July 31st, 2015 - Ladner, BC Since becoming a massive Supernatural fan, I decided that I wanted to get the "Holy Trinity" of photos with and autographs from all of Jared Padalecki, Jensen Ackles and Misha Collins. I don't really have too many things for the boys to autograph so I grabbed those super cute little Funko figures in all three of those, plus Crowley because I think he's just a riot on the show. Not that I wouldn't want to meet him too, but he's not here as much as the others and doesn't tend to do too many scenes outside. So I set attainable goals.
I had very early success with Misha Collins and then pushed my personal boundaries to meet Jared and Jensen at the airport after comic con, but I didn't want to push them then, I felt a little weird about the airport, and I got an autograph from Jensen and a photo with Jared and boy was I happy. Still wanted the opposites as well so I figured I'd keep trying sets and see what happened.
Coming back from Victoria I got a tip that Supernatural was filming in Ladner. I prefer to use transit to get to Victoria because I hate parking at the ferry terminal. From the bus on the way home, I looked out the window near where I was told they'd be as we passed on the highway. I could see there were filming signs down off the highway, they must have still been there. I came home, contacted a friend and after spending a little time relaxing, headed out.
The shoot was easy to find once I was pointed in the general direction and we rolled by one time each direction, seeing two Impala's there near the house they were filming in. We were just about to find somewhere to park when we heard (felt?) the Impala fire up near us. I pulled a U turn and went back to see it go. This put us back by the property again and we parked this time and walked back.
We wandered up to where the Impala was parked and there was a PA and the guy in charge of the cars there. My friend had never seen Baby up close so we kind of sauntered over and I introduced us as 'geeks'. They allowed us to take some photos of and her with the car and we stood for a while, but couldn't see anything actually filming. It seems they were in the house. They wrapped the scene they were doing and we shuffled down the road a little toward the edge of the property since we were right on top of them where we were standing and the last thing we wanted was to be in the way.
The crew we had encountered so far were amazing and we planted ourselves on the grass and talked with a PA while they set up whatever was going to be next. We were slapping bugs in the grass, mosquitoes that were making a meal of us. We watched the set but didn't see anyone we recognized coming and going in the crew vans and so we relaxed and made friends while it seemed the production was waiting for a little more darkness to set in.
Soon, a black Ford came by while the PA we were near was out on the road controlling traffic. We heard her squeal and turned around, she was angry, but happy angry. "He tried to splash water on me!" she complained as the SUV rolled up toward the house and stopped on the road behind the Impala. My friend had turned toward the PA and asked if it was someone she knew, but looking where the SUV went, I saw Jensen Ackles get out of the passenger side. "It's someone we all know." I answered. Ackles had been playing a little game with the PA and it was all in good fun (plus it was 25+ humid degrees out, water is good).
Ackles cruised around the Impala for a few minutes, getting in and out and taking a good look and then disappeared toward the house. He came back and got some instructions that involved pointing up the road, right where we were standing. No way he didn't see us. We were close enough to probably wave and get his attention or say loudly "Hi Jensen" and have him hear, but we stood quietly and watched what was happening. I was excited because it sure looked like we were about to see Jensen driving Baby up the street. Awesome.
Soon, Jensen got in and fired her up and the PA asked us to move back a bit because we'd be in the shot where we were. I was trying to watch Ackles in the car and also follow instructions, but soon I couldn't help watch him as he backed the car down the street right next to me and essentially paced me as I walked. He arrived in the car the same time I did on foot to where the shot was going to start, but I had been walking down the passenger side, window rolled up. Well, already a great day in the land of watching Supernatural film, Jensen driving Baby. We heard them call that this was rehearsal and so we stood at the passenger side of the car, off the road, while Ackles gunned it and ran it down the street, hard, pulling it into the driveway and jumping out, heading toward the house. Holy. Crap.
We waited a little longer as it got a little darker and some more girls showed up, a group of about 4 young ladies, 3 of who were fans of the show and one that didn't watch at all. I'm pretty sure none of them had seen past the first 4 seasons so they were pretty new to the show. It's such a neat thing about Netflix, people can watch back from years ago, including me. These girls were super friendly and excited that Jensen was there.
