Ackles remains to answer some follow-up questions, including how it is that his “Soul Survivor” both is and is not the first episode of Season 10.
Jensen Ackles: It’s not the season premiere. It will air third, but it was the first one that we shot [for the season]. They basically did me a very nice favor in moving the episode that I’m directing to the first one to be filmed, so that I could prep without actually having to act in another episode. Because otherwise, I’d have to be working on Episode Two as an actor, trying to prep for Episode Three as a director, and that would be very, very difficult. So they bumped mine up to the front of the list to allow me to come back a little early from my hiatus, do the prep, do the shoot, and now, we’re actually starting our season premiere today, which they kindly wrote Jared and I out of the first day, so we could come and spend the day with [the Television Critics Association].
After recurring on SUPERNATURAL since Season 5, Mark Sheppard is now a regular this season. Did the show discover it just couldn’t live without him, or …?
Jensen Ackles: I think it’s just simply the beginning of an end [laughs]. No, he’s on as a contract player now, we’ve got Misha [Collins, who plays the angel Castiel] fully contracted now, and I couldn’t be more excited. Personally, I think it’s something we probably could have done a couple years ago, because I think that they are integral to the story and to the boys’ moving forward. It definitely is going to make for some interesting storylines and arcs this year, having them both available to us full-time. We’re not going to be having to share Mark with another series or having to share Misha with something else, so the fact that they’re both on full-time is welcome to us.
Do you have a favorite moment in the ten years of SUPERNATURAL?
Jensen Ackles: My favorite moment? That’s virtually an impossible question to answer [laughs]. There have been many, many moments. I would say personally, it was probably a toss-up between marrying my wife [actress Danneel Harris] and having our daughter. Professionally, it is a collection of amazing events. I truly do get along with Jared as well as anyone could ever hope to get along with a co-worker, and that really makes for just a fun place to work. We laugh with our camera crew, we laugh with our sound guys, with our props department, with our electrics and grips and everybody, and it’s just one happy, dysfunctional family. And I think that the fact that we have these relationships is probably the greatest thing that’s happened to me since the start of the show.
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