The Supernatural con in Novi (just outside Detroit) was another first time visiting those cities for me, and also a chance to hang out with two good friends from the SPNFamily, so that made it special. In between panels, I had lovely lunches and dinners with Laurena and Karla and even got to see some of the area (and the SPNSurvivors HQ, one of the charities that our books support). I write a lot about how beneficial fandom can be, and the friendships I’ve made are a personal reminder of just how true that is. Being able to help the important work of non-profits like SPNSurvivors through the books I’ve published is another. When I say fandom can be life changing, I mean for ME too!
I caught some of Matt Cohen and Gil McKinney’s panel since I had help at the vendor table from Laurena and her intrepid partner.
Matt every time there’s a question he doesn’t know the answer to: I know Gil wants to answer this…
Gil to Matt when HE doesn’t know the answer: Matt, please elaborate…
They have developed a great rapport for their joint panels, which I’m thoroughly enjoying. Both Matt and Gil wrote very personal chapters in Family Don’t End With Blood, about their experience as actors and how the SPNFamily changed them.
Matt recently shaved his beard, confiding that his wife didn’t kiss him for the two months he had it.
Gil: I liked the beard!
A fan asked who they wish they could talk to.
Gil: My dad. And also it would be pretty cool to talk to Elvis!
Matt: I’d like to have a conversation with River Phoenix and Heath Ledger.
The two have developed a closer friendship thanks to the cons.
Gil: You’re gonna train me to be a better man?
Matt: No, you’re gonna do that for me!
Matt’s face when he finds out that Gil once sang the national anthem at a Lakers and a Dodgers game:
Who would they save on Supernatural?
Both: Ourselves! And we’d bring back Drake Rodger as our love child.
Valid.
Matt on Countdown and Jensen: Can he get any hotter? God, he’s so beautiful. Shout out to the Ackles and the Padalecki, we love ‘em.
Us too, boys.
Our Friday emcee was the lovely Jason Manns, who’s been holding down the fort on Fridays at a lot of cons.
Next up was Chad Lindberg, who shared his refresher with Matt. Chad has a fascinating chapter in ‘There’ll Be Peace When You Are Done’ titled ‘The Magic of the Mullet’, all about his behind the scenes experience on Supernatural and as Ash.
A fan asked what kind of monster Ash could have been.
Chad: Ash would’ve been a great Wolfman. With a mullet of course.
What was most special about being on Supernatural for him?
Chad: You.
Awwww.
Chad is of course also well known for being in The Fast and The Furious. He said that when it was coming out, his mom wanted to have a screening and Chad was like mom, no one’s ever gonna see that movie… lol
In fact, we’d all like to see Jesse back on the franchise!
Chad told a hilarious story about Ash’s mullet after he took it home when he was done Supernatural.
Chad: Months later, my neighbor was a hair stylist and I was a character in a play with a mullet. So I was like hey man, can you take a few inches off this, it’s a different character, not Ash. So he cuts a few inches off it, makes it all sexy. Three weeks later I get a call, they’re bringing me back to Supernatural. Season 5, great! I get a text from the hairdresser: Chad, please tell me that you have the mullet. I said yes I do, however it’s a little different. She’s like ugh, we’ll try to make it work. I take it up to Vancouver, so in Season 5 that’s the sexy version of the mullet! And now I hope it rests in a museum somewhere, where it belongs.
Also in Season 5, he spilled beer all over the mullet.
Chad: Jensen was like here, let me show you how to shotgun a beer – and it spilled on my mullet and I just saw Jared and Jensen just laughing.
(This story in full form is in his chapter in ‘There’ll Be Peace When You Are Done’ and it’s hilarious)
Chad’s a ghost hunter in real life, and he tells the BEST real life ghost stories. He treated us to a few at his panel. They were scary!
Friday night was karaoke, with karaoke king DJ Qualls.
Chad, Alaina Huffman and Sam Smith all joined in the fun too.
There’s something about the entire room singing ‘Carry On Wayward Son’ at the end of the night that still makes me tear up, even after all these years.
Saturday was Misha Collins day as always.
Misha when a fan asked if he could be the pizza man tonight:
He said that at one time he actually was a pizza delivery man!
