Misha Collins (Oh boy, this was another wild one)
– The guy in front of me jumped up and down like a fool yelling “Yeah, Misha!” Misha joked that guy always does that every day.
– He doesn’t get started until everyone takes their seats and mocks those coming in. He notices this is Sunday and is surprised to see so many people in line. Fearless people. Okay, there’s fear.
– He moved straight to questions and notices the first questioner has a disposal camera. He’s interested since he rarely sees those anymore. She gives a long explanation of how her husband’s digital camera sucks and she had to buy that. Then she realizes he probably doesn’t want to hear the story. “No, that was a fascinating story. Tell us another one of your great technology stories.” She opts to save that for the next convention. After complimenting him on how spiffy he looks (big cheers from the crowd) she goes on with her serious character question. She was struck by Castiel’s last line before he went to Heaven, “There’s a choice between peace and freedom.” Does Castiel have to make that choice? “Yes, I think so. I don’t think that will be the biggest question he’ll be facing.” God’s resurrection of Cas, the second time, sealed his fate. Cas now feels duty bound to God and to Heaven. God is looking out for him and he does have a purpose and a mission to serve the greater purpose of God. Cas thinks that to reassemble Heaven and prevent humanity from being destroyed. He thinks that the question that Cas is going to be faced with more than the peace vs. freedom question is whether the ends justify the means. He jokes as she’s leaving that it probably doesn’t make any sense but that won’t stop him from saying it.
– Does he have any projects coming up? Yes. “I’m currently making a stone bowl. Marble, British Columbia marble harvested from a quarry there. I haven’t yet started carving out the inside, the outside is round. I’m looking forward to seeing how it comes out myself. In fact it’s a lot rounder than I thought it was going to be. We can only hope that critics like it.”
– Would he accept if Ellen DeGeneres asked him to come on her show? “Yeah. I can handle her for sure. I can handle you, I can handle her.”
– Misha lets out a big “oh no.” I laugh, because it’s Patrick, someone I’ve gotten to know from last year’s NJ con and Facebook. He’s a character and I guess he’s been asking questions all weekend. He asks Misha the question about eating a cheeseburger in “My Bloody Valentine.” Misha points out it was a multitude of cheeseburgers. He gives the “I was wondering line” and Misha gives him a “you were wondering, now you’re asking” response. No wonder others have been avoiding that! Beware, Misha gets a little graphic!
– “Yes, a lot of burgers. The really shitty thing about eating things on camera is that you actually have to eat them many more times than what the audience would think. So, you see me eating three burgers I have to eat twelve because we’re doing so many takes. You never know which take is going to end up in the final cut so you have to do it every time. It would be great if we knew which take was going to work and which one wasn’t. It would be like ‘ah, I know Jensen’s acting terrible in this one they’ll never use it, I’m not going to actually swallow.’ But you don’t know so you have to forge on, even when he’s totally blowing it. It’s a disgusting feeling when you’re…” (Patrick says he knows). “I don’t know that you do know. When you’re masticating and you’re dreading swallowing because your stomach is already so distended, and also there’s a temptation to keep chewing and thinking like ‘All right, lets ride this scene out by chewing this’ and I’ll never had to swallow it and just keep taking bites and your mouth gets fuller and fuller and its more and more chewed in your mouth…” (groaning from audience) “Oh, no, it’s nice” (people laugh) “And then finally you come to the point where I can either take another bite and have my cheeks packed like a chipmunk’s or do what I’m dreading but know what I have to do which is swallow but by that time you get to that point you start to think there’s a lot of food in your mouth and it’s hard to swallow and it’s an awful thing. You can’t really think about anything else but dreading swallowing. And then Poor Robin, Robin is on set props. One of Robin’s jobs is at the end of the scene, (holds out hands). Because ideally at the end you still have food in your mouth that you haven’t swallowed at the end of the scene so you can spit it out. (‘Thank you sir’, he jokes).”
– “Jensen is pretty good at it because he’s eaten a lot of burgers over the course of the show. He fake chews a lot so a lot of times he’ll be chewing but there’s nothing in his mouth. And at the end of the scene he can assess better than I can, he knows when the camera will be on him at a particular point so when I go for a bite he’ll slap my hand. ‘Don’t bite now you don’t need to.’ So he’s kind of helped me out a little bit but it’s disgusting. And also I’m a little overzealous. I’m always trying to do whatever I’m supposed to be doing.”
