VanCon 2014

J2 Gold Panel
Video

- Jared asks for the crazy stories from the con so far. “Two fingers of Matt Cohen.” Jared - “I’m not going to ask.”

- Jared wanted to know if there was a boat tour (he was referring to Misha’s Friday cruise that he had with 70 fans). He strangely wanted to know the name of the boat, because he saw one out and wondered the name of the boat. “It wasn’t called Misha,” he laughed as that was a fan’s answer.

- Jared did a roll call of first timers. Half of the room raised their hands. Yes, there’s a lot of new people coming to these cons these days. He mentioned the 200th episode (a common the theme for this weekend), which they are shooting right now. Jensen has shot 2 days of the episode so far, Jared only 1. Name of the episode, “Fan Fiction.”

- Jared blames his shoulder surgery on being a beanpole. “I got ninjafied.” Jensen - “For the first time in 10 years I have more muscle than he does.”
- Jared starts a story with “I was on a plane this summer…” and everyone starts laughing. For anyone that doesn’t get the joke, Jared has been railing on American Airlines on his Twitter feed recently. He told us about how he had a sling on in the plane and the woman sitting next to him helped him out. She asked how he hurt his shoulder. “I hurt it wrestling.” Woman - “In school?” Jared laughed, “I’m 32.” She wondered what he did for a living and he let her know he was an actor on a TV show. She hadn’t heard of Supernatural, but was curious if it was on Netflix. She really wanted to see it. Jared told her, “If you watch an episode every other day for the next year you’ll catch up.” Her stunned reaction - “What’d you say?” She had no idea there was 195 episodes out there!

- We got the whole story about the recent accident involving the Impala and the driver, Frank. Jensen told the story. Frank was pulling the car onto the trailer and the throttle got stuck. He tried to hit the brakes, but the power of the engine was too much. Thinking of the safety of those around, he cranked it left to get away from people, jumped over the median, knocked over a sign, went down a ditch and crashed into trees. It snapped his collarbone, and part of it was sticking out of the skin. He was in terrible pain and while the fire truck got there in five minutes, the paramedics took 40 minutes! Jared tweeted a picture of the car. The car itself is fine, a dent on the underside of the bumper, and that was probably already there. Turns out the accelerator got stuck on some wires and it was easily fixed. The car made it out way better than poor Frank
.- They recently shot something at a Gymnasium (in their FBI suits). There were some basketballs on the other side of the gym and Jensen started shooting baskets. “I look over at Jared and he’s just got one arm.” Jensen then demonstrates Jared sadly bouncing the basketball with one arm. Yes, the injury has been taking it’s toll! Jared told Bob Singer this summer he had to have shoulder surgery and will try to be ready by filming. Singer, who has had shoulder surgery before, knew better and wrote it in. Sam is wearing a sling the first four episodes. Jared was proud to show up for the 200th episode (shot by Phil Sgriccia) without a sling.

- Someone in our row in the back corner of the room asked Jared, “Does Osric have to sleep with one eye open?” Jensen - “Osric already sleeps with one eye open. He’s a ninja. I’ll take any Chuck Norris proverb and insert Osric Chau.” So they do! They break into a few Chuck Norris jokes inserting Osric’s name. “Osric Chau does not sleep, he waits.” “When Osric Chau gets out of the boat, he doesn’t get wet. The lake gets Osric’d.”

Here it is, the moment of history! Someone gets the ball rolling by asking about Jensen and his Facebook page. Jensen explains the whole thing to us. When he was at Comic Con, he was at Nerd HQ. There was a Facebook booth in the green room. Two people came up to him and said that they have his name on Facebook and it has 4 million likes. He had no idea what that meant! They offered to give him the page, for nothing. They told him all he has to do is verify it and that will debunk the other ones. They walked him through the process of taking the account over, and he did. So yes, Jensen owns that Facebook page now, but he hasn’t done anything with it.

That was the perfect segue to Jensen and Twitter. He’s been resisting social media and Twitter as well all know. He knows though how it’s become an important tool for the industry and it’s very good connection to the fans. So, he announces that right there, on the stage, he’s joining Twitter! He gets out his phone and Jared walks him through the process.
Jensen said that the network got his name and the account has been setup. He decides his first tweet is to take a photo of all us and it’ll be the first tweet. “I’m not going to send out pictures of my breakfast, just so you know.”

“You’re going to break Twitter,” some fans shout as the joins start going through the roof. He called his twitter name, @JensenAckles a “handle.” They joked on stage about him using old trucker lingo. “What’s your avatar going to be?” Jared asks. “You lost me,” Jensen answers.


Jared and Jensen go the corner and Jared stands on a chair and takes the picture of the crowd. Then they go back to the stage and try to send the first tweet out. Jensen has to be guided by Jared to send the tweet! He looked so lost through the whole process. It was pretty adorable. First there was a matter of which hashtags to use. He was told about hashtag #VanCon.

