borgmama1of5 | NashCon 2012--Experiencing 'The Boys' Up Close and Personal!

I just had one of the most amazing days in my life as a Supernatural fan!

Having gone to NashCon last year, I was debating going this year, since I have 2 daughters who live in Nashville and I could visit them. However, I was undecided until my LJ friend Sandy (sandymg) expressed an interest in going, and we debated how to get the best bang for our buck. We decided, instead of getting gold tickets, we would bid on the 30-minute private question-and-answer session, originally only Jensen’s, but then I simply couldn’t play favorites and bid on both. After 8 nerve-wracking days of watching the auction, to our tremendous excitement we won tickets to both Jensen and Jared!

The concept that I was going to sit with just 19 other fans to talk with the boys was still beyond my ability to imagine as Sandy and I were sitting in the Opryland Convention Center at 9 am Sunday morning. The day was to start with my Jensen photo op immediately followed by Jared’s Q & A. Those who were doing both were called at the start of photos, and somehow I ended up as the third person in line for a picture with Jensen. Glimpsing him through the doorway as he hugged the photographer Chris suddenly made me grasp that this was really going to happen!

They ushered us in the room and bam! right into being photographed, no time to brace for the impact of being up close and persona! About the only thing I had time to register were his classy gray cableknit sweater and stubbly jaw. And how much more slender he is in real life than he looks on TV.

And okay, how gosh-darned good-looking he is.

I managed “Good morning,” and, aiming for friendly casual, asked “What time did you roll in?” Jensen responded “Good morning,” we turned toward the camera, flash, and then he continued, “Very late.” Seeing my photo later I was delighted to see Jensen had a relaxed smile instead of his more polished ‘professional’ one.

Then it was off to the Q & A room, where Jared was already seated at a round table. All the chairs at the table were full, so we were told to pull chairs from the wall. Sandy managed to squeeze her chair in between two others, just a couple bodies away from the center of attraction, while I moved behind the people directly across from Jared. He had on a white beanie with blue stripes, a brown plaid shirt, and some facial scruff.

He was bantering with fans about the Superbowl, and when everyone was in place he rambled about trying to avoid the score for the rest of the day, with the group and Jared tossing out scenarios likely to ruin his attempt to be spoiler free, ending with him walking through the airport with blinders only for the captain to announce the score on the plane. There was a slight segue way into hockey, the physical beating hockey and football players take, and then Jared pointed out that he is the same size as running back Emmett Smith and Emmett looks like a shrimp next to the rest of the players.

The friendly back-and-forth felt like we were just hanging out with a friend, Jared being exceedingly casual and stream-of-conscious chatty. Finally he asked if someone had a question, and was asked what he was currently reading.

Jared’s currently been reading a book on hypnobirthing. He said ‘We want to have natural childbirth like Gen’s mom and Vicki (I assume Misha’s wife)—well, Gen does, I’ll take the epidural.’ He referenced a midwife and a doula, and then, saying that Gen will kill him for telling this story, said how he came home the other day and was horrified to find her on her hands and knees cleaning dog hair off the bathroom floor with Oxyclean and paper towels, indulging her nesting instinct. He horrifiedly asked, ‘Honey what are you doing?’ saying he would have done it himself or paid someone to get it done.

Jared riffed on the appearance of babies, that he knows he will love his baby, but he thinks they look like aliens. He said that his brother used a picture of his 2-month-old son Oliver for an online Christmas card. Showing it to one of the crew members, Jared was told the fellow had a picture just like it—and he showed Jared a picture of Admiral Ackbar from Star Wars, which Jared promptly shared with his brother. (I’m sure his brother’s wife appreciated that.) Because he was getting weird looks reading the hypnobirth book in public due to the picture of the baby on the cover of the book doing a bug-eyed, startled face, he loaded it onto his iPad to finish reading.

He also mentioned that he’s rereading “Freedom” by Jonathan Franzen because he read it too fast when it first came out and he felt he missed too much of it.

(My notes from this point are not necessarily in sequence, because I wrote them down after the half hour was over, trying to recall the details with Sandy’s help.)

Jared was asked what’s going on with Sam, and he said Sam will definitely be dealing with Lucifer. I asked if Jared has been trying to add nonverbal signs that he is still dealing with hallucinations, and he said that he has, but because the writers write more than 42 minutes, he thinks a lot of his palm-pressing and other indicators have ended up on the cutting room floor. He showed us that he still has faint marks from the latest application of his scar on his palm.

Asked about the Peoples’ Choice Award non-invitation, Jared intimated that communication between PCA and Supernatural went through the equivalent of the kids’ game of ‘telephone’ where the message gets distorted as people pass it on. He said the original question of could Supernatural attend was answered by someone ‘probably not’ because of the shooting schedule, and neither side pursued it to get a definitive answer.

This led to a discussion of logistics, and Jared said that it is in their contracts that they can’t take the last flight back to Vancouver when they travel because if, for any reason they miss that flight, shooting would end up delayed. He said that they are actually breaking that rule today because they are taking the last flight out of Nashville, but they really wanted to be here. He mentioned that one leg of their flight to Nashville was delayed by 45 minutes because the plane was overweight and had to burn off 315 pounds of jet fuel, which he was incredulous about.

When it was mentioned that this would be the last Nashville convention, he expressed regret and jumped enthusiastically on the idea of a con in Atlanta.

Jared said that even when he requested time off well in advance for his February wedding he was told they’d try to give him the weekend off, but if they were shooting a location that they could only use on the weekend he’d have to just fly out Sunday morning on the wedding day. Filming so much of the show on location makes adhering to the filming schedule extremely important. He said, for instance, that shooting on school property is challenging because you can’t film during school hours but you can’t run too late because the neighborhood doesn’t want lights and trucks around late.

At this point Jared casually mentioned that he’d just met with Bruce Willis about playing Bruce’s son in a new ‘Die Hard’ movie! He was pleased to say Bruce found him “action-y.” But he had to turn it down because they needed a commitment that he would be available to film from May through August, and he couldn’t give it because of Supernatural’s potential season 8. He talked a little about the investment a film makes in auditioning actors so they need to know potential candidates are available to work on the shooting schedule before spending money on the auditions and that it could run as high as $100K.

The most amazing part of this revelation was how laid back Jared was about it. He did not seem in the least resentful of having to turn the potential project down because of Supernatural. I got the impression that he feels confident that he will get good jobs when Supernatural is over but is in no hurry for that. He indicated both he and Jensen have been getting feelers.

Jared then returned to his favorite theme of the session by noting that Bruce is expecting a baby around the same time he is, and Sandy asked if Jared had told Bruce about hypnobirthing. Jared laughed about that potential conversation, pointing out that Bruce’s bald head looked like the baby on the cover of the book. Jared then wondered how they got the baby to look so focused in the picture, imitating the photographer clapping loudly and calling “Hey, baby! Here!” Someone said maybe they offered the baby milk, and he mimed pulling down his shirt to breastfeed, then said that would work on Sebastian…

He mentioned the greatness of working on a set where it is a big happy family, unlike some where the actors can’t stand each other, and he cited “Wonder Years” where they had to do individual shots when the family was sitting around the dinner table because the actors didn’t like each other. Then he apologized for spoiling one woman’s enjoyment of the show when she expressed dismay about that.

Returning to the coming baby, Jared expressed surprise at how fast the pregnancy had moved along, and he was regretful that he and Gen had not photodocumented it, so they had their wedding photographer take some pictures on the spur of the moment around Christmas. He also said both of them, at someone’s suggestion, had written letters to the baby. He wanted to write, “I just want you to be happy…and a Dallas Cowboys quarterback…and be happy…”

He’s tried using the hypnobirthing technique to help him sleep, and the breathing and steps of making your body heavy seem to work. He even told Jensen about doing that because Jensen had trouble sleeping last night.

When Creation said time was up, Jared seemed as sorry as we were that it was over.

My final impression of Jared after this close-up half hour is that he is genuinely a people-person, and that his bubbly, talkative image is pretty much who is really is. It is easy to image sitting down anywhere with him and having a wide-ranging, intelligent conversation with a lot of laughing, as comfortable with a fan as with a friend.

And dimples.

Sandy and I returned to the auditorium to queue up for Sandy’s duo photo op. Although I wasn’t getting one, she let me stay with her in line until it was her turn, at which point I was ushered to the other side of the room while she was photographed, and I got to see Jared pet her velvet shirt after the picture was taken! Hee! [Note from Sandy: He said, “Oh, soft.”]

Then we got to head the line for the Jared photo op in order to get to Jensen’s Q & A on time, and this time I had the nerve to go for the full Jared hug, which, damn, came out as what I think is the cutest picture! He’s just sooo enthusiastic about responding to his fans! And my arms went all the way around him!

There was about enough time for a deep breath and we were in the room for Jensen’s session. This time there were 3 rows of chairs facing a tall chair, and everyone picked a number from a bag to get their seat. In a positively marvelous stroke of luck, I was in the center of the first row, meaning I had the best seat in the room!

Jensen came in and joked about sitting in the tall chair, to which one of the audience members responded, “The better to see you with!”

Jensen went directly to asking who had a question, and the first person who motioned asked “Who dressed you?” to which he laughed and answered he came home one day and found new clothes on the bed, and then credited Danneel, saying she had a great sense of style. He added that Gen tried to do the same for Jared, but whenever she wasn’t around Jared just went for a plaid shirt.

The next questioner relayed Kim Rhodes positive feedback about Jensen’s directing, how he asked her what she was trying to accomplish in a scene rather than tell her what to do. He clearly appreciated the praise, and said he mostly directed in the way he liked to receive direction. He went on to talk about how directors who have been with the show for a long time, like Bob Singer, don’t even need words to communicate, and Jensen stood to demonstrate how he could interpret a hand motion or even a grunt from Singer—and that Singer liked that Jensen could read his mind.

