SUPERNATURAL's Jensen Ackles tells Liz Walsh all about battling evil spirits

In his first Australian interview for Supernatural, star Jensen Ackles is sitting in the show’s Canadian production office, during a dinner break.

It’s past 8.30pm and he’s staring at a huge quilt a fan has sent in. Each of the quilt’s panels is embroidered in a different scene from the show.

In his first Australian interview for Supernatural, star Jensen Ackles is sitting in the show’s Canadian production office, during a dinner break.

It’s past 8.30pm and he’s staring at a huge quilt a fan has sent in. Each of the quilt’s panels is embroidered in a different scene from the show.

“I can’t imagine how long it took for this person to do it, because it’s a very intricate piece of work,” he says.

But it certainly proves the devotion of fans to a show that has taken the “supernatural” genre to new heights.

“A couple of years ago when the show first started, there were several other shows that were given then “supernatural” genre title as well,” Ackles explains. “But I think what really differentiated us from those shows, was we weren’t necessarily a mystery show like Lost or something like that, we were actually a thriller show, so it was more about the scary aspect.

“From the get-go we set out to make a weekly thriller…and we’ve tried to stay as close to that formula as possible.”

Ackles, who plays Dean Winchester along side Jared Padalecki, who plays his brother Sam, says the cast and crew is excited that the show has reached a third series.

“ I knew that there was a chance that we could make a quality show,” he says. “But with today’s life in television… you never know what’s going to make it and what’s not. You’ve got to take your chances and produce the best show you can and hope somebody pays attention to it. We were lucky enough to get a strong enough audience in the first season to get us a second season.”

When we left the Winchester brothers at the end of last season, Dean had made the ultimate sacrifice for his brother - exchanging his soul with a Crossroads Demon for the life of Sam. The deal brought Sam back to life but has left Dean with a single year to live.

Ackles says expect more of the demon-fighting, paranormal-combating audiences have become accustomed to.

“There are hundreds of demons running around, so we’re trying to police that and round that up and we’re running from the law and trying to find a way to weasel out of the deal that’s been made giving them a year to live, so all that poses a lot of problems for us to deal with in season three,” he says.

There are also two new characters who have been brought into the fold, Stella and Ruby.

“The nice thing about this, is they weren’t just bringing on two girls to play opposite the two guy characters,” Ackles says. “In fact, we ran into a bit of resistance, particularly from fans when they heard about it…they didn’t want it to be Scooby Doo. So we assured them that it wouldn’t be that…these would be almost antagonists to Sam and Dean and they would pose problems and be a thorn in the side.”

Ackles says the fun part of the job is chasing after demons and he does about 95 per cent of his own stunts.

“I do as much as I can. Just the other day, I was running down the alley, while getting shot at and I jumped up on the hood of a car, over the car on to a dumpster and jumped up in to a second storey apartment’s garage, while getting explosives popped off on my heels. But I love that stuff.”

It can be dangerous though. Last year Jared broke his wrist while filming a fight scene.
“But that’s the only serious injury we’ve had,” Ackles says. “We get banged up, with bruises and sore muscles or whatever, but nothing a little Tylenol (Panadol) won’t take care of.”
But he said it’s not all fun and games on set.

“We do work some ridiculous hours…sometimes 13-14-15 hour days. So a lot of times, when Saturday hits, you’re wrapping until 3am or 4am, and pretty much sleep Saturday away, so you’re weekends are short,” he says. “So it’s a lot of work and we’re hoping with the addition of these two characters it will kind of alleviate some of the work time for Jared and I. But so far, it hasn’t quite.”

He says his time off screen is spent staying healthy, maintaining his friendships and traveling between Supernatural’s Canadian set, his LA home and his family in Texas.

But he wouldn’t give up TV for anything. He started out on Days of Our Lives about 10 years ago, as a 19-year-old and can’t imagine not acting.

“I like the fast pace of it, and it really forces you to get good at what you do, because if you’re not, you’re going to get left behind.”
~ Source.