Shortly before Supernatural took the 2011 San Diego Comic-Con’s Hall H by storm, the cast and producers took the time to meet with reporters. Misha Collins shared his thoughts on Comic-Con and where Supernatural is going in the upcoming season.
How much actually are we going to see of you next season?
Misha Collins: Oh, I would love to tell you, but I’m not going to. I don’t like to give away secrets.
It actually depends — you might see me a lot next year. If you have, like, a poster of me on your wall, you’ll see me daily. But how much I’ll be on **Supernatural is a secret. I can’t tell you. And I actually don’t know, so that makes it easier not to tell you.
Can you talk about what side of Castiel we’re going to see next season?
Misha Collins: Well, Castiel is definitely — I think that “drunk with power” is a fair characterization of how we’re kicking off the season. Right now we’re in the process of shooting episode 1, because Jensen directed what is, in air sequence, is episode 3. So we’re shooting the first episode right now, and Castiel is definitely drunk with power, and he’s trying to do what he thinks a god should be doing, other than being in Heaven, which is fairly righteous and wrathful. Rectifying the world’s problems. I think he’s making, in many respects, the world a better place, but there’s a fair amount of smiting going on too, so you can… you to take the good with the bad, I guess.
Did you ever have a boss that is like your character?
Misha Collins: I’m not really very good with bosses. I got a job when I was maybe 22 as a waiter, because I thought, good hours, flexible, whatever. There were five days of training at this restaurant, and on day 3, I came in and the manager said, “Hey, Misha, are you growing a beard?” And I said “No.” And he said, “Well then, you need to go to work with your face shaved.” And I said, “F*ck you, and I quit.”
So I don’t do too well with bosses. Or bossy bosses. So I don’t think I would handle having someone like Castiel of season 7, Supernatural in my life. I don’t think I’d like it.
I guess most of us wouldn’t like that, so much.
Misha Collins: Yeah. Well, you know, some people like a little guidance.
How are Sam and Dean handling him as a boss?
Misha Collins: They’re being kind of a pain in the ass, honestly. They need to be whipped into shape a little bit, in my humble opinion. Yeah, it’s very difficult to talk about it without ruining it for you, but, yeah, I sort of start the season off letting sleeping dogs lie with them because they’re completely ineffectual and powerless against me. But, of course, they end up being the thorn in my side, as they always do.
Do you think there’s a way back for Castiel? Because a lot of fans reacted kind of harshly to this whole change in his persona, like him getting drunk in power. Do you think there’s… would you even like to see him kind of go back to the old way he was, or you kind of want to see his disintegration?
Misha Collins: You know, having lived with him for the last three years, Cas definitely has a soft spot in my heart. I think that was the wrong phraseology but, whatever, I’m gonna use it anyway. And I definitely have the affinity for the character, and an affection for him, and I would like to see him redeemed, somehow. So, yeah, I hope that happens for Cas. I don’t know how much, or if that’s gonna happen, but I hope so. I kinda like the guy.
Jim [Beaver] talked about the infrastructure changing a bit. Can you talk about that?
Misha Collins: In what sense?
He was very coy.
Misha Collins: So you’re talking about something without — you’re asking, “What was Jim talking about? Because we didn’t understand it at all!”
Well, I think that the Supernatural — not unexpectedly — but the Supernatural world is changing radically this season, and I think part of what’s gonna happen for Sam and Dean is that they’re going to be facing the world a little bit less powerful themselves than they have in the past. The odds, I guess, are really stacked against them, you know, where they’ve never been before. So, they’re… yeah. They’re more like Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, or Thelma and Louise, than ever before.
Last season in “The French Mistake”, you played a version of yourself. What’s that like, and how did that compare to playing a rather different character?
Misha Collins: It was fun. It was a lot of fun. I called the writers and asked them to make the “Misha” character as big a douchebag as possible, and they were like, “Well, ah, we don’t want to do that too much.” So I had to, within the parameters of the script, make him as big a douchebag as I could, but they didn’t really write him as douchy as I wanted him to. But… it was fun. And what was especially fun about it is, I played him as big a douchebag as I possibly could, and then I got a lot of comments from people, like, “Oh my God, it’s real cool to see you playing yourself!” Yes! That’s exactly what I was going for.
And you got a great death scene out of it.
Misha Collins: That was a good death scene.
Speaking of death, what was the body count like in those first three scripts?
Misha Collins: High. Um… it’s a good question. Definitely in the thousands. I don’t think in the millions, but I could be mistaken. But pretty high.
Between a thousand and a million?
Misha Collins: Yeah, I think that’s probably about right.
It’s quite the range there.
Misha Collins: But it’s definitely not at or near zero. That, I can tell you.
Is that all the smiting you’re doing?
Misha Collins: Yeah.
So what would your preferred method of smiting be? If you had to smite someone, what’s a good way to do it?
Misha Collins: Oh, good question. Are you looking for personal tips, or…
I’m writing a guidebook.
Misha Collins: Off the record, umm… blender? Juicer?
Blender, juicer…
Misha Collins: Yeah.
Those are good smiting…
Misha Collins: Yeah.
And the past tense of “smiting” is “to smote,” is that correct?
Misha Collins: Yes. Smoten.
Smoten.
Misha Collins: I’m not a grammarian… the past perfective of “smite” is “smoten.”
If you have to smite, I need to know that you have smoten someone in the past, right?
Misha Collins: Right, right.
(Image courtesy of Warner Bros.)
Senior Writer, BuddyTV
Laurel grew up in Mamaroneck, NY, Grosse Pointe, MI and Bellevue WA. She then went on to live in places like Boston, Tucson, Houston, Wales, Tanzania, Prince Edward Island and New York City before heading back to Seattle. Ever since early childhood, when she became addicted to The Muppet Show, Laurel has watched far too much TV. Current favorites include Chuck, Modern Family, Supernatural, Mad Men and Community. Laurel received a BA in Astrophysics (yes, that is possible) from Colgate University and a PhD in Middle Eastern Studies and History of Science from Columbia University before she realized that television is much better than studying.
