Supernatural Convention Report - Viva Las Vegascon Part 2: Jensen, Jared and Misha

All photos in this report (c) sweetondean 2013

IT’S J DAY!

Truth is, I come to these conventions for many reasons, but the main reason is to see the boys and if truth be known, one specific boy…or man…MANLY MAN (I mean these boys are in the 30’s after all!).

Normally the Js are on the Sunday of the convention. They’re the showstopper if you may, but at Vegascon, they were on the Saturday. Whether this was because of flights back to Vancouver and timings of work or whether it was because they wanted to be able to play up after their convention commitments I have no clue – but I’m betting on the later!

Jared had his mum and dad in town; they were with him at the convention at the panel and in his photo-ops. Clif flew down on Friday and Johnny and Sean came in with the boys on the Saturday.

But once again, I’ve jumped ahead! The day started a bit later than the usual J day. Normally I’m up at about 5.30am getting ready for a 7.30 breakfast start – or something along those lines. But this time, we could actually have a relaxing morning. The Js weren’t arriving at lunch until 2 and before then, we had Emily Perkins’ and Misha’s panels. So there was plenty of time to get ready, sort the makeup, do the hair…prepare for what was ahead!

(My apologies, I can’t for the life of me find my photos of Emily!)

I’ll admit we were a tiny bit late to Emily’s panel – moving a bit slow that morning – but we caught most of it. Emily is super tiny – I actually walked past her later in the casino and I’m talking TINY! She seemed a little nervous too, which was sweet. Plenty of people asked questions – it’s always awkward when there’s a guest and there’s no one to ask questions! But plenty of people lined up. There were a few of those, what do you think Becky is/was/has/done/doing questions which kind of drive me crazy, because really, unless you are asking about the character motivation in the episode they’re in, or unless the actor has created their own back-story for their character, these are questions for the writer. Some cast members are ok with saying, “I have no idea, ask the writers” but most try and come up with an answer on the spot. Convention handy hint: If asking a question, remember that the actor and the character are not the same thing and remember that the actor may not have complete insight into where the character might be now…or probably hasn’t even thought about it! I will say that when someone asked why Sam didn’t have pants on when Becky tied him up, I liked Emily’s answer – she was trying to make him comfortable and he was hot. It was left up in the air as to whether she meant he was warm or HOT! I think we know the answer to that one!

After Emily it was Mr Misha Collins! I’m going to come clean, I’m not a minion and where as I like the character of Castiel here and there, I’m not one that feels the need for him to be in all the episodes. The show for me is and will always be about the Winchester brothers. Other characters fill out and colour in their world, but they will never take the focus away from Sam and Dean, nor should they. But over the last few years of meeting Misha (whom I tend to call Collins), I have developed a healthy respect for him and frankly, have fallen a little in love with him. He’s funny and inspiring and I love that he teases the fandom and I love that he teases me! But I’ll get to that.

This convention had the most Castiels I have ever seen! From your standard Castiel, to Steam Punk Castiel, to pink Castiel! There were Cass’ everywhere!

First thing Misha did when he came on stage was inappropriately grope Richard, or at least fake it…so it was going to be one of those panels huh? Excellent. Then he grabbed Rob’s ass! Ah Misha, don’t ever change.

It was a fantastic panel, where Misha managed to inspire and offend us all at once, as only he can do. As usual, he took no crap. If he didn’t like your question or he was simply over it, you knew – I say this but he’s never rude, it’s always done very tongue in cheek and frankly, I think it’s what people enjoy about the back and forth with Misha.

To decide which side of the auditorium went first for questions he made the first people in line go up on stage and arm wrestle! The Castiel won, but then Misha never answered her question, saying he was trying to demonstrate to her that violence was not the answer! She said, he started, he said, “Don’t turn this around on me!”

People congratulated him on becoming a regular for season 9. He was asked about directing and said he was terrified of what Jared was going to do to him…which according to Jensen and Jared he should be, though I have a sneaking suspicion neither will be anything but supportive. He discussed Random Acts and how it was because of our passion and creativity that he started the charity. He could see what we were capable of and wanted to harness that into doing good (as opposed to evil, which I think he’d also enjoy quite frankly).

At one point he got all the Castiels up on stage and led them in a dance – what I called The Dance of the Castiels. Or rather he got them to “frolic” with him. He told them to follow him and he proceeded to dance around the stage in a way that looked remarkably like that ridiculous dance from the gag reel, complete with twirls and pirouettes!

He told an awesome story about on set shenanigans. How they recently had a guest star on set and the crew dressed in drag while shooting the guest star’s scenes and then the next day, wore ball-gags in their mouths. The guest star, to his credit never mentioned it. Just did the scenes professionally and went on home. What the cast and crew didn’t realise was that this guest star was only on set for 2 days, the in drag day and the ball-gag day! When he wasn’t on set on the 3rd day and everyone realised he’d finished up his scenes the day before, they were mortified! Because they never got a chance to tell the poor guy that it was just a joke. He must have gone away thinking, “What the hell?” This story came up again later in the J’s panel…Jensen had a field day with the sulking and the pouting, but I’ll get to that!

I love Misha’s panels. I love the way he talks to the fans. He can bounce between serious and gracious and just telling someone to get out of here! This one was probably my favourite of his panels so far – though maybe not as dirty as his panel in Sydney last year! He did manage to drop a few F-bombs, but he kept it pretty clean as a whole!

After Misha, it was time for the Gold lunch. The lunch, followed by the Js ops meant that we missed Rob’s solo panel, Richard’s solo panel and Jim’s first panel (we caught Jim on Sunday). This is the first time I’ve ever missed a panel because of clashes. I’ll be honest, I was kind of bummed. I mean Rob and Richard are two of my favourite guys… I did feed this back to Adam from Creation in my post con email (which I always do) and he said they were trying to give as much bang for our buck as they could. So, I guess yeah, if you weren’t Gold you got the panels…but I was still disappointed. I told him that next year with the 4 days (I’m going to have to go into training), maybe some of those clashes could be avoided. Here’s hoping.

Anyhoo, it was time for lunch with the boys (MEN). I’ve got to say, Creation really put on a spread! Lot’s of lovely stuff to choose from and yummy desserts. But yeah, I could hardly eat because of the nerves. My stomach was playing ping-pong or something! This was the 5th time I’d be seeing/meeting Jensen and Jared and I was still as nervous as hell! Go figure!

The boys arrived right on 2, looking fabulous as usual. Jensen in his denim shirt and Jared in some scarf ensemble which was exactly at Amy height – which I’ll explain later! The lighting was absolute rubbish so I got no decent photos at the lunch. There was a spotlight right about Jensen’s head which cast the most awful shadows on his beautiful face and we were back a fair ways as there was a dance floor in front of the stage and obviously no tables were allowed on it. My friend Karen called it the demilitarised zone! Jensen asked if we were having a dance party later!