Once it got darker they were getting ready to film the scenes and we crossed to the other side of the narrow, two lane street, next to a standing bog of water with a noisy frog in it, figuring that the gravel of the driveway may have less mosquitoes than the grass. The jury's still out on that. The mosquitoes were BAD and it was so warm into the night that almost all of us had shorts on. We saw Jensen get into the Impala by the house and back it down the road, rolling to a stop right next to us, literally. We were standing on the opposite side of the road, drivers side, and there he was, window down, not 10 feet from us. I was just kind of stunned into silence. He smiled at us and said hi, I realized that small talk is kind of awkward. He asked how we were doing and we all said good. He got called for action and gunned the car, taking off right from where we were, down the road and peeling into the driveway, jumping out and heading to the house before we heard 'cut'!
After a few minutes, we saw Jensen get back in the Impala and reverse down the road again. The take was done multiple times and there were a few highlights when he came back and forth. The time:
- In one of the early takes, Jensen backed the car up and kept going toward the PA that was stopping traffic, the same one he tried to throw the water on earlier. He was moving slowly and was playing around the intent of hitting her, of course he wouldn't, but it was funny to watch.
- About the 4th time back, he noticed the stomping and rubbing of legs to get the mosquitoes to leave us alone. He asked, "Do you guys have bug spray?" We chorused, "No!" and he got called for action right after that.
- The next time he came back, he had a gift, a can of off bug spray which he handed out the window to us with a smile. We thanked him and he took back off again leaving us to attempt to de-bug. We returned it to the PA that was there after using it gratefully.
- This was a serious life saver as I realized the next day that, with my shorts on, I had no less than 30 mosquito bites on my legs, 15 alone collected around my knee surgery scar where I can't really feel anything. If Jensen hadn't brought bug spray, things could have gotten really ugly (er).
- For those who haven't seen it in person, the Impala is loud, I mean LOUD. It rumbles and starts just like it sounds on the show. It also has a cb-style radio in it and Jensen was talking into it a couple of times.
- He came back and was chatting and the Impala was chugging along when, through the PA mics, we heard them call action. Jensen didn't go and one of the girls quietly said, 'Action.' Not loud enough to be heard over the car. He said, 'What?' because he'd heard something and I said louder, "Action!", and he left. So that's the story of how I got to call Jensen Ackles into action during a Supernatural shoot.
- He came back after the 6th or 7th take and informed us happily that it doesn't take this long for him to get the shot right. (Obviously something else was happening with the angles to make him have to do it so many times).
- I have spoken to quite a few Supernatural fans in the last months and a few of them have made interesting observations about Jensen, that he's almost awkward at casual encounters. People say that he's almost shy around people he doesn't know and that he seems to try and avoid surprises in the way of what people may say or do around him. He's comfortable with a crowd of peers and people that he knows, but he doesn't jump at the opportunity to meet hordes of fans, not because he's unfriendly, but he's just uncomfortable (basically, he's the exact polar opposite of Misha Collins, who could not give a single fuck what anyone says or does around him). When he backed the Impala up, I saw this. As fans (6 of us) we were 'controlled' by the PA's (not that any of us were going anywhere, we just were happy to have casual conversation, no one was interested in approaching the Impala or Jensen, he's working, but the PA's were there just hanging around), the first few times the conversations were somewhat awkward. He didn't have much to say, and neither did we (I certainly wasn't expecting this opportunity) but every time he initiated the conversation. We wouldn't want to distract him. When he could help us with the bug spray, he was warm and friendly. After we'd had the opportunity to chat with him and he saw we weren't a threat to take him by surprise or do anything weird, I figured that there was an excellent chance he would come back. The other girls there were quite young, 20 and under, and Ackles seems to be more likely to meet that age group at sets from what I've seen.
Our small group entertained ourselves by chatting with the super friendly PA's and trying to see the frog that was in the bog that we kept hearing. It was quite noisy but we never got to see it, even with flashlights and leaning down into the bog. The PA's were pretty concerned about us potentially falling and creating a problem, logically, so we didn't worry too much about the little guy. Apparently we weren't the only ones dealing with the frogs, either, as we heard from the PA's that there was also a frog in a tree on set which was giving the sound guy, and line delivery, some problems.
As they were getting close to wrap, there were other PA's hanging around and chatting about "5 Dollar Friday". This is a fun little game that everyone seems to get involved in where people working on Friday but in $5 each and then they draw at the end of the night for who gets the money. After they wrapped the draw was made. The PA's near us were laughing and the one in charge that week, the one having fun with Jensen, started saying that she *knew* this was going to happen. The name pulled was Misha (Collins), but he wasn't on set Friday, he had cheated by paying in advance.
