Jensen Ackles Interview – Comic Con Press Room
We got VERY lucky. I think we were the only table that got ten minutes with Jensen, which was twice as much as everyone else. What a huge treat for he’s the nicest guy to talk to not to mention just like his co-star he’s great on the eyes. He was the only person in the press room to almost make my heart stop with his big piece of news. Most details on that below. So here it is, the full transcript my roundtable interview with Jensen Ackles at Comic Con.
Oh yeah, MAJOR SPOILER ALERT!!!!!!!!!!
(Jensen starts first, asking us a question) Have y’all been here for all five days? Are you burned out? You’re like “Oh my gosh, somebody end the misery. Well, we’re almost there. †(We all nodded in enthusiastic agreement, although we were more than willing to let this gorgeous guy keep talking.)
Give us a tease…
Give us a tease (laughs). If I had a nickel… As you’ve probably heard since I’m now batting clean up, we’re getting back to bit of a season one formula in a sense that we’re putting reset on the whole show. I’m anticipating this season more than any other simply the fact that we set out to tell a five year story and we told it. So I’m like “Now what? Now what are we going to do?†Luckily we have very, very creative and intelligent people writing the show and I know they’ve got a lot of ideas up their sleeves so I’m kind of anticipating…I don’t know what to anticipate. I’m just excited about seeing what’s coming down the pipe. I’m watering at the mouth as everyone else is.
You’ve only had four episodes.
We’re shooting our third one right now.
What do you see (for the season)?
Well like I said we’re kind of getting back to the same formula as season one where it’s that monster of the week type of deal. There will be a mythology common denominator throughout the episodes like you saw in season one and two. What that is hasn’t been completely laid out yet, for me anyway. I’m sure they have some idea of what’s going to happen. Knowing what we know about the characters for the past five years and then having them put in positions where they are now…I’m mean Dean is a domesticated individual he’s got a normal job and a girl and basically a kid. Of course he still has a shotgun underneath his bed, still got the rock salt in his trunk and all that kind of stuff. He doesn’t drive the Impala anymore he drives a pickup truck. Not to say that the Impala’s gone because it’s under a tarp in the garage.
(Note, its right around this time I go into convulsions over this reveal. Jensen notices and is very amused. Once I notice he’s seeing my fan girl reaction – the only one at the table – I tell him, “That’s a tragedy!†He smiles more and replies, “I know, I know, it is!â€)
It’s like he’s hung it up, he’s hung up his boots. But that only lasts for a very short while. Like anybody who has the kind of hunting in his blood he gets kind of drawn back. He’s like the mob, you’re never really out of it.
We heard about the brothers and the dynamic change.
There is. It’s a bit of a flip in motivation again like I said. Dean is domesticated now and he’s trying his best to lead a normal now. Sam is now back but is really on board with the whole hunting thing. Now it’s a job to him. It’s what he does, it’s his skill and he’s using it. He’s trying to leave Dean alone because he wants Dean to have a normal life. So there’s that kind of push and pull of he wants his brother to work with but he also wants his brother to live this normal life so it’s left him alone for the better part of a year, which is where we pick up the story in season six. And then the past catches up to Dean and Sam can’t stay away and he has to go get him and that’s where we kind of pick it up. It’s the struggle of Dean not wanting to get pulled back in but not really having a choice and then trying to figure out how he’s going to deal with the family because he knows that he can’t bring them into it. It’s kind of too late because he already has and now he’s got to distance himself from it, the one thing he didn’t want to do.
How’s he adjusting to the family life outside of his brother?
It’s cool. We just did this whole montage that we shot for episode one of Dean living this normal life. Going to bed next to a pretty girl, and going to barbeque with the neighbors, driving his truck to work, working on the construction site. It’s kind of cool because it’s completely out of what we’re normally seeing him do. It was kind of nice to play that different level of just being a normal guy. It’ll be interesting to see how he gets pulled back into it. Even though he doesn’t want to it’s kind of fun to have.
(My question.) What was it like directing? How much fun was that?
It was a lot more work than just acting (laughs). In that I’ve been acting for thirteen years so I know how to do it. Directing I’ve never done it and I didn’t want to fail so I prepped like no tomorrow. I was pouring through scripts every night, I was doing shot lists and revising them constantly. I kind of always fell back on what Kim Manners told me about directing. He was, “It’s all about the homework. You do your homework, you show up, you’ll have fun. You don’t do your homework you’re going to show up and shoot yourself in the foot.†So I knew that if I fail, it’s not going to be because I didn’t do my homework. So I did. I did a ton of it. I showed up day one with eight days of shot lists. I don’t know how it turned out yet, we haven’t seen the cut. I know the crew respected it, they had confidence in me. For a first timer, I was glad to have those guys watching my back.
Would you do it again?
If you asked me the day after I finished I would have said not a chance in hell but now the dust is settled yeah, I would.
Dean and Castiel have a certain relationship. Will that play again next season?
I hope so. Misha hasn’t been in the first three episodes so we’re still waiting for Castiel to show back up. But he does in the, well it would be in the third episode (since episode 4 was shot first). I believe he’s back. I don’t know, I haven’t read anything as far as what the relationship’s going to be like. Now that he’s the head cheese in Heaven I’m not quite sure how that’s going to alter his character. That and now Dean’s different, I don’t know, I don’t have an answer for that. I’m interested to see myself.
Congratulations on your wedding.
Thank you.
Has that changed things much now that you’re both married men on the set?
Not really. It’s just like, official now. It’s good.
Total coincidence that you guys did it after the season five finale.
Yes, total coincidence.
Was it like someone stole the other’s thunder, so close to each other.
Yes and no. I would say that if we weren’t as good friends as we were it probably would have been like, “What are you doing?†But it was all done very innocently and honestly. I was happy for him, he was happy for me. We’ve been working together this long, no wonder. I think that we’re on the same cycles now.
What kind of creatures are going to be around for the first three episodes?
I know we’ve got a Djinn, which was in “What Is and What Should Never Be.†That was the end of season two. Kripke actually directed that one. We get a revisit from those characters. It’s kind of gone since the end of season five the world as far as the evil and the monsters and demons is in an upturn. There’s monsters that’s showing up that shouldn’t be in areas that we’re finding them, are acting out of character. There’s vampires that are walking around during the day. Everything’s turned upside down. For the first few episodes it’s going to be trying to make sense of what’s going on. But we’re going to get back to those old characters which will be nice because I like season one.
Awesome, thanks for sharing. I’m jealous, I would love to spend 10 minutes with him. He seems very thoughtful with his answers, I feel like he would be good to have a conversation with.
I totally agreeeeeeee!!!!! He’s so so generous!! Oh God! All hail Jensen Ackles…..I am a *craaaaaaazzzzyyyyyy* fan, beleive me….God! you’re sooooo lucky, thanks for sharing….you made my day!!!!!!! 🙂 🙂 🙂 😀 😀 😀
Hey guys, my travels for the day are almost done. Look tomorrow for the transcripts from Ben Edlund (again he used big words), Jim Beaver, Eric Kripke, and Sera Gamble. Sadly, our table didn’t get time to talk to Misha. Lucky for us, we got extra time with Jensen instead.
Also, I’ll try to share my tales in the Smallville press room very soon. Because I went to that, I didn’t see the Supernatural panel. It was worth it though because I got to meet John Schnieder (a childhood TV hero, I just about died), Justin Hartley and Tom Welling (no interview for him though). I couldn’t hear much though during the round table (the noise was bad) so I’m sure I’ll have great spoilers once I play back the interview recordings.
You rock! I’m so glad you got extra time with Jensen. He’s such a nice guy! (Although he’s so handsome…I bet sometimes it was hard to not just stare at him!)
Nice interview! I’m glad he’s hopeful about Dean and Cas, too… crossing my fingers for their friendship to continue!
Ah, major awesomeness. At least Dean is driving a truck while the Impala is resting, and not a Prius!
