Jared Padalecki, better known to millions of fans as “Sam Winchester” on Supernatural, was one of the folks we spoke to on Sunday morning at the Comic-Con International in San Diego. Our video interview is below, but first, let’s hear what he has to say about entering the show’s ninth season:
“One of the great things that we can do with this show, is we can kind of reinvent it, and our fans are forgiving. They’re passionate, and they let us know what they think, but ultimately they — they, and I, as a fan, and as an actor — trust the writers,” he explains. “There’s this amazing trust that the fans have with our writing staff, our producers, who have these ideas, and with Jensen and myself, and Misha, and Mark, and Felicia, as actors, that we’ll do the right thing and help tell the story and make it true to the characters. So one of the things we’ve been able to do is see these different versions of these two guys, and also here in Season 9, one of the great things that we didn’t have to do at the end of last year because we knew we were going to get picked up, was have this false ending. ‘Oh, now we’re all dead. Or are we?’ We all knew we were coming back, so we didn’t have to go like ‘Ohhh!’ The season premiere is kind of like Episode 824. It’s not like 901; it’s really kind of like the 24th episode. We treat it as one massive season, which is great because we get to build, and build, and build, and not break walls down if we don’t need to. Honest to God, it’s the writers. I don’t know how they think of it. And specifically this season, I’m so excited about it. I am more excited for what I get to do with Sam in this season than I’ve been, ever.”
Supernatural is now one of the longest-running shows in television history. What does Jared think of that, and what will he feel when it’s over? “Friday I turned 31, and this is the ninth [season] – so this is a third of my life, basically. It’s pretty amazing. It’s going to be weird when it ends,” he says. “It’s going to be a long time before it ends, however, but with this season — and this is not just a line — for this season, I feel like what we’re doing, we could go for however long you guys and the writers want to have it going. We opened so many doors. And that’s another thing that we did last year — we, the writers, and the royal ‘we’ – we opened doors. We didn’t close any doors. We didn’t kill this, or stop that… we just left it to where we can do anything now, and what they’ve chosen to do is so awesome. I’m really excited about what’s happening!”
You can see his video, where he talks about a lot more than just those things, below:
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3 Comments
Thanks for the video of Jared! I love how excited he is for the new season!
However, I will say, I have not trusted the PTB or the Writers, since Season 4 and the horribly prejudiced way Sam was treated starting since then. The lack of emotional insight into Sam has been awful over the years and has been responsible for fan resentment of Sam’s character, because most of the show is from Dean’s POV, and Dean is, sadly, often openly hostile to his own brother. And just last season, the first half of Season 8, did Sam no favors. Amelia was clearly treated as less of a person than some stupid vampire pal of Dean’s, which goes to show how little they value human life on the show anymore, and how little they value women, esp. those connected to Sam in a positive way. I also have to say that I’ve hated the angels since Season 4, lol. I’m so over them, it’s not even funny.
Regardless, Jared’s excitement has me intrigued as to what could be a storyline for Sam that he’s so happy to play out this season. I hope for all our sakes, that it is sympathetic to Sam, shown with positive, Sam centric framing, and gives us insight into how it all makes Sam feel WHILE it is happening, and that we are SHOWN how Sam is dealing with things. :)
Thank you for the video of Jared ! He looks pretty excited about Sam , S9 and the big secret ! Hope writers in this season be kinder toward Sam and don’t make him suffer emotionally and physically for too long and at the end turn him to the unsympathetic character !S9 really needs to show more of Sam’s POV and his internal struggles to satisfy the little brother’s fans !
Don’t think I’ve ever seen Jared so psyched about playing Sam. It’s awesome to see an actor so excited going into a 9th year. Of course most shows don’t last so long, so to see that these guys (Jensen as well) are still into the characters, still care about putting the best show out there that they can after so long…it’s something special.
The little show that refused to die. :)
Can’t WAIT for Season 9 in October!