First up, there was the usually chat about season 8, season 9 and then the boys thanked us for the People’s Choice Award. How if it weren’t for us, they wouldn’t be there or be receiving such accolades. Then someone congratulated Jensen on the bub. I must say I was very impressed with the fandom and the lack of questions about the coming baby. I feared the whole thing would be gushing about said bub and Jensen is a pretty private dude so I was worried all the baby talk would make him uncomfortable. But there was really very little. Nice work fandom! Anyway, there was the baby congrats pretty early on which led to that adorable moment of Jensen sticking out his tummy as if he was pregnant and Jared placing his hand and ear on Jensen’s tummy as if listening for a heartbeat and saying that Jensen was barley showing. Gah. These boys! (Though I think I heard fanfiction writers the world over squee in weird delight…)

One of the really interesting titbits revealed in this panel was that Jensen and Jared did not confer on their outfits for the PCAs. They both have friends who are stylists who helped them out individually. Jensen was just going to wear something out of his wardrobe…until the stylist saw what he was suggesting, and went out shopping for him! The fact that they matched – well... Jared said that they spend so much time together that now they think alike. Jensen said, “My suit actually matched your tie” the fans all said “Yes” which cracked Jared up! But, the whole matching thing was a complete fluke.

The wonderful thing about these lunches/breakfasts is that they are super casual. You don’t have to get up and queue at a microphone, you simply raise your hand at your table and the Js will get to you – point you out. I know that at Burbank, there isn’t a breakfast; it’s an additional panel, in your assigned seats. I’m hoping this isn’t the way it’s going because that would lose the casual intimacy that these events have.

Anyway, this lunch panel flew by. They are 30 minutes and I think this one may have been the fastest 30 minutes of my entire life! It was a blur of nerves and laughter and lurve…and it was all only just beginning…

Next up it was photos with Jensen. I had 2 singles and a shared with Hazel. Hazel and I laugh that in our friendship, she’s the Jared and I’m the Jensen. You know how Jensen is always going “What?” and turning to Jared who whispers what the question was or what was said? Well that’s us. Something happens to me at these convention things and I lose the ability to hear properly or think clearly, or something! So thank goodness Hazel is there to organise me! I’m forever going “What are we doing?” and she tells me!

I never do daft poses with Jensen. I mean, I mix it up a bit to get really good shots, but I’m all about getting my arms around that man! I’m always polite, say hello, say please and thank you, say goodbye. So first I asked for a hug photo and along with a big smile, I got a great, big all engulfing hug! Then I asked if I could kind of hug him from the side with my arms around his belly and he pulled me in, wrapped his hands over my hands and well…he pulled an adorable face! Like he’s doing an O with his mouth! Of course I didn’t know until I got the photo back, but it’s super cute and I love that he does that without me asking. I guess he’s seen me enough now to know he can play up and have a bit of fun and I’ll be cool with it. If you follow me on twitter it’s my current icon.

As usual, it was all too quick and it was off to wait for our J2s. Oh, I also have to say, my friend Kellie was a first timer this year and joined us in the photo op queue. She was so nervous about her first op. We gave her some in-queue coaching and backup! She got an epic hug from Jensen and bless her, was so thrilled when she came out of the room. I waited for her to see her reaction and it was shaky and teary and giggly. I remember my first time I met Jensen, I ran to my friend Tiny and hugged the life out of her and we jumped up and down on the spot! Of course, I’m pretty sure Jensen caught that! Seeing as we were still in the photo room! I love seeing people meeting him for the first time. It never gets old and it never gets old for me. He glows, with inner and outer beauty. And yes…I ran my hand down his back again. I simply can’t help it. It’s a subconscious thing, honestly it is! I just gotta touch the man! *sigh*

Ok, then it was our J2s. We had a single, a shared and for something different we got an op just with them. So my single was hug city again. By the way, that Padaleski dude just keeps getting more gorgeous. He’s like a golden God! Seriously, every time I see him I’m like…crikey, he got prettier again! Anyhoo, for our shared op we asked the boys to hug each other and we’d hug around them. Well, when we got the photo back they’re giving each other funny looks and sort of pushing each other away with their hands up like, yuck don’t you hug me, man – it’s brilliant! I’m in love with it! Then we got them to do a pose on their own and they did this kind of rock n’ roll thing with Jensen pointing at the camera and Jared kind of pulling a rockstar face. This one will never see the light of day I’m afraid. It’s really epic and just for us and well, we don’t want it all over the net!

Then it was queuing for Jared time. We had to wait at the photo room straight after our J2’s because we had Jensen’s meeting and greet and we had a 10-minute window to get our Jared ops and get to the meet and greet room!

Now like I said, Jared was wearing a scarf and it was Amy height. So when I went in for my hug, I was buried in scarf! I stopped Chris and asked Jared if I could shift his scarf and he said, “What’s happening?” and I said “You’re blocking me with your scarf!” and he said… “Oh yeah, I do that kind of thing!” and grinned at me. Gah! Then my second op, even though I change positions, it happened again and I said, “Err Jared, you’re blocking me again” and he laughed and shifted the scarf saying, “Is this better babe?” Bless him. This also happened with his collar at Vancon…so I must be just the right height to get buried in Jared’s clothing – not such a bad thing. By the way…he called me babe, sweetheart and love. Good grief! Oh and also, Mrs Padalecki was in there videoing the photo ops…so we all may be on a Padalecki family home video!

After our lovely Jared ops it was time to sprint down to the meet and greet room for our 30 minutes in Heaven…I mean, with Jensen.

As you’re probably aware, Creation has modified the guidelines around the private meet and greets. They’ve asked that attendees do not transcribe or report verbatim what was said. I know there’s been a bit of a kerfuffle about this, but let me say, as someone who’s done 6 meet and greets – 4 with Jensen, 1 with Jared and 1 with Richard, I support this request. These are relaxed and open forums where the guests feel comfortable sharing information and stories with a small group. Both Jensen and Jared have said things in the meet and greets I’ve attended, which I’ve never written up because I didn’t feel they were appropriate to share. Sometimes things slip out and it’s up to us to ensure that anything that may have been said in candour remains protected. This is about protecting the people we’re fans of. It’s also about protecting the integrity of the private meet and greet situation. I want to ensure that Jensen feels comfortable in the room and doesn’t have to worry about anything coming back to bite him on the ass.

