TV Guide Special’s Interview
Why does your little horror show strike such a big chord with fans?
Jensen: It’s about a show about monsters, about ghosts, about archetypal characters and crazy story lines, but what it boils down to is a show about brothers and their struggles together and apart. People may not identify with our stories, but they can with that relationship. I can’t imagine how it would ever have worked had Jared and I not worked out as friends off screen…
Jared: It wouldn’t have!
Jensen: Because the friendship that we share off screen is poured into our characters and their relationship on screen.
Jared: It’s also about the broader sense of family. As Bobby once said, “Family don’t end with blood.” Our show is about a kind of large dysfunctional family. And that extends to our fans. We are not kidding when we tell them, “Y’all are part of our show. We’ve made episodes about you.”
When did you realize you guys had off-the-charts chemistry as brothers?
Jensen: As soon as we first met at the network reading [for the pilot]! Jared and I read together and we fell into an instant rhythm that’s still there.
Jared: We got each other pretty quick. We were both from Texas. We [love] country music and pickup trucks. On a Saturday we’d rather go drink beer and fish than go to a rave party.
Jensen: Yup. Right then we knew we’d get along. But there was more. We come from humble beginning, with parents who still love each other. We’re both middle children with an older brother and young sisters who have the same initials.
Jensen: And we both married smart women who are part Sicilian!
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Do you think about the end of the show? Can there be a happily ever after for the brothers?
Jared: They’re not going to walk away saying, “Cool, we got all the monsters – we’re going to Hawaii.” The only way I’d be happy for the show to end is “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid”-style.
Jensen: They go out in a blaze of glory! I want the heartbreaker ending. The great thing about these characters is that they’ll fight to the end. That speaks volumes to a lot of people. I’ve had people tell me, “When I was in the hospital, I watched you guys keep fighting and that really helped me fight.”
You guys are so into your characters. Will it be like quitting heroin when you leave them behind?
Jensen: [Laughs] I’ll have to go to rehab to get Dean out of my system. It’ll be a long period of decompression.
You just can’t quit each other?
Jared: [Laughs] We’ll be better friends after the show when we’re not so sick and tired of each other.