Salute to Supernatural San Francisco – Saturday Report

All right, here we go with my report on day two’s events. After all the excitement of the first day, I was glad that Saturday was a little more low-key. And by low-key, I mean that my mom and I attended five panels and then went back to her house for some dinner and to watch the Steelers-Ravens game that we had Tivo’d…and that Corin Nemec spoiled! But I am getting ahead of myself.

First up was Richard Speight Jr., the Trickster/Gabriel himself. And let me tell you, the man knows how to work a room. Of course, I saw a glimpse of that at karaoke the night before, but he was really in his element during his panel. He asked the crowd if anyone was there from out-of-the-country, and when people raised their hands, he got down off the stage and took the mike over to them and started talking to them about where they were from, how they were liking the con, etc. What an experience that must have been for those fans!

Pretty much any question you asked him was sure to elicit a great story or a funny quip or something, but when a fan asked him about his experience on “Band of Brothers” and researching his role, Skip Muck, he told this fascinating story. His character in the miniseries gets killed during the Battle of the Bulge, so in order to do background research on the man, he had to talk to fellow soldiers that fought with Skip. During some of those conversations, he discovered that Skip was from Tonawanda, New York, and not Florida like the script said. Richard called all the Mucks he could find in the Tonawanda area, but none of them had any info about Skip Muck, so he left a message with the city’s Chamber of Commerce. They got in touch with one of Skip’s relatives, who called Richard, and he was able to talk with surviving family members and learn all sorts of information about Skip. And Skip’s family had no idea that he was featured in the book and miniseries “Band of Brothers,” so Richard was able to give them a lot of information about what Skip did during the war, how he died, etc. in return. During one conversation, Richard found out that Skip swam the Niagara River as a young man, which is super dangerous because it’s a fast-moving current. If you don’t make it across, you’re going over Niagara Falls. Yes, those Niagara Falls. Since some of Skip’s friends were concerned about him swimming this river, his best friend decided to take a row boat across the river alongside Skip in case something went wrong. His best friend was Frederick “Fritz” Nilund, one of the Nilund brothers, whose story is the basis for the movie “Saving Private Ryan.” So these two best friends from this small town near Buffalo, New York end up being involved in two of the biggest WWII stories Hollywood has produced. Crazy world.

I got up to ask him a question, because why the hell not, and the person in front of me asked him about the subject I wanted to talk about, which is the Pepsi Max commercials he’s been in lately. If you haven’t seen them, I’m sure they’re on YouTube. They look like a lot of fun, and in one of them, he’s totally doing the Trickster snap! And yes, he said that was on purpose because one of the producers on the commercials is a “Supernatural” fan, and she had him do a snapping take, which is the one they ended up using. So when it was my turn at the mike, I couldn’t think of anything good to ask him, so instead I asked him a lame question about what it was like finding out he was Gabriel instead of just the Trickster, which is LAME, but I was on the spot! I’m sure he’s answered that like a million times, so sorry, Richard!

He talked a little bit about how he’s been acting since he was 12, and one of his first roles was in a movie called “Ernest Goes To Camp.” Now, when I was growing up, my brothers and I used to watch the Ernest movies all the time because they were hilarious. So the fact that Richard was in them as a kid just made my morning. He said that he wore some super short shorts, too, in that movie, since they were in style then. But now…Hee, short shorts!

He told a really funny story about working with Mark Pellegrino, too, in “Hammer of the Gods.” The first time they’re on set together, Richard is his usual cheerful self and decides to go over and say hello to Mark because he doesn’t really need a lot of time to get into character since the Trickster and Richard are pretty close personality-wise. But Mark was sitting in a chair in his rotting face makeup, and he’s trying to focus on being meanie Lucifer, so he’s just sitting there getting mentally prepared. Richard comes up and says hello, introduces himself. Mark looks at him, stares for a minute, and then just puts his head down and totally ignores Richard. Ha! See, Lucifer really is evil! But once they had gotten through the takes and stuff, Richard said Mark was great and very enthusiastic and just a good guy all around. Which made me happy to hear because Mark Pellegrino is awesome, and I loved him on LOST as Jacob.

To close out his panel, Richard sent a Tweet from the stage that Alice said was something like “Panel just ended at San Francisco con. Awkward silence.” I don’t remember exactly. Perhaps she can do some admin magic and get the real Tweet in here.

