Jared Padalecki: "Supernatural" Meets Friday the 13th

Tall (over 6 feet) super cute actor Jared Padalecki has no doubt come to your attention playing Sam on the spooky TV series "Supernatural" for the last four seasons. His buddy/bro on the show Jensen Ackles just starred in the "re-imagining" of My Bloody Valentine. Not to be one-upped, here comes Jared riding a motorcycle up to the dreaded Crystal Lake in the re-make of the first film in one of the classic horror franchises Friday the 13th!

Sitting down with us in Beverly Hills, Jared was stoked about his film and clued us in on the funny side of shooting a horror film. He let us know that he's buds with Derek Mears who plays the frightening, hockey-mask-wearing Jason Voorhees and that shooting in his native Texas was a great break from his Vancouver "Supernatural" set. Get the insider on and off-set scoop from this hot hunk......

TeenHollywood: How weird is it that your 'Supernatural' co-star Jensen Ackles had a horror movie come out right before yours?

Jared: I know, yeah. When we found out that we were coming out on February 13th and his movie is, obviously, called My Bloody Valentine, we were like 'oh, man, I hope they don't come up against each other' because we're buddies and it's not really going to effect anything but I don't really want the stigma. But, luckily, his already came out and did tremendously. Now, it's my turn.

TeenHollywood: Did he say to you 'but mine is in 3-D'?

Jared: [laughs] Well, we went and saw it. Opening night, we actually, bizarrely, each had [the same] day off and his girlfriend was in town and Kerr Smith, who is in the movie also was in town. So, we actually snuck into the theater, put the little glasses on and we got to thinking later, 'you know what? I'll bet you the people behind us were like 'these glasses are amazing! It's like they're [right here]! [we laugh] So, it was a lot of fun. It's a really fun movie.

TeenHollywood; Has he seen your Friday the 13th yet?

Jared: I haven't even seen mine because I've been working every time they have a screening. And they're like 'hey, you comin' to the party tonight?' it's like 'well, it's Thursday. I'll probably be working till 3 A.M. in Vancouver'.

TeenHollywood: We just met and spoke with Derek who plays scary Jason and he's so sweet and fun. How hard is it for you to look at him in the mask and really be scared?

Jared: Derek's an awful man. No, Derek is incredible. I think, if it had been maskless, like if it was 'Here's a big dude and he's gonna kill you' without the stigma of Jason and the physicality, I would have been 'oh, Derek, you're not gonna hurt me. You could kill me but you're too nice'. I sort of get to cheat. I have lines and I get to use my facial expressions and he just expresses so much with his movement. It was really comforting to work with him because we had a couple of fight scenes and I had mud in my eyes and I couldn't really see anything so I'd slip and he'd pause, holding me and pull me back up and I'm 220 pounds and he's like 'I gotcha', back on my feet, 'thank you'. He's really a cool guy and I can't wait to see his performance.

TeenHollywood: Okay, you're not afraid of Derek. What are you afraid of in life?

Jared: Bears. Bears are scary. They can climb trees. They can bite. They can scratch. I think bears scare me.

TeenHollywood: They're Godless killing machines [We're kidding. We think bears are adorable].

Jared: They're Godless killing machines, yeah. I've never used that phrasing but I've always thought that.

TeenHollywood: The original series wasn't much on character and acting so were you surprised that there was so much to do in this one? Or, did you have any thoughts before you got the script?

Jared: Before, I got the script, honestly, my thought was 'man, I really like Friday the 13th' and I'd seen The Texas Chainsaw Massacre [re-make] that they had done and I loved it. Before we started shooting House of Wax, we watched it and Joel Silver said, 'listen, this is kind of what we're doing. We're trying to re-make an old classic and make it new and fun and modern and sexy and scary'. I love just the cheesy horror for the sake of horror and 'ah, fun, crazy. Let's wait for the next kind of kooky death'. But, it's kind of fun as an actor to go like 'hey, kill me, fine. Make it fun but give me something to do. Give me something to make it real for myself so I'm not just running around going 'all right. When is it my turn to die?'

TeenHollywood: And the producers and director on "13th" were giving you a more real character to play?

Jared: Yeah. It was exciting to sit down with Brad Fuller and everybody and talk about 'hey, we're trying to make it real. We're trying to plug into the reality'. It's so funny because we were filming a movie about a guy who's immortal and who is going to go kill everybody in the woods but we would be like 'this doesn't feel real' [he laughs]. 'Well, no it doesn't feel real. This is Jason Voorhees. It's not real!'. But, sometimes we'd pause for like thirty minutes and we're like 'listen, this is where the audience is watching it and they start to laugh and get up and leave because it's so bull**it'. So we'd sit down and fix it. That was nice to be a part of.

TeenHollywood: You're from San Antonio. Were you familiar with any of the Austin, Texas locations you worked in?

Jared: Yeah. Austin is my favorite city. I still was doing 'Supernatural' for the first two weeks of principal photography on Friday the 13th so the cast had been there a while in the city but some of my best friends live in Austin. A really close friend of mine Logan, he's got a boat. We go wake boarding. I was actually enrolled at UT Austin. It was great. The location was perfect for me. If I didn't work that summer, I would have probably been in Austin hanging out with my friends so it was like 'cool'! What an amazing opportunity'. Austin's awesome.

TeenHollywood: You don't only have to contend with Jason in this. You also have to deal with douche-bag Travis [Jared bursts out laughing]. He's the best cinematic douche-bag in the last century. [Actor Travis Van Winkle plays Trent, an annoying, totally uptight rich guy in the film].

Jared: That's so funny.

TeenHollywood: Your scenes were great with him. Did you guys improv some of that?