To clarify the new guidelines, I contacted Adam from Creation. He told me that blogging about the event and paraphrasing a few lines here and there was fine, but entire transcripts was not in the spirit of the event. I guess, they’re not doing an interview; they’re having a candid chat with fans. There is a difference. To be honest, I usually only remember a handful of questions anyway, because I can barely remember my name when sitting in a small room with Jensen, let alone exactly what was said! So, with respect for Jensen (always), I will just paint a picture of the experience.

As usual, we had to pull numbers from an envelope to allocate our seats. I pulled front row but Hazel pulled second row (there were only 2 rows). It’s Hazel and my policy to always sit together at these things (I say it’s our brand), so I swapped with a reader of my pieces on The Winchester Family Business, I took her second row seat and she took my front row seat.

Anyway, Jensen strode in all smiles and hellos, seating himself on a tall chair in front of us. He was wonderful, as usual. There was discussion around directing and around his interest in photography, which he was warned would become much more important soon! We talked about the introduction of the MoLs bunker and Dean’s room and I discussed with him Dean’s prayer to Cass and the fact that Dan Loflin, the writer of that episode, had been on set when that scene was shot. I congratulated him on the scene and he thanked me, I said it was very emotional and he smiled and thanked me again and then I said, “At least it was for me” and he gave a great big laugh! I made Jensen laugh! I think that might be one of my favourite meet and greet moments ever!

He was gracious and attentive. He always ensures he puts maximum thought into your question. Mine was such a good one that we went back and forth with it a bit. I was totally stoked! He always looks you right in the eye when he talks to you and addresses his answer directly to you. It’s your answer and he ensures you have your moment in his orbit. He’s funny and yet soft-spoken. Jensen is quite different in this environment than he is in the panel with Jared. Less boisterous, a little more quiet. This is not to say there isn’t plenty of laughter, he has a great sense of humour and likes to joke and tease. There’s a lot of laughter in these things believe me! He seems totally relaxed and at ease with us in this environment. It really is awesome. Jensen’s meet and greet is always my favourite moment of the convention. I can’t imagine not doing it, like ever and I’ll always have his back no matter what. I have to say, these 30 minutes generally feel like a good amount of time, but it’s always so sad when he thanks us and gets up to stride back out. I could sit and talk to him for hours. He’s smart and interesting and amusing…and yeah, incredibly beautiful to bask in.

So then it was the J’s panel!

Richard told us in his meet and greet on Sunday evening that the Elastic Waste Band was not originally supposed to be on stage with the Js. But Richard asked Jensen if he’d like them to stay and Jensen said yes and thank goodness for that, because having the band on stage with the boys during their panel was so much fun. I mean, I’ve always thought Jensen must love to dance…what with how often he dances around on the gag reels, well, in this panel…he danced quite a bit! He bantered, played air-guitar, air-drums and of course…he sang. Jensen really enjoyed the band. But hey, I’m getting ahead of myself again!

Jared brought the PCA out for us all to see – which Jensen then danced across the stage with. Jared is so proud of that thing. They set it up on the podium on stage so we could all enjoy it during the panel.

Thankfully someone had said to Jared that the chairs were too low on stage (they were) so the boys sat up on the back of the chairs so we could all see them – and enjoy their long legs sprawling!

I think Jensen is getting sassier in these things. In the couple of years that I’ve been doing the Creation conventions, he has definitely relaxed more and now he gives the fans so much cheek! Also, he’s naughty and sometimes kinda dirty! It’s so appreciated I can’t even tell you!

There was a great question about script writing and what they like and don’t like as actors. For me, hearing them talk about their craft is always a highlight, because they are both so passionate. Later there was a funny moment about method acting, where the nervous fan tried to explain method acting to Jensen, which made Jared whisper – “He’s a professional actor”.

Ty swung by for a visit to ask a question about the J’s identical trailers and motorcycles and then bring a little boy, whose name was Jensen, up on stage to meet big Jensen. Awwww.

Then later Misha tried to crash the panel – sneaking up on Jensen and Jared, even though they could see him in the monitor on stage – which made Misha laugh like a crazy man! They sent him off to the band to play the cowbell and the band started playing (Don’t Fear) The Reaper. The guys totally cracked up. Great moment.

Another brilliant moment was when a girl asked what’s it like to be really attractive and Jensen turned to Jared quick as a whip and said, “I should probably take this one”. Jared totally lost it! One of his hand clapping, laughing fits! It was fantastic. Then someone shouted out that Jensen wouldn’t know because he’s married! Which made him go on a baffled tirade about how obviously a wedding ring was an ugly ring and how you must disappear when you get married! It was epically snarky!

Then there was the moment when Jensen went to tell the story about the guest star and how the crew dressed in drag…which of course we’d already heard! Jensen said “That little shit stole my story…I don’t wanna tell it now.” Then he fake pouted and Jared took it and ran with it going, “But did he tell you” and Jensen jumped in and said, “Oh I’m sure he told them that” and they ran that shtick for a bit, back and forth! It was brilliant to watch them adlibbing a joke on the fly!

Of course there had to be one awkward question. A girl asking Jared about some I Blame Jared Padalecki for Everything Facebook page. Beyond the initial confusion, it went down like a tonne of bricks – but it was cool to see Jensen jump to his friend’s defence, shoot the question down in flames. Why do fans ask inappropriate questions? It wasn’t funny; intentional or not, it came across kind of rude and was a bummer at the end of a great panel.

Anyhoo…through the panel there was loads of good-humoured yelling out from the audience, which was so funny. It’s great that the audience’s off the cuff comments can completely crack the boys up. I’m pretty sure they enjoy themselves doing these things just as much as we enjoy watching them. This panel was probably the most laughter filled one I’ve seen. I don’t know if it was the Vegas thing, but everyone, including Jensen and Jared were in incredibly high spirits.

Of course then the band cracked into The Boys Are Back in Town and Jensen did a bit of air-guitar and then joined Rob and Richard to sing. Jensen loved having that band on stage, you could just tell!

After the panel, it was time for the J2M op. It was super quick, because the day was running behind and the guys had to be out by 9pm. But it was still great; I mean how often do you get squished in-between Jensen, Jared and Misha! Never! In my op, at the very last moment Misha kind of scooped an arm around me and then had to quickly adjust, as he was about to grab my boob. SERIOUSLY! The photo looks like he’s cupping my boob! Hahaha! Awkward!

Then it was autos. I got Jensen to sign my Mac! I have a Dean and the Impala decal on my Mac and now I have Jensen’s signature above it! I’ve literally have started calling my Mac, Ackles. I do so love my Mac…and now I love it even more and Jensen thought it was pretty cool! I also got a Sam, Dean and Cass banner signed by all 3 of the guys.

When I got to Jared I was so exhausted, I absently mindedly leant on the autograph table and let out an exasperated sigh! Jared looked up and said, “Deep breaths, deep breaths and relax” and laughed. I was like, “Oh ahh sorry, forgot where I was for a minute.” When I got to Misha he looked up and went, “Oh it’s you!” Now I’ve met Misha like 7 times now I guess, because he’s been to Australia a couple of times and last time he was here I ran into him in the lobby of the hotel and we had a chat. Then, because he recognised me, he teased me at the cocktail party and then in the photo op, so now I guess that seems to be a thing with us! Because in my op with him later that night with Hazel, he looked at me, shook his head and said, “You keep going!” and pointed towards the door…before breaking into a great big smile. So I guess now I Misha fodder! I’ll see him in a couple of months in Sydney again…let’s see what happens this time!

And then it was over. It was one hell of a long and wonderful day. But it’s always so heartbreaking…because when you walk away from your autos with Jensen and Jared, you know that’s it…and you’re not going to see them for a while and like I’ve said before, every time I see Jensen, it’s harder to walk away…
 


Coming soon… Viva Las Vegascon – Part Three. Sebastian dances, Mark drums, Ty parties and the Richard’s meet and greet.
 


Thanks for reading!

-sweetondean

Supernatural Convention Report - Viva Las Vegascon: Part 1

All photos in this report (c) sweetondean 2013

I need to say straight up, I’m not real good at remembering all the questions and answers at a panel. This is where I need Alice, because she’s great at it! I’m too busy laughing and taking photos! So my con reports are more about the vibe of the thing… I hope that’s cool! Also, please excuse the occassional fangirling! I can't help it.

You know, I’m a big Elvis fan, so anytime I hear Las Vegas I can’t help but sing the song Viva Las Vegas in my head! Seems fitting then that this is how Vegascon, Creation’s biggest “Supernatural” convention to date, kicked off. But I’m getting ahead of myself!

After around 25 hours travelling – there is a cost to living in the most beautiful country in the world – Hazel, my convention cohort, and I finally made it to Las Vegas! Of course, she’s from New Zealand so we hadn’t seen each other since Vancon last year!

As soon as we landed in Vegas, the convention experience began, because at the airport we met our good friend Amanda (Encyclopaedia Amandica) and Becky from the Winchester Bros. We hugged and squeed and chatted for a bit, before dragging our already exhausted asses to the Rio where the Vegascon shenanigans were taking place.

In the check-in line I bumped into fellow Aussie and convention newbie Annaliese and then at the elevators, our pal Vicki, who followed us to our room so we could catch up properly and eat these tasty snacks she’d baked called Jensen bars…I can’t even!

Did I mention that one of the brilliant things about these conventions is the friends you meet along the way?

Registration for Gold ticket holders wasn’t until 9pm, so there was just enough time to go to Sephora to stock up on pretty making stuff for having our photos taken with the prettiest boys ever! (We don’t have Sephora in Australia – I think I practically own shares in it with what I spend there when I come to the States!)

Back at the Rio we did a reccy. Convention handy hint: I can’t tell you how helpful it is to walk the convention route before the whole thing begins. This way you figure out where the photo op room is, where the auditorium is, the Gold breakfast/lunch room and the meet and greet rooms. It’s far less stressful rushing from one place to the next when you know what direction to rush! At the Rio, the rooms/casino is a fair hike from the convention area – like a good 15-minute walk at least and that’s at a fast pace – so if you go next year, pack comfy shoes! I’m going to wear a pedometer, just out of interest, because seriously, the walking! THE WALKING!

Anyhoo, while checking the convention route we ran into our good buddies Jamie, Kerrie and Deborah and Chris the Creation photographer – hugs and kisses all around! Then along came our friends we met at LAcon back in 2011, Terri and Paige! Hugs, kisses, squees! We talk to these people all year online, but only get to catch up at conventions, being as we all live on the other side of the world from each other!

It was super early but there was already a line for registration and reupping, so while I nipped up to the room to get my paperwork (as in marathoned to the room), Hazel joined the queue with our friends. The first of the queues of a very queuey weekend! On the way back I grabbed us a couple of ridiculously large, frozen alcoholic beverages in souvenir cups! Ah Vegas! So we sat and chatted, caught up with more people we knew in the line, ate Deborah’s cookies and Jamie’s unbelievable cupcakes, suffered the occasional brain freeze from our frozen beverages and waited…waited…waited.

By the time registration opened, the queue went FOREVER! Convention handy hint: Get to registration early. Once we finally got our lanyards, breakfast table allocations and bought additional photo/auto tickets (I only get the ones that may sell out online and the rest at the convention to save on “freight” costs), we headed back to the room, full of sugar, vodka and convention feels to get ready for the craziness that lay ahead!

FRIDAY: And so it begins!

It’s con day! OMG yay! So like I said earlier, Viva Las Vegas! That’s how the whole thing began! It’s always great to be in your seat for the convention kickoff, but, and no offence intended to Adam from Creation who usually starts proceedings, normally it’s not very exciting. But this is Vegas baby, and we had the host with the most! Mr Richard Speight Jr.! Plus we had a house band, Rob Benedict and Louden Swain, masquerading as The Elastic Waste Band (the 3rd most popular lounge act 3 years ago)!

So it was a big show number! With Richard and Rob belting out their own rendition of Viva Las Vegas! It was fantastic! I gotta say, this is one of the things that made this con so very special, having the band on stage with the guests, including the Js, added to the party atmosphere and all the guests took great advantage of having the EWB right there alongside them. There was banter back and forth and the band played off the guests so nicely! Rimshots anyone? And Richard – Richard of the boundless energy! I know for a fact he was completely shattered after the convention because I did a meet and greet with him at the end of Sunday, but man, did he bring pizzazz to the show! In his suit! I love Richard, he’s so fun – I’ll get to that later!

So first guests on stage were Rob Benedict (after a quick change out of his wig and headband) and Matt Cohen.

The really amazing thing about these cons is not only have the fans had friendships blossom because of them, so have the cast. Matt, Rob, Richard are all great mates and yet none of them worked together on the show. I’m sure we’ve all gleefully watched the Rich and Rob bromance going on! It’s adorable! Anyway…the panel. Matt was all gussied up in a bowtie, with his jeans rolled up and no socks with his shoes – hipster! Rob tried at one stage to emulate Matt’s look, but only succeeded in looking like Mary Ann from Gilligan’s Island!