In between his panel and Aldis’, my mom and I had to run to a drug store to get batteries for my camera. On our way back to the ballroom, we passed Richard in the hallway, so I said hello and waved. He said hello back and smiled. My mom was like, “he remembers you from karaoke,” but I thought it was more of a “someone said hello to me so I will be a polite human being and say hi back” situation. Still, the ballroom and photo ops rooms were all close together, which meant that the actors were around to say hello to. You could just pass them by and stuff. That was pretty cool. I have no idea if that’s a normal thing for cons since this is my first, but I thought it was neat how accessible certain people were.

Next up was Aldis Hodge, who played Jake Talley, Sam-killer extraordinaire. And yes, he did take a lot of flak from the audience about the Sam-killing. But he was a great sport about the whole thing, and really went with it and played along really well. He was funny and sweet and charming, very laid-back and personable. If you haven’t seen it yet, he’s on the TNT show “Leverage,” where he plays tech guru Alec Hardison. It’s a pretty fun show, and Aldis is great on it. He got a lot of questions about “Leverage,” actually. Including one from me! I asked him if he was a tech geek before the show and if he had to really study up because some of the technical dialogue he has to say is really intense. He said he was kind of a geek, but not too much into the tech stuff, so yes, he has to study up on the dialogue so he can say it right.

He plays the violin, which is all kinds of awesome. He’s been playing for two or three years now and hopes to be good enough to get up on stage and actually play someday. A fan suggested he bring his violin to the next con he appears at, but he said he still needed four or five years of practice before he thinks he’ll be good enough for that. Hogwash, Aldis! The fans would love to hear you play the violin!

When asked what his dream role would be, he replied, “a character on “˜Supernatural’ who people liked and lives and doesn’t need a Kevlar vest on his head.” Bwah! That was funny. Seriously, he said stuff like that all panel long about Jake and getting killed and shot in the face. In fact, he was so charming and funny about the whole killing thing that my mom was quite taken with him and decided to go up and ask him a question! Go, mom! So she gets up to the mike and is like, “Are they planning on having you kill anyone on “˜Leverage’?” That got a good laugh, and Aldis laughed, too, before saying, “I’m not a contract killer!” Then he went on to answer seriously that “Leverage” doesn’t really kill people like “Supernatural” does, so he doubts he’ll be killing anyone on that show.

A few more tidbits from his panel: he has two Yorkies. Don’t tell Dean. The boys pranked him on St. Patrick’s Day by taking him out for drinks. He had never been drunk before, so they fed him Jager Bombs, shots of Patron tequila, and pints of Guinness. The prank was how sick he felt the next day. At one point, he called the actress who plays Parker on “Leverage,” Beth Riesgraf, and left a message. Parker and Hardison have a bit of a will they/won’t they thing going on. Aldis said Beth is wonderful and great to work with. He also joked about never being able to get Christian Kane, another “Leverage” costar, on the phone when they aren’t shooting episodes. Overall, Aldis’ panel was really entertaining. And I was so proud of my mom for asking a question! Good job, mom! Way to get involved.

Next up was Clif Kosterman, who played Tiny in “Folsom Prison Blues” and may be better-known as Jared and Jensen’s bodyguard. Someone asked an interesting question about why those two would need a bodyguard since they are both pretty big guys and can probably handle themselves in a fight. Clif said that he was there because if they ever did get in a fight, Jared and Jensen could get in big trouble but if Clif punches somebody, it’s not going to be as much hassle. He’s there to take a punch.

So Clif is pretty friendly and laid-back, but he’s not as talkative as Richard and Aldis were, so his answers tended to be shorter and more restricted. So here are some of the highlights of Clif’s panel:

When asked about pranks (yes, pranks are a recurring theme at these things) he said the boys aren’t stupid enough to prank him, but he does help Misha prank them. Jared is relentless about pranking Misha, poor guy. He said he feels like a dad between the three of them. “I have to carry baby wipes,” he said.

He used to be a Canadian strongman and did strongman competitions. He got to the pretty high ranks, but not the highest, he said. If you are not familiar with strongman competitions, it’s where crazy huge dudes do things like pull planes attached to ropes and carry huge boulders and flip over monster-truck tires.

He broke into the business because he was hanging out on the “21 Jump Street” set, and they needed a big guy to play a bouncer, so they asked him, and he said yes. But he always wanted to be a bodyguard and not an actor. He played Tiny first for “Supernatural” and then got his current bodyguard job.

One time, Genevieve Cortese’s grandmother was on set, and there was this stunt where the stunt guys crashed through a window. She immediately got concerned and ran into the shot to ask if the stunt men were okay. She ruined the take. But awwwww, isn’t that cute? It’s pretty darn cute.