– “That episode, (he verifies with the audience it was “My Bloody Valentine”) where I was eating ground beef off the floor, not fun, not fun at all. I was eating with my back toward everyone sort of hunched over, take after take eating, and then the director came out, this is the second time this has happened on the show, the director came out, ‘Okay Misha, we’re going to be on you now.'” (His stunned expression was priceless). “What?” Patrick thanked him and Misha replied dryly “No, thank you.”
– Somehow, talking about eating got him on about the salmon he got from the Hilton. “It had a Jalapeno cheese pump sauce on top. It doesn’t go on salmon, I don’t think. Sorry chef. Chef, if you’re here, sorry, you shouldn’t have done that.”
– He was asked about being freer with his convention affections since his first one last year in NJ. He cautioned the person that it is Sunday, day of the Lord. “Not if you’re Jewish,” she replied. Huge cheers from the room. Misha acknowledges that had this been on the Sabbath yesterday, it would have been a sin. What’s his favorite part of attending conventions? “Other than the salmon?” “Other than the adoration?” she asks. “It’s pretty nice. You come up here and everyone’s ‘Oh, you’re so great,’ and laughs at pretty much anything you say. Anywhere in the world that pretty much doesn’t happen.” She asks about home. “No, not funny. It gives you a false sense of security and self worth which is a big bonus.” After some goofing with fans, he claims New Jersey is the best place. “Better than Rome, better than Barcelona. I’d rather be in Parsippany than Paris for sure.” (A fan shouts out he’s lying. He denies it). I am totally serious, Parsippany is my favorite place.”
– I absolutely love this question. The person brings up the episode (Two Minutes To Midnight) when Cas had to travel on the bus cross country. That happened after he woke up in the hospital after being found on a shrimping boat. She was wondering if the trench coat is still smelling like fish at that point. She speculates Castiel just put it on and traveled cross country, stinking it up everywhere he goes. Was he smelling like fish when he was fighting? “Well, no because he threw up blood on himself. He’s smelling like bile and blood…and fish.” He went onto speculate that the hospital could have laundered the outfit while he was laying in bed.
– He’s been Castiel in different ways. Which is his favorite one to play? He tries to answer, but can’t remember all the options. She mentions druggy, stoner, orgy Cas. “Okay, no, not that guy. That was fun, but kind of a little too close to my own personality.” He likes Cas in a whorehouse, Cas in a fish out of water situation better. Drunk Cas was his favorite, which wasn’t one of her options. “The answer is E, none of the above.”
– The person brings up that Rob Benedict (from the breakfast earlier) had said that Chuck is God. “Of course he did. He said that he’s God in real life too.” The question veered in the event that Castiel finds out that Chuck was God, would he reevaluate their past interactions? He mocks her for questioning God on a Sunday and they have nice banter about her getting struck by lightening. Then he answers the question. “Okay, yes.”
– (SPOILER ALERT)
He’s not in episode Jensen directed. “It is a disappointment I know. I was really hoping to fuck with him. Jared is pretty light in the episode as well and I think they probably did that to help him out.” It’s a Bobby heavy episode. “I know, it seems like a waste of an episode. I guess they were thinking it’s his first one, and he’ll be pretty rough around the edges, so we’ll do one nobody wants to watch.” He did hear everyone thought he was doing a good job. “They finished early the first two out of three days, which never happens. I don’t know, they may have given up early, but anyway everyone went home.”
What was it like to work with Mark? He thinks Mark is going to be a big deal in season six. He stops himself. “I’m not supposed to talk about this. You tricked me.” He’s coming back and he’s going to have a big role. “He is going to play my Godmother.” He was asked if that’s the role he wants for Castiel. “Pass.”
– Does he prefer sci-fi roles or is there any genre? “I’ll do anything, I mean for money.” He thought about his roles, mentioning that “Nip/Tuck” was close enough that he’d come to a porn. No Karla was closer. It was a lot more pornographic what they did on the set than what actually made the final cut. “I think the director was getting his jollies when they were shooting it.” Then he stopped himself with the details by reminding himself it’s Sunday. “And why are we talking about pornography anyway?” He’d be interested in doing a three camera sitcom with an audience. They are so rare anymore.
– The next person tells him “My question is not about porn.” “Next,” he joked. She offers to make it about porn and he says okay. She goes back to his recent comments about eating on the set. “Do you spit or swallow?” The audience goes wild, Misha suddenly is very embarrassed but laughing, and after a minute he goes back to the podium and starts sorting through the certificates there. “There should be an award for that question.” “Interesting question, difficult to dodge.” “Do you want my real question?” She asks. “The problem with a question like that is it’s hard to out clever it. You kind of won just by asking the question. Now I will humbly admit defeat. Congratulations.”
