All Hell Breaks Loose III: sweetondean’s Report, Part 2
Jim:
“G’day Idjits!” Jim’s a well read, well versed in just about everything, man. He sung us an Australian folk song. The Ballad of Moreton Bay. He was surprised most people didn’t know it and that we weren’t taught that particular song in school. He’s known it since he was a child. He has a nice voice. Jim talked about acting in a wheelchair. He said he didn’t like it because he likes to move when he acts. But being in that chair, he was respectful of people who live in a wheelchair because he could get up and walk away when he was done, so he was conscious of all the people who can’t. The old prank question was asked again. He said it was the one question that he can guarantee he will always be asked at a convention. Yep. Anyway, he said he’s never been pranked per say, not like Misha and his car full of coins, but basically, Jared will always try and make him laugh. Most recently, they were shooting the scene in Survival Of The Fittest where Bobby was saying goodbye to the boys and telling them when it was their time to go, go. He said that the camera was on him and all he could see was Jared poking his head above the camera and in a gap in the equipment pulling crazy faces. Here he was delivering his death eulogy and Jared was trying his hardest to make him crack. Jared does it to him all the time. “And you thought they were professionals” Jim said.
He discussed GhostBobby again and how he didn’t like it. Well he said with GhostBobby the pay was better than being DeadBobby but he preferred the status quo. He liked the relationship Bobby had built up with the brothers and he enjoyed playing that dynamic. But he understood why the writers did it. He understood the drama and the storytelling and from that point of view he thought it was great, but from his point of view, the point of view of both the actor and the character, he preferred it when Bobby was alive. He has no idea what the future holds for Bobby, he only hopes that he is back at some point, preferably whole again and not as a spirit. Jim then said after being overseas for a while, he loved that we spoke English. After that he pretty much didn’t understand about 50% of the questions! We do speak fast. Then the dancing question came up again. Jim said, Bobby doesn’t dance, however Jim does, if he’s drunk enough. He’s been known to do the Timewarp. Oh Mr Beaver, red rag to a room full of Aussies. Yes we all taunted him into doing it. We yelled out all the words. I think we got a partial jump to the left, and then a step to the right, we got the hands on the hips and sort of got the knees in tight…he drew the line at the pelvic thrust!
Jim talked about whether he ever thought he’d have been on Supernatural as long as he was. He said, that no, he thought it was a one shot deal. But when he was leaving after wrapping his first episode all the crew were clapping him on the back and saying, we’ll see you again, you didn’t die. Now, 53 eps later…. The kissing Crowley question came up…again. Jim said, he has a soft beard but Mark’s stubble is scratchy! He told us to be careful what you wish for because he’d been teasing Kripke for ages, asking for a love scene and then of course he got a kissing scene, but with Mark Sheppard! He said Mark’s been riding that one kiss to fame ever since. Jim did enjoy kissing Sheriff Mills. He likes Kim/Jody a lot. He said, “It was gooooooood.” By the way, I pretty much think everyone flirts with Jim. There’s a lot of very easy teasing and flirting going back and forth.
Jim was asked if he’d ever thought about writing for Supernatural and he said, funnily he had. He’d started working up an idea that all took place in Bobby’s house…and then they burnt Bobby’s house down. So then he came up with another idea….and then they killed Bobby. So then he stopped. He said that was it because he wasn’t going to write something he wasn’t in! Though if he did write something for Bobby, he’d make sure Sheriff Mills was in it. Adorable! He was asked about his relationship with the Js. He said they get on great. He loves working on the show because it’s so much fun. Everyone gets along and has a great time on set. Everyone loves each other. He talked about how his relationship with the Js is that of a friend and a peer/colleague. That they are equals. He’s not like a father figure to them, that’s just the character he plays. He said the Js are both great at what they do, talented, Jim’s just a little “…older than them, 6 months….ok 8”.
He talked about his favourite onset memory. It was during the shooting of Death’s Door. They had what he thought was one of those emergency training deals where everyone has to muster and watch a movie. He went and hid out in his trailer, but a PA knocked on the door and said, sorry Jim but you really need to do this. So he grumbled and grizzled his way over to where they were all supposed to meet and walked into the room to see everyone in the crew there. He knew something must have been up because Jensen and Jared were there and they’re never on set before he is! He sat down and waited for the health and safety video to start but instead it was a Bobby tribute video. He was incredibly moved. Many people cried. He ascertained that he didn’t. He said, “Jim don’t cry.” Yeah, I’m sure. He also talked about Jensen directing and how, as an actor, he felt totally safe and supported by Jensen. He said he’d watched Jensen essentially training for that role for years, asking questions of every guest director that came on board, absorbing as much of the technical information that he could. Jim was never interested in that stuff. Directing is too much work and he just wanted to act, but he said, Jensen was always interested. He’d been preparing for the role of director for years. (Side note….I get irrationally excited when the cast members pontificate about Jensen, I remember Jim saying on one of the WinBros podcasts that Jensen is a “Magnificent human being.” Seriously. I feel like getting that tattooed across my heart.). Anyhoooo, that was it. Jim wrapped up by signing a hat for auction. He wrote Balls and Idjit on it. Of course he did.
Last on the days agenda was the inimitable Mr Collins.
Are you all still with me?
Misha: (warning…ahead be bad language and smut)
This is the 5th Misha panel I’ve seen and I think it was the best. The man was on fire. He was suitably dirty for the Aussie audience…we aren’t very pc at best of times, and we really love a bit of cheek and smut…and he wasn’t too smart assed as sometimes I’ve seen him get. Like at Chicon, where he obviously thought the questions were inane and basically told everyone off.
Misha made several comments at this convention about the mythology of the series. He said it at breakfast, on stage and at the autos. Basically, he says he doesn’t understand how they can kill off and then bring back Cass with no explanation. I remember at the breakfast he was saying about how Cass was walking around naked, how did he survive, why wasn’t that explained? I’d said what about the wife thing too, he said, exactly! Then he added, though if any of us saw him walking around naked we’d put him in our car. He’s probably right. He said he thinks it’s interesting the writers don’t seem to bother using mythology to explain that kind of thing anymore, they just do it. At the panel, he said this in relation to the fact that Cass is back and obviously, for him that’s a good thing. But what I heard at the breakfast and at the autos came across as a bit snarky quite frankly! Misha is Misha, so you kind of expect that bluntness from him and he tended to say it as a throw away line, so if you wanted you could take it in jest, but I’m torn by his openness in saying that he’s not impressed with how elements of the story are being written. As an ongoing cast member, I always wonder if it’s cool to be bagging out the writers like that? I mean, I guess I’ve heard Jensen do it a couple of times too, they really let their guard down a bit the conventions. They know we love and respect them so I think they’re more honest with us than they sometimes intend to be. Jared totally bagged out Dawn Ostroff in his meet and greet! Jensen’s criticised a few things but then he sort of professionalisms his way right over the top of it. Misha just basically out right said he thought it sucked! He said, how many times has Cass died anyway? We all started yelling out answers. He said, “This is not a guessing game!” I do appreciate his candour (amongst other things) and the trust he shows in sharing these opinions.
There was a question about furniture making and failure. I guess this came from the Rome con with his resume saying he makes furniture and Jensen confirming that Misha’s pretty good at it. Misha had no idea what this girl was talking about. She soldiered on asking again if he’d had any furniture failures. He still didn’t get it. He came forward to the front of the stage and leant down and said to me and the ladies sitting next to me. “What? What is she talking about?” We’re going, furniture, you make furniture right? Have you had any failures? He was so confused. He’s looking at us like we’re insane and then I think the penny dropped. “Oh furniture. Yes I make furniture.” He then talked about how the only failures he’d had were ones involving blood. Basically every piece of furniture Misha has ever made is tinged with his blood! He said he always nips off the top of his fingers with the rotary saw (he needs to be more careful, my dad cut three fingers off with a rotary saw!). He says he’s accident-prone at the best of times and he doesn’t like wearing the stupid safety gear so he’s continually injuring himself. So all of his furniture is imbedded with his DNA. Then he asked if the girl was satisfied. This became a running joke. Was he satisfying us. Yes, you know what he’s talking about….
