Jared Padalecki

Interview By: Joe Drew
JoeDrew@TheCinemaSource.com

After meeting Jared Padalecki there is no wonder why he was cast in the new Friday the 13th. His horror resume includes Cry Wolf, House of Wax, the CW show Supernatural, as well as the grotesquely horrific Gilmore Girls. It's no coincidence though that this rising star is most memorable for the characters he's played in horror movies. A tall, strikingly handsome actor, (more so in person than on television if you can believe it) he could easily ride the wave to stardom on his looks alone. However he takes himself and the genre he most consistently works, more seriously than that.

In movies and television that that rely on cheap, sudden scares it's often easy to see the camp shining through by either cheesy dialogue or even cheesier acting. The trick to Padalecki's success, it seems, is to bring an element of reality into the horror.

'I think moreover is that I take it seriously,' Padalecki explains. 'People get into a horror and people go like, 'Oh maybe we should go over here,' you know like, 'I'm going to die anyways, it's time to do this and that.' If you lose reality then it just becomes . . .' He stops speaking then makes an up and down masturbation motion with his hand. I laugh at his use of the gesture to explain the implicit stupidity in approaching horror in the way he's just described, then he continues, 'You have to find the reality even if it's like, (speaking in an obvious tone) 'What's in the room'' You don't want to be like 'WHATS IN HERE!' You know where it's like, 'ok he's the next to die.' You have to kind of find a way to hear something in the room, be like 'what the'' as opposed to, 'Here's the setup for the machete to come through my head.'

'We shot 78 episodes of Supernatural. So I have seen 70 episodes where you can see when guest stars are telling the audience they are about to die, or when they are just making it real, when they are just like, hey I'm a dude, or I'm a chick, and are like 'What's that'' as opposed too, 'I'm oblivious to what's going on around me, like maybe someone should come kill me!'

Did Padalecki get an option for a second movie' 'I think they tried too,' he said. 'But we were like you know if they make another, if they do, lets figure it out from there.' He has other plans than just coming back sequel after sequel. 'I also wouldn't want to come back for another as the hero. Id love to come back and have a scene and die.'

Padalecki is an actor who wants to try different things and isn't afraid to step outside his typecast. What kind of movie would he like to do next' ' What would be ideal'' he asks repeating my question, 'I'd love to do a western.' He counts any Sergio Leone movie especially The Good the Bad and the Ugly among his favorites. 'Also I'm not, I wish I was kind of, I'm not at the point where I'm like, umm guys, I finished Supernatural March 28th, give me my western. Give me a choice, line them up and ill choose,' deepening his voice, 'you will be my western.' I'm still in the process finding out what they are making and going in and meeting on it. Its not like I'm coming in brand ass new and they're like whose this guy, why does he think he can work on this movie. They know who I am hopefully and they know that I've worked and so I have a better shot but I like that I'm sort of,' he pauses and changes direction, 'its kind of exciting what comes next' I've done a lot of horrors but it isn't necessarily by design.'

Padalecki's desire to try different things is especially true for Supernatural, where he'd like to see his character take on a darker tone. 'We'll figure out why Sam is turning dark and we get to see him go a little bit darker and get to worry about Sam a little bit which is nice, because Sam was always the one that it's like, 'Aww Sammy, he's a good guy don't worry about him,' and now the tables are turning so its really nice to play.'

When we asked if he wanted to play a bad guy though, his answer was a swift, 'Hell yeah, hopefully I'll get a chance on Supernatural. That's what I'm hoping. Seems like it might go that way. Hopefully for the duration of the show I get to explore the bad parts of Sam, maybe give him some redemption at the end. I'd love to go Vader.' This of course begged the question; did he think the audience would be a bit afraid of Sam losing his good guy appeal' His initial response was one of cheeky sarcasm, 'Absolutely, but who gives a damn.' Then he scaled back, 'Absolutely but I'd love to do it, it'd be nice to mix it up.'

Padalecki wasn't the only one keeping busy during hiatus. Jensen Ackles, the man Padelecki shares equal camera time with on Supernatural couldn't shake the horror bug either. 'He went off to, I think Pittsburgh and shot My Bloody Valentine and I went to Austin to shoot Friday, he says. The close proximity of their respective movies filming and release could have destroyed their brotherly bond, both on and off screen. Initially there was the fear the films could open on the same weekend. 'What's funny is that his movie being called, 'My Bloody Valentine' and my movie coming out Feb 13th; when we found that out we were like, 'aww... dude, I hope they don't come out the same day.'

The stars aligned however, and good fortune prevailed, as they were able to see the movie together. 'It's actually really rare we have a day off and we actually both had that Friday off, and his girl (Jensen Ackles') was in town and I think they were going to go on a date and I was like, 'ah ah, we're seeing your movie.' He repeats the same phrase, again, this time with force of a persuasive friend convincing the other to do something he knows he already wants to do. 'We're seeing YOUR movie,' and so we threw the little goggles on and snuck into the movie after it started and Kerr who was the other guy, the officer in the movie. He was in town shooting a pilot, so he (Jensen) called up Kerr and the four of us: me, Jensen, Kerr, and Jensen's girl went and saw the movie. We were joking afterwards the guys behind us must have been like 'these goggles are amazing, It's like they are right there' cause here comes Jensen and Kerr like walking in you know.'

Don't expect to run into Padalecki the next time you go to one of his movies. 'We had beanies coats, scarves and glasses and we went in five minutes after it started and five minutes before it ended, just kind of like head down, eyes on the prize.'

His eyes are certainly on the prize, and if Friday the 13th opens as expected the prize is going to get much bigger for Padalecki.