One of the funniest moments was when a fan asked Rob about the movie Waiting and whether the cast actually ‘flashed’ each other like the characters in the movie did. This led to a discussion about the various ways a guy can flash and position his…well, you really need to see the movie – but yeah, batwings and Matt decided he had to show us – sort of – what exactly batwings means!

Then someone asked Matt about his workouts and just for a lark he gave us a few push-ups on stage – girlie push-ups, complete with handclaps! Actually it was super impressive, if totally ridiculous! Check out the arms….

After Matt and Rob’s panel we had a little break and it was then that I discovered that Corona comes in these gigantic bottles! Yay! (Walk, walk, walk, walk).

Anyway, Chad and Gabe were up next. Chad had tweeted earlier in the morning that he needed some dark nail polish. Of course, I wear black (like he does), so I packed it just in case. Sure enough, when Chad came on stage, he had unpainted nails! Oh the humanity!

Chad and Gabe have become buddies too, you often see them tweeting back and forth. They both appeared in the episode “Simon Says”, but didn’t have any scenes together, but that doesn’t matter! Gabe was on set for the scene where Dr Badass answers the door to Sam and Dean without his pants on! So he was there to see all the takes with all the various reactions of the Js. Apparently Chad was naked!

Gabriel is damn funny. Quick as a whip and an amazing storyteller! He told this ridiculously, longwinded and hilarious story about wanting to see the worlds biggest Prairie Dog while vacationing. He followed the signs until finally he came to the place and the thing turned out to be just a statue! So he wrote on the back of it that it sucked…in case you ever come across it, check the back!

Chad made Gabe and a fan adlib a scene that had to include 3 words, one of which was mancakes (it was pancakes, but Chad misheard. Mancakes was funnier anyway). He also pulled out his “spirit box”, you know…Chad loves the Ghost Adventures…anyway, the box said something unintelligible and Gabe fled the stage!

Chad cruised the audience as usual, in his Bert and Ernie top (he got it from Urban Outfitters, we asked in the photo op). He’s a real rockstar Chad…moves like a cat or something, all long and languid. He’s smokin’ hot. Just sayin’.

Anyway at the end of the panel I nipped up to the stage and offered him my nail polish. He took my hands in his to check my nails and said “Oh, that’s nice, can I borrow it?” I said, “That’s why I brought it down”, he said “Cool, I’ll get it back to you later”…Well I never saw that nail polish again, but I’m cool with it. It was donated to an excellent cause, because in the photo op Chad was wearing it! Squee! Looked hot on him too! I bought this nail polish to replace it...seemed fitting!

Next panel up was James Patrick Stuart.

I’ve never seen James before and gosh what a great panel. James is pretty Hollywood and very charismatic. He was brought up in a showbiz family. His dad being a muso had hoped James would follow in his footsteps, so he was a little disappointed when James decided to become an actor.

He told the story of how he knows Mark Sheppard. They met about 20 years ago and had some bizarre falling out of a jacket that Mark had wanted but a friend had left to James. He said every time they bumped into each other at an audition or something, Mark would leave the room! Of course, working together many years later, Mark apologised for being such a git and they’re buddies again. In fact every one of the guests sung Mark’s praises over the weekend.

James said when he first got the gig on “Supernatural” he watched it and said, “I get it, 2 brothers, they hunt ghosts, one’s tall and one’s short” and then he met them and realised “there’s a tall one and a skyscraper!”

In his pocket he had Dick Roman’s teeth. When he went to the audition he took these prosthetic teeth and popped them in. After the audition, Sera came up and told him he was creepy! The difference between with teeth and without teeth, pure and simple is Dick Roman! It was amazing to see the transformation as he took the teeth out and put them back in.

He also said he thought that Dick’s death was a little lacklustre. He wanted Dick to have had a more epic death scene but then, he’d love to somehow come back. He said he waited for the call to see if he was going to appear in Purgatory…but alas.

*Just a side note - James is currently using the photo above as his twitter icon!

After James’ panel it was time for photo ops with Chad and Richard. As I said, I was pretty happy to see Chad had painted his nails with my polish. Richard, well he has a thing about the colour of my hair and always makes some comment. This time, as I grabbed him by the lapels to tell him he was looking particularly sharp in his suit (he was), he told me his tie matched my hair…well…his tie was purple, my hair is sort of, I don’t know, maroony red? Never mind! It was funny!

At autos I was particularly chuffed when Richard didn’t even have to ask my name. Apparently he knows it now. I smiled a lot walking away from that auto I can tell you! He’s a really sweet guy.

So next up was Karaoke!

We “popped” back to our room…walking, walking walking, to dump our bits and pieces, freshen up and grab a giant Corona and a ridiculously large frozen beverage.

This was one of the most fun Karaoke’s I’ve been too. Admittedly, I missed Mark Pellegrino and his Big Balls andSweet Transvestite renditions, but having Richard and Matt in full Elvis garb was super fun. Chad looked like he was dressed in something Hef would wear, like a lounge dressing gown or something. Gabe was there, as was James who sung Jesse’s Girl, Rick Springfield was his first ever concert and the special guest was Kurt Fuller! I have me some passionate love for the character of Zachariah (I know, me and 2 other people), so I was all…OMG IT’S ZACH! He was so into it too. Dancing, arms in the air. Bless.

We went and got our photos with the Karaoke Kings in their Elvis outfits – we wore Elvis glasses too (I have my own pair). How could you not get that photo? They looked so brilliant in their get ups. I pulled my best Elvis sneer (I can do a good one) and Richard goes “That was hot” and my friend Hazel grabbed me and said something and he turned to her and said, “Wow, you just totally blocked me.” Flirt! The photo is epic by the way. Matt is pulling the most ridiculous face!

We headed back to Karaoke (via the bar…walking…walking…walking) and took part in the SPN Con Shake – though we were no where to be seen as we were off on the side somewhere trying to do that laid back, slomo thing Jensen was doing in their version! After that, we just sung and laughed and…oh good times. Cons are so fun.

Then it was off to bed for as much beauty sleep as we could muster. For the next day was the happiest day of all…J Day!

Coming soon… Viva Las Vegascon – Part Two. Misha and the Js!

Thanks for reading part one!
-sweetondean

One Crazy Awesome Sunday with the Js – Part 3 - Jensen

*all photos used are by me

So yeah. I pretty much fly around the world…well over the Pacific…just for this guy. I don’t even remember how it started. Well, I guess it started with Dean and blossomed into Jensen. The more I found out about him, the more I dug him. Of course now, I’ve met him a few times and each time seems more awesome than the last.

Once again, I had a really good photo op experience with him. This time, I was surprisingly lucid! Jensen was in incredibly high spirits. Maybe it was the birthday party the night before, maybe it was just being home in LA. I don’t know, but he was obviously feeling good and he was looking fine! So, to say I was excited about my meet and greet with Jensen at Burcon would be…well, an understatement would be an understatement!