Jared: A little bit, yeah. What's funny is, maybe it's my fault for being jaded by Hollywood, but I saw a picture of Travis and I saw his resume. I hadn't really seen a lot of his work and I was like 'oh, he's gonna be a douche. He plays a douche. He's gonna be a turd' but I met him and he's the coolest, most down-to-earth guy. He was talking about how he still gets his hair cut at Supercuts and his agent got mad at him. He was like 'quit getting your hair cut at Supercuts'. He was like 'why, man? Like it's five bucks!' He was really cool so it was nice to get along. We had fun but I'm excited to see his character having heard that he's the biggest douche bag character in a long time. He does have a good death. That must be really fun for the audience.

TeenHollywood: That was really you on the motorcycle, right?

Jared: Yeah, that was me on the bike.

TeenHollywood: You ride a lot of motorcycles?

Jared: I don't, actually. I've been on dirt bikes and I've ridden motorcycles every now and again but like Vespas and stuff like that. But, when I found out that I was going to be riding in the movie, I was up in Vancouver on 'Supernatural' and I called a stunt guy that's a buddy of mine who has like four motorcycles and I was like 'hey, man, I'm riding a motorcycle in the movie. Want to show me some stuff?' So, he literally brought a bike down to stage and left it there for me and was like 'listen, when you aren't shooting, just start it up and ride it around'. We'd get like an hour or two between set-ups and a few of the guys on set ride hogs so they'd give me advice. I had a lot of help. I'm sure they only used the takes where I looked cool because sometimes I was like 'ahhhh' [indicates holding onto the handlebars shakily] 'cut, cut'.

TeenHollywood: Did you get to watch anybody else shoot their death scene? Well, we can't say who dies but...

Jared: Well, we filmed on location and let's just say if I was not in a woodshed, I would not have seen what happened in the woodshed. Let's say, however, I was in the woods, and if someone happened to die in the woods, I would be there on that day. It's really cool to watch on screen and really just exhausting to watch in life.

TeenHollywood: What do you mean?

Jared: It's like a sex scene or something 'okay, well, we can kind of see her breast so kind of lean to the right a little bit', 'okay. Now your neck...' It's so calculated. It's almost like 'okay, if you stab like this then we're not gonna see the light shining off the blade so make sure you stab like that' and you realize it really takes a lot. It's not just 'okay, go in and stab!' And, with a hand hanging down, it has to look dead. 'Oh, the hand flexed a little bit. We can tell you're not dead so really keep your hand [still]'. Man, you don't think about that. It's a very painstaking process to kill somebody on screen, especially for a horror movie where it's about the deaths, it takes a long time.

TeenHollywood: How fun was shooting this as a break from your series?

Jared: It was a lot of fun. Ultimately, whether you're doing a romance or a classic piece or a comedy, drama or a horror, whatever, or a TV show, it's like you get to work and you do your work. But, it was fun for me to do a movie. I much more enjoy the process of working on a movie where you know your character, you know your arc and it's not like 'oh, I'm going to make this decision about my character' and the next episode you read that it's actually [something else] and you're like 'awww, come on!' Instead of shooting eight pages a day, you shoot three so you really get to explore different options and do different things and really embrace it. It's not like 'okay, clock's ticking and we're behind at lunch', it's like 'hey, let's do what needs to be done. Let's do it right'.

TeenHollywood: Is there a big season finale cliffhanger coming on 'Supernatural'?

Jared: I assume. As soon as we get the note on whether or not we're picked up for Season Five, I think they'll probably decide what they're doing. Right now, we're in that awful, sort of limbo 'well, we really like the show but we don't know if it's coming back so make it really good for the final five episodes'. 'How? Should we kill everybody? Should everybody live? Do we introduce somebody new?'

TeenHollywood: Doesn't doing a cliffhanger give you more leverage. 'Well, we can't just leave it hanging now'?

Jared: Kind of but I think one of the blessings of the show is that our creator Eric Kripke, really hates the normal TV process. Actually, he'd kill everybody on the show. I've died and Jensen. He's like 'ah, they love dad. Let's kill him!' He'll go like 'hey, well we need to make something happen. Kill somebody!' He doesn't want it to be a thirty season show. We're not making "Smallville". We're not making "Bonanza" where they can just go for fifty years. He's like 'listen, let's tell a good story. I don't care if I'm supposed to cliffhang or not. If you are getting cancelled, you are gonna die. Let's put some finality to this'. So I think we'll find out in probably the next month.

TeenHollywood: Can you say anything about what will be coming up with your character on the show?

Jared: Well, it's been clear to me that Sam's gonna go darker so, to what end, I'm not sure but he's doing things right now that aren't okay with anybody.

TeenHollywood: That must be fun for you.

Jared: Real fun. That's what I really like.

TeenHollywood: You open the day before Valentine's Day. Do you personally make a big deal out of Valentine's Day?

Jared: My plans are to hermit that weekend. I get kind of funny. I think I'm going to stay in my room with blinders on so nobody can see me and I can see nobody.

TeenHollywood: A lot of people can relate to that so why do you avoid Valentine's Day?

Jared: Well, it's not just about Valentine's Day. Just the fact that my movie is coming out but I don't know about Valentine's Day. I think it's nice to do romantic, nice things all the time, not just for a day. It feels contrived.

TeenHollywood: When you were a kid and you saw the original Friday the 13th were you one of the ones that cheered after every kill?

Jared: I wasn't a cheerer. From what I can remember, I think cheering's pretty recent. I think you'd be like [hiding his face a bit] 'ooooo'. Now it's like 'yeah!!' Maybe that's speaking on the generation or something. I would just go like 'oh, that was cool'. No out loud cheering. Maybe this time.

TeenHollywood: Travis's death got the biggest cheer in my screening.

Jared: Yeah? Good. He deserves it for douche bag of the Century.