On Kim Manners’ birthday, they change the name of the studio to KM studios in his honor. It’s so touching to see them honor him like that still. What a great crew and cast.

In the upcoming meta episode that many of you have heard about, Clif is not allowed to play himself because of his contract. I don’t remember the specifics, but it’s something about not having a “performer” aspect to it, so he can’t actually appear as himself. Which I find so weird, but there it is. Hollywood.

He talked about what a typical day on set is like. Jared is always late when he goes to pick them up. If they’re shooting at a studio, then his day basically consists of picking up the boys, driving them around to the studio, and sitting around all day. If they are on location, then he picks them up, takes them to the location, does a recon to make sure everything looks okay, then talks to location managers to see if there are any paparazzi around he has to keep an eye on, any fans hanging around, etc. Location days are a little more intensive.

He mentioned that he’s worked with Sharon Stone and Kurt Russell before, and that once, Kurt Russell was like, “Let’s go to lunch.” Clif agreed, so Kurt packed him up in his private plane, flew them to Catalina Island himself, and they had lunch there. He said it was a surreal and amazing experience.

After Clif was Corin Nemec, who pissed me the hell off as Christian but was very charming and funny and personable during his panel. In fact, by the end of it, I didn’t even hate Christian Campbell anymore. I know, right? That’s how awesome Corin Nemec was. When everyone applauded his stage entrance, he quipped, “are you clapping for me or because Christian is dead?” Hee!

Someone asked him about playing Harold on the miniseries “The Stand,” which is based on a Stephen King book, for those not familiar with it. I have neither seen the miniseries nor read the book myself. Are they any good? Anyway, he talked about how physically, he’s completely different from how Harold is described in the book, but they didn’t find anyone matching Harold’s description with the way the character was supposed to be played, so Corin ended up getting the part. Since his character was supposed to be creepy, I think, the director told him to act creepy toward actress Molly Ringwald in between takes. So he would go over while she was talking to someone and just stand behind her and not say anything until she got really uncomfortable and turned around. Then he would just walk away! Yeah, that is super creepy. And one day at lunch while shooting “The Stand,” Stephen King was sitting with all the actors, 103 of them with speaking roles, a record for a miniseries. He just started laughing to himself, and someone asked him what he was laughing about. King said, “103 speaking roles. What do you think the chances are of one of you 103 dying in a plane crash?” Corin said everyone went silent.

When asked what it was like to have to shoot the torture scene with Meg, he joked that he brought his own torture table, so that made things more familiar. He said really it wasn’t too hard for him because he was fully clothed. Rachel Miner had the hard job because she was pretty much naked. He also joked that when he knelt out of frame and Rachel started screaming, he was thinking, “huh, I wonder what I’m doing right now. It doesn’t sound good!” He thought it was smart to leave that offscreen because what the viewers would imagine was probably worse than anything they could have shown.

And everything was going really well with Corin’s panel. I was enjoying myself, he was funny. But then the bottom fell out. See, I live in Pittsburgh, and in Pittsburgh, we are fanatical about our football team, the Steelers. Well, the Steelers were playing a playoff game that day against their hated rivals, the Baltimore Ravens. Since I was at the con, my mom was DVRing the game on her Tivo so we could go home that night and watch it. I hadn’t checked any scores. I had no idea what was happening with the game because I wanted to be surprised. But then Corin gave a score update because he is a big Steelers fan. My mom gasped, looked at me, and then:

Mom: Did he just…
Me: Yeah, he did.
Mom: Oh, my gosh.
Me: I know! I can’t believe he did that! I’m should go up to the mike and call him on that.
Mom: You should.
Me: I am going to.

So I did! I went up to the mike, and when it was my turn, I totally scolded Corin Nemec for spoiling the game score for me. I was like, “Hey, I live in Pittsburgh, so go Steelers! But I was DVRing the game, and you totally spoiled it for me with all this talk about the scores. I’m a little miffed, I have to tell you.” Light audience laughter. I wasn’t too mean or anything, and it was kind of lighthearted. But seriously, he did totally spoil the score! And since he was so personable, I thought he could handle one fan calling him on it. And I was right because Corin was so funny about it. He immediately was like, “I am so sorry. I don’t even know what to say. Did I really spoil it? Oh, I don’t know what to say.” Then, to try and make it up to me, he told a story about how his dad spoiled this year’s Sugar Bowl between Arkansas and Ohio State. Arkansas was driving at the end of the game to try and win it, but they threw an interception. Corin and his father were watching the game on DVR, and right before it happened, his dad said something about the interceptions and ruined it for Corin. But since I am originally from Ohio and was rooting for the Buckeyes, I was happy about it and loved that play. By this time, people in the front row were updating both of us about the game score, blatantly ignoring my playful shushing! Everyone was out to spoil the game for me! Then he looked back at me again and once more said, “I really don’t know what to say.” I told him he already apologized and it was okay, really, that we were cool. So the moral of the story is don’t trust Corin Nemec to keep Steelers’ game scores a secret.

At one point, he called the Campbells backwoods and backwater hicks or something like that, and the crowd sort of mildly gasped. But he said since he’s from Arkansas originally, he can say these things. He then went on to tell some hilarious stories about his family back in Arkansas. He talked about his uncle, who is a cop at a train yard. So basically, he’s a security cop. But he thinks he’s a real cop, so he carries his gun everywhere he goes. He even took it to a family wedding in Louisiana, telling everyone it was okay “because he was a cop.” And this same uncle lives on a large wooded lot, and he rents out the land during deer hunting season so deer hunters can shoot deer. One year at Thanksgiving dinner, prime deer-hunting season, they were all sitting down to the table when a number of shots rang out. Corin’s mother was slightly alarmed and asked his uncle if there were going to be gunshots coming through the house. His uncle stood up, took out his pistol, walked outside, fired off some rounds into the air, and came back and said, “that should keep them away for a while.” Since he was telling these amazing stories about his family, obviously thinking they’re a little nuts, I went back up to the mike and asked him what his family thought of him with his Hollywood career and all. He joked that he doesn’t go back to Arkansas, so he wouldn’t know. And then he told more stories about his crazy family. It was super entertaining.

The last panel of the day was Samantha Smith, Mary Winchester herself. She was so great! She’s really sweet and funny. I liked her a lot. She was the lone female cast member at the con, and she represented!

She came out with her cellphone at the ready because she promised her Auntie Kim that we would all say hello, so she called her aunt and told her where she was, and we all said hello to her Auntie Kim. I bet her Aunt was so pleased! If I could do that, I would totally abuse my celebrity power and make random phone calls to family and make my fans say things to them.

I didn’t take as many notes for her panel because at this point in the day, I was getting kind of tired and just wanted to relax and listen, but here are some of the things I wrote down and remember.

She kind of fell into acting, starting with commercials. Her first job was an episode of “Seinfeld,” and she got the job because the director winked at her at the audition, and she winked back because that’s what you do when someone winks at you.

She was dressed in a leather jacked and some mean-looking boots, which fit with how she sees herself. She says she projects mom, so she gets cast as a mom a lot, but she personally feels like Lara Croft, like more of a butt-kicking woman.

When asked about pranks on set (yeah, seriously, EVERYONE got asked about pranks) she said the boys never did anything to her because they were too afraid. Smart boys. Don’t mess with your fake mother!

She talked about having a real ghost in her house at one point, and a number of her friends and family saw it. That’s pretty creepy! Better get the salt out…

When asked where she thinks Mary’s soul is, because Ash couldn’t find her in heaven, Samantha said she things Mary is there but just hasn’t been found yet. Then a fan reminded her that she made a deal with a demon, so maybe she isn’t in heaven. She was quite perplexed by that, and it does raise an interesting question. Are John and Mary not in heaven because they both made deals? Maybe they are in purgatory! She said she was having lunch with Kripke Monday and would get to the bottom of this soul business.

She also was adamant that Mary would have never raised Sam and Dean like John did, to be hunters. She was actually really cute and protective of Sam and Dean!

She talked about shooting an episode of “House,” how Hugh Laurie is really hot and uses an American accent all the time on set. She thought that made good sense because you don’t want to keep going back and forth and then lose your TV accent at the wrong time during a shot or something. She also said that Hugh is an accomplished jazz pianist and was practicing a lot in his trailer. He apologized for bothering her when she brought it up, but she said it was really great music and she didn’t mind at all.

During the “Scary Mary” part of “Dark Side of the Moon,” as she called it, after they shot the first take, Jensen looked at her and said, “Okay, creepy” and walked away. I bet it was creepy to see that live. I mean, I was pretty creeped out by that part! But it must have been fun to play, too.

And that’s pretty much it! Phew, that was a lot of panels. It was a very entertaining day, though. My mom and I made our way home, had some dinner, and then settled in to watch the Steelers-Ravens game…even though we kind of knew the score. Still, it was a fun game to watch since the Steelers won, so I wasn’t too mad about all the score spoiling.

Next up, my Sunday report, complete with my Jensen and Jared photo op story and the pictures I took during their panel.