Misha also had a beard a year ago, but people kept wanting to put their fingers in it. I don’t know if he meant his kids or…
Misha talked about his very first convention in New Jersey, and how he discovered the creative energy of the fandom. He wrote a chapter about that in our book ‘Fan Phenomena Supernatural’, which you can find on Amazon or at the links on the home page here.
Misha: I saw on the schedule that there was a panel and I thought oh cool, I wonder who I’ll be doing a panel with, because a panel is multiple people. But Creation doesn’t know that. They handed me a microphone and I walked out on stage and it was just me with all these people staring at me expecting me to say something! And I actually very quickly discovered that there’s something fun about that interaction. Also people came up and shared the artwork they’d created and I thought OMG this is incredible artwork, there’s creative genius in this fandom. Shortly after I was on the show, there was an earthquake in Haiti and I thought, we should do something. Twitter had just become a thing, before it evolved – devolved – into X. I tweeted hey we should all donate.
And the story goes from there, all the way to Random Acts.
(Our books, Family Don’t End With Blood and There’ll Be Peace When You Are Done both benefit Random Acts, in fact)
He also talked about how proud he is of everything we’ve collectively brought to life. He writes about that in his chapter too, with so much emotion and gratitude.
Misha: The fact that we’re all still here five years after the show ended is something to be proud of. It’s actually like a family, it just carries on. We’re all still here because we’re family. This community seems to be incredibly inviting and warm and kind with an ethos of generosity and caring. I notice fans taking care of and showing up for one another, and of course there’s also the nastiness, you can’t paint with one color and be perfectly accurate, but that’s the pervasive cultural dynamic in our little subculture.
https://x.com/FangasmSPN/status/1944795514882372063
(Hey fandom, please listen to Misha and stop attacking other fans for silly things like what they ship or who their favorite character is!)
Misha talked about Castiel’s last scene and said that writer Bob Berens agreed to stay on Supernatural for another year if Misha wanted to do that scene.
He also said he was proud of Cas’ journey.
Misha: I’m proud of everyone involved, because honestly culture changes so quickly and the pendulum swings back and forth as you know. But even back in 2020 it was still, what, you’re gonna do that? At the time it felt like a big deal and I think part of it was that the show about these two brain dead underwear models was grounded in traditional American macho male tropes. These are brothers and dudes and fighting with a trunk full of guns driving around the Midwest of the US and to have one of the guys in the group be like oh ps, I’m gay for you, we can’t do that, and we did it.
https://x.com/FangasmSPN/status/1944081375860338754
Of course we know they all had a lot of fun and shenanigans on that set too. Misha talked about Jared’s ability to keep a straight face when making a joke, which he’s impressed by.
A fan asked, who would you take on a road trip?
Misha: Baby! And Dean to fix her when something inevitably breaks down.
He did make the mistake of trying to make a case for Castiel having a smart car.
Audience: You’re literally in Motor City…
Someone asked if he’d watched Good Omens.
Misha: I haven’t even finished watching Supernatural, let alone Good Omens!
Fan: What fictional character do you connect with the most?
Misha: Castiel from Supernatural…
They often filmed out of sequence on Supernatural, which was challenging sometimes.
Misha: Sometimes we’d be like all chummy and the director would be like, uh remember you just started the apocalypse…
There were some odd questions. Is a hotdog a sandwich?
Misha: I don’t want to get too political and alienate one side…
What does he wish he knew at 21?
Misha: I wish I’d known at 21 that life is long and you don’t have to rush it.
He also confided that he didn’t know you were supposed to spit out the food when acting, including that awful looking fake burger meat that Cas ate. Ewww.
Richard Speight Jr: I didn’t know you were supposed to spit it out is gonna be the con tee shirt…
Next we got a new combo panel – Mark Sheppard and Ruth Connell! I loved the complicated relationship between Crowley/Fergus and Rowena on SPN, so it’s nice having them together on a panel.
We got some adorable Ruth Connell and Rob Benedict affection.
And some Rob and Mark Sheppard affection too!
Awwww
Someone asked what was the weirdest thing they’ve eaten?
Ruth: Sea urchin. Then I got sick…
Mark: I’ll eat almost anything. If you cook it right, it’s amazing. If not, it’s disgusting.
We were treated to one of my favorite Mark responses to hypothetical questions.
Mark: Write your own fan fiction!