Then there was a badly cloaked Destiel question. Why did Misha think Cass has bonded so strongly with Dean? (Language warning) Misha: “You mean why bond with Dean over Sam when obviously Cass wants to fuck Sam so much?” *Audience tries to pick themselves off the floor* Then he said to all of us “Now see what you made me do. Shame on you.” And yet, he continued…. He said Cass likes Dean for conversation where as “…Cass and Sam, its just sex. It’s more shallow.” He said that basically they can’t put him into scenes with Jared, because Jared just wants to pull Misha’s pants down. The poor girl asking the question sort of tries to slink off… “Are you satisfied? Wait, did you just fake it? Or did you come twice?” Yes…it was that kind of panel. He then apologised, “I’m sorry I’m very vulgar today.” We all yelled out, don’t worry about it you’re in Australia mate! Then he told us how a certain convention organiser in the US had the nerve to ask him not to swear…he issued a string of expletives to illustrate his point! I think by this stage we were all in tears and finding it hard to draw a breath!
He was asked if he thought things would’ve been different for Cass had he not met the Winchesters and he said, well yes, he wouldn’t have got drunk, he wouldn’t have been to a brothel. Then he stopped and said, “Cass is such a nerd isn’t he.” He talked about how Cass had really been through the ringer but that he’d finally got the hug. I think we all yelled out…well only sort of! He talked about Win Wenders’ Wings Of Desire and that basically Kripke just stole the idea for Castiel from that movie. Because in Wings Of Desire there’s the Angel Cassiel, who falls. But Cassiel got lots of sex and Cass didn’t. Misha was hoping that when Cass fell he’d be able to explore more human emotions and failings and get loads of sex, but that didn’t happen. Misha was disappointed, mostly through the lack of sex I gathered.
The next girl up managed to stop Misha in his tracks and leave him speechless. Girl: “Congratulations on your face…it’s fantastic.”
Misha:……………………………………………….. Yeah. He literally had no idea what to say! Finally he said, “Well thank you!” She asked him about candy, because she was going to send Richard and Corin some Tim Tams (a yummy chocolate biscuit) and what would he like. We all started yelling Fantales. He should remember these from last time he was here because he gave us all a Fantale at the cocktail party. I may or may not still have mine (I still mine). Anyway, someone pegged a Fantale at him, which he ran and got and ate. Big mistake, they are very chewy. Then someone gave him another lolly called a redskin. It’s this red/pink, impossibly hard stuff. He said that was the real deal, the Fantale was more like foreplay. Then he took off his jacket while the congratulations on your face girl sung stripper music!
He was asked if he ever improvised in his scenes and he said no, he’s been specifically asked not to! He said he did however improvise the look down at his crotch in the pizza man porno scene. He thought they’d cut it out but we said, nope they left that in. He was surprised they could get away with it. Obviously he hadn’t seen the episode or he’d have known even Dean said he had a boner!
Then he was asked a question about Random Acts. Cue serious Misha. He sat down to tell us about how Random Acts had recently bought a car for a family with a 3-year-old daughter who had cancer. With the car it made it easier to get back and forth for her treatments. He said it was wonderful to see how something like that could make a substantial material difference in their lives. He’s continually impressed by the enthusiastic and generous energy of the fandom. He spoke about Haiti and the orphanage he’s involved with there and about one little boy who’s father, a widower, didn’t know what to do with the boy while he was at work so he chained the boy to a table. Now the child lives at the orphanage is learning to walk and talk…at age 4…and has completely changed from being in a sustainable loving environment. The girl who asked the question said, “See you in Haiti” Misha said, “No way, will you be there?” and excitedly ran over and met her properly.