– The question is about him working at the White House. “Speaking about spitting and swallowing.” He answers. He admits he predated Monica Lewinsky by three months. After that, he just can’t come up with an answer. Someone from the crowd asks if he was ever arrested. No, but he tells the story (which I believe he’s told before) about keeping his security badges after every night instead of turning them in. He did that for a while and had this mobile in his room of these badges, about thirty or forty of them. One day he asks a Secret Service what the penalty was for not turning in the badges. “Ten years in jail and a 100,000 fine.” He started putting them in the box. He said he still has a few of those badges “so if anyone wants to go have fun with the Obamas…” He also talked about how low level people would do anything to get to shake people’s hands. They would literally climb out the windows into the rose garden. It had this very weird celebrity worship quality. He finishes with “I hated it. Thank you.”
– He was asked about Castiel’s less than comforting scene in the car with Dean. The questioner thought that is was kind of weird for him after all they’d been through to just up and leave Dean there like that without any comfort or goodbye. What was his interpretation of that? He points out in fairness the show doesn’t do a lot of “love you man” and Sam and Dean hugging a lot, or “I’m so glad you’re okay I was so worried about you back there when those demons were jumping on you. My heart just stopped and I so afraid of what was going to happen without my brother but you’re okay and I love you.” They don’t do that so much. Cas did rightfully say “This is what you’re trying to get, this is what you’re trying to achieve. This is the goal of this mission. We had the best outcome we have could hoped for, we did actually save humanity. Big deal if you lost your brother (joking).” He thought Castiel was being compassionate but also pragmatic. God finally gave them verification, he gave them validation.
– That person also points out that she makes her boyfriend watch with her and he hates Jensen and Jared but loves Cas. “I can see that, yeah,” he answers.
– Someone is hoping he’s wearing the orange underwear today. He jokes about how inappropriate that is. Then she goes on about the angel killing sword and how it can’t kill Lucifer, yet it was never brought up. Misha (with backing of a few audience members) established they did bring that up in “Hammer of The Gods.” She tried to argue her point more, so Misha had an answer. “I’ll talk to them about that because it pissed me off too.” (He’s joking people).
– The same person asked if he had random story when he was hit on? He asked if she had a particular story in mind that she wanted to hear again. Nope, random. He brought up how he once looked like a girl, he was making out with his wife in the car in West Virginia and two locals were watching. “Look, there’s two Lesbos making out.” Something about her made him remember that. He further joked about fans following him home, guys trying to get a picture of him while they were in the bathroom. “We adjusted the framing so the urinals aren’t in the photo.
– He knew the next person, apparently she’s a closeted Minion. He tried to convince her to come out. “It’s kind of a personal thing. It’s like when you find Jesus. You just know.”
– This story takes a rather disturbing turn. She wanted to know how he prepared for the role of Paul Bernardo (Karla). He starts off with a joke. “Super, super fun. It was just a sort of sweet, sort of fun… It’s just one of those light hearted romps that you kind of just get to step away from all your troubles and do a little family movie like that.” (This film is about a real life Canadian serial killer). Then he goes into the disturbing details. “It was creepy on just about every single level. Every step of the way on that movie there was something weird happening that shouldn’t have been happening. First thing that happened was getting the part, that shouldn’t have happened. Didn’t know the about story, in Canada they’re infamous, people are not cool with that movie. Someone moved away from me on a bus. Didn’t know what the movie was all about but I had the script, I should have known better to do it. The second thing was we had a little time to rehearse and me and Laura Prepon, (redhead on “That 70’s Show”) (who) dyed her hair blonde for this part, she’s like, ‘Let’s go to my acting coach,” who was a psychotic guy in the valley. He recommended that we do, since we had a lot of physical scenes, that we get to know each other physically before we started shooting. So, Laura Prepon and I, at the direction of her acting coach, made out on the floor in her mansion as part of our rehearsal process. A little weird, totally inappropriate. Never told anyone that before.” (audience laughs)
“And then the director, he was a little off. By a little off I mean that by the end of the film the producers had a restraining order out on him and he wasn’t allowed to come near the set. We had these awful, awful, horrible rape scenes. Everyone just felt emotionally devastated, we’re sick to our stomachs, we’re crying, and he’d come up and go ‘Misha, Misha, that was really hot.’ What? Get away from me. And then, I went up for a press junket. I had no idea it was such a big deal in Canada still. We finished shooting and we went up for a press junket in Vancouver and (it was) the first interview I had. By the way, it was all over every newspaper it was huge. They were trying to pass legislation in Ottawa to ban the film. I got up there for my first interview, sat down and was asked why would I do a movie like this. Well you know, as an actor to have an opportunity to play a role that on one hand is a charming well-liked investment banker and on the other hand is a sociopathic rapist and killer, it’s a rare opportunity to play a character that is that strange, complex, and difficult to capture. And she said, ‘So, you’d tell the victim’s families that you saw their daughter’s death as a great opportunity for your career?'” (audience groans). “And this is on camera and I’m like ‘No, no, I wouldn’t say that to the families.’ It was awful, just awful. Weird. Surreal. And then one of the victims, the one sole surviving victim, ended up calling me on the phone and we had this two hour phone call where I had to pull off the side of the highway and talk to her for two hours after the movie came out…Yes, anyway it was awesome.” (Yikes! I think several of us were pretty shocked by that story).