Jensen’s Meet and Greet….Or 30 minutes in Heaven.

I had front row for Jared’s meet and greet, but unfortunately for Jensen, I was in the back. Hazel sacrificed her 2^ndrow seat to come and sit next to me. It was her AMOK act for the day. We’re a little joined at the hip at these things so I was very happy she did. I managed to orchestrate a moving of the seats. I suggested we squish the rows up…anything to get closer to the man…and everyone did. I then sort of sat/knelt on my chair to get a bit of height and waited…….

I love the way Jensen moves. There I said it. He has a way to his stride that feels very familiar, amongst other things. Maybe it’s those bandy legs of his. So when he came into the room…striding….I was all sixes and sevens. I so dig being this close to him. I don’t think I’ll ever get used to him just coming in and saying “Hi” all friendly and relaxed and then recognising a bunch of us. I don’t think I’ll ever get used to sitting with him in this kind of situation, in this little room, with him right there. Never, ever. Which is kind of nice right? It’s almost too much for my Jensen lovin’ heart to cope with. Plus he was looking particularly spectacular in a soft, black, wool hoodie and scruffy jeans, with a bit of scruffy stubble….yup…..

One of the things I really love, well one of the million things I really love, about Jensen, is his listening face. That’s what I call it. He has this expression. He really concentrates when you speak to him. He leans right forward in his chair, one eyebrow arched, as he listens intently to what you have to say. Then he sits back, has a think and then answers, zeroing right in on you, holding eye contact while he thoughtfully responds to your, probably months in the making, question. It’s amazing, it makes you feel special, it makes you feel like he’s interested in talking to you, like he’s enjoying interacting with you and, well, it’s completely discombobulating!

Anyhoo, the first thing Jensen said was, what was with the separate buildings? He joked that they needed a tram to get everyone back and forth. He wasn’t kidding. It was like a mini marathon every time you had to go from one place to the next! It was funny that he mentioned it. I mean he had to go from the photo room at the back of the other building all the way over to another wing for the meet and greet and then back again for the panel! I wish I’d seen that, him being walked past the fans with that ridiculous caricature of a security guard that was with him the whole time (not Clif, some man mountain who never took off is sunnies and looked like he came straight out of a box from the cliché security guard store), but I was sitting in a small room waiting for him to arrive, with baited breath, so I missed that particular circus!

He rocked up with a friend called Chris who sat in on the meet and greet to “Audit the class” as Jensen put it. From something Jensen said later I got the sense that he was a pal from high school. I wonder what on earth he thought of the 19 women and 1 man hanging on every word his buddy had to say! Weirdness I’m sure.

Right of the bat we heard how Jensen found the shooting of Bobby shocking. He was busting to read the follow up script to “How To Win Friends And Influence Monsters”. Usually the scripts are emailed to him, but not this time. The script for “Death’s Door” was hand delivered. Because of that, he knew something was up and it must be big. It wasn’t a complete surprise as he and Jared had been given a heads up, but he was still blown away by it. And though I get the distinct feeling neither of the guys are at all keen on the killing of Bobby storyline, they both admit that “Death’s Door” was an amazing episode, their favourite in fact.

I got to ask Jensen a question. Having been in the Chicago meet and greet and hearing how he sometimes has to ‘Deanify’, as I like to put it, dialogue, I wondered if he ever had to tackle anything in the script, around an action or plot point, that just didn’t feel right and how he dealt with that. He said, yes sometimes an action but rarely a storyline or plot point. More often than not it’s simply just a tweak to the dialogue to make the script sound true to Dean. He spoke again about how they have one outside writer a season submit a script. He asked his buddy Chris about this, as apparently, Chris is a writer. Chris didn’t know. Jensen chastised him. We all grinned like idiots. He then spoke again about the scene where Sam finds out that Dean killed Amy, and how it sounded like a rom-com until they rewrote it while sitting in the makeup trailer and he said Amy…while looking right at me. Amy. That’s me. Amy! I think my heart shot out of my mouth! Yes, I’m that ridiculous….

One of my favourite moments was Jensen’s Bob Singer impersonation. Bob seems to talk to Jensen in some kind of, mumbling, body language, arm-waving code. He basically just has to shrug his shoulders and make an “Ermmmmm” sound, put his hands in the air and walk away and Jensen has it! It means, slow it down, make it longer, or do something different. Jensen got up and acted the whole thing out complete with crazy arm movements and funny faces. Bless.

Like Jared, he also talked about hitting the reset button. He wants to get “the band back together” as he put it. He wants all the old characters back, the dead ones. He also said he didn’t think they’d be listened to because they’re the actors not the writers. But I thought it was really interesting that they both want this. I don’t think it’s necessarily that they don’t like the direction of the season, because both commented on the old school vibe of season seven, which they both like, but I think it’s more as actors, having an ensemble to work off is more rewarding than just having the two of them and as Jensen said, this far into the series, really, they’re making the show for us now, they’re not going to get a slew of new viewers, so if the fans want people back, that should happen. I love that they think they’re making the show for us. It makes me appreciate everything they do, all those long hours away from home, even more. I have to say I don’t mind the reset concept, but not the lose a whole season, disregard what the brothers, but more importantly we, have invested and gone through over the last year or more and just throw it in the trash concept. Uh-ah. Not like! Seems like a jip to me. But I know many people do like the idea. Having said that, I would love to see the band get back together. I would love to see some of my favourite dead guys and gals come back. But if they do it, it better be perfection, s’all I’m saying. I didn’t say any of this to Jensen of course. That would have required me to be coherent!

One thing to look forward to, the Air Supply, All Out Of Love scene in “Slash Fiction” has an extended version that’ll hopefully make the gag real. The song was in the script but then they took it out because it was too expensive. But John Showalter thought they should do it anyway. So in true Jensen style, he went for it. They did the whole song and John said, “You just cost Warner Bros 20 grand” because he knew there was no way they couldn’t use it once they saw it. Personally, that was one of the highlights of the season for me! I loved the moment…when Dean turns, closes his eyes, scrunches up his nose and nods his head to the beat….gold. I can’t wait to see the long version! Jensen can be a huge goof.

Hazel asked a question. She asked if post Supernatural, is there was anything he wouldn’t do. Like, if there was a role that was morally opposed to his beliefs or if there was a line that he wouldn’t cross. He was beautiful about it. He said his grandmother once said to him about acting that it’s in here – points to his head – not in here – points to his heart. So for him, there is an intellectual separation between the content and his personal beliefs. But yes, there are lines he will not cross. He didn’t share what they were. Not that I expected him to. It’s funny, Hazel and I discussed this question and both said, he won’t tell us what that line is. I like that about Jensen. I like that level of privacy.

