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supernaturaldrafts · 26 days ago

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readingeagle - "'Supernatural' actor Misha Collins is the new angel on the block"

December 14, 2008

Someone must have made a deal with the devil.

Defying the laws of television, which stipulate that series peak early and gradually dwindle, the CW horror series "Supernatural," now in its fourth season, is enjoying a ratings surge and all signs point to a renewal for a fifth year.

Much of the credit goes to series creator/executive producer Eric Kripke, who has crafted the series' current, supremely watchable Heaven vs. