the kids will tell on them too. When Gen goes away, Jared likes to have fun with the kids, they'll sleep in, watch Ice Age, have candy...
Jensen: "Ice cream for breakfast?"
Jared: "Ice cream for breakfast!"
- And then Gen will get home and be like "how were they?" and Jared will be like "they were great!" and Tom will say "I had candy!"
Jensen: "Yeah, we are on par for being those dads."
- Jared went on to say that the kids will still be in the same clothes they wore two days ago too. And once, when he went to go meet Gen somewhere when he had the kids, he showed up with them, but they weren't wearing shoes. And that was a day that some people took pictures that ended up in the press somewhere, and Gen was not impressed that it looked like they couldn't be bothered to give their kids shoes.
[Sidenote: I kind of love how they answered this, because putting people on pedestals of perfection is just as toxic as treating them like garbage. It's important to treat humans like humans - complex and flawed and only trying their best, but not always succeeding at being their best.]
It was time for the last question of the panel, but Jensen wanted to give a shout-out to the crew that was there first. He saw Mike, who must have been from Crafty, because Jensen said, "Is that Mike? I'm going to need a burrito warmed up for me and he's [Jared] hurt himself again..." [Sidenote: Canadian film production union rules are slightly funny, because the head of catering HAS to double as your top on-site first-aid responder. It's a funny dual career they have.]
-Jensen said that the crew's job was like herding cats (him and Jared). Jared clarified that Jensen had said "HERDING cats" not "hurting cats", because he had mumbled it a little and it actually had sounded a bit like "hurting".
- Jensen then acted out trying to get Jared to set, and Jared played along, where eventually Jensen held up his hand and said "shiney thing!" to get Jared to follow him.
- Rich, Jared and Jensen joked that the crew LOVED hugs and pictures, so we should go bug them after the panel.
Finally, it was time for the Last Question. They brought the girl, and her friend, up on stage. The questioner was hard of hearing, so when they asked her for her name, she told them her question. This caused a great joke about it actually being her name. "I wonder what her LAST name is?" and then Jensen asked for her name more clearly, and she said "Melissa" and then they joked that maybe that was her question. "Melissa?" It was hilarious, and not mean-spirited at all. She explained about being hard of hearing to Jensen (off mic, and with sign language, so the crowd may have missed it), and I could tell he made an effort to face her while he spoke and speak clearly, and Jared did the same - instead of speaking from behind her, or to her other side, he stepped closer to be within her line of sight when he spoke to her.)
Her question was whether Jensen had actually cosplayed and walked the floor at ComicCon and if so, what was his costume?
- Jensen joked that he couldn't give away his secrets! But then he told her that he hadn't done that, that he didn't think it would work, nor did he have the time.
- They wondered what costume Jared should wear if he decided to dress up, and the whole band, nearly as one and unrehearsed, said "Chewbacca"
- Rich brought up the fact that Bryan Cranston had done it, and Jensen and Jared nodded, telling Rich that they had actually been in Hall H right after (or before) the Breaking Bad panel that year and had seen him in the costume.
And with that, the panel came to an end. They thanked us, and Vancouver because it "houses the show that we love." Rob and Jensen sand their usual closing song, with Jensen singing a fair bit of it (poor Rob's voice was pretty shot.) and then they signed the posters and disappeared backstage.
Richard kept telling the audience to hug the crew after Jensen and Jared had left.
Rob: "They could turn on you in a few weeks when you direct"
Richard: "Leave the crew alone! .... I messed up, Rob. I messed up."
Ruth Connell
Before Ruth's panel, Richard announced that our tweeting had worked! It had actually worked before Jared and Jensen's panel had even ended. EW had tweeted a new link to the article and the tweet mentioned the band's twitter handle. Rob was thrilled and thanked us.
The band had left the Con already, so Rob tapdanced Ruth on stage while Richard provided the "music".
Richard said that he didn't want to start any rumours, but he had seen Ruth coming out of the bathroom with Misha.
At this point, Misha came out on stage.
Misha: "We were not having sex in the bathroom - technically the term is erotic massage."
Richard: "I'm glad that story had a happy ending."
Ruth had brought "hot buttered muffins" for Richard and Rob, in little paper bags.
Richard: "I love the way Ruth handles a sack."
Ruth had a little outline of how her panel was going to go, with different sections. She started with the "jogging around the room" section. I gave her a high-five on her way past. She ran out of steam a few times.
Ruth: "This is the heavy breathing from the bathroom earlier."
Ruth once again had a "give-away section" where she gave people toiletries from the Marriot.
How did she enjoy her first Creation convention?
Ruth: "I'm not okay."
- She maybe got 4 hours of sleep, because we are "party people."
She loves Vancouver (that's all my notes say, I'm not sure what the context is... but does it matter?!)
Does she have pets?
- She has a spider every other day in her apartment. She calls them by her ex-boyfriends names "just before I.... gently life them and take them out."
She reminds us that the hotel giveaway section is sponsored by Marriot.
is there a character she's always loved to play?
- She's always surprised and she wants to keep it that way. Though, she did always want to play Ophelia, and now she's too old. There's also a Marvel character who is Scottish, but she can't remember the name. Also, someone the other day said she could be Poison Ivy, and she thought that was cool.
- She gives the questioner the "star prize" of a pen, "it's actually useful."
Will Rowena kill the Winchesters or vice versa?
Ruth: "You think someone is going to kill the Winchesters? How long have you been watching?"
-She has a theory, but she's not going to say anything in case she's right.
- It's more fun to work with the Winchesters than against them, so she'd like to continue to do that for 4-5 years.
Ruth then introduce Charmaine, SPN's make-up woman, who was in the audience. Ruth asked what the most challenging part of working with Ruth Connell is.
Charmaine: "Making her hair big enough."
Ruth than told us that she was in the "V Club" with Charmaine and Briana. It was a term Briana had coined the night before. Boys are welcome in the "V Club" too.
Fan: "Is Misha welcome?"
Ruth: "He was earlier."
Misha came out from backstage then, to ask what was going on. Ruth told him they were talking about how he was welcome in the "V Club". Misha then told us that recently he's been reading a book about ancient Iran, and how the only men allowed to hang out in female society were eunuchs.
Misha: "Right guys?"
Misha: "I don't know why I brought that up... what you're seeing now on my face is regret. I'm just going to go back to my table..."
Was there a show as a kid that she loved?
- Flash Gordon, Star Wars, Gone with the Wind. She also was obsessed with the Royal Wedding, and wore out her VHS video of it. Those were her biggest influences up to age 7. She also liked the Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe, and was thrilled when she got to play Mrs. Beaver once. She'd also love to play the White Witch. She can understand why Edward went with her.
Why did she audition for Supernatural?
Ruth: "I desperately wanted a job."
- She had no TV auditions, and she wanted experience, but couldn't get seen for love or money. It was the worst year of her life.
- She thought the part was written exactly for her, and decided that if she couldn't get it, then there was not point in staying in America.
- But she got it and it's the best thing that ever happened to her.
What strength does she feel is unique to her?
- She can make weird connections and notice things. She doesn't believe in coincidence and thinks things happen for a reason.
Was it intimidating to join the show?
- It's well oiled machine, and there's no ego. With new shows, people can try to prove their worth, but SPN is just extremely supportive. On an episode that Jensen directored, Ruth messed up and ruined a shot, and Jensen just shrugged and said "oh well."
Ruth then took a moment to do her "thank you" section - where she thanked Creation and all of us for having her at the convention.
Then it was time for the "Interrupt Misha's autographs" section, which she had just added.
She went and interrupted him again, and he came out from behind the curtain and Ruth showed him how to make the "V-club" V with his arms. She complemented the cleavage that he got when he did so.
Misha: "What does V-Club mean?"
Ruth: "Vagina"
Misha: "Oh."
Ruth: "We're warm and welcoming to boys"
Misha asked if she was aware that there was a possible double entendre there. Ruth claimed ignorance.
And, I forget how they got onto the topic, I guess Ruth was doing some high-kicks for fun. But Misha told a story of how he tried to impress someone with a high kick once, and he ended up bicycle kicking himself flat onto his back.
Misha went back to do autographs.
If Ruth won 5 million dollars but had to be carried around by a big burly man, would she take the money?
- Ruth doesn't understand the conflict - both, please.
The next question was about Ruth's ballerina experience.
- Yes, Ruth used to do ballet. She demonstrated by kicking herself on stage, and then doing a few ballet moves. She recommends Belly Dancing though.
I think Richard and Rob came back on stage then. Rob's really cute around Ruth, because he seems genuinely flustered by her. It's adorable.
Oopsie moments on set?
- Jared bumped her head on the door into the Impala. Other than that, she got her heel caught in her dress.
Favourite ice cream flavour?
- Chocolate. Ruth's favourite anything is chocolate - dark chocolate, double-dark chocolate.
Then she tapdanced herself off stage with Rob.
Rob and Rich then said goodbye, and with that, the Con was over, except for Autographs.
Autographs
I just did my customary "hello" and "thank you" exchange with Jensen. I usually try to think of something to say to Jared, but I just did a "hello" and "thank you" to him too. He then said something back to me, but it was hard to hear, so I just smiled and walked away.
Me: "I couldn't hear what Jared said... but, it sounded like "Thanks, Dog"
Friend: "..."
Me: "I mean, uh, if he meant it like "Dawg", I guess that's okay, but kind of weird..."
Friend: "..."
Me: "..."
Friend: "Doll."
Me: "Oh! Thanks, Doll! That makes SO MUCH MORE SENSE."
Friend *looks at me like I'm insane*
We stood for a bit watching Jared sign, while we waited for another friend to finish with Jared's autograph. She was getting a Funkopop Sam doll signed.
As she walked up to us, she was blowing on the ink to dry it.
Friend: "I'm blowing Jared-"
*I laugh*
Friend: "Oh my god-"
Me: "That's going in my blog."
Friend: "Don't you dare."
Me: "I won't use your name, but I have to put that in there."
I usually try to wait until the boys are done signing before I leave the Con, mainly because sometimes they come back out and will chat with the few people who are left for a little bit. But this year, things were running WAY later than they normally do, and I was so damn tired... so, I said goodbye to my friends and left the Convention Centre.
And with that, the Con was over!
Next year, the Convention is going to be at a hotel near Stanley Park, and while the setting will be beautiful, it's going to be a hassle to get to for me on public transpo. Mind you, it might be just as much of a walk as the Sheraton used to be, so maybe it won't be too bad. We'll see. If I'm in town, I'll probably still try to scoop up a last minute ticket and go. One of these years, it'd be nice to get a Jensen Solo photo-op, but those are extremely hard to come by when you always buy your tickets second hand.
I hope you all enjoyed the reports! :)
Still, I made it down to the convention centre in plenty of time. We all filed into the theatre and then it was J2 time.
Jared and Jensen Gold Panel
Now, I DO miss the old Gold Panel room at the Sheriton, because it feels more intimate when the boys DON'T have bright spot lights on them (Jensen: "Doesn't it look like an airplane is coming at us." Jared: "IS there an airplane coming at us?!")
The first topic of conversation was, of course, the concert last night. With Jared asking who was there, and who didn't come and regretted it (Jared raised his hand here). They then told us that we'll have to post videos so that Jared can see it.
Jared asked the crowd how many of us were Canadians. We wooped. Jared thinks he and Jensen are like honourary Canadians now (I have no problem with this) because Jared's spent 1/3 of his life in Canada.
Jensen is thankful that it's been "warm Canada" rather than Ontario where it's freezing. They asked if anyone was from cold Canada, I think, and someone from the audience yelled out "Saskatoon!"
Jared: "That's a fake word!"
Jensen: "We could be filming in Nunavut"
Jared: "I'll have nunathat."
*smattering of laughter*
Jensen: "The Canadians were like *imitates chuckling* 'ha! Nunavut - nunathat', everyone else is like, 'what the hell is he saying?'"
They then opened up the panel to questions shouted randomly from the audience.
The first question was about the ClickHole article/quote that Jared linked to the other day, where it was saying that he was quoted as saying "volcanoes are like mountains that have volcanoes" - they wanted context for the quote.
-Jared explained that Clickhole is a satirical site and none of its articles are real - but he saw that one and it made him laugh, so he posted it. And he never went to college.
-Jensen asked what he was talking about, so Jared explained the quote to him, and Jensen had a laugh about it too.
The next question was about Jensen's non-existent music career and how we want it to exist and for him to release an album.
-Jensen: "That would require me to have music"
-The fan suggested he uses Rob's songs. Jensen laughed, and mimicked telling Rob that he was stealing all his songs.
-Jensen went on to talk about how he thinks he kinda blacked out last night, because he got off stage was like "what just happened?!" But that it was a huge rush. That's why "it's the number one job... rock star."
Jared: "It's why people do it into their 70s. What's Mick Jagger, 93?"
The next question was about the scream in Yellow Fever and how long it took.
-Jensen told us about how Phil just told him to scream as long as he possibly could and go over the top with it. Jensen: "I don't know why I trusted him..." Jensen said that at one point he ran at Jared.
-Jared laughed and said that Jensen screamed so long that Jared thought he could just relax, but then suddenly Jensen was running at him and jumping into his arms.
-Jensen then recounts how they had to film the dialogue scene after ("You know who does that? Crazy people!" scene [which is ironic]) and his voice was shot.
-They then said that ironically, the only one scared in that episode was Jared, because of the snake. Even though it was crawling over Jensen's shoulder, not Jared's.
- Jensen then explained that the snake didn't want to go over the back of the couch, so the snake wrangler was basically trying to force it, wrestling it behind the couch and shoving at it to get it to go over.
Jensen: "Yeah, that's good - anger it and then send it over to me!"
- Jensen then mimicked the snake coming over his shoulder, by curling his hand into a fist and moving it over Jared's shoulder.
Jared *shrugs shoulders*: "That felt good." *turns his back to Jensen* "Can you do the other one?"
*Jensen shoves him hard in the middle of his back*
*Jensen then imitates Jared fleeing the snake*
Jared: "I'm not going to die for a shot that I'm not even in!! [...] If I die, it has to be on camera!"
If they could take a Road Trip somewhere, where would they go?