Then they were told #Porncouver. “Porncouver???” Jared asks us incredulously. Apparently he hadn’t heard Richard’s opening speech on Friday. He was told to blame Richard.
Jensen beats his head on the mic trying to get this message together, because they still can’t decide on what to include. It’s hilarious. Finally they send, and Jensen is sweating it out after sending the tweet. “Twitter 1, Jensen 0.” Then Jared tweets the announcement on his Twitter. Jensen by this time already has 18,000 followers. Jensen, “I’m a Sam girl, I’m not following.”

Then Clif comes over and reveals the tweet didn’t go through! The tweets are bouncing. There’s no cell service!! (Tell me about it. We’ve had that problem all weekend). So they have to try again. Jared has to hold the phone way over his head!!! Finally, it works. The entire room is rolling in laughter.

“In the 3 seconds I’ve tweeted it, you’ve got 2,000 followers,” Jared said. They also noticed there were already some hate tweets! Jensen asked, “Does that mean I have to do that ice bucket thing?” He’s not doing it today. He’s been nominated a dozen times, and that’s just his family. His aunt in Denver challenged him yesterday.
Clif shows the guys the twitter on the laptop, and Jared shows the timeline to us. Messages are coming in fast and furious. “Welcome to my world Jensen Ackles.” Jared admits he gets really scared when messages start flying at him like that, and that’s why he can’t answer any of us.

After proclaiming this to be a historic event (it most certainly was), the J’s take their bow and go off the photo ops. We go rushing back to our hotel rooms, because we need some damned internet service to start sharing this wonderful news.

Sunday Report, J2 panel

Video

Rob and the band opened Jared and Jensen's panel with Carry On Wayward Son - during which, Jensen came out to sing along and the crowd went wild. Rob let Jensen and Jared join in on the little jump he does to cut off the band. It was cute.

Jensen and Jared started by acknowledging and pointing out the crew that were standing in the back of the room.

Jensen then immediately commented on how much they were both sweating.
Jared: "Let's change shirts."
Jensen: "Ok!"
- But of course they were joking.

(Since they brought it up though, just to give you a little ambiance for the room - the theatre is in the basement of the Wall Centre. They have all the doors closed except for one and there's very very little air flow...and by that I mean that there's basically none... when you put around 1,000 warm bodies in that room and then add stage lighting and a spotlight, a/v equipment, etc... that room heats up like you wouldn't believe. By the end of the panel, I was slowly dripping sweat just sitting in my seat - poor Jared and Jensen were on stage under lights... they were basically slowly melting for the whole panel. This is one good thing about VanCon moving to the convention centre next year - the convention centre will have much better air-conditioning and rooms with higher ceilings to that the warm air can rise away from us.)

Jared likes to poll the audience to see who is new. He also asked who had just started watching the show in the past 12 months. A few people cheered or raised their hands. A fan called out: "Where have you been?!" which made Jared and Jensen laugh.

They played Rock Paper Scissors to decide on which question line to start on first. Jensen dutifully went into character and threw Scissors.
Jared: "Always with the scissors."

How soon did they mess with Misha?
- Pretty much immediately. They thought he was weird.
- Jared told us that Misha was in character, so he was sitting there all serious - Jared did an impression. Then Jensen asked Jared what Misha looked like when he wasn't in character, and Jared did the exact same impression.
- Jared related the story about him and Chad Michael Murray being on the set of Gilmore Girls (at the mention of Gilmore Girls, Jensen made fun of Jared, so an audience member made fun of Jensen being on Days of Our Lives - Jensen recited "Like sand through the hourglass..." in response) when a tourist group of Canadians came through, he and Chad were staring at them in wonder, like "Canadians!" and that was basically how Jared and Jensen stared at Misha the first day.

Back when Sam was in Stanford, do they think that Sam or Dean ever called, or had the urge to call, their brother at any time - like when they were drunk or high?
- Jared and Jensen both got a huge kick out of the fact that the questioner said "or high"
Jared: "You know you're in Canada when..." (Sidenote: And I can agree to this, because I didn't think that had been a weird/funny thing for the questioner to say at all! )
- Yes, they think that the brothers would have wanted to call. Jared thinks maybe Dean more than Sam, because Dean was still hunting and therefore more things were happening to him that he might have wanted to talk about.

How do they not bring the work home?
- It's easy after so many years. They have each other and the crew.
- Jensen replied that sometimes after a tough take, they might go get a "coca cola" (quotation marks implied through tone).
- Jared related the story about how sometimes they do get affected, like for some reason the scene in Croatoan really upset Jared way more than it upset Sam.

During that question, Tomas called out "Hi Daddy!" from behind stage. Jared said "Hi Thomas" back with a big smile.