Mark loves to tell the story of how the nickname of “Moose” for Sam started.
Mark: This started as a joke. Poor bastard, for the rest of his life. We tried to work out an insult for him. Season 5 and 6 it was gigantor, jolly green, giraffe, lumberjack. The one day I just went, where’s your Moose? Dean went, oh he’s just, and that was it. And it’s forever!
Ruth: Where does Squirrel come from for Jensen?
Mark: Moose and Squirrel, Rocky and Bullwinkle, which makes me Boris and you Natasha.
Ruth looked back fondly on the time she papered Mark’s trailer with photos of Misha. They really did have fun on that set!
A fan made the mistake of asking Mark about playing an evil character.
Mark: I’ve never played an evil character in my life!
Ruth: Rowena was God’s guilty pleasure…
Also if you haven’t seen Ruth in Dead Boy Detectives, check it out!
Ruth and Mark both looked back fondly on filming with Jared and Jensen.
Ruth: Honestly, scenes when I’d be one on one with the guys were so easy, because they’re actually believe it or not really professional and capable, and do their jobs incredibly well, so those scenes were very enjoyable.
Mark: Unless Jensen has to say I’d rather be slapped during sex by a girl in a Zorro mask, which took 38 times to get it out. He only screwed up on the first one but then Jared pursued it for hours. The hardest stuff to do was Sacrifice, the end of S8, it was just really cool. It was a really important return to angels and demons and the full support of the crew, there was complete silence from the crew while we were working, which was mindblowing.
Ruth and Mark both have beautiful chapters in Family Don’t End With Blood, about how the SPNFamily has been impactful for them too.
We also got a real treat at this con – Jim Beaver and Steven Williams onstage together. Bobby and Rufus together again!!
On one of the first questions, Steven gave a (long) detailed answer.
Jim: The panel is only a half hour more, you know…
Lol
They said that in their final scene with Jim, Steven kept messing around. The director finally said, let’s do one take when you’re already dead!
The pair were just as gruffly adorable as they were onscreen.
Steven: I’ve got a man crush on Jim Beaver!
One question totally threw them though, since neither could figure out what Care Bears were.
And we got an Alex Calvert panel too – love the shirt, Alex!
Advice for Jack?
Alex: Don’t stab your friends!
Alex played a very different character on The Boys spinoff, Gen V.
Alex: I’ve always loved characters who are dangerous. I enjoy being a nice person but onscreen being an asshole.
He appreciates cons and fandom.
Alex: It’s cool to be in a room full of people who love the same thing.
Saturday night was SNS of course, with Louden Swain putting on a great show.
Gil McKinney dedicated a song to his daughter, “Let It Be Me”, awwww.
Briana Buckmaster was a Rockstar as always.
Mark Sheppard played drums, looking joyous as always.
Richard Speight, Jr. also joined in the show.
Jason Manns joined Rob for Hallelujah, with the audience singing the chorus.
Billy Moran played a song from his solo album too.
Rob Benedict sang two of my favorites (that always make me emotional), She Waits and Fare Thee Well (which he sang on Supernatural).
They ended with Medicated, complete with kazoos.
The encore was ‘Amazing’, which Rob dedicated to the SPNFamily, who helped save his life when he had a stroke at a convention. He writes about it, moment by moment, in an intensely personal chapter in Family Don’t End With Blood. I’m so glad he’s still with us!
And then it was Sunday!
Jared wasn’t at this con, so the gold panel was a Jensen Ackles solo panel. I miss Jared so much when he’s not at a con, but Jensen made the panel fun. He knows how to engage his audience right off the bat:
Jensen: My mom grew up in Michigan!
Someone asked about mottos he lives by and Jensen shared this: Taking care of yourself is taking care of more than yourself.
I’ve been struck by how good the music is in Countdown and have wondered if Jensen had any influence there. I mean, Kaleo? Excellent choice, but also, JJ is a close friend of both Jared and Jensen.
Jensen: There might have been a few friend calls about using their music in Countdown…
There was the inevitable prank question (drink!)
Jensen (grinning unrepentantly): Jared and I were young and stupid, and we quickly realized we had to join forces and not prank each other.
(That was after the infamous toilet papering one trailer and dumping a can of fart spray on another…)
There is often fandom discourse about the pranking, but ALL of the cast have been consistently clear that it was perceived as affectionate fun. (Though I’m sure it was also infuriating at times!)