Someone else commented to him about how amazing the end of “Adventures In Babysitting” was, with the fake smiling. He talked about how that was in the script and sometimes that makes him nervous, when a reaction is actually written into the script like that. He’s worried that he’s reading it right, that he’s doing what the writer wanted. But the fan that asked the question said it was amazing. Jensen thanked her. I wanted to tell him, I barely know a single soul who can get through that scene without bursting into tears. But I couldn’t get my brain and my mouth to connect quickly enough. Blame it on the Jensen effect. Jensenated. Totally.

He also talked, once again, about how his music taste is very much like Dean. He loves classic rock. Add a bit of blues and a bit of country and you have Jensen. He turned to his friend Chris and said how he’d been like that since high school right? Chris smiled and nodded. Poor Chris. Honestly…what on earth must he have thought? He looked like he was enjoying it though, but I wonder if it was an eye opener for him, to see his pal in the light of adulation.

There was also a question about his best and worst working experiences. His best of course is “Supernatural”. He said it was the best thing that every happened to him. That he’d made life long friendships and that the crew was like family. The worst was “Devour”. He suggested we don’t watch it…we all shuffled uncomfortably, because obviously, we’ve all watched it! He said that the movie was rewritten as they were making it, so the movie he signed on for was not the movie that came out. I found myself wondering if that chair scene was in the original script or not. You all know what I’m talking about. Do not pretend for a minute you don’t! Anyway, Jensen said he still couldn’t figure out what the Hell the end meant. I have to agree with him, I have no clue either! He also said that “Ten Inch Hero” held a special place in his heart, because that was where him and Danneel fell in love. Nawwww.

I can’t remember what the question was, but Jensen ended up talking about when Supernatural ends. He said he’s looking forward to getting back to his life. To seeing his wife again, to going and spending some time with his family in Dallas, to being able to hang out with friends. He said he’s not there yet, he still loves the show and doing the show, but he can feel it’s coming and he can feel that he’s going to want to move on and have a change, just not yet. This is what I was saying in the Jared report when he discussed 8 and a possible truncated 9. I got the distinct feeling they’ve got a vision for the next couple of years. We know that they’re all for one and one for all, so I guess maybe they’ve discussed it. I must admit I found it a tad confronting. But realistically, we all know it has to end in the next couple of years and we all know that this, brilliantly talented pair have to move on eventually. Of course we will follow them! They can’t get rid of us that easy! At the end of Jensen discussing this subject, me being the smartarse I am, said “But what if after Supernatural you got offered the most an amazing opportunity on an amazing show, and it shot in Vancouver?”  He looked at me and said he’d knock it back. If it was in LA yes, but he’s done with working away from home…

I saw him do a little nod so I knew the whole thing was coming to an end. Hazel rounded it out with a question about the giant slinky, did he really love it as much as it looked like he did? He laughed out loud. I gotta say, Hazel was beyond stoked that she made him laugh like that! No, he wasn’t in love with the slinky…he was acting. Well, yeah, we knew that, but it was fun to see you bust out a laugh Mr. Ackles.

And it was over. He got up and thanked us for coming. He said it’d been a pleasure to talk to us and I believed him. Jensen puts so much thought into his answers. I love how thoughtful he is. He’s respectful and conscious of giving us all the time we need. He makes sure he gets to everyone who has a question. Man, I can’t even….

Then he strode out of the room and I knew I’d have a long, long wait until I got this opportunity again. But I also knew that I would definitely have this opportunity again, because like I said in part 1 of this longer than long report, I just can’t see me ever giving up the opportunity to sit in a small room with him. I just can’t. Jensen’s meet and greet is the cherry on a huge pile of delicious convention ice cream and I wouldn’t miss it for the world.

That’s it! I guess if you didn’t know before how much of a Jensen fan I am, you sure do now!

I hope you enjoyed my reports. Thanks so much for reading. See you next time.

You'll find part 1 here

You'll find part 2 - Jared's meet and greet here

One Crazy Awesome Sunday with the Js – Part 2 - Jared

*all photos used are by me.

If you read part 1 of my Sunday report, you’d know that I get struck with what I call J-brain when around Jensen and Jared (particularly Jensen), so I will try and do my best to give you a rundown of both the boy’s (men! heee) meet and greets but I have a tendency to simply register the experience as opposed to lock away the answers. We have, after all, heard a lot of it before. I don’t take notes in these things either because, well I have no interested in looking down when I could be looking other places! I mean, right?! So I work on my very holey J-brained memory….and as you may have ascertained, my brain really doesn’t function very well in the presence of the Js. So please be patient with me. As always, I will give it my best shot.

Jared’s Meet and Greet….Or 30 minutes of dimples and sweaty adorableness.

Jared was late. That was the story of the day, He was late for the breakfast, late for his meet and greet and late for the autos! There is something totally adorable about his lateness. Because, apparently, he’s all arms and legs and energetic exasperation when he’s late. He came in the door of the meet and greet room looking a little, flustered, apologising and of course, blaming Jensen. He plonked himself into his seat with a “Hi guys how y’all doing” and proceeded to ask us what was happening. Now I’ve never done a Jared meet and greet before and though I’ve had photos with him and come up close in the autos, I must say, being right in front of him while he chatted away, I was struck by how completely lovely he is. This, of course, should be no surprise. But I don’t know, I was still sort of taken a back by his prettiness (yes this is how my meet and greet reports go). He has the prettiest damn eyes and really long eyelashes and of course, those dimples and that smile. Straight away he said he had his phone in his pocket and if it went off, he’d have to sprint from the room because he was on baby alert. I thought to myself, man that’d be a long flight back to Gen! The woman would have to cross her legs until her husband arrived! Talk about stress! God love him for still attending so close to their due date. I mean, really. God love him! Anyway, thankfully, no call. So we had Jared for the full 30 minutes (plus a bit because he didn’t want to stop talking.)

He was holding a drink when he came in and someone asked him if it was a beer. Quick as a whip he came back with “No it’s Bourbon” or maybe he said whiskey, I get those two confused. Then he said, “Nah, it’s Coke” and we all happily giggled and breathed a sigh of relief that we hadn’t driven him to drink at 10.30 in the morning!

The whole thing was very relaxed and casual. I love how laid back the meet and greets are. They’ve a lovely, easy vibe. I find I become conscious of the fact I’m smiling like crazy. I sometimes wonder if I look a little bit like the Joker! But I just can’t help it. There I am and there he is and….yay!

Jared talked a lot about season seven and the death of Bobby and Cas. Neither of the boys liked that very much. He spoke about how he and Jensen would love a reset, so that all their favourite ‘dead’ characters could come back. He said, “Dallas did it.” I thought….nooooo, no Dean in the shower….wait….hang-on….I may be rethinking this…. Ha! Apparently he and Jensen have discussed this concept of a reset a bit. They’ve even mentioned it in passing to the Powers That Be. I interjected and told him there was a lot of talk about this reset idea online, that maybe season seven was Dean’s dream or Sam was still in Hell and six and seven were Sam’s Hell dreams and that people were looking at weird time references and numbers as evidence to support this theory. He was pretty impressed by the fandom’s over thinking! He really digs the idea that maybe Sam really is still in Hell as Lucifer keeps taunting him, but when asked if he thought Sam was actually crazy or still trapped in the cage, he thinks it’s going to pan out that Sam is simply crazy, he’s not sure, but he thinks that’s what the writers are heading towards. Though he definitely sounded like he’d prefer the alternative scenario. He said that if they did a reset and go back it could probably only be one season because they can’t go back too far, what with the guys looking a bit different and all. He might have to trim those sidies…he didn’t say that but I was thinking it! He talked about how in “Repo Man” the only thing they could really do for the flashback was put him in Sam’s old Pumas! I don’t think we even saw Sam’s feet did we?

Someone asked what his most shocking moment or episode was and outside of Bobby’s death, he said it was when they got the script for Houses Of The Holy. He said he and Jensen literally stormed the Vancouver production offices and sent everyone out while they rang Kripke to give him a blast, thinking Eric was trying to use them as a mouthpiece for his personal views. Of course, once Eric explained all, they were cool with it, but he said he was very worried about that episode, as he didn’t sign on for that kind of show. He doesn’t care about people’s beliefs but he doesn’t want to be put in a position where he has feels like his own beliefs are being compromised.

Then he got all hot and said he was burning up. We all nodded internally. He jumped out of his chair doing that shirt shake thing he does and moved across the room to try and adjust the air conditioning. When that failed, he unbuttoned his shirt….revealing a v-necked t-shirt underneath………….I’m proud to say, none of us yelled “Take it off”, at least not in our out-loud voices. A few minutes later a big “whirrrr” noise kicked in, so I guess someone sorted the air out for our hot daddy to be. I was pretty happy they didn’t do it earlier!

He was very candid about the boys loving Mark Pedowitz. Mark loves the show and went up and visited the boys on set, he is a fan. Apparently Jared didn’t like the Bobby being killed scenario either, mainly because as a fan of the show, he likes the Bobby character and didn’t want to see him go, but he said to Jared, beyond his personal opinion, it was good TV. I agree…as sad as it was, it was damn good TV. Jared said that Mark Pedowitz nearly had a falling out with his boss at CBS because of the People’s Choice fiasco. He ended up taking out online advertising to congratulate Supernatural on their win. They seem to like him. I do too. He likes the show. He looks TV. He wears jeans to functions! Very TV. He’s obviously a smart cookie.

Jared also talked about how excited he is for season 8. He said he thought they’d get 8 and probably a 9 or maybe a truncated 9, like One Tree Hill. I got the definite vibe they are thinking about the end game, as I guess, at this point, they would be. I got that from Jensen too…but I’ll get to that.

Someone asked him whom he most admired and he said, his dad. He says his dad just can’t lie. He always tells the truth and Jared really looks up to him for that. He said he has that same gene, the truth gene, though sometimes it gets him in trouble. He used the example of a pregnant Gen asking him if she could still get away with a certain pair of pants, to which Jared replied “Ahhhh wellllll….”. Gen said, “This is when you lie!” Bless! He said how she’s not a girlie girl, she’s just a “chick”, but since she’s been pregnant she’s been much more girlie, because something is going on inside with hormones and he was all like, I have no clue what that is! Waving his hands around in confusion. It was really very sweet.

Alexis asked him if there was going to be another series of the Anime. Jared said that unfortunately the DVD of the anime was released at the same time that the Tsunami hit Japan and the area that was decimated was one of the areas that the distributors were expecting the biggest sales. He clarified to say, that of course the tragedy here was the Tsunami not the DVD sales, however, sales were so affected that another series is in doubt. But if it happens, he will definitely be involved. He didn't speak directly for Jensen, but the implication was they were both keen to do it.

And then there was the dag thing. In Australia and New Zealand, dag is a term of endearment. If someone is kind of adorable and goofy, we call them a dag. Jared right? So Hazel and I always call Jared a dag. He’s a total dag! Hazel and my question was, did he hear a lot of odd colloquialisms because of how he deals with so many international fans, and Jared said, oh yeah. We then went on to say; well we called you a dag and he didn’t know what that was, so we gave him the literal translation. Amanda, also from Australia, was a couple of chairs over and trying to crawl into a hole as she asked us not to tell him! You will have to Google it, I’m not telling you what it is. But Jared upon hearing the translation was laughing and saying, “Oh yeah I get called names like that all the time, like shit-head and asshole and douche-bag!” We were like, nooooo it’s a nice term, it’s an endearment, honest! He was laughing. We thought he’d appreciate it because he likes words and he has a sense of humour. Then we got into a weird conversation about how dude is actually the word for camel’s balls….I don’t know how that happened! Anyway, it meant that from then on, every time Jared saw either Hazel or I he called us dags….which is kind of awesome.

There was probably more, but I can’t remember all the questions. It seemed to go by very quickly. Jared digresses, so when you ask him a question, he goes off on a tangent. One question can end up going a few different ways and go on for a while. The thing that struck me the most was how at ease he was. I don’t know why I should be surprised by that, these guys are so laid back, but it makes for a really enjoyable and easy experience. He was totally relaxed and so very nice. What a nice guy he is. And pretty. Damn.

And then it was over and then he was gone and we were all left grinning ear to ear……

Thanks for reading. I hope that gave you a bit of the vibe of the thing. For me, these experiences aren’t so much about the questions and answers, but about the experience of sharing 30 minutes with these guys, in close quarters and getting to see them in a slightly different environment, a bit more relaxed. They seem to enjoy it too. That, for me, is the special bit.

Oh there was one other thing….he told us how much season 7 cost to produce. He instantly realised he probably shouldn’t have said it. I love how Jared sometimes does that, speaks and then goes “O-oh, whoops.” He said that we didn’t hear it from him! Out of respect for Jared…I’m going to keep it under my hat. I’m sure it’s out there somewhere, but I ain’t sayin’!

Next up….Jensen….*sigh* You can read it here

If you missed part one you can read it here