Then Jensen interrupted: "While we're talking about his beautiful son..."
- Then Jensen related a story from when they arrived today. Thomas arrived in the green room, but Jensen had just stepped out to use the bathroom. When Thomas got to the green room and saw that it was just Jared there, he said "Where's Uncle Jensen?!" and then proceeded to cry until Jensen got back.

Jensen and Thomas then traded "I love yous" from either side of the stage curtain. It was pretty adorable.

Returning to the question - Jared advised that actors shouldn't use characters to get rid of their own crap, because if they do, the character dies. "Ask Rob or Richard!"

Dean once promised that he'd stop treating Sam like a kid, but has he?
- Jensen thinks that Sam will always be Dean's little brother.
- Jared made a protesting noise at the word "little", so Jensen corrected it to "younger."
- Jared agreed and said that you never really shake those sorts of relationships. In terms of the relationship dynamics, Jared's older brother is always going to be his older brother and his father is always his father, etc.

A baby cried somewhere in the theatre at this point.
Jared: "Is that mine?"
Nope, another baby.

They often make fun of their movies, but which movie are they most proud of?
- Jared knows they joke around a lot, but he's actually proud of facets of all his movies. In terms of watching them though, Jared likes Cry Wolf, because it was a feature film filmed on a budget that was less than one episode of Supernatural.
- Jensen's most proud of New York Minute. He loved the level of maturity and thinks that it transcends.

Is Demon!Dean hard to play?
- Jared got up at this point to poke his head through the curtain at the side of the stage and talk to someone backstage... Jensen thought it looked like he was peeing and made jokes.
- Yes, Demon!Dean was hard....

Tomas came on stage for a second here. Clif put him down just inside the curtain, and he was brave enough to point to the audience, stick out his tongue, and then he promptly turned around and asked to be carried out again.
- Jensen joked that that's exactly how Jared shows up for "blocking" every morning. Jared dutifully acted it out, including going up to Jensen and saying "Carry me!"
Jensen: "And then I carry him back to his trailer."

- Back to the question - yes, it was hard, but the crew is very supportive and they were there to pick up the slack if Jensen did a bad job.
Jared: "He didn't do bad at all."

At this point, a member of the staff put a fan onstage behind the J's chairs. He pointed it mostly up, but slightly out towards the audience.

Has being on the show affected their own brother/family relationships?
- Jared answered it's affected him as a parent, because he now has 2 boys who are going to be brothers, and he wants to teach them what that means - he thinks he'll be a better father because of the show.

While Jared answered, Jensen got up and went back to the fan, holding his shirt out so that the air would blow up it.... from where I was sitting, I couldn't see the fan, or anything below Jensen's waist, so for a moment it looked like Jensen was pretending to urinate on the stage and I was super confused.

- Jensen, once he had sat back down again, said that after 10 years, you're going to learn a lot.

While Jensen answered, Jared went back to the fan and kind of squat down over it. Jensen turned to look at him and said "good, right?" and then he started singing "Heaven isn't so far away..." while the band joined in for a few bars.

- Returning to the question, Jensen said that the show also affected his family relationships because he's gone for so much of the year. He appreciates family more now when he sees them.

How easy is it to jump into character after nine seasons?
- Jensen answered that after 200 episodes it's extremely easy.
- Jared answered that it pisses off the guest starts, because they can goof around and then go right into character - whereas the guest stars can't do that, and they get thrown off guard by suddenly going into a series scene when Jared and Jensen had just been laughing.

Jensen then started relating a story about how he was talking to their focus puller, Matt, at a party - because it was Brad Creasser's (camera-guy, AD) 50th birthday...
- And since Jensen brought up Brad, Jared and him had to make fun of the way Brad dances again - giving a demonstration of his complete lack of rhythm or graceful movement. It was hilarious.
Back to the story - he was talking to Matt, and Matt told him that he had asked a recent guest star how she had liked being on the show. Her reply was that it had been really difficult. Jensen had been taken aback, because he thought she had a good time. And apparently, yes, she had a good time, but it had been difficult to act with Jared and Jensen being goofs.
- They then talked about Misha's line on the upcoming gag reel, where he exclaims, "They didn't teach me this in drama school!" and Jensen's immediately response was to laugh and say "He went to drama school!"
- So, Jared and Jensen can really throw off people who need to concentrate in order to act.

Have their opinions on a musical episode changed? SPOILER -



- No, Jensen hasn't changed his mind. He joked that it was the first time he went to LA to personally meet with the writers. He then shook his head and admitted that the meeting in LA hadn't been for that reason at all.- They think that the fans will either love the 200th episode, or it will piss them off.
Jensen: "Jared's not singing and Jensen's not singing."

Any lessons they've learned from the show?
- Jared has learned to never give up, to keep fighting until you know what you're fighting for. Jared likes a quote that's more or less: "Success is what happens when you're busy working for it." You shouldn't wake up in the morning and not fight, or try, just because you don't know what the point is.

