Supernatural is -- my girlfriend turned me on to that, it's one of my all-time favorite shows. I actually gave Eric Kripke, the producer, a call and said, "Please, please, put me on your show!" [laughs] That's the only show I've ever done where I was running a fine line between being a fanboy and an actor. I was blown away! I was like, "Geez, I'm in the Chevy! I'm in the Chevy!!"
[laughs] So it was weird, I was trying not to be too excited and lose my cool as an actor on that one. But it was fantastic, as it happened the episode turned out really well.But Legend of the Seeker, equally mind-blowing experience. On that show, they had built my costume up from scratch. Everything has to be made down there. Every last thing -- every sword, every knife, every prop piece -- you can't just go to a retail shop and find an eleventh-century pair of shoes. Everything has to be created out of nothing. What's great about that show is, half the work for you as an actor is done. They do it for you. You're a mapmaker -- you don't have to figure out how to be a mapmaker. You walk on set, they've already got the old printing press, the ink, the work, your costume is masterfully done. So all you have to do is show up and do your business.
So it puts you in the scene, as opposed to green screen work.
Right, where you really have to be a lot more convincing about what you're seeing and doing. They've done some of the work for you, so I was grateful to the behind-the-scenes people there.
You've got long hair as Sebastian, which is unusual for you.
It's fun to put that stuff on. I've always been a kind of conservative Midwestern guy. Like my hair short, button-down shirts, that's kind of my bag. It's fun getting rock-and-roll hair, for an hour of TV.
The character on Supenatural is the classic Ted Raimi geek.
"The classic Ted Raimi geek" -- which is to say, he's a completely normal guy. When you play a geek -- if you play geek, you get Urkel. That's true with every kind of a character. If you're an actor who knows his business, you don't really play the character, you just play yourself -- that's enough, usually. And people you consider a geek are just normal people who just haven't thought about hipness. In that sense, that's what's happening with Wes's character on Supernatural.
Especially if you're standing next to Jared Padalecki.
[laughs] That's right, especially that. People who appear geeky just aren't concerned with looking nice. So people just sort of label them that. And I know I've played a lot of those kinds of characters.
You were a regular on Xena and SeaQuest. If you were offered a steady TV gig like that now, would you say yes?
I'm at a point in my life and career where I can now sit back, take a look at the material, and say, "Is this worth it for me to do now?" When I was in my early 20s I would say, "Oh absolutely," whatever the hell the part is. Unless it's a porno. But now I would have the luxury of taking a look at the material. Because I'm in one of those wonderful phases in your careers where people offer you stuff sometimes and you don't have to hunt so hard.
You've had a lot of fortunate parts. What's the performance you're most proud of?
That's a really good question. There really isn't anything I'm more proud of than anything else. Because the pride comes from working as hard as you can. I suppose there's a couple things I blew off [laughs] -- there's one or two things in my life that I strictly did for cash, but those are few and far between, and most everything I've done I'm pretty proud of. I just think there are things that have turned out better than others. I certainly won't mention them here. I will say, the two shows airing this week, my Supernatural episode and my Legend of the Seeker, I worked very, very hard on and both of those turned out fantastic. They turned out tremendous, and that's due not just to me obviously, that's due to fantastic writing and producing and the other actors I worked with.
Wes wasn't just a comedy role -- he had to make a hard decision and save the town. You had a nice moment at the end with the coin -- I was sad for him, but happy for you that you had that moment.
Thanks. It was fun to play that. And that's not a show that you really can be goofy on. Those guys [stars Jensen Ackles and Jared Padalecki] are doing the reacting -- you've got to more or less be the straight man on that show, and let them do the funny reactions.
