“I’m sorry I’m late,” Padalecki says as he takes care to make eye contact with everyone present and acknowledge him or her in his apology. Then, since time is running late, he quickly gets down to the business of answering questions about the upcoming 4th season of Supernatural and some of the directions his character of Sam Winchester is headed in.
In the past 3 seasons, Padalecki’s character Sam Winchester has undergone some very life altering changes. Changes that include being yanked out the normal life he was building for himself, to finding out he had psychic powers that a high level demon know as Azael or The Yellow-Eyed Demon has plans to take advantage of. And in season 3 of Supernatural having to watch his older brother Dean Winchester (played by Jensen Ackles) have to make good on a deal with a demon to trade his soul into hell in one year’s time for having Sam brought back to life. Season 4 is no different and Sam finds himself dealing with the aftermath of Dean’s death and sudden resurrection by a mysterious force.
The first thing that Padalecki is quick to point out is that Sam is dealing with a whole different set of circumstances than in the Supernatural season 3 episode Mystery Spot. In that episode, Sam had to deal with watching his brother Dean dying over and over again in many different ways with no way for Sam to stop it. Padalecki points out that the events of ‘No Rest for the Wicked’ in which Dean’s soul is taken into hell and his body ravaged to death by hellhounds, had no ‘reset button’.
“It’s more real,” the handsom actor says of what Sam goes through after Dean’s death at the end of No Rest for the Wicked.’ “ While there was both pain and death in the Mystery Spot, which was obviously this crazy loop that you kind of saw for what it was and that it was the Trickster’s doing, Sam sort of came to realize that he was just dealing with this illusionary pain.”
Yet that all changed at the end of season 3 and Sam had to deal with the total reality that he had buried his brother, his brother had died. “It wasn’t the Trickster, it wasn’t fake, it was four months of living without his brother, of having to exist without his brother Dean being there with him,” Padalecki’s voice fills with something close to the same sense of feeling of what his character has gone through as he relates Sam Winchester’s distraught emotional state to us.
Dean’s resurrection from hell also creates a new complication for Sam Winchester who has had to learn to deal with being without Dean there to be his partner in the war against the demons.
“There is a line in the first episode where they’re talking about taking care of these demons and Dean is like ‘we gotta wait’ and Sam is like we ‘gotta do it now we, can’t wait’ and Dean responds with ‘well now the older and smarter brother is back’. Sam kind of takes offense because Sam has been alone for four months and he’s been doing it alone. And not kept in touch with anybody, not kept in touch with Bobby and just kind of gone off and maybe had been a bit suicidal like, ‘hell if my brothers’ gone, I’m going to go out and if I die in a war, I die in a war’.”
When questioned about whether Sam, as happy as he is to have his brother Dean back, is starting to find himself dealing with feelings of resentment upon Dean’s return, Padalecki expresses total agreement that Sam is having conflicted emotions about this.
“Of course there is a lot of pain a lot of built of resentment stemming from his brother’s sudden return to life and into Sam’s life. Sam’s always had a sort of a sense of ‘why me’. The very first thing, from the very first moments in the pilot- like why is this happening to me I don’t want this life. Why did I wake up when I was three years old with a gun and I don’t know how to use it. Why is Sam’s life now nothing but a constant embracing of violence? Because he had to, he was forced to. His brother is dead,” Jared tells us, his voice strong with a deep sense of wanting us to understand this motivation he sees his character of Sam Winchester going through.
All of this doesn’t mean that the Supernatural actor isn’t aware of what the character of Dean Winchester is going through and what affect it is having on him and how it is creating conflict for them and changing the dynamics of their interaction with each other.
“We see the same thing from Dean. Dean has also spent four months somewhere doing something. So he and Sam both have secrets from each other and now as opposed to not being able to hide it. Like in the finale of season two, you know when Dean made a deal and Sam asked, ‘how long do you have?’ and Dean said he had a year, and Sam said ‘I will get you out’. You know it was the brothers. Now they both have their own thing and now they are trying to figure out if they are going to let the other brother know what’s going on or if they are going to keep it and hold on it and be much more individual in their pursuits and not working together.”
