Supernatural Toronto Convention 2013 – Day One
Back in August of 1969, a huge major event occurred, roughly 400,000 people converged on a Farm in Bethel, New York and spent three days grooving to music and spreading the word of Peace and Love.
Despite the rain, mud, lack of food, sanitation and medical facilities (The promoters had only expected 50,000 spectators not 400,000) and two unfortunate fatalities (one from an overdose of heroin and the other from a farmer on a tractor trailer not realizing he had a guest sleeping in his field).
The weekend lived up to its promotion of ‘3 Days of Peace and Music’.
This of course was Woodstock.
I only bring this up because I feel I have experienced my own kind of Woodstock this weekend.
There was music, friends and an atmosphere of excitement, high spirits and LOVE.
So welcome to my Supernatural Woodstock or ‘Superstock’.
Before I start I just want to let you know that I don’t have any pictures as my camera is ancient and would have provided only blurry figments of people, much like what I see without my glasses. Also with each panel I have only put responses from questions being asked. With so much going on and at times being so captivated by the guest stars I could not do word for word or get all the questions.
Day one: Friday October 11th
Destination: Westin Harbour Castle Convention Centre
I was excited that the Convention was taking place at the Westin Hotel. I had worked downtown from 1979-1988 and I had only been back 5 or 6 times since. I looked forward to seeing my old stomping grounds. I was surprised on how many High Rises had been built and all the construction at Union Station. Once I got to the hotel I realized it was only 10:20. I wouldn’t be able to register until 12:15. So I walked along the water front for a bit and then settled myself on a bench. I sat quietly and watched the boats, ducks, people and the planes. It was a very tranquil, I considered it my calm before the storm. Around 11:50 I headed for the hotel. Once I found the area that the event was being held, I got in line to register. I was quite a few people back so I figured I would be there for awhile but the line went very quickly. I was maybe 15-20 minutes at the most. Once I was registered I went in the line to purchase an Autograph Ticket for Jim Beaver. I just love Jim and was really excited that he was here. I will always be bitter over the demise of Bobby.
”Damn you Kripke!” Oops sorry, old habits.
“Damn you Sera!”
Once that was done I went to the Vendor room to see if I could get the pictures I needed for Jared and Jensen to sign. Eureka! I found the ones I needed.
I was done all this by 1pm but the theatre doors didn’t open until 2pm. So off to the water front I went. What can I say, I love the water. It wasn’t long before it was going on 2pm so I headed back to the Hotel. I found my seat P20 and got myself ready for the big event.
While waiting for the panels to start I was able to meet some of the people sitting in my area. I was sitting third seat in from the aisle. So far seats 18, 19, 21 and 22 were empty and remained that way all day. This surprised me since it was Silver tickets. Seat 17 however had a bubbly and friendly 17 year old girl from Ontario. Behind me in row Q was a Mother and daughter also Ontario, next to them was a Nurse, a husband and wife and a young man in his early twenties, they were all from Michigan and neither of them new each other prior. After chatting I found this was all of their first convention.
I also met Sylvie one of our regulars to the WFB site. She came by for a brief moment to say hello. I didn’t know at the time but this little group of people I have mentioned would become just as special to see each day as the Panelist. Finally it was time to start the festivities.
2:30pm
Our first panel was our MC for the weekend Richard Speight Jr.
Richard came out and asked who was Canadian. More than half the room put up their hands. He then asked who was from overseas, only a few hands. He then started talking about some of his experiences. One was when he had left his cell phone in the dressing room with I believe Jared, Matt and others. When he returned a couple of minutes later, he received a call from his wife. She wanted to know who was Brenda? Apparently his wife received several provocative text messages addressing her as Brenda from Richard.
Richard explained to his wife that it was the guys clowning around. After getting off the phone he confronted the guys. They responded that he (Richard) had left the room with his phone on. Apparently standard protocol is if you leave your cell phone it will get tampered with. He did agree though that he would have done the exact same thing.
Another time he was in Rome and he left his laptop assessable. When he later went to use his lap top he had several unsavoury websites booming at him.
He asked who saw the Season 9 Premiere. Most put up their hands, so he asked who hadn’t seen it. About 5 people said they hadn’t seen it. He of course had to give them a hard time and reminded them which night the show was on. Tuesday!
3:00pm
Richard then called on Samantha Smith:
(All photos courtesy of PKayla. You can check out her collection of Toronto Con 2013 photos at http://s64.photobucket.com/user/PKayla/library/Torcon2013)
What a sweet beautiful lady she is. She appeared to be a little nervous and wasn’t sure what to talk about. She had asked her followers on twitter to send in ideas of what she should talk about but didn’t get a chance to check them.
Richard came out and wanted to know if she was going to Karaoke tonight and if she was going to sing.
She said she had never done Karaoke but would be there and would sing.
Richard mentioned on a previous convention that to get Mark Pellegrino on stage they kept serving him Scotch. Apparently when they finally got him on stage he did a fantastic job of Big Balls by AC/DC.
The following is responses to the questions being asked by the audience.
Samantha doesn’t know when or if she will be back, she has not been approached so far.
She believes Chuck is God and Richard added that he has joined a band in Heaven.
She thinks Mary is in heaven not hell as she would like to believe she is somewhere reachable so she could return. She also believes she is with John, driving around in a convertible.
When portraying Eve and the evil Mary that was with Zack, she saw them as different characters, that they were not Mary, so that’s how she played them.
At the end of her audition for Mary, David Nutter winked at her and she immediately winked back. She believes this is why she landed the role of Mary.
Samantha does feel Mary would be mad at John for how he raised the boys. “I’m gone so raise them nice”.
No one on the set has played a joke on her.
She wasn’t sure how Mary would feel about Dean and Benny’s relationship. She would like to believe Mary would be opened minded since Benny did get her son out of purgatory.
Samantha did like Amy Gumenick’s portrayal of young Mary. She thought she was spot on.
Not sure how Mary feels about Adam being left in the cage. “Adam wasn’t my kid”
It is a bit hard playing the J’s mom as they are “Smoke Show Hot”. But she sees them as her kids and she can boss them around, send them to their room. Richard added “spank them”.
She feels Mary would be mad the way her father treated her son’s. She would love to come back but not at the expense of her boys.
Richard came out and slapped a bloody hand decal on Samantha’s upper arm. She was a little surprised but continued like nothing happened.
Samantha started out as a model and was doing commercials. She was approached by a director to do a movie. However the movie failed and she ended up on Seinfeld.
If she wasn’t acting she would like to get into the Care Giving Industry.
She would do saran on the toilet as a practical joke.
If John had died instead of Mary, she would not have gone back into hunting “I would take the boys and move to Canada.”
She wasn’t angry with the writers for not having Mary prepared to protect her family when knowing that the YED was going to return. She feels Mary would have been prepared.
Someone from the audience yelled out that Michael had erased her memory.
Richard came back out to end her segment.
Before she left he had her read the winner of one of the Music Video’s that had been sent in.
3:50
During this time they played a Yes/No game. About 20 people were up on stage with yes and no cards, when asked a question they were to put up their answer. If they were wrong they were out of the game. Eventually there would be one left standing. The winner would win $200 and would stay in the next round. The winner of round one also won round two and won an additional $400. By the third round she lost and a new winner won. It was actually fun to watch.
4:30
Next panel was supposed to be Rick Worthy but he had to cancel due to being ill. Luckily since Julian Richings resides in Toronto and was available he was able to go in Rick’s stead.
(Photo Courtesy of PKayla)
Julian came out and greeted everyone.
He joked that the show was on a limited budget due to Death not being fed and Misha having to do his own laundry.
The following is responses to the questions being asked by the audience.
The first person mentioned how they loved in the TV show “Once a Thief” which only ran from 1996-1998. He said he loved doing the Character Camier.
He thought the introduction of Death was great and enjoyed the restaurant scene with Jensen and the food.
He believes Death found the Leviathans a disappointment much like our (Toronto) Mayor. (Not going to touch that one.)
He feels that Death looks on both brothers as an uncle, he’s fond of both.
Has also played Death in the movie short ‘Dave vs Death’.
Auditioning for Death in Supernatural was very easy he was able to send in a tape of himself so he didn’t have to perform in front of anyone.
Julian feels if he was to play in more episodes that Deaths fondness of the brothers would remain strong.
He believes his accent helped with the role. He was born in England but has been in Canada for 30years, so his accent is a bit different.
One of audience mentioned he shared his name. Julian was thankful when John Lennon named his son Julian because up until then he was teased that he had a girl’s name.
His favourite foods are Chip Butties (Chips/French Fries between two slices of bread) and Poutine (French fries with brown gravy and cheese curds).
Likes playing a villain but does try show the humanity side of the character.
His view on Metatron and the falling Angels is cool. He feels Death doesn’t get too personal.
He does get recognized. Before Supernatural people would look at him and give him that ‘I know you but where” look but now it’s “Hi Julian”. He said his wife loves watching people’s reaction when they realize who he is.
He likes the music style of the Sexpistal and the music that was done in the Hard Core Logo movies he did.
Richard came out to tell us that Julian’s panel was over. I couldn’t believe how fast it went, he is really interesting to listen to.
5:15
James Patrick Stuart
(Photo courtesy of PKayla)
Talked a bit about himself and how he had auditioned for the Ben Affleck movie Argo. He was called back and thought for sure he had it. But then he was told they had picked some else for the role. He was disappointed but it also opened him up to audition for the role of Dick Roman.
He said he had used false teeth because it made him more sinister. Sera Gamble had commented that he was really creepy.
The following is responses to the questions being asked by the audience.
He said he had never met Misha even though he was travelling around in him.
This got quite a reaction from the audience.
James thought Misha was great, doing all these charitable causes meanwhile he (James) is doing ethnic jokes on Twitter.
He said the studio couldn’t get hold of a full length Limo when doing the scene between Dick and Crowley. It was a small and tight and hot.
James didn’t find out what Bibbing was until How to win friends and influence Monsters when he had Dr. Gains bib himself. Apparently during dinner he told his son that he knew what bibbing was. His son thought that was cool, but later he asked his dad ‘How do you eat yourself’ James replied ‘You have to take a good run at it”
His favourite Dick joke was “I’d tell you about my dick but it’s a little long”. He was joking of course. His favourite was ‘The Rise of Dick’.
If Dick was to dual against Crowley, he figured Crowley would win ‘Crowley could talk Dick to sleep’.
Richard later commented that this was the quote of the day.
James does like playing evil characters
He also felt it was a compliment that Dick was more hated than Lucifer.
When meeting up with the FX guys for his transformation into the Big Mouth part of the Leviathan, he was expecting some major makeup and prosthetics. However the FX guy pulled out his ‘sharpie’ and placed four dots on his face. He was a little disappointment.
He figures Dick is not happy about being back in purgatory.
Dick gave Canada to Crowley because he figures Crowley wanted it more.
Losing against the Winchester would have brought out Dicks humility.
His ‘Rise of Dick’ speeches never led to any Companies wanting him to do corporate endorsements.
He loves doing both Voice over (cartoons and video games) and doing live action. He was really influenced by Phil Hartman.
He wouldn’t have changed Dick’s name “We all love Dick”
He believes Dick was more Leviathan than human.
Richard came on stage to give the bad news that James panel was over.
Sylvie came over and we talked about the show, the convention and a little about ourselves.
Sylvie was staying at the hotel. I was staying at my daughters since I only had to travel half hour each way instead of one and a half hours each way by public transit. It was then that Sylvie mentioned she heard that the subway system was shutting down this weekend. I got a hold of my husband to confirm what system was going to be closed. He found out that pretty much the whole route I had to travel was going to be shutdown until Tuesday morning. I knew the subway system like the back of my hand but using the buses or street cars? Not so much, especially since it was probably 8 years ago that I was last down here. Now for a normal person this would be no issue, but for a person that has no sense of direction and can get lost going through a turn-style this was not good.
I decided that after the autographs I would head out and not stay for Karaoke. I needed to get back to my daughters to work out my new travelling options and schedule.
7:00
Autographs started for James and Samantha on one side of the theatre and Julian Richings on the other.
With holding a silver ticket I was able to get James and Samantha. I had brought Companion books Season 1 and Season 7 so I could get both Samantha and James to sign their character segments of the books. This is probably the longest wait I had all weekend. They started at 7:00pm our row wasn’t called until after 10pm. When I finally got up there they were both very friendly but they looked so tired. Their hands must have been killing them. I wondered how they were going to make it through Karaoke.
Everyone going to Karaoke had to line up outside the theatre doors until all the autographs were completed. It was suppose to start at 10:15, when I left around 10:30, there were still maybe 20 people in line for autographs. As I headed out I couldn’t believe how long the lineup was. It seem like more people in the line than there was all day.
Well that was day one. I hope you enjoyed it. Coming up next – Day Two.
For those who are unable to visit a con such tales as yours are precious, so thank you! I never have enough of these con stories, so much fun and additional details! For example, I haven’t heard before how proud Julian Riching’s wife feels when people recognize her husband and look at her – the wife of Pale Horseman – with awe! The image itself gives ideas to those who writes. And this “Adam from Creation” – I understand that he is a real person, a man doing his job at cons, but the sound of the name!
Hi Novi
Thank you for your comment. I too enjoy reading all the convention aritcles and finding out new things about the actors. I hope one day you will be able to go to one, it really is a wonderful experience.