– Is Jensen standoffish? “You should go to a convention with Jensen, you’ll see. He’s a prick.” (everyone laughs)
– Earlier in the week on Twitter Misha said he was looking for subjects for cloning experiments. This ended up being an amusing conversation between the two where she gave him her hand measurements. At first, especially the thumbs, seemed a little off but she won him over. “Yes, I would love to clone you. Can I have a piece of your hair?” So she gives him the slip of paper and a clump of her hair. “Thank you. All of the future yous as well.”
– Oh no, the Dean/Castiel question. Audience groans. “That’s one of my favorite sounds. The audience groaning. No, I’m not aware.” Everyone is quiet. “It’s like someone farted in the room.” Someone joked about Jared and Misha speculated how many man hours have been lost on the set by crew fleeing because of Jared’s farting. “But it’s Sunday and we can’t talk about that.”
– Someone came up and revealed that her friend does a dead on impersonation of Alastair. Misha comes out into the crowd and hands her the mike. “Close your eyes, pretend you’re in the shower, let’s do it.” She got verybembarrassed and wouldn’t do it, so Misha kept encouraging her. He wouldn’t take no for an answer, so he finally got her to do it. It wasn’t bad. Then goes back up to the stage and starts talking in an Indian voice. “I have spent a fair amount of time dwelling in useless accents.” Then he really veers off topic and makes a flower with his tongue and claims he can flip his eyelids over. He won’t do it. “I’m really good at tolerating pain. I’m never the one that says uncle.”
– He’s running out of time, so it’s time to pour through some questions quickly. He’s asked about the jacket in Stonehenge apocalypse. He wears it all the time and he stole it. He’s also asked about the brand for his trench coat. No, he doesn’t know, but there’s an entire warehouse full of them.
– What animal would he’d want to be? “Sauerkraut.” He tries to come up with another answer. “There’s too many rules in this game. Ask me a thing.” She does. “Sauerkraut.”
– Who was his favorite villain to go against Cas? He liked Alastair.
– He was asked about Castiel’s wardrobe and how it was inspired by the Constantine comic books. Would he do a TV show based on Keanu Reeves’ Constantine? He would do a TV show, but he’d have Keanu Reeves play him since that would be the most authentic. Then he would cancel the show.
– If he could have anyone dead or alive over for dinner, who would it be? Keanu Reeves. Misha actually met him at a shooting party at The University of Chicago for a film Keanu was doing in which he got to play a physics student. A physics PHD student from the universtity came up and offered to answer any questions Keanu might have about physics for the role. Keanu asks “Do you guys have lockers?”
He tried to go on, but his panel was ended by Adam at Creation. So he left to a lot of cheers and once again we got one very entertaining yet bizarre panel.
I swear, you chicks are so shallow. 😎
Hopefully we’ll get a Mary cameo (flashback, more likely) in season six.
So, is everyone hungry? How about burgers! I still think Misha, more than any human I can think of, needs his own TV show. Moral of the story, stick to porn, don’t do movies about Canadian serial killers.
Hi Alice
Thanks for the transcripts. Looks like you had a good time.
I hope they can bring Samantha(Mary) and Rob(Chuck) back for at least one episode each.
Thanks for the transcripts, Alice. Sounds like a good day of panels.
It is an amazing answer for me and help me so much. I’d like to be the practitioner of this blog and as a honest fan about it. Welcome to share and reprint.