Jensen: When we all messed with people, everyone knew it was with love. It was with the crew too.
I remember being struck by three things when I visited the Supernatural set: 1) they were incredibly professional and could transition between scenes seamlessly; 2) everyone was hugely proud of their part in making the show they clearly loved; and 3) they had FUN on that set.
Jensen: Guest stars would come on and be like, who ARE you people?? So unprofessional. And I’d be like, but we have fun!
No doubt a big part of why the show ran for 15 years.
Jensen: I try to remind myself that we’re making entertainment, to navigate conflict. Figure it out or cut it out.
Fandom could perhaps take a page out of that book!
Did they know the show would go for 15 years?
Jensen: No! I knew when we were doing the first episode, when I read the script and then got on set and started working on the show and feeling the vibe, I remember telling Jared, this is really good, we might get like 3 seasons out of this! That’s a successful show, 3 to 5 seasons, anything that goes past one. Back when we started there was like an 80% failure rate for any pilot. They don’t do this anymore but they would shoot a pilot episode and based on that one episode they’d decide if they wanted to make that into a series.
https://x.com/FangasmSPN/status/1944433665208877077
There was an emotional moment when Jensen thanked the fans for those 15 seasons of Supernatural. Is there something in my eye?
Jensen: (It was) you lovely people. Then we knew, we were like okay, I think we might be sitting in a good spot and now we don’t know how long this is gonna go. And it went for ten more years. IWe never thought in the beginning oh, we’re gonna get 20 seasons out of this. It was a struggle every year for at least the first five years, and that’s stressful. I was auditioning for other shows, thinking I was gonna be unemployed. But we just kept coming back, and I’m thankful for it.
https://x.com/FangasmSPN/status/1944417976024768851
(If you’d like to read more of Jensen’s thoughts about Supernatural and Dean Winchester and the Supernatural fandom, check out his chapter in There’ll Be Peace When You Are Done – it makes me tear up with how much he really does appreciate the show, the character and the fandom.
Favorite scenes to film on Countdown?
Jensen: When we’d all be in HQ, because we were all together.
He also said they were encouraged to be creative on Countdown.
Jensen: Derek was not precious about the script.
He also talked about dong some stunt work on the show, re-enacting how he did the leaping from the trailer shot so it looked like it was moving.
Jensen: Full disclosure, my stunt double did the one where it was actually moving. They wouldn’t let me do it. So the way we recreated that for me was they put the whole trailer and truck on a gimbal, then they set up these giant Ritter fans like airplane propellers, throwing as much wind as possible at me. Then I had a wire on my back and they’re like ok, start the gimbals, so the whole thing starts rocking, there was a rock that got in, I felt like I got shot in the shoulder. I was like, who’s shooting at me?! Then it was 3-2-1 jump with a pad in the back of the truck, so I got to do that a few times. That’s just fun stuff!
https://x.com/FangasmSPN/status/1944431726735786079
I was SO excited to get just a few tiny hints about Vought Rising, the new spinoff of The Boys starring Jensen and Aya Cash.
Apparently we’ll get to peel back the layers a little and see a more vulnerable Soldier Boy, which has me even MORE excited about that show!!
Jensen: It will be certainly looking at the Vought world through a different lens because this is the genesis of it all. Soldier Boy hasn’t had decades and decades of being that guy, he’s still trying to figure out what that is. It’s the coming of age story for him, where he was to where he got. So it’s gonna be a little bit of a different flavor than how he is and interacts – you saw a touch of it in Season 3 when he was talking to Butcher about his father and what drove him to be where he is and the insecurity that he has and he’s now had decades to mask that and build up the gruff exterior that you get on The Boys. This is kinda peeling a lot of that away so you get to see a little more vulnerability.
Fan: Will we learn his last name?
Jensen: I don’t know his last name!
Audience: Boy…
Jensen: (laughing) Yeah, Boy!
https://x.com/FangasmSPN/status/1944421631830466560
What does Jensen miss most about Supernatural? The people.