He accepted a compliment on how he looked in “Time After Time” in his 1940s clothes, and retold how the crew, bundled in their winter wear, admired the outfit and wondered why they stopped dressing like that. Then Jensen added the sweet comment that his grandmother told him he looked like his grandfather in that episode.

Jensen then gave a shout-out to the crew for making the 1940s so realistic, mentioning the challenges of getting a period piece right.

Sandy explained that Guy Norman Bee had told the fans that in 7.02, when Dean pulls Castiel’s trench coat from the water and folds it, that it had not been scripted, but that Jensen improvised it. She then asked how Jensen makes decisions on what to do in a scene when it’s not specified. He answered that as he pulled the coat out of the lake he thought that Cass would need it should he ever return. Then he’d folded the coat and said that he’d reacted without thinking about the action, that he just did it while feeling what Cass had meant to Dean, Dean’s strong bond and past respect. He continued that after being Dean for so long he just went on instinct.

I had questions about the most recent episode, “Slice Girls,” first asking if he’d seen the finished cut, and he said he’d seen it as broadcast. I wondered if he’d known how his scene with Lydia would be intercut with the second murder, and he said yes, it was specified in the script to be done like that. I next asked if he knew why Castiel’s handprint was not on his shoulder. Jensen replied that there had been discussion about it, and it was decided that when Cass healed Dean at the end of “Swan Song” the scar had been healed as well.

Finally, I asked if Dean would really have shot Emma, and he said yes without hesitating, though he added it would have been hard. I replied that it was very ambiguous, and that fans could interpret it either way, which made him pleased as that is what they were going for.

In another reference to directing, he said that he hadn’t been able to do the editing work on “The Girl Next Door” beyond an initial edit, and then it was out of his hands. He said he thought the flashback scenes were a little too orange, but other than that he was happy with what was done to it.

(Again, the sequence of my notes might be a little out of order from here.)

He said the writers were definitely leaving Dean’s apparent alcoholism as an open issue, revisited frequently in the episodes but able to eventually be written as either something that will drag him down further or it could be written for it to be the catalyst for change. He said that is done to keep story possibilities open, and he mentioned the amulet as another open end. I was surprised at his mention of the amulet as ‘open,’ since I know he has complained about it hitting his teeth in fight scenes.

Asked if he wanted to ever write a script for the show, Jensen said that he was not a concept person, but rather could take what someone else did and visualize it.

Jensen said that he and Jared never used to speculate on where things were going until recently, and added that the two of them had been discussing what might happen on the plane on the way to NashCon. They actually had come up with an idea for the ending that they might pitch. When I asked if it would be happy, he said probably not, that there really wasn’t a way for a happy ending for them. He said it was ‘the only way it could end.’

Asked if anything ever took him by surprise in a script, he mentioned the Leviathians as having been unexpected.

Sandy’s question was what Dean would chose to do as a do-over, specifically would he have made the first deal to bring Sam back. Without hesitating, Jensen said Dean would still have made all his deals, but Dean would have erased the year with Ben and Lisa, that Dean should have known that he couldn’t settle in to a normal life.

Jensen said that Dean’s focus now is still to keep Sam safe, that is what is keeping him going. Someone said that the boys should get an episode like the movie “It’s a Wonderful Life” to show them, especially Dean, that his life mattered. He thought that there have been episodes like that already. Then after a thoughtful moment, Jensen replied that there is something deep in Dean that knows what he has to do, that Dean is the “battered warrior” who keeps going.

He told how eating the turduckhen sandwich, because it was on hard chiabatta bread, cut his mouth. He kept taking big bites to make Dean talking with his mouth full look funnier, and he didn’t realize he was bleeding until Jared told him.

He added that he did have a real turduckhen sandwich on the set that day made especially for him and that it was delicious.

To the question about whether it was hard to step out of character, Jensen said no, after this long he and Jared both can go in and out easily, and he referred us to the outtakes to see how they go from serious to goofs in between takes.

When Creation signaled time up, Jensen said he ‘could talk with us all day.’

The 30 minutes with Jensen felt very different than Jared’s, and I can honestly say that I loved both experiences equally! Sandy expressed that it felt a little like Jensen was a guest speaker for a class, a view easily explained by just the difference in the seating arrangements, but it was more than that. I liken it to the difference I felt way back when I had my first individual photo ops—Jared is the same puppy man-child with fans and in real life, while Jensen wears a friendly but reserved face in public. Incredibly gracious and very appreciative of the fans, but he is in ‘professional’ mode with us, we will never see him let down his hair and cut loose with the craziness we see in the set outtakes.

On the shallow-sounding side, possibly the best part of the session was just being able to watch Jensen react with intense animation as he answered questions, especially when talking about his craft. He clearly is seriously passionate about what he does, and there is tremendous appeal in watching someone talk about what they love.

Taking a step back, I do question why the act of spending a small fortune to be able to sit in a small group and listen to 2 (admittedly extremely charismatic) actors who have millions of fans was so rewarding…but I’m just gonna go with it was, and leave the psychoanalysis of why alone for now.

sandymg