Translation

Translated from French by: Aurelia

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Busy summer

During the summer, the two heroes of Supernatural, Jensen Ackles and Jared Padalecki, don’t intend to stay still. Jensen has come back home to play a lead role in the play A Few Good Men, on which the eponymous movie was based. He resumed the part of Tom Cruise opposite Lou Diamond Philips. The young actor got excellent reviews, although he hadn’t been on stage for 11 years. “I was terrified, Jensen admits, but I didn’t want to be one of those actors who are never confronted with stage again”. For the first performance, Jensen’s whole family was there, as well as his girlfriend, Danneel Harris (Rachel in One Tree Hill) and Jared Padalecki, who made the effort to come. The actor portraying Sam Winchester has, for his part, finished shooting The Christmas Cottage, which tells the life of the famous American painter Thomas Kinkade. It’s because of that shooting that Jared couldn’t go with his friend to the Asylum convention of fans organized in England last May. Jensen could meet his European fans during that week-end, but, on a bad note, he was attacked by a hysterical young woman. That somewhat disturbed fan jumped on him and tried to kiss him. They even needed the intervention of the security services to free the actor!

Interview Jared Padalecki

The star of Supernatural is always generous with his confidences about the series’ backstage. Jared tells us how humor is an integral part of the shooting and he recalls the worst day of his life. Explanations.

SM: You started your career in the series Gilmore Girls which has just ended in the USA after 7 seasons. Would you have liked to take part in the very last episode?
Jared: I was in the middle of the shooting of Supernatural, but if I had been offered to, I would have loved to be back to play in a scene or two just to see everybody again. I haven’t seen the last episode, but all my close relatives have watched it and my girlfriend and my parents were in tears at the end.

What was your reaction when you learned Supernatural was picked up for a third season?
I was wild with joy, it proves our work has paid off. And I told myself I would finally be able to afford a Ferrari! [Laughs]

You have declared you marveled at the special effects when you started the shooting of Supernatural. Are you jaded now after two years?
I’m still as fascinated as I was at the beginning. I’m like a 12 year old kid who feels like he’s seeing a man flying when he sees a stuntman hanging in the air! Besides, I’d love to do more stunts myself. But since I broke my hand falling during a fighting scene, the producers strictly forbade me to shoot scenes where I might get hurt. I understand them, because I kept my cast during six episodes.

Supernatural is known for not letting the suspense last for years unlike The X-Files. Is it true?
Yes, the last episode of season 2 that we’ve just shot gives real answers to questions asked right from the first episode. We don’t reveal everything, but enough to satisfy the fans. I’m a fan of Lost, I watch the episodes on my iPod and, instead of giving answers, the scenarists don’t cease to complicate things. Maybe I’m too impatient, but I ended up being so frustrated as a viewer that I no longer feel like seeing the following.

Have you ever been confronted with a supernatural phenomenon?
Not really. But one day, I thought I was dead and that was the worst day of my life! I was playing in Flight of the Phoenix which was shot in the desert of Namibia. One morning, driving to the set, my jeep overturned in the dunes. I was ejected from the car. I found myself lying in the sand, persuaded that I was dead. I was in a state of shock and, when I picked myself up, I thought I was a ghost! [Laughs] I realized I had nothing when a technician drove by and he saw my vehicle. He came to see how I was and, when I understood he could see me, I realized I was still alive! [Laughs]

You have auditioned for the title role of Superman Returns, do you regret not being chosen?
No, I was already proud to be among the five last finalists. My only regret is not to have a picture of me in the costume of Superman.

Can you tell us about your first meeting with Jensen Ackles, your partner in Supernatural?
Our first meeting took place in a hallway before our last audition in front of the channel’s executives. We were very nervous and we decided to support each other and to team up. We became friends very quickly. We always hear about sets where actors hate each other, like Desperate Housewives. Jensen and I do all we can so that the atmosphere on the set is the most pleasant for everybody. And trust me, we have a lot of fun.

You and Jensen have a reputation for playing pranks on the set. Is it true?
Oh yeah! And everybody does it now. In fact, at the beginning, Jensen and I used to play pranks on each other besides the ones we had in store for the rest of the crew. And then, one day, I understood I was out of my league against Jensen and I offered him to make a truce and to team up from then on. Now, we join forces against all the others on the set and it’s quite something!

Can you give us some examples of pranks you were the author or the victim of?
One of my big classics consists in making another person taste my coffee asking him if it doesn’t have a weird taste when I have poured Tabasco in it! It’s always very efficient on special guest stars who play in the series and don’t know the thing, because all the technicians are aware, now. But Jensen and I were really had lately. We were shooting at the bottom of a well of which we couldn’t get out of and, at the end of the day, the whole crew poured floods of ice-cold water on us. We couldn’t escape and they really had us that day. But we’re preparing our revenge… [Laughs]

Michael Rosenbaum

Series Mag: You’re a friend of Jared Padalecki and Jensen Ackles who shoot Supernatural in Vancouver. Do you spend some time together?
Michael Rosenbaum: Yes, they’re really nice. I just think these guys get too much exercise, which is not my case. The few times I go to the gym, I always run into them. [Laughs] I knew Jensen before he played in Smallville. He really is a nice guy and I was happy for him when he was entrusted with a lead part in Supernatural, because in Smallville, he didn’t work much, he had a lot of days off. When I learned his series had only two lead roles, I told him “Good luck, man. You’re gonna see what it’s like to work like a slave.” And Tom was sure to laugh at him as well, because he knew what was in store for him. But we’re happy for them. Jared and Jensen really are great guys. Tom, Jensen, Jared and I indeed go out together from time to time in Vancouver. Jensen and I often go to that restaurant called Gotham to eat steaks.

Bad mood
If there’s something that irritates Jensen Ackles, it’s the sound of the alarm clock. The young actor sleeps a lot and he hates waking up early. Jensen dreads the alarm clock at dawn so much that he’s in a very bad mood as soon as he hears the beep of the alarm. Unfortunately this bad mood is often manifested in a violent gesture. Jensen has thus taken the habit to chuck his alarm clock at the far end of the room to make it stop. Half the time, the appliance naturally lands against a wall and shatters into a thousand pieces… Jensen no longer counts the number of alarm clocks he’s broken that way. So he’s picked up the habit of buying ten alarm clocks at a time, just to always have one at hand. It’s a habit he’s picked up and, although it’s relatively absurd, he stands by it. Because there’s a sound more awful than an alarm clock, it’s the voice of a producer, who yells in the phone asking why his star actor is not on the set, shooting…

14 THINGS YOU DON’T KNOW ABOUT
JENSEN ACKLES & JARED PADALECKI

JENSEN ACKLES

Male Cheerleader
Jensen grew up in Texas, a state where there are male cheerleaders! In high school, the cheerleaders are in charge of cheering up football or basketball teams during games. This activity is generally reserved for the girls, but some states also turn to male teams. The male cheerleaders don’t wear skirts, but, nevertheless, they perform acrobatics and sing slogans to support their teams. Few people know it, but Jensen Ackles used to be one of those male cheerleaders during his high school years, as those pictures prove!

Apologies
Time sometimes makes people start talking and, recently, Jensen admitted his relationship with Jessica Alba on the set of Dark Angel hadn’t been idyllic. “At that time, we didn’t get along at all, he explained. She was unpleasant. We didn’t use to spend our time arguing, but it was pretty tense between us. Then, a few months after the cancellation of the show, she called me to apologize. We met and she told me how hard it was for her to have all the weight of the show on her shoulders at such a young age. She really wanted to tell me how much she was regretting her attitude and I was deeply touched”. Now, the two actors get along very well, as this picture, taken last year in the backstage of an awards ceremony, shows.

Ad
Before being an actor, Jensen was a model and, while he was playing in the soap opera Days of Our Lives, he promoted products against acne, a problem he was absolutely not suffering from at that time.

Actors for generations
Jensen’s father, Alan Ackles, is also an actor, and the two actors played opposite in the horror movie Devour. On top of that, in the movie, they were playing father and son. “I have huge respect for my father, Jensen declares. I’ve never had any acting training and everything I’ve been taught comes from him. He could have come out to Los Angeles to make a career, because he’s very talented but he didn’t want to uproot his family. That’s why he stayed in Texas and did commercials, radio programs and TV movies there instead of trying his luck in Hollywood”.

Serial lover
In high school, Jensen and his girlfriend of that time have received the title of most charming item of the year [A]. Here are some pictures of the conquests that followed: in particular, the Playboy model Joanna Krupa [B] and Tania Saulnier, his partner in the Supernatural episode Scarecrow. It was said he has had an affair with the country singer LeAnn Rimes [D] after she played in an episode of Days of Our Lives with Jensen. However both artists always assured they never had a love affair. The last we heard, Jensen would have recently started a relationship with Danneel Harris (Rachel in One Tree Hill), whom he had the opportunity to play along with last summer during the shooting of the movie Ten Inch Hero. Danneel and Jensen have been friends for years and have already played together in the short movie The Plight of Clownana in 2004.

Photographer
To kill time between takes, Jensen has taken up photography. He doesn’t leave his camera on the sets and he’s also interested in all the aspects of directing.

Singer
One of Jensen’s best friends is Steve Carlson, a singer and guitarist who performs solo but also within the band Kane, with Christian Kane (known for playing the part of Lindsey in Angel). Although he doesn’t wish to start a singing career, Jensen was a backing vocal on a few of Steve Carlson’s songs. He also recorded a song for a cover album on which were all the stars of the soap opera Days of Our Lives.

Blooper
Jensen and Jared are so close that they happen to say the wrong name when they’re shooting. Thus, in a scene from the episode Provenance, we can hear Dean call his brother Jared instead of Sam! The mistake was corrected in the French version, but nobody noticed the detail in the original version…

JARED PADALECKI

Dring dring!
Jared has the bad habit of leaving his phone on permanently and he carries it constantly. Even when he’s shooting. Result: some takes are sometimes compromised when Jared’s phone starts ringing in the middle of a scene…Why doesn’t he just turn it off before shooting? Simply because Jared makes it a point of honor to always be available for his close relatives in case of emergency.

Champion
When he was still in high school, Jared won a national contest of performance as a duo which matched contestants from all over the country. Very well known in the USA, this competition draws thousands of highschool students who have to perform as a duo a literary text giving free rein to their imagination, even if it means changing the original meaning of the text.

Origins
Jared is of Polish extraction on his father’s side and he’d really like to go to Poland. “I don’t speak the language but I know a few dirty words”, he jokes.

In love
Jared’s current girlfriend is Sandra McCoy, an actress he met on the set of the thriller Cry Wolf in 2005. The young woman has a tragic past, because she lost her parents and her brother in a plane crash when she was 14. “Sandra and I became friends on the set, Jared recalls, but our relationship remained professional. I liked her, but nothing happened. We kept in touch and became an item only several months later. When our respective friends heard of it, they told us we’d been stupid to wait so long because it was obvious we were made for each other”.

Lie
Jared shot House of Wax in Australia alongside his friend Chad Michael Murray and the scandalous Paris Hilton. Very quickly, Chad informed him that there was a rumor on the set saying Jared had started a relationship with Paris Hilton… The young actor denied, but still, when the press heard of that rumor, all the journalists were only talking about that. Jared understood way later what had actually happened. “In fact, I learned from reliable sources that Paris Hilton herself had put out that rumor about our so-called relationship hoping to seduce me, Jared explained. But she’s really not my type…”

Dogs
Jared’s dogs, named Harley and Sadie, play a great part in his life. He made them come to Vancouver to live with him on the shooting of the series, and he even agreed on posing with them for an anti-fur campaign launched by PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals), the famous American animal rights organization. On the advertising poster, we can read the following slogan: “If you wouldn’t wear your dog, please don’t wear any fur”, signed Jared Padalecki and his dogs. On the poster, there’s also this little text: “The only difference between your “best friend” and animals killed for their fur is how we treat them. All the animals feel pain. Please don’t wear any fur”.

SUPERNATURAL SEASON 2 EPISODE GUIDE

(September 2006 – May 2007)

1 - In my time of dying
After the crash of the Impala, Sam manages to push away the yellow-eyed demon with the help of the colt. Then, he and the rest of his family are urgently taken to the hospital. Sam and his father recover well from their injuries while Dean, on the other hand, is in bad shape. He’s in a coma and wanders between life and death in the hospital premises like a ghost. So John decides to make a deal with the yellow-eyed demon to save his son. When he wakes up, Dean has a visit from his father who murmurs a secret about Sam into his ear. Then John suddenly dies…

2 – Everybody loves a clown
Dean spends all his time repairing his car, but Sam convinces him to go to join a friend of his father’s. Thus they meet Ellen and her daughter Jo who run a roadhouse frequented by hunters like them. The two women introduce them to Ash, a computer genius who offers to help them track down the yellow-eyed demon by locating his manifestations all over the country. Then Sam and Dean track a spirit that changes itself into a clown to kill its victims.

3 – Bloodlust
Sam and Dean meet a vampire hunter named Gordon. Dean immediately makes friends with him, but Sam is more suspicious… When the younger Winchester is kidnapped by Lenore, the vampires chief, he is surprise to see these are peaceful and feed on cattle blood only. Despite that, Gordon is determined to eliminate them. Reluctantly, Dean understands he has to help vampires escape from this psychopath.

4 – Children shouldn’t play with dead things
Dean and Sam track down a zombie, a young woman brought back to life by her best friend, and she takes her revenge on those who caused her death. They succeed in putting her literally back into her grave, but they can’t keep her from killing two other people in the meantime. This new hunt drives Sam to finally make Dean speak about the feelings he’s been having since his father’s death.

5 – Simon said
After a vision, Sam takes his brother on the trail of Andy Gallagher, who has the power of persuasion. The two Winchesters suspect him of having committed a series of crimes, but the culprit is Andy’s twin brother.

6 – No exit
Jo wants to become a hunter and has found out that the spirit of America’s first serial killer goes on killing young blond women. Her mother asks Sam and Dean to take her place, but Jo follows them. When she’s kidnapped by the spirit, the two brothers barely save her. Ellen is furious, because years before, John Winchester had caused her husband’s death.

7 – The usual suspects
Sam and Dean get arrested by the police while they’re investigating the death of a couple who had seen a spirit. One of the detectives suddenly sees the same spirit and asks for Sam’s help. The one responsible for these murders is actually her colleague and the spirit, a death omen trying to warn his future victims.

8 – Crossroad blues
Sam and Dean try to save a man who made a deal with a demon to heal his wife. Dean decides to lure the demon into a trap, but the beautiful young woman who offers him a deal is not easily fooled. She offers Dean to trade his soul for the return of his father who’s burning in hell. It’s hard for the young man to resist temptation…

9 – Croatoan
Sam has a vision that takes the two brothers to the town of River Grove. Quickly, they notice that all the communications with the outside have been cut off. The inhabitants seem to be infected with a virus which makes them ultra violent and the few survivors take refuge in a local clinicl. When Sam finds himself infected, the others want Dean to shoot him, but he refuses. Then, without explanations, all the people infected disappear, except Sam who surprisingly doesn’t develop any symptom…

10 - Hunted
Dean ends up admitting to his brother that before dying John asked him to kill Sam if he couldn’t save him. Sam runs away and is contacted by Ava, a young woman who has visions just like him. She wants to warn him that he’ll soon be killed in an explosion. Dean finds his brother again, but he’s kidnapped by Gordon who wants to use him to lure Sam into a trap. But thanks to Ava, Sam survives and frees Dean. However, Ava has disappeared, apparently captured by the yellow-eyed demon…

11 – Playthings
Some suspicious deaths draw Sam and Dean to a hotel where they find signs of Hoodoo, a variation of voodoo. Finally, they find the one responsible, the spirit of the former owner’s sister who’s afraid to be alone now that this hotel is going to be destroyed.

12 – Nightshifter
Sam and Dean are on the trail of a shapeshifter (a creature able to take the appearance of any human being) responsible for several robberies. They are soon trapped inside a bank and have to take everybody hostage to find the culprit who could be anybody. Moreover, the FBI is now on their trail…

13 – Houses of the Holy
Sam thinks he’s found the proof that angels exist, when an apparition drives people to kill murderers and pedophiles. Dean is skeptical and thinks the apparition is the spirit of a priest killed a shortly before.

14 – Born under a bad sign
Sam has disappeared and Dean finds him back only one week later, covered in blood. The younger Winchester seems to have lost his memory and committed murders during his lost time… But, in fact, Sam is possessed by the demon that used to be called “Meg”. With Bobby’s help, Dean has to exorcise his own brother.

15 – Tall tales
Dean and Sam once again have to call Bobby to help them solve a very strange case taking place on a campus. A student has apparently been taken by aliens, a professor was killed by an alligator… Even the Winchester brothers can’t make heads or tails of it, until Bobby explains that they’re victims of a Trickster. This creature loves playing tricks and has more than one trick up its sleeve to fool the Winchesters.

16 – Roadkill
While they’re driving on a desert road in the middle of the night, the Winchester brothers are stopped by a woman named Molly who claims she was victim of a car accident. However, her husband has disappeared and she doesn’t understand what’s happening to her. And for good measure, she’s chased by the spirit of a farmer who wants to torture her. Sam and Dean will have to make her understand the farmer and her are ghosts that haunt the section of the road where they died years before.

17 – Heart
The Winchester brothers investigate a werewolf which has already claimed several victims. The next one might be a woman named Madison whom Sam is very attracted to. After spending the night with her, Sam sees her changing into a werewolf. And yet, the woman really is innocent because she has no memory of what she does when she changes. So Sam is forced to kill the one he loves.

18 – Hollywood Babylon
Dean and Sam find out that spirits are killing the crew of a horror film. Dean is in his element in Hollywood and reading the script, the two brothers understand the one responsible is the scenarist.

19 – Folsom prison blues
The two brothers are contacted by a friend of their father’s who asks them to get rid of the spirit haunting his prison. Dean and Sam let themselves get arrested and are sent to the penitentiary. They have to burn the body of the culprit before he claims other victims and before their extradition by the FBI.

20 – What should and what should never be
Dean is attacked by a Djinn, a monster that grants him his dearest wish while he’s feeding on him in reality. Thus Dean wakes up in a dream life where his mother and Jessica are alive. The only snag is Sam doesn’t really appreciate his brother. Little by little Dean understands he has to kill the Djinn or to commit suicide to put things back in order…

21 – All hell breaks loose (1/2)
Sam is kidnapped by the yellow-eyed demon which has gathered together several people endowed with supernatural powers in an abandoned town. Once there, Sam meets back with Andy and Ava as well as two newcomers Jake and Lily. After Lily and Andy get killed, Sam understands that Ava is responsible. She obeys the wishes of the demon that appeared to Sam in a dream. It only needs one person to lead its future army and wants people like Sam to kill each other until there’s only one left. He hopes the last one standing will be Sam and to prove it’s genuine, it shows him how his mother died. So Sam sees that his mother knew the demon… Jake, who’s endowed with superhuman strength, ends up killing Ava and then he attacks Sam. He stabs him to death before the eyes of Dean and Bobby who have finally found him.

22 – All hell breaks loose (2/2)
Dean is desperate by his brother’s death and sends Bobby away to make a deal with the demon. At a crossroads, he finds again the one he has trapped a few months earlier. She agrees on bringing Sam back to life, but she gives Dean only one year to live. Sam resurrects without knowing what happened to him, and he and his brother join Bobby as well as Ellen who escaped the destruction of her saloon. They understand the demon and Jake are going to Wyoming to open the doors of hell. There, Dean will at last be able to take his revenge on the one that took him everything…