So they drew again. Poor guy. Misha got stiffed.
After they wrapped, we watched them packing down, bringing down lights with loud beeping, moving the Impala(s) and soon the black SUV that delivered Ackles earlier pulled up front. We were chatting and not really paying attention until the vehicle started up the road towards us. Sure enough it slowed down and Jensen was in the passenger seat on our side. The back window was also rolled down revealing, much to my surprise, Mark Sheppard who plays Crowley, King of Hell, on the show. The younger girls that were there hadn't gotten as far to see Crowley in the show yet, but boy was I excited to see him. I went to him first because the others went to Jensen. I asked him with a smile, "I thought you were dead" (as he dropped at ComicCon). He assured me, smiling back, "I am!" but I didn't ask what in the hell he was doing on set then. He was dressed in the usual Crowley blacks and I feel like he had to have been filming. There's no other reason he'd be here. I had my Funko figures in my bag, including Crowley just in case of this exact situation. "I have a mini-you, would you sign it?" I asked. "A mini-me!" he answered and said he would. I mentioned that he really seemed to like them at Comic Con when he put them out at all of the actors microphones before the Supernatural panel started. I pulled out my Ziploc containing photos of Padalecki from the airport, Sam, Crowley and Cas Funko's and sharpies. Managed to get a hand on the figure first and handed it to him and then as I was fumbling he asked if I had a sharpie. I told him to hang on while I still klutzed around in the bag. I produced my silver one and he went to work signing his mini-self. He handed it back and I thanked him. The others were still with Jensen and I heard him ask my friend if she wanted him to sign the replica Impala licence plate she had. He offered. What a nice guy. Since the others, sadly, didn't seem too interested I kept Crowley chatting and asked if I could take a photo. He said sure and I handed my phone to my friend. She snapped what turned out to be a slightly out of focus photo with Sheppard not smiling too much, which was kind of weird since he was so kind and chatty.
I mentioned we saw Jensen was driving the Impala out here, said it was too bad he wasn't in that scene with him. Mark assured me he's been in the Impala and I knew, and told him that. But I said Jensen got to have fun working the vehicle hard. Sheppard commented Ackles has a little bit of a reputation for driving like a maniac and he'd been witness to that being in the car with him a few times.
The others finished with Ackles and I already had an autograph, I wanted a photo, really bad. So I took the chance to ask him and he said of course. I got up next to him and smiled, and he did the same. I'm thrilled with how the photo turned out, he has to be the most photogenic person I've ever seen. After I was finished it seemed everyone had what they wanted. Both of them said they were travelling the next day, Sheppard said he was leaving in 6 hours. It's BC Day long weekend here, so they wouldn't be working Monday. The guys, Jensen in particular, thanked us and off they went. They weren't in a hurry, they both took their time and were patient, warm and friendly. I felt a little bit bad for Mark Sheppard since I seemed to be the only one interested in him, but I can't control it I guess. Of note, the guy driving the vehicle wasn't the boys' usual bodyguard, Clif, but someone I'd never seen before.
I'd had these after thoughts the last few times I'd met people, asking myself, 'Did I say thank you?' I was pretty sure I had, it's one of those things like locking the front door of your house. You do it, don't think about it and then try and remember if you have. I made mental notes to myself to pay attention to my knee jerk reactions this time, and yes, I had thanked them. Oh good.
We took off from there and happily headed home, I was more than happy to get the photo I so badly wanted with Jensen and also catch Mark Sheppard on a day when he was on set as well. Especially the shock of him basically spending all evening there and not being seen until the end of the night. We had no idea Crowley was in the scenes. I have one item left on my Supernatural wish list, unless, of course, they can get Jeffrey Dean-Morgan to come back, then I'll be headed for him as well. :)
Again, I still can't get over the bug spray. Jensen seriously saved us. I can't imagine how bites I would have had standing out there in the 2 hours after Jensen brought the bug spray to us. My bug-spray savior. ;) But this experience, seeing them film with Jensen driving the Impala and then meeting him and Mark Sheppard, was worth every single bite. When I got home I tweeted the photos to them both and thanked them for taking the time for us. To my surprise, Mark Sheppard favourited my tweet. Nicest king of hell ever.
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