The next question continued this serious note, if there was a zombie apocalypse, which 3 real people would you take and what would be your weapon. Misha’s answer… Spiderman, Batman and Wonderwoman and a Fantale, because if the zombies were eating those they wouldn’t be able to bite him. True fact and great idea. Fantales take forever to chew. He was asked about a possible Cass spin-off. Misha said he thinks that Cass has an addictive personality; “Obviously” so Cass would be up to no good and strung out the whole time. He talked about when he grows old how he’s going to explain Supernatural to his grand children. “There was a time when women would scream for me.” He said he’s saying this while weighing 400lbs and being stuck to the couch. As a last question, he was asked what Cass’ theme song would be and he said it would be violent gangsta rap, something about bitches. Then he was done…well not quite done, because next up was the auction!
Misha decorated his shirt. He didn’t know what to draw, so people yelled stuff out and he started to draw Angel wings…then he realised we were all watching so he ran into the middle of the stage, turned the chair over and hid behind it while he drew. Then he jumped up, with his back to us, pulled the t-shirt over his head and proudly spun around. Here it is. It went for $1600AUS.
Next Corin came out and decorated a t-shirt…. He chose to put his on a little differently. I’m sorry I can’t remember what the t-shirt sold for…for obvious reasons it was the least of my thinking.
And then it was all over. Boo. After the convention I went with Jules from Superwiki, Shelley and her brother and Amy and Rebecca to the local pub, where we relived all the fun, looked through my photos on my camera and talked conventions, genre TV and Vancon over several….like SEVERAL….bottles of champagne. It was a good day. It was a good night. Supernatural conventions and Supernatural fans…yeah, you’re all my happy place!
That’s it. Oh my gosh I am so sorry it was so long! But I warned you…I took notes!
I hope you enjoyed the write up. Sorry about the language…but blame Richard and Misha! Thanks for reading.
NEXT STOP VANCON!
This made me laugh so hard there were tears.. sounds like you had a great time! I am going to Vancon too.. hopefully it will be just as great!
It was a fun con, very relaxed! Vancon will be great!
I ADORE Misha. Since my sense of humor tends to run on the vulgar side (oh hell….. it is past the vulgar side and firmly planted in the obscene) I find him to be HYSTERICAL!! That t-shirt…… I want one!
Thanks for taking time to share your convention adventures. Always a pleasure to read.
Hi Sweetondean
It is a fantastic experience isn’t it with all the excitement in the air, the meeting the actors and fellow fans.
Jim Beaver seems like such a wonderful person, I would like to meet him one day.
He truly is a professional to understand and accept the writers reason for killing off Bobby.
I personally am not as understanding nor happy that they would kill off a beloved character just for dramatic purposes, but that’s just me.
I completely have to agree with you about Richard, Corin and Traci.
I too found them to be just lovely people when I saw them at the Toronto Con back in October 2011.
Misha is certainly a character isn’t he? It’s funny when he was here he was very entertaining but very calm and down to earth.
From all the youtube clips I had seen and articles written about him, I was expecting this rambunctious, off the wall crazy guy, so I have to admit I was quite surprised to see this calm and relaxed guy. I guess he must have tired himself out from the boat cruise from the night before. 😀
Thank you for sharing your experience.
Thanks for your fun report! I’ve only been to Creation cons & DragonCon, so it’s great to hear about other cons too. Meeting up with friends & fellow fans is what makes them so much fun!
This was great! I especially like the personal touches meeting the guys. Vegas will be my first time for photo ops but being Creation, I fear they will come and go before I can blink. I wonder if Creation whom Misha was talking about. But great note taking. Loved it all!
It was absolutely Creation who asked him not to swear! I was at one of the Creation cons when he mentioned…and ignored them! They also asked Mark Pellegrino not to swear, he also ignored them!
The Creation photo ops are super fast, take a deep breath and do your best to remember them! I’ll see you there!
Long you say? Not long enough! Thanks so much for sharing, sounds like you had a blast. All the guests seemed so genuinely nice.
Good to know, SOD. You must travel alot. I asked Richard if he was going to play it straight as Master of Ceremonies in Vegas, and he assured me he will not follow the rules and fun will be had by all. 😆