What would they wish for in the wishing well, like from Wishful Thinking?
- Jensen can't remember episodes - Jared laughs at him.
The fan offers another example, saying that Crowley sold his soul for an extra 3 inches...
Jensen: "Wouldn't help him anyway."
*Jared laughs*
- Jensen threw the question to Jared and says that he's not allowed any "pageant answers".
- Jared wishes for Chrystal Pepsi to come back, and he wants to win McDonald's monopoly, because he's always missing just one sticker.
- Jensen would wish for 10 wishes and then give Jared a chance to redo his crappy wishes.
- Jared would bring back Thundercats and recast Batman.

Jensen then proceeded to make fun of the way Christian Bale sounds as Batman, while Jared pretended to get flustered over how sexy it was - knocking over his chair and then leaving the stage.

Jensen put Jared's chair down off the front of the stage, and then held his finger up to the audience and told us all to quiet down.

Thomas came on a backstage microphone and said "Hi Unca Jensen!" Jensen then asked Thomas if Thomas was eating Jensen's gummi bears.
Thomas: "What gummi bears?"
Jensen: "That's a yes."

Jared came back on stage then and went to pick up his chair from in front of the stage, while Jensen realized the flaw in that particular "prank"...
Jensen: "Don't hurt your shoulder!"
Jared: "I'm not using it!"
*Jared rolls on stage, using his left shoulder, very ungracefully.
Jared: "I'm a cat.... a dead cat."

What's their favourite version of their each other's character?
- Jared likes End!Dean.

Thomas yelled again from back stage.
Jared: "I hear you buddy, I love you!"
Jensen: "I didn't say anything."

- Jensen likes Unlucky!Sam from Bad Day at Black Rock, because Jared doesn't usually ever get to play comedy. "Unlucky!Sam? Shoeless!Sam?" On a darker note, Jensen liked Lucifer!Sam.
- Jared added, that since they were picking more than one, he'd also say YellowFever!Dean, and his line "That was scary!"

The next questioner apologized for the fact that they had had a little emotional breakdown in the photo-ops earlier.
- Jared said that there was no need to apologies. That we're all family here. "This is where we come to be ourselves, not apologize."

Their question was what would Dean or Sam say if they met the other characters that Jared and Jensen had played?
Jared - Sam would think Dean Forrester was a wuss. (There was another joke here that I completely missed. Sorry!)
Jensen - to his character from Smallville - "Nice frosted tips, fruitcake." To his character from My Bloody Valentine - car talk. To Alec from Dark Angel - "What's with the barcode tattoo, babyface?" To his character from 10 Inch Hero - "I've given up on my brother, but we need to talk about your hair."
Jensen: "I could do this all day."

If Sam had demon blood, why does salt not affect him?
- Demon blood doesn't make you a demon, it's just a test for Lucifer's vessel.
- Jared's answer then lead to jokes about it being an allergy test, which Jared then acted out giving to Jensen.

Jared then went back to the fan and tried to do a Darth Vader impersonation, which Jensen totally saw coming... then Jared realized that holding the microphone close to the fan made a noise like the Jaws theme, so he tried to "play" that.

Has Jensen's directing affected his acting?
Jensen: "No, I don't think so."
Jared: "That's deep, man, that's deep.
- Jensen says it works the other way - his acting affects his directing. Jared and him are good technically, so the that comprehension plays into directing. As an actor, he already knew stuff about lights and such - he gives the example of acting with light coming through blinds, where Serge (the DP) will just tell him that he'd dealing with blinds, and Jensen and Jared will both just act the scene while keeping the light on their eyes, without even really thinking too hard about it.
- The crew has really influenced his directing the most. Jensen didn't go to film school.
Jared: "There's a film school?"
- It's more like they've been living in a film school for the past 10 years, and they've had wonderful teachers.

Do they have any tattoos? Do they WANT tattoos?
- Jensen doesn't have any tattoos. He has wanted them from time to time, but he's seen some people's tattoos and thinks "you were drunk" or "you were fully unconscious." He has a buddy who has Marvin the Martian still from when he was 18.
- Jared wanted one on his arm, "Nothing big, like Jensen's face on my face."
Jensen: "That'd be confusing."
- Jared believes that your best quality is also your worst quality - like, Jared tends to live in the moment. He might want to get his family's initials or names... and Jensen's family's initials. Since he's an actor, it's not like he can get a neck tattoo or a tear-drop. (*Jensen laughs*)

At this point, Clif came to tell them that the panel was over, but he brought Brad Creasser with him. Brad has been with the show since S1 - The Benders. We all sang him Happy Birthday, and then Jared and Jensen insisted that he dance with them, so they all did "The Creasser" to close the panel.

Jared held Thomas as he signed the banners. It was cute.