Padalecki on his tussle with Jason
There was a time when Jason Voorhees almost wandered in an America where Supernatural‘s Winchester brothers, Sam and Dean, existed. This potential cross-over of the Friday the 13th universe and the world of the CW’s surprisingly good series was teased within the pages of the official Supernatural magazine. As the series’ third season revved up, it became clear a battle between the Winchesters and Jason was not going to happen after all.
That’s not to say star Jared Padalecki was never bound to have a run in at Camp Blood with horror’s hulking mama’s boy.
“I finally get to fight him,” the actor says with a smile. He’s sitting with ShockTillYouDrop.com on the set of Platinum Dunes’ Friday the 13th (full set report) lensing in Texas. “I had heard from a few places that they talked about it on the show. They never brought it up with [co-star] Jensen [Ackles] or myself, so it was either writer ideas or fan ideas or something, but it would’ve been fun. But now I get to do it on the big screen.”
In this brawl, who gets the upper hand? Well, minutes earlier Derek Mears, the new Jason Voorhees, told us, “I’m going to be stomping Jared’s face very soon.” Judging by Padalecki’s reaction when we press him for details on the scene we’re watching tonight, Mears isn’t wrong.
“This is in the heat of the climactic fight/end chase sequence. I’m not fighting as much as I am getting my ass kicked,” Padalecki laughs. “But [Amanda Righetti and I are] on the run, as it happens in Friday the 13th movies, and we’re trying to get away from the scary guy in the hockey mask. He comes up on us and catches us unawares. Makes me into a little pile of mince meat, which is fine.”
Don’t worry, the scene was well rehearsed ahead of time. “We’ve been in the set for a few days now because we had a big scene in the barn for a couple of days. My stunt double is here, Amanda’s stunt double is here and obviously Derek is his own stunt double. They make sure we’re comfortable with everything, make sure it’s safe. Just about a half hour ago, as I got my face smashed into fake glass, they had to make sure my head was comfortable with head-banging on a piece of breakaway glass.”
This is Padalecki’s third horror feature in his career. Before committing to Supernatural, 2005 saw him starring in another redo, House of Wax, and Cry_Wolf. This time he stars as Clay. “I’m looking for my sister, Amanda. After I read the script, I had some people ask me if I was a police officer or a detective or a ninja or something. That wouldn’t be as interesting a character to me as an ordinary guy put in extraordinary circumstances trying to find his sister. On Supernatural, my guy is more of the hero, he knows what he’s doing. He’s going after these guys. Here on Friday, he’s just trying to find his sister.”
“Marcus [Nispel] is a very, very visual director,” he says, comparing his time on this horror film to his previous efforts. “Before we did House of Wax, Jaume [Collet-Serra], who’s also very visual and comes from the music videos, sat us down and had us watch Texas Chainsaw Massacre, [Nispel’s] remake with Jessica Biel. I remember watching it and thinking wow, this is really well done and it kind of speaks to you. I met with Marcus and Brad Fuller before I did the movie and they were talking about the script and the idea and how he shoots. It was flattering because they said, Listen, we’re hiring actors that we trust that will take care of their own number. Marcus is not of the direction of, I want you to be more sad, I want you to remember that your sister… He tells you what’s going on, shows you how the scene is going to be. It’s a crazy guerilla style like, camera’s here, go. You hear stories about directors pissing off actors when their characters need to be pissed off and have it be pandemonium when things should be chaotic. It’s almost been good acting by default. I don’t know what’s going on or where I’m running. So, I’m going to see the movie and believe Clay didn’t know where he was going.”
He puts on no airs when it comes to recognizing who the true star of this film is. “I’m going to go to the movie to watch Jason as I think 100% of the other audience members are going to do. It’s funny, because we had to go and do a photo shoot for the movie last week and they wanted my singles. I was like, No one wants to see me for Friday the 13th. Listen, the poster is going to be Jason and his mask. No one wants to see Jared. I totally go for Jason. I’m the protagonist, but [Jason’s] the hero in my eyes.”
If you say so, but we’re pretty positive there’s a legion of Winchester fans who will think otherwise.
For more with Padalecki, read our set visit preview.
Source: Ryan Rotten