So what is all of this change in direction for his character offering Jared Padalecki as an actor in a long running series? A lot of fun
“One of the traps of television is inevitably you’re making 22 hours of film and essentially it can start to get repetitive. It can be the same questions and same answers and the same this and the same that,” he gives a shrug of his broad shoulders as he tells us about this pitfall that can sometimes sap an actor’s desire to go on giving his best performance in an ongoing TV character role. Then his eyes light up with laughter as he talks about what makes working on Supernatural different.
“It’s not the case with this show, though. It’s starting to mix it up and the writers constantly keep us guessing, keep us on our toes about what is coming next. So it’s neat to do new things and to try to figure out what the hell is coming next for your character and realizing that in some cases it might literally mean hell is coming,” Padalecki says with laugh.
Jared Padalecki as Sam Winchester
One thing is for certain when you listen to Padalecki talking about his work on Supernatural is how much he really enjoys being a part of the series and playing the character of Sam Winchester.
“One of the first things I ever really loved about this show is that you get to laugh, you get cry, you get fight, you get to do everything. So it’s very exciting for me as an actor to get to explore a new side of Sam and it’s a side of Sam that I always wanted to explore. Ever since going to the bad side and we got to see Sam go all bad ass, I was whew that’s kind of fun even though it was a demon, but I was like … I like that, lets get back to it. So it’s going to be exciting to me. I’m looking forward to it.”
And with that, all too soon our time with this amazingly talented young actor was up and he had to go. “So sorry guys,” he is once more apologizing and making eye contact as he rises up to his full and very impressive 6’4” height to go off to do his next round of questions, which will be centered on the promotion of his new horror film, Friday the 13th. Padalecki has the lead role in this updated ‘re-imagination of the 80’s cult horror classic of the same name which will be hitting theaters on February 13th, 2009.
Meanwhile fans and viewers can catch Jared Padalecki in his role as Sam Winchester in the Supernatural season 4 premiere episode, Lazarus Rising, on Thursday September 18th at 9PM EST on the CW Network.
I have made a correction to this article to add the word ‘brother’ that was inadvertently left out of one of the quotes ascribed to Jared Padalecki in this interview.
Jared Padalecki did NOT say ‘his Dean’. He said ‘his brother Dean’. It was my error in editing that left the word ‘brother’ out of the quote.
This article is horribly written. Words missing, wrong words used, and run-on sentences make it tedious read. Maybe the use of a proofreader or experienced editor would help.
The writer also refer to the subject of their interview by his full name, Jared Padalecki, no less than ten times during this piece. That is just lazy writing. We know who they’re talking about. They don’t have to keep repeating it just because they can’t take the time to find other ways to refer to the person being interviewed. So much repetition is just boring and makes the article sound stilted and dull.
It tone it sounds, at times, more like fangirl gushing than serious reporting. The comments about the “shrug of his broad shoulders” and his rising up to his “full and very impressive 6’4″ height” had me laughing out loud. Give me a break. They’re not writing for Tiger Beat!
I have no idea how long this person has been “reporting”, but I wasn’t impressed. They may be able to put words on paper, but that doesn’t necessarily make them a writer.
I’m going to disagree with the overly harsh comments of amaryn.rose. Having met Jared on two previous occasions, I think you captured him perfectly. He’s in constant motion and is full of contagious enthusiasm.
I can just picture him bounding in late, apologising and trying to make it up to everyone in the short space of time available. He’s known for his excellent manners and does try to give you his full attention when he’s talking to you. His height is something everyone comments on when they first meet him! You know he’s going to be tall, but he still takes you by surprise.
I enjoyed both your writing and your observations and look forward to reading more from you.