-Jared would go to Montana or "North of Montana - Canadia" - because he used to drive across the states all the time, but the highway he took was super flat and boring, and he thinks driving through the mountains would force him to slow down and enjoy the view.
- Jensen really likes the Southern Oregan Coast and Northern California. They used to drive back down to LA at the end of each season, or up to Vancouver at the beginning of each season, and Jensen liked driving along the coast for that section of the trip.
- One year they convoyed down - each driving their own car, but following the other person. They had walkytalkies.
Jared: "Purely for the novelty of having walkytalkies - we had cellphones at the time!"
- They then started imitating their walkytalky conversations.
Jared *imitating Jensen calling him on the walkytalky*: "Ch- what's your 20?"
Jared: "Ch- I'm still right behind you!"
(Oh man, if only fandom had known these things in the hayday of J2 shipping. But that aside even - MY GOD, the friendship between these two is adorable!)
A fan asks about the photo Jared tweeted where we can see Sam's tattoo - does this mean Sam has it again!?
Jensen *to Jared*: "Have you been taking shirtless selfies again? I thought we both agreed that we were going to leave that to Sheppard."
Jared explained that it wasn't a selfie, because he was with Amell - *to Jensen* "It was when we stole your jetskies."
*Jensen laughs*
-Jared said that we do see the tattoo, but it's not a current version of Sam, it's a flashback of sorts.
Fan: Why doesn't he get the tattoo again? He's "messing around with strange demons without protection and that's dangerous...!"
Jared: "He's Sam Fucking Winchester!"
[...]
Jensen: "Because he's Sam Winchester, not Sam Losechester."
Jared laughed and mentioned how giddy he was with that joke at ComicCon.
Are their kids able to understand that their parents are on a TV show yet?
- Tom doesn't understand, and one day he was on the iPad watching Dinosaur Train or something, and there must have been a side video with Jared's face on it that Tom clicked on, because he ended up watching a scene from the show - and it was a scene where someone was beating the crap out of Sam. It apparently only took a minute for Genevieve to realize what was going on, and stop the clip, but the damage was done, because Tom was upset - and said "That man hurt Daddy!"
- Meanwhile, Jared was on set, and when he got back to his trailer he had 6 missed text messages from Gen telling him he had to FaceTime her as soon as possible, so Jared freaked out and called, and had to reassure Tom that he was okay and that it had all been pretend.
- Jared often has to do that, because he likes to FaceTime his family at least once per day, and he doesn't always have time to take the make-up off (or he can't, because it's between takes and they don't have time to redo it), and so he calls with blood on his face and then has to explain that it's all pretend.
- JJ doesn't understand yet. Sometimes if a commercial comes on, she'll say "Oh hey! There's Daddy!" and then she'll just go back to what she's doing.
Jared: "Oh hey, it's Daddy!... Put back on Ice Age."
Jensen: "Oh hey, Daddy!... Can we watch planes?"
I missed hearing exactly what the next question was, but it must have been about how they balance work/life, when they have such busy jobs that take them away from their families for 9 months of the year.
- Jared explained that a lot of his anxieties come from trying to balance everything at once. He tries to just focus on one thing at a time. When he's "acting as Sam Fucking Winchester then I'm Sam Fucking Winchester" but when he's home, he's just Daddy, Husband, Friend, etc. He can't multitask the two.
- Jensen related that both their families have been in Vancouver for the past month, because of the better weather here than Texas, and that Jensen's on a schedule where he works for 12 hours, then comes home and sleeps, and then goes and does it all again. Danneel, the other day, was like "you've been distant these past couple days." And this was on Thursday - and Jensen realizes that it's because during the working week, he's in work mode, and it's only when he (usually flies home to Texas) that he leaves it behind and goes into Dad mode. During the working week, he's either working, or preparing for tomorrow's work day.
- Jared mentioned how he read once in a book about dog training that you need to spend at least 15 minutes a day with your focus on your dog to maintain a good relationship with it, and he applies that to all his relationships now and he makes sure that he gives his kids time every single day, even if it's just five minutes.
- They also both praised their very patient wives who understand because they're actresses themselves.
- Jensen said that sometimes Danneel will say, "hey, pay attention to [JJ]" and Jensen will realize that he's mind isn't there with his daughter, and he's missing moments with her while she's developing so fast.
- Jared then thanked the questioner for acknowledging the fact that they do work hard and it's a crazy thing to balance.
The next questioner was from Texas and commiserated about enjoying the weather in Vancouver far more right now.
Jensen: "That's why our wives are here."
Jared: "They're not here to see us!"
The questioner then went on to thank them for their charity work in the Always Keep Fighting and Attitudes in Reverse campaigns, because she herself suffers from depression and anxiety and her family doesn't know because she's struggling with the social stigma of it all. Do they have any other causes too?
- Jensen told the questioner that her now her spn family knew about her struggles and they would support her.
-Jared thanked her and talked about how they've been given a great opportunity to affect change. He also talked about how if someone doesn't understand, you have to try to show them forgiveness for it, though it's hard. "Have forgiveness for people who don't understand - give them the forgiveness you want to get from them.... give them time to learn and grow, like you took time to learn and grow."
I didn't really get the next question exactly, because I was still writing down what Jared had said about forgiveness, because I liked it. But it was a question about their old friends in LA.
- Jensen talked about how he imported some friends to LA, because he had this friend Ty who he was supposed to go to college with - and they had been assigned a dorm room together and everything, and then Jensen decided to move to LA, and Ty was like "what the...?!" Ty didn't want to go to college alone, so he didn't.
Jared: "It's all his fault! *points to Jensen* Destroying education one at a time."
- Ty went to community college instead, but then Jensen got really homesick and asked Ty to come out to LA, promising that Jensen could get him a job in production (not realizing how difficult it was to actually do that.) But it worked out, because Ty moved out and ended up becoming the Production Coordinator on the Rosie O'Donnell show at the tender age of 19.
- Jensen actually ended up with an all southern group of friends - Arkansas, Oklahoma, Texas.. it helped him stay clear of the wrong paths.
- Jared also had a great group of friends in LA who allowed him to be who he was, and he just survived by keeping his feet moving, and fighting until he figured out what he was fighting for.
- The longest Jensen went without a job was 4 months, and it was "too long"
Jared: "That'll never happen again!"
And with that, the panel came to a close.
[TMI storytime!
Since I wasn't getting photo-ops, I had some time to kill. I typed up my breakfast notes into report form while they were fresh in my head, and then I went to lunch, (stopping to buy some much needed painkillers on the way.)
When I got back, it was time for the afternoon entertainment:
The New World Order
So, Richard is hilarious, and he honestly had me in tears here... because, well, I'll get to it...
Richard and Rob started the afternoon MCing by talking about the concert the night before. Specifically though, Richard wanted to talk to us about a gross oversight that had occurred that morning. Jensen's performance had gotten some press, specifically Entertainment Weekly had run a little story about it. In the article, it credited Mark Sheppard on the drums, and Richard Speight Jr "on the bass", but it didn't mention Rob or Louden Swain at all.
Richard tasked us with tweeting EW immediately to correct this oversight. Billy Moran (the guitarist), suggested we use the hashtag #dontforgetabouttheband
Rob: "We're joking!"
Richard: "I'm not joking!"
Richard: "Sunday people! Usually I spent the first 20 minutes putting you down-"
Rob: "Me or them?"
Richard: "Both."
- Richard had spared putting down the Sunday people in favour of supporting the band.
Then Richard checked backstage to see if people were ready. He discovered that not only were they not ready, no one back there. He wondered if some disaster had occurred outside the room and we were now the only humans left on each.
It was now up to us to repopulate, and the girls obviously outnumbered the guys. Richard looked at the men on stage and declared that "we are going to be the shortest race of people."
Richard: "Sorry, Sunday people - should have been here Friday and Saturday, I hope you brought your birthing hips."
Rob sputtered at that.
Richard: "Let's be honest, this got weird. I blame EW - we were just having a good time, next thing they're suggesting we mate with fans!"
Rob's bass player laughed, drawing Richard's attention - and Rob realized that the new race would all be partially Phillipino, with an average height of 5'5''.
Then they launched into the Rules and Regulations bit, except that Richard started every rule with "In the new world order..."
- "All abled bodied women must mate with the band."
- "You must film everything on stage, including all able bodied women mating with the band."
- "The Jared and Jensen banners will become our blankets and our flags"
- "The children will ask, 'were they really over 6 feet tall, father?' and we will answer, 'No, they weren't - that's a myth, just like Santa and Misha Collins'"
Rob wondered how scary Richard's beard would get in this post-apocalyptic future. Richard figured that it would be too scary for the women, and they'd prefer to mate with the Philippino bass player.
Richard: "Even in the New World Order, locked in a biodome, I can't score."
So, yes, at this point, I was crying laughing as I tried to take notes. :P
SPN Fan Movie
(I totally forgot to take pictures)
This panel was with Clif and Mitch Kosterman and Jason Fischer, who together, have been making a documentary series/film about the Supernatural fandom. Clif is best known to fans as Jared and Jensen's bodyguard since S3 or S4 (I forget which), before that, he played Tiny in S2's Folsom Prison Blues. Mitch is his brother and a filmmaker. Jason works behind the scenes on Supernatural, I believe as a production coordinator.
For this panel, Gary from Creation came out to ask the questions, before they showed the trailer. I'm not sure why they did it this way, but *shrug* it worked, I guess!
Clif started making the documentary 3 years ago, but quickly discovered that he couldn't do it on his own and he brought in his brother and then Jason to help.
Was there an overriding theme to begin or did they have to discover it as they went?
- Mitch - They discovered themes as they filmed. The themes just emerged, mainly, the theme of SPN family was the strongest.
- Clif - When he first started, he wanted to explore how the stereotypes of fans being "geek, nerds, dorks," was incorrect. He wanted to show the reality of it - the fact that fans are intelligent and great people.
Jason informed the crowd that the movie is going to be offered in multiple languages. They have 10 so far. They want to release the film world-wide.
- Mitch agreed that it was very important to them. In fact, it was the main thing that Jared and Jensen advocated for when they talked to them about the film - that it should reach as many fans as possible.
Was there a difference between making this documentary and their previous experience on scripted productions?
- Mitch said that it was very different from scripted things. Documentaries are more about discovery and journalism, rather than already knowing what you are saying. "You don't finish a documentary, you stop making it."
- Clif said they have 10 episodes so far, but have enough footage for many more.
How involved were the actors?
- Clif said that when they first started out, they just wanted the fans, not the cast. Once it started though, they saw how much more to it there was... they showed it to Jared and Jensen and asked if they would contribute, and Jared and Jensen both said to work a little more on it and then bring it back to them.
- Mitch told us that Rob, Richard, and Misha talked with them at the beginning of making it, but Jared and Jensen wanted to wait a bit... But that eventually changed after a bit, and Jensen and Jared were enthusiastic about helping. Jensen actually ended up crying a bit in their interview with him, which Mitch said surprised the both of them. As Jensen was leaving the room, Jared was coming in, and Jensen said "watch out for that interviewer, he'll make you cry!" As Mitch was telling this to us, he looked back at Clif and said, "I'm saying too much, aren't I?" and Clif nodded.
- They ended up getting tons of the cast interviewed, because they had one fan ask early on if they had interviewed any of the female cast - and they hadn't - so they put out a call to them, and a lot of other cast members offered to be interviewed too as well as the female cast members.
Then they showed the trailer, which you can watch here.
So, I'm not going to lie, maybe it was the lack of sleep, maybe it was the fault of the TMI-story earlier, but the trailer totally made me cry. In fact it made a lot of us cry. Mainly, because I guess it really did appear to show the fandom as we see it and want it to be - a predominately positive place where we find friends, are creative, and are unashamed in our love for things.
It was also really fun to be sitting in an audience of fans watching it, because occasionally a fan would show up in the trailer and there'd be a section of the audience that would scream because it was them or their friend!
The entire audience gave the trailer a standing ovation... and that made the guys on stage get emotional too. Especially Clif, who is the main person getting very teary that I noticed. Which then made me cry a little more, because you could tell that they were probably a little nervous about how the documentary would be received by the fans - and then to have us love the trailer so much obviously was a huge deal to them.
They then opened the mics for fan questions.
The first questioner is someone who is often at vancon, and often asks questions, and she always prefixes her questions with a small complement to the person she's talking to, along with their name. Now, it was quite obvious that the trailer had greatly affected her as much as it had affected a lot of the audience, because she was obviously full of emotions that she needed to express through words - but hadn't had the time to work on them before hand. So, she did her best to articulate what we were all feeling - that we don't care if people judge us, because we know that fandom can be really awesome... but, her attempt to say it DID go a little long and, since I find sincerity uncomfortable, I got really uncomfortable 3/4 of the way through her talk. But, she's lovely! Her main statement was that fandom has always been a safe place for her, even though she suffers from PTSD and other problems.
- The filmmakers thanked her and told her that it was one of the themes they explored in the film.
They then took a moment to introduce the crew who worked on the film - who were all women (yay!)
It must have been hours of footage, how did they organize?
- Mitch said they had 55-60 hours of video. Jason assigned 4 taggers to review the footage and tag segments that addressed the themes they were exploring.
How did they get Louden Swain to do the soundtrack?
Clif: "We have to stick with the family!"
- Clif asked Rob casually, and then Mitch emailed him to formally ask, and within an hour Rob was sending Mitch dropbox links to music.
Did they interview Kripke?
- Mitch said that no, they'd be happy to, but WB people haven't been available to them.
- Clif clarified that it's not like they ASKED. They haven't approached the WB at all about talking to Kripke or the writers. The movie is about the fans, so they wanted to keep the focus on the fans. The reason they have the cast and crew is just because of the access Clif has to them through Conventions and being Jared and Jensen's bodyguard (so they can do it all informally.)
How was it funded?
- Mitch held up his mastercard.
Did they interview Rachel Miner?
- Yes, also Mark Pelligrino, Timothy Omundson, Briana Buckmaster, Erica Carroll, and a bunch more.
How do we watch it?
- Right now they have an indigogo up, launched that morning, where you can pre-purchase the film or merchandise. You can find it at spnfanmovie.com.
Do they have any suggestions about how fans who can't afford to go to conventions can participate more in fandom?
- Clif said that they were actually working on something to do with that, but he didn't want to talk about it, because he didn't want anyone to steal his idea, and it's still in development.
Will there be close captioning for the deaf and hearing-impaired?
- Already done, thanks to Jason.
And with that, the panel came to a close. I believe we gave them another appreciative round of applause.
Rob then had to fill a bit of time, because Jared and Jensen were running late - and he sang us three songs, even though he was losing his voice. I mean, it was REALLY rough - still, he didn't hold back at all, and he ran around the whole audience making sure everyone was amped up and happy. My favourite though was that as Richard was leaving the stage after the second song to see if the boys were reading yet, Rob said, "Hey Rich? In the New World Order, some water for Daddy?" And I burst out laughing, because I spend too much time on the kinkmeme, apparently.
Jared and Jensen Afternoon Panel
The boys appeared and the panel began. Jared did the finishing jump prematurely, which just went to prove that the band takes their cues from Jensen when it comes to the end up.
Jensen and Rob were both dressed the same, which they noticed immediately and had a laugh about.
Jensen: "We dress together... not like together, the same. Oh, who am I kidding, it's like this, *mimics adjusting his colour in a mirror, then turns around to look at Rob* How's this look, honey?"
Then Rob tells the real truth about them dressing the same.
Rob: "My ladder barely fits outside the window."
Then they did a little comedy routine of Rob looking in the window, just picking over the ledge while his friends hold the ladder.
Jared then did his usually who's first time question (he's always happy with the answers). Jensen said that usually they say how great it is to visiting the city they're in, but they live in Vancouver for most of the year. Jared agrees that it's really nice, because he forgot his phone this morning and they could just send a car to his apartment to pick it up.
They mention, like Rob, the article from EW, that forgot to mention Rob. This turned into a funny comedy bit about all the people they did credit - with Jensen throwing out a reference that I didn't get (and now can't remember) but made Richard laugh really hard and commend Jensen for not even needing to get out his "comedy elbows" before delivering that punchline.
(For anyone who doesn't follow the news from every single con - hello mum! - at MinnConn last weekend, Rich let is on Jensen's mannerism of shaking out his elbows when he's about to do or say something that he thinks is funny.)
They promised that next year for the concert, they'd bring a cow bell for Jared. Jared seemed genuinely enthused about this idea. Jared and Jensen then referenced the famous cow bell fever sketch.
Then they turned the panel over to questions, and Rich and Rob left the stage.
The first question was "If Dean and Sam become girls, which actresses would you want to play them?"
- Jensen made a little fun of the delivery of the question and how fast the questioner said the "became girls" part.
- Jared started to try to think of "someone tall..."
Jensen: "Geena Davis?"
Jared: "Geena Davis! Thanks Jensen."
-Jensen picked Madonna. Someone else suggested that Jensen's sister do it, and he sarcastically replied, "yeah, she'd love that."
-They then turned the question back on the questioner and asked who she thought should play them. She suggested they do it in drag, which made everyone laugh, including the boys.
Jensen: "I would wear a wig, but he could just braid his hair."
Jared *rolls his eyes*
Jensen *sighs lovelingly*: "I'd braid it for you."
What's Sam's favourite music?
Jared: "I'm stealing this from Jared..."
Jensen cocks an eyebrow at Jared for referring to himself in the third person, and then they make more jokes about the fake volcano quote,
- Jared says that Sam would listen to singer-songwriters and his favourite musician right now would be George Ezra.
The next question came from a girl who preambled with a story about how she'd been diagnosed with cancer, lost the ability to walk, was supposed to die, but then survived and ended up in a depression where she was walled off emotionally from her family and little sister - and Supernatural helped her reconnect to her emotions and also to her little sister. Her question was a mythological one - in hell, when demons cut into humans to torture them, are they cutting out the good parts of their soul?
- Jensen said it was a good question, and they've never addressed it in that much detail on the show, so he doesn't know - but it's an interesting idea - and when the writers steal that idea from her she can sue them.
- Jared agrees with Jensen, but went on to make sure that the questioner new that in real life, even if things feel like they're cutting into you, or you're cutting into yourself, it's not possible to cut out the good in your soul - because souls are strong and they'll always keep fighting to survive, and that's what happens on the show too in a way, you always see the souls fighting to survive. (I've paraphrased heavily here, fyi... for those who read this and then watch videos, or vice-versa.)
What would happen if Priestly from Ten Inch Hero ended up in the SPN universe? How long would he survive?
Jensen: "A long time! And here's why..."
- If Priestly met the Winchesters. Dean would keep Priestly locked up in the bunker making sandwiches. He'd become the Winchester's personal chef.
Has Jensen ever considered writing?
- Jensen tried to take a crack at writing an episode, but...
*Jared pretends to fall asleep*
Jensen: "..and that's what happened."
- Jensen doesn't feel like he has any skills as conceptualizing - which is required for being a good writer. His strengths don't lie in "pen and a white piece of paper"
Jensen: "...or a computer..."
-This launched Jared making fun of Jensen being stuck in "1983" when it comes to writing and maybe that's why he doesn't think he's good at it. This launched a quick fire teasing round (with Jensen teasing himself)
- Quill and ink, and he keeps running out of ink.
- Sending his scripts by pigeon
- Jensen then joked that he couldn't write because he lost his signet ring, so he can no longer put his seal on the writing.
Jensen: "I wrote a script. It's traveling on horseback through Siberia..."
SPN is influenced by On The Road - has Jared and Jensen ever read it? In preparation for the show?
- Jared didn't read it for the show, he read it for school (not college, he reminds us - he never went to college). Jared then talked about how his mother was a teacher and he read a lot about Heros, Myths and Legends. (He stumbled over the words here, and then said: "Man, say that four times fast" to which Jensen replied: "Say it once!") Jared also read Joseph Campbell about architypes and watched a lot of Star Wars to prepare for SPN.
- Jensen "got Jared to tell me about all that."
Are there any traditions that they want to pass onto their kids?
- Jared was momentarily thrown by the question, and Jensen made fun of him for it being something "he's obviously given a lot of thought to".
- Jared then listed a bunch of stuff he used to do with his family - holidays, football and breakfast tacos and very american things that he rattled off too fast for me write down.
- Jensen has a tradition with Danneel.
Jared: "I hope this is G rated."
- Jensen and Danneel have a dance party on Christmas morning, where they open all the doors in the house and dance from room to room, through the whole house. He thinks his daughter is going to love it this year.
- Jensen then got up and laughingly imitated his daughter "dancing" - which was him running around in a tiny circle with his arms out and giggling.
Jensen: "Which is funny, because that's exactly the way I dance."
- Jared says that we're actually going to see a bit of what being a vessel means this season, but can't say more.
- Jensen looks overly surprised - "Are you serious?"
Jared: "But you didn't hear it from me! You heard it from him!"
Jensen joked about Jared reading ahead in the scripts when Jensen doesn't: "He's supposed to tell me when he reads stuff like that!"
The next questioner prefaced her question by saying that the other day she was searching the internet for Sam's hair throughout the seasons.
Jensen: "That is a great time!"
The question is: "Why did you grow it out even more after the first season?" because she realized that the long hair had to be a choice Jared made, given that it wasn't that long in S1 and S2.
- Jared explained that it was scripted that Sam should have shaggy hair, whereas Dean should have a military look. Jared thinks that Sam just grew up, and with that grew his hair out. He also started talking about how he used to wet shave, but now he dry shaves "with a machine" (and then he mimics and electric shaver) but Jensen laughed and explained that Jared shaves by putting his head completely inside a machine that shaves his face like in the jetsons. And they had a laugh about that.
- Jensen then went to interrupt and say that he'd tell us the REAL reason that Jared grew out his hair - "It had to do with his wife." Gen said "I like your hair longer" and Jared said "Okay."
- Jared laughs, and says that Gen likes him to have a beard in the summer, so that he doesn't look like Sam, but the long hair doesn't look that long when you have a beard, but then when you shave it suddenly you realize how long the hair is.
The next question was about how Jensen originally auditioned for Sam, and what would he have done differently with Sam?
- This sparks a little "details" argument between the boys, because Jared didn't think that it was technically an audition for Sam - or that it counted as one - because they were ONLY auditioning for Sam. Jensen kind of agrees with him, they wanted to cast Sam first, so they only released Sam's sides - but Jensen went in and auditioned and then right away told them that he knew they were casting Sam, but he had read the character outline for Dean and thought that might be a better fit for him, in case they wanted to have him back to audition for Dean when the time came. And they never asked him to audition for Dean - the next audition was the "network" audition when it was just him and Jared as Dean and Sam, respectively.
Jared: "We got it! We booked it!"
- They then realized they hadn't answered the question, and decided that Jensen's Sam would be difference because "he'd be shorter"
Jensen: "Yes, I'd be shorter and I wouldn't change anything else."
How have Sam and Dean grown from S1-S10.
- Jared said that the brothers have restablished their connection. He also talks about how early Sam didn't want to hunt, and was more afraid of some things, but now it's a job to do and he's not afraid of anything.
Jensen: "I agree"
Have they had any inspiring teachers?
- Jared had an inspiring drama teacher who taught him that he should be questioning in life, and open to learning. "If you're not open to learning or admitting you're wrong then this is as smart as you're going to be." Jared also went on to talk about how it's important to learn to be who you are - and that he just finished reading Felicia's book and that's what she talks about to.
- Jensen explained that he was never the smartest guy in class. He tried really hard, but he got mainly Bs, and one of his hardest subjects was english. He couldn't write papers, or book reports, or whatever... but his 10th grade English teacher took him aside and spent time with him and tried to find a way for him to approach the material differently, and it helped a lot - "Oh, I don't have to feel bad about myself anymore.... It's just that I have to come at it from a different approach."
The next questioner told them that she first wanted to thank their parents for having them. And Jared and Jensen both did a bit of silent comedy with their faces at that line that made Jared laugh.
Have they had any in-character dreams?
Jared: "I dream about Ruby a lot!" and then he wakes up and she's there!
Jensen: "I wonder if she dreams of Sam or...?"
Jared: "Don't say it!"
- Jensen doesn't dream of Dean, but he has a recurring nightmare where he's in an apocalyptic scenario - like the trailer for the Owen Wilson movie coming out soon - where he's being chased by military people while carrying someone injured. If there are any people in the audience that can interpret dreams, don't tell him what it means, because he probably doesn't want to know. [And once again, I'm sitting there as someone who actually does do dream interpretation, biting my tongue...]
- Jared said he's going to make a recording of that movie trailer and put it under Jensen's pillow.
- Jensen pointed that he always wins in the dream - he hasn't lost yet!
Jared: "you're not Dean Losechester!"
3 words to describe each other?
Jared: "We've known each other for a long time in a pretty thorough way."
*they then laugh at the innuendo there*
- Jared tries for words like diligent, stalwart, dedicated...
Jensen: "Are you giving me ideas for you?"
- Jared says if he wants, and then continues to list words, throwing out the 3 word rule and describing Jensen as talented, loyal...
- An audience member suggests "Shorter than me" for Jared to use, which Jared corrects to "Shorter Than I" to cheers. And then Jared tells Jensen that Jensen is free to use "Grammar Nazi" as two of his words, if he wants.
- Jared then throws out the three word rule and describes Jensen as loyal to a fault, dedicated to his family, and he's genuinely caring guy.
- Jensen points out that he Jared has gone way over 3 words, and they make jokes that they need long german words.
- Jensen decides on the words "A good friend."
The next questioner had a prop from the show that they bought at a prop sale. [When, why didn't I hear about it? Damn it!] It's a surfboard from Biggerson's. She was wondering if they knew what episode it was from, because she tried to find it but couldn't.
- Jensen doesn't recognize it, but has her bring it to the stage to have a look. He suggests that it might have never been seen. A lot of the time the Art Department will decorate a set all 360 degrees, just in case the director changes their mind on the framing of the shot, so you end up with a lot of details that don't ever make it on the show.
What made you want to audition for the part?
- Jared wanted to do something different then the show he was on. And he liked horror, but didn't want to do campy horror. So, he thought it would be fun to do one episode... ONE.
- Jensen said they should be honest and just admit that they were in their 20s and they were looking for work. "There's a show that wants to cast me? Where do I sign?" They've just been extremely lucky for how it turned out.
What would Sam and Dean do in an another Alternate Universe episode like It's a Terrible Life?
- And audience member yells out that Dean should work at Toys'r'us. Jensen laughed at that and thought that it would be better if they stayed away from retail. Jensen then acted out some little dialogue with "retail Dean" working at a Home Depot or something, it was funny, but too quick for me to write out. I remember one of his answers to a customer query was "Figure it out!"
and an answer to "do you mind if I get that thing off the top shelf?" was "I don't mind if you shoot someone in front of me."
- Jared thinks Sam would be a good maintenance guy, because he's always being asked to get things off high shelves and to screw in lightbulbs.
- Another audience member yells out "Strippers!"
Jared: "Like Paint Strippers?"
Jensen: "Paint Strippers at the Body Shop?"
Jared: "Yeah, the BODY SHOP."
- Then, of course, the Band started playing a sexy beat and Jensen stood as if to dance - only swaying his hips a little - he put his finger tip on Jared's knee, like it was a sexy move or something, Jared was just busting up laughing. Then they both started laughing at "Magic Winchester XXL"
- Back to the question, Jared thinks Sam would want to be a teacher, but that might just be because that's what Jared would like to be.
- Jensen says Dean would be a surf instructor.
What has been their favourite moment from the set?
Jensen: "That's like asking, what's your favourite memory from the last ten years of your life!"
Jared: "She's like, 'that's easy - last Monday."
- Jared said that his favourite day of each year is the last day of filming, because there's this cool feeling that wells up around midday where you realize that it's ending. It's like graduating high school or college, where a large amount of work is coming to a close. A sort of "We did it" feeling.
Jensen: "It's over!"
Jared said that otherwise, with other episode, when they're wrapping one, they're already thinking of the next one, and theres no real break in work. So, at the end of the year, it's like the tunnel ends and there's light.
- Jensen then decided to give us a very sweet answer and said that his favourite memory, since Jared wasn't going to say it - was watching Jared fall in love with his wife.
Crowd: "Awww..."
Jensen: "Because it was pathetic." ..."Poor Gen... all of a sudden she had this tail." Jensen went on to explain how Jared just followered her around, and Jensen would be on set he'd look across the set to where Gen was sitting in her chair reading a book, and Jared would be sitting cross legged at her feet staring at her and smiling, and Jensen was like "Well that's happening."
Jared: "One of my pet peeves is people interrupting me while I'm reading-"
Jensen: "I think you and Gen share that..."
Jared: "We do!"
- But Jared would still interrupt her with a "what are you reading?" "Hemmingway" and then Jared would go research a bunch of Hemmingway quotes and be like, "you know..." and then Jared tried to imitate himself doing it, but was a bit too shakespearing in his word choice, which made Jensen bust up laughing.
- Jensen's other favourite memory is the time that Kim Manners got in the room with them with all the bees, to both show them that he had their back, and also prevent them from complaining about it - because they couldn't let this little guy out-man them.
Jensen: "But I could sit here for hours and talk about [this stuff].."
Jared: "And one day we will."
Have Siblings ever got them interested in anything? (Like a sibling introducing the questioner to SPN)
- Jared's brother was the one who got into grunge and introduced Jared to Pearl Jam's music.
- Jensen was quite young when he left home. His sister was 11, and his brother was already in college, so he doesn't think they had too big an influence on him. But his brother was into the 80s hair-bands and that did eventually bleed into Jensen listening to older rock.
- Jensen and his siblings have always had great distances between them geographically, but his brother tries to keep up with the show. He's way behind though, and he'll calll Jensen up and say things like. "I just finished watching episode 10 in season 4" and Jensen will be like "Season 4! You know we're in season 11 now, right?" - but both Jensen and Jared agree that it's hard on their siblings to feel like they need to keep up with the show in order to be connected to them. Jared's brother is a surgeon, and "I don't have to watch an hour of his surgery 23 times a year."
Since they're such WONDERFUL and DEDICATED fathers, do they have any cute stories about their kids?
- Jared definitely latched onto the part of this question that praised their fatherhood, because Jared immediately decided that we should know the reality of it.
Jared: "As a very dedicated father, I was throwing my son on he bed and I put his head in the wall."
- Jared went on to relate a story about buying Tom a T-Rex plastic dinosaur toy that had a pointy tail and they went to the park, and Tom kept rolling the T-Rex down the slide, and Jared would tell him not to, and Tom would do it again, and he thought it was a great game. And then Jared decided that he would make the T-Rex go UP the slide so that Tom could catch him, instead of just handing him the T-Rex. So, Jared launched the T-Rex up the slide, and it bounced and hit Tom in the face. Tom immediately put his hand to his eye, doubled over, and started screaming "My eye! My eye!" Jared told us that his legs just went out from under him, and he was nearly convulsing with how horrified he was, thinking he had just poked his son's eye out. Thankfully, when they got Tom's hands away from his face, the puncture wound was just above the eye, and the eye was fine.
Jared: "And had it been a centimeter different I would have blinded my son [...] so I am just a really good father."
- Jensen then told a story in a similar vein, about taking JJ to a little farm that you could tour around. And there was a goat pen that Jensen discovered you could go right inside.
Jensen: "Oh this is cool, you can walk right in and hang out in the goat pen!" - Jared then laughed at Jensen for saying that sentence. Then, they got into the pen and Jensen was playing with the goats, and everything was great, until Jensen looked over and saw these two goats squaring off against each other - and then ramming each other HARD with their horns. And Jensen was like "And we're going!" because all he could see was JJ getting completely smashed by an angry goat.
- Jared then complained that the kids will tell on them too. When Gen goes away, Jared likes to have fun with the kids, they'll sleep in, watch Ice Age, have candy...
Jensen: "Ice cream for breakfast?"
Jared: "Ice cream for breakfast!"
- And then Gen will get home and be like "how were they?" and Jared will be like "they were great!" and Tom will say "I had candy!"
Jensen: "Yeah, we are on par for being those dads."
- Jared went on to say that the kids will still be in the same clothes they wore two days ago too. And once, when he went to go meet Gen somewhere when he had the kids, he showed up with them, but they weren't wearing shoes. And that was a day that some people took pictures that ended up in the press somewhere, and Gen was not impressed that it looked like they couldn't be bothered to give their kids shoes.
[Sidenote: I kind of love how they answered this, because putting people on pedestals of perfection is just as toxic as treating them like garbage. It's important to treat humans like humans - complex and flawed and only trying their best, but not always succeeding at being their best.]
It was time for the last question of the panel, but Jensen wanted to give a shout-out to the crew that was there first. He saw Mike, who must have been from Crafty, because Jensen said, "Is that Mike? I'm going to need a burrito warmed up for me and he's [Jared] hurt himself again..." [Sidenote: Canadian film production union rules are slightly funny, because the head of catering HAS to double as your top on-site first-aid responder. It's a funny dual career they have.]
-Jensen said that the crew's job was like herding cats (him and Jared). Jared clarified that Jensen had said "HERDING cats" not "hurting cats", because he had mumbled it a little and it actually had sounded a bit like "hurting".
- Jensen then acted out trying to get Jared to set, and Jared played along, where eventually Jensen held up his hand and said "shiney thing!" to get Jared to follow him.
- Rich, Jared and Jensen joked that the crew LOVED hugs and pictures, so we should go bug them after the panel.
Finally, it was time for the Last Question. They brought the girl, and her friend, up on stage. The questioner was hard of hearing, so when they asked her for her name, she told them her question. This caused a great joke about it actually being her name. "I wonder what her LAST name is?" and then Jensen asked for her name more clearly, and she said "Melissa" and then they joked that maybe that was her question. "Melissa?" It was hilarious, and not mean-spirited at all. She explained about being hard of hearing to Jensen (off mic, and with sign language, so the crowd may have missed it), and I could tell he made an effort to face her while he spoke and speak clearly, and Jared did the same - instead of speaking from behind her, or to her other side, he stepped closer to be within her line of sight when he spoke to her.)
Her question was whether Jensen had actually cosplayed and walked the floor at ComicCon and if so, what was his costume?
- Jensen joked that he couldn't give away his secrets! But then he told her that he hadn't done that, that he didn't think it would work, nor did he have the time.
- They wondered what costume Jared should wear if he decided to dress up, and the whole band, nearly as one and unrehearsed, said "Chewbacca"
- Rich brought up the fact that Bryan Cranston had done it, and Jensen and Jared nodded, telling Rich that they had actually been in Hall H right after (or before) the Breaking Bad panel that year and had seen him in the costume.
And with that, the panel came to an end. They thanked us, and Vancouver because it "houses the show that we love." Rob and Jensen sand their usual closing song, with Jensen singing a fair bit of it (poor Rob's voice was pretty shot.) and then they signed the posters and disappeared backstage.
Richard kept telling the audience to hug the crew after Jensen and Jared had left.
Rob: "They could turn on you in a few weeks when you direct"
Richard: "Leave the crew alone! .... I messed up, Rob. I messed up."
Ruth Connell
Before Ruth's panel, Richard announced that our tweeting had worked! It had actually worked before Jared and Jensen's panel had even ended. EW had tweeted a new link to the article and the tweet mentioned the band's twitter handle. Rob was thrilled and thanked us.
The band had left the Con already, so Rob tapdanced Ruth on stage while Richard provided the "music".
Richard said that he didn't want to start any rumours, but he had seen Ruth coming out of the bathroom with Misha.
At this point, Misha came out on stage.
Misha: "We were not having sex in the bathroom - technically the term is erotic massage."
Richard: "I'm glad that story had a happy ending."
Ruth had brought "hot buttered muffins" for Richard and Rob, in little paper bags.
Richard: "I love the way Ruth handles a sack."
Ruth had a little outline of how her panel was going to go, with different sections. She started with the "jogging around the room" section. I gave her a high-five on her way past. She ran out of steam a few times.
Ruth: "This is the heavy breathing from the bathroom earlier."
Ruth once again had a "give-away section" where she gave people toiletries from the Marriot.
How did she enjoy her first Creation convention?
Ruth: "I'm not okay."
- She maybe got 4 hours of sleep, because we are "party people."
She loves Vancouver (that's all my notes say, I'm not sure what the context is... but does it matter?!)
Does she have pets?
- She has a spider every other day in her apartment. She calls them by her ex-boyfriends names "just before I.... gently life them and take them out."
She reminds us that the hotel giveaway section is sponsored by Marriot.
is there a character she's always loved to play?
- She's always surprised and she wants to keep it that way. Though, she did always want to play Ophelia, and now she's too old. There's also a Marvel character who is Scottish, but she can't remember the name. Also, someone the other day said she could be Poison Ivy, and she thought that was cool.
- She gives the questioner the "star prize" of a pen, "it's actually useful."
Will Rowena kill the Winchesters or vice versa?
Ruth: "You think someone is going to kill the Winchesters? How long have you been watching?"
-She has a theory, but she's not going to say anything in case she's right.
- It's more fun to work with the Winchesters than against them, so she'd like to continue to do that for 4-5 years.
Ruth then introduce Charmaine, SPN's make-up woman, who was in the audience. Ruth asked what the most challenging part of working with Ruth Connell is.
Charmaine: "Making her hair big enough."
Ruth than told us that she was in the "V Club" with Charmaine and Briana. It was a term Briana had coined the night before. Boys are welcome in the "V Club" too.
Fan: "Is Misha welcome?"
Ruth: "He was earlier."
Misha came out from backstage then, to ask what was going on. Ruth told him they were talking about how he was welcome in the "V Club". Misha then told us that recently he's been reading a book about ancient Iran, and how the only men allowed to hang out in female society were eunuchs.
Misha: "Right guys?"
Misha: "I don't know why I brought that up... what you're seeing now on my face is regret. I'm just going to go back to my table..."
Was there a show as a kid that she loved?
- Flash Gordon, Star Wars, Gone with the Wind. She also was obsessed with the Royal Wedding, and wore out her VHS video of it. Those were her biggest influences up to age 7. She also liked the Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe, and was thrilled when she got to play Mrs. Beaver once. She'd also love to play the White Witch. She can understand why Edward went with her.
Why did she audition for Supernatural?
Ruth: "I desperately wanted a job."
- She had no TV auditions, and she wanted experience, but couldn't get seen for love or money. It was the worst year of her life.
- She thought the part was written exactly for her, and decided that if she couldn't get it, then there was not point in staying in America.
- But she got it and it's the best thing that ever happened to her.
What strength does she feel is unique to her?
- She can make weird connections and notice things. She doesn't believe in coincidence and thinks things happen for a reason.
Was it intimidating to join the show?
- It's well oiled machine, and there's no ego. With new shows, people can try to prove their worth, but SPN is just extremely supportive. On an episode that Jensen directored, Ruth messed up and ruined a shot, and Jensen just shrugged and said "oh well."
Ruth then took a moment to do her "thank you" section - where she thanked Creation and all of us for having her at the convention.
Then it was time for the "Interrupt Misha's autographs" section, which she had just added.
She went and interrupted him again, and he came out from behind the curtain and Ruth showed him how to make the "V-club" V with his arms. She complemented the cleavage that he got when he did so.
Misha: "What does V-Club mean?"
Ruth: "Vagina"
Misha: "Oh."
Ruth: "We're warm and welcoming to boys"
Misha asked if she was aware that there was a possible double entendre there. Ruth claimed ignorance.
And, I forget how they got onto the topic, I guess Ruth was doing some high-kicks for fun. But Misha told a story of how he tried to impress someone with a high kick once, and he ended up bicycle kicking himself flat onto his back.
Misha went back to do autographs.
If Ruth won 5 million dollars but had to be carried around by a big burly man, would she take the money?
- Ruth doesn't understand the conflict - both, please.
The next question was about Ruth's ballerina experience.
- Yes, Ruth used to do ballet. She demonstrated by kicking herself on stage, and then doing a few ballet moves. She recommends Belly Dancing though.
I think Richard and Rob came back on stage then. Rob's really cute around Ruth, because he seems genuinely flustered by her. It's adorable.
Oopsie moments on set?
- Jared bumped her head on the door into the Impala. Other than that, she got her heel caught in her dress.
Favourite ice cream flavour?
- Chocolate. Ruth's favourite anything is chocolate - dark chocolate, double-dark chocolate.
Then she tapdanced herself off stage with Rob.
Rob and Rich then said goodbye, and with that, the Con was over, except for Autographs.
Autographs
I just did my customary "hello" and "thank you" exchange with Jensen. I usually try to think of something to say to Jared, but I just did a "hello" and "thank you" to him too. He then said something back to me, but it was hard to hear, so I just smiled and walked away.
Me: "I couldn't hear what Jared said... but, it sounded like "Thanks, Dog"
Friend: "..."
Me: "I mean, uh, if he meant it like "Dawg", I guess that's okay, but kind of weird..."
Friend: "..."
Me: "..."
Friend: "Doll."
Me: "Oh! Thanks, Doll! That makes SO MUCH MORE SENSE."
Friend *looks at me like I'm insane*
We stood for a bit watching Jared sign, while we waited for another friend to finish with Jared's autograph. She was getting a Funkopop Sam doll signed.
As she walked up to us, she was blowing on the ink to dry it.
Friend: "I'm blowing Jared-"
*I laugh*
Friend: "Oh my god-"
Me: "That's going in my blog."
Friend: "Don't you dare."
Me: "I won't use your name, but I have to put that in there."
I usually try to wait until the boys are done signing before I leave the Con, mainly because sometimes they come back out and will chat with the few people who are left for a little bit. But this year, things were running WAY later than they normally do, and I was so damn tired... so, I said goodbye to my friends and left the Convention Centre.
And with that, the Con was over!
Next year, the Convention is going to be at a hotel near Stanley Park, and while the setting will be beautiful, it's going to be a hassle to get to for me on public transpo. Mind you, it might be just as much of a walk as the Sheraton used to be, so maybe it won't be too bad. We'll see. If I'm in town, I'll probably still try to scoop up a last minute ticket and go. One of these years, it'd be nice to get a Jensen Solo photo-op, but those are extremely hard to come by when you always buy your tickets second hand.
I hope you all enjoyed the reports! :)