Thanks so much for these Alice.
Thank you, Alice! So glad for you, I mean, talking to Jensen… Envy))) He’s so nice guy and I like his sense of humor. I’m sure I’d lose my tongue ))) I’m spoiler-free, but couldn’t hold myself to read your report. I think, my reaction to news about Impala would be the same.
Wait for your next reports, as administrator of Smallville web site it’s very interesting for me to know about Smallville news and about Tom of cause 😉
Alice, good to have you back safe and sound and a tad excited, eh? 😉 – thank you so much for your reports on the interviews, as you know, I’m no spoilerphobe and I am happy that we’re going to have some very interesting twists to expect. Can’t wait. Completely understand your Impala-reaction! That car needed some love while resting. Sniff. I know, had you been there, that baby would have gotten some major love treatment…
Thanks again! Love Jas
Thank you very much. It was interesting to read. Thank you Jensen.
Thanks for posting this, Alice! Always enjoy Jensen’s interview transcripts. He sounds like a guy who truly loves his profession.
I had to laugh when I read his comment…”If you asked me the day after I finished I would have said not a chance in hell but now the dust is settled yeah, I would.” I had the exact same reaction the first time I PM’d a feature. And yes, I went back for more!
Looking forward to the rest of your con reports.
Cheers, Rose
Hi, Alice,
Awesome, ten minutes with Jensen. It was worth it for he gave indepth answers. I’m so glad you asked him about directing and he gave such a lengthy answer.
I’m very excited for Season 6 and how it’s going to play out.
I’ll be looking forward to more of your Con reports as you roll them out (You’re doing awesome getting so many out so quickly, sheesh, when do you sleep?)
Alice, I was trying to read this article very carefully because I am a spoiler-phobe and didn’t want to learn anything TOO spoilery, but I laughed my boobs off when I read that Jared and Jensen are on the same cycles now when you asked them about their so-close-together weddings! That’s what happens to girls who live together; they sync up their monthly flows. It happens to the J’s, too!
Ah, Alice, I so envy you going to this convention. It sounds like it was just wonderful, with so many awesome reveals.
Come back to us SOON!
Love,
Robin
Jensen sure sounds like a really nice guy! He is the most handsome and talented actor I know of!
Nice interview Alice. Hope some day to meet him in person. The impala out of use is extreme. But the rest sounds interesting.
hey guys
i’ve gotta say this, i thought after everything that happend to them dean went after sam to bring him back.i mean as we all know dean’s personality(loves his family,sacrifices everything for having them) it was so far from dean’s charactor that left or maybe forgot sam in hell.i mean if i were dean,i would never leave sam like that.but i’m not him
Oh Happy Day! Love, love, loved reading the transcript. This is one of your rewards for running such a awsome SPN site! Now my day will be complete!
Thanks!
Oh joy! My comments got lost again.
Anyway, what a great transcript Alice and how much would I love to converse with Jensen for 10 whole minutes!
Got upset about the poor Impala. How Dean could leave his baby under a tarp for most of the year is beyond me. Hope to see him back behind the wheel very soon in season 6.
Don’t really want Dean to get domesticated and wussy even though I agree with Jensen that season one is my favourite season too. I’ll put my trust in the creators that season 6 will be awesome. Everyone seems enthusiastic at the round table.
Wow, good for you, Alice! Really cool that you guys got a full 10 minutes to chat with him. Not jealous at all. Nope. 😀 I cannot blame you for having that reaction to the news that the Impala is under a tarp in the garage, too. I think I would have fallen out of my chair at that news.
Thanks again so much for being there and for posting this, Alice. Great work, as usual, and we all really appreciate it.
I’m all green with envy.
I just love Jensen. Lucky you getting to sit with and interview him. I would just love to see him in person, let alone be able to spend a short amount of time with him. He is so cool. Love the statement about his marriage – “it’s official now, it’s good.” Can’t wait to see what he does with Dean this year and see his domesticated Dean. Can’t wait.