Jensen: Being with my friends. The camaraderie is probably the most enjoyable thing I got, walking onto the set in the morning and saying hi to all the crew and just being there with people you’ve spent so much time with and still enjoy each other’s company, that’s a really awesome thing. So I miss those faces, I miss those people, their stories, hanging out with them, making each other laugh. We went through so much as a group – births, deaths, marriages, divorces. Brad Creasser, his daughter Colette was born our first season and she’d come to set a little baby girl. She’s now off to college and she grew up coming to set. There was an investment into the people that made that show that I miss the most. I miss it.
https://x.com/FangasmSPN/status/1944795483563557357
We miss it too, Jensen!
After the gold panel there were photo ops and meet and greets, and then we had a panel with Jake Abel, which I caught a little bit of.
He got lots of questions about his work on Percy Jackson.
Jake: I enjoyed doing it because I got to fly around and stuff.
Valid.
When it was time for his panel to end:
Jake: Are they yanking me off?
Richard: You can’t say that onstage…
Lol
Since Jared wasn’t able to be at this con, the main panel was Jensen and Misha.
Jensen: You gonna sit down?
Misha: (stands even closer)
Nice Castiel call back lol
Misha to Jensen once he sat down: Okay, I’m gonna interview you.
He gave Jensen props for all the projects he’s doing and the success he’s having.
Misha: I’m so happy for you, man.
Jensen: This is why he’s an awesome friend. Thank you, pal.
Cue the hug!
Jensen said that in spite of all that, he always feels like he has to earn it every day. I think that’s part of what keeps him so humble – and keeps all his fans (and friends) so supportive.
Misha: So many people get entitled when they find success, and Jensen, you didn’t.
They reminisced a bit about fun times on Supernatural. A fan asked why the obsession with Busty Asian Beauties.
Borja: Yeah, Jensen!
Jensen:
Misha: As Castiel, I once opened a Busty Asian Beauties – and inside it was a Hustler!
They talked about their final scenes on the show.
Jensen: The barn scene was my goodbye to the show and to the character. I only ended up doing three takes – it was hard from an emotional standpoint. It was the brothers saying goodbye to each other.
Me: (tearing up)
Misha: That (the barn scene) was a master class in acting. You knocked it out of the park.
They really did.
Jensen: And you had just done the same (in Castiel’s goodbye scene). Both scenes that he and I are proud of.
There was reboot talk a bit too.
Misha: When we do the Supernatural reboot, Sam and Dean fly around in a private jet.
Jensen: In the shape of an Impala.
Another odd idea:
Misha: The reboot will just be Sam and Dean fighting animals.
Jensen: We’ll make sure Jared fights a bear…
There was an amusing moment when a fan turned out to be a Sam fan.
Misha: Oops, she’s a Sam girl. Awkward…
Jensen scored more Michigan points by knowing about Mackinaw Island (which I do not – did I spell it right?)
A fan challenged them to come up with 13 Led Zeppelin songs – and they did!
Jensen talked about the frequent travel he has to do, and said he has a rule that he’s not away from his kids more than 2 weeks at a time.
Misha: When I’m with my kids, it’s just them. I try to turn off my phone.
The last question saw Jensen, Misha and Rob all doing the song complete with the dance moves at the end.
The actual question was about The French Mistake, and how hard that was to play themselves.
Jensen: We poke fun at ourselves all the time, so The French Mistake wasn’t hard to do.
Misha: I nerd out on Twitter? What a stretch!
They were consulted on it, though.
Misha: We had to agree that it was okay to represent ourselves on that episode.
One of my favorite episodes!
Jensen was asked to sing a little Motown and he did, then tried to get Misha to sing his part, which was just the “yeah” lol.
https://x.com/FangasmSPN/status/1944795275819626586
Jensen and Misha thanked the fans, and then we had the traditional sing along to “It’s the end of the con as we know it… so go home” from Richard and Louden Swain.
Laurena and I road tripped to her house, stopping for some delicious Arby’s along the way (I know, it’s not gourmet, but it’s vacation food what can I say?) and then spent the next day talking about everything from Supernatural to fandom to family and going out to eat at some of my favorite restaurants in her neck of the woods in Chicago. A perfect ending to a con!
Stay tuned for more – headed to Austin in a few weeks!
-Lynn
You can read the chapters from all the Supernatural
actors in Family Don’t End With Blood and There’ll
Be Peace When You Are Done – at bookstores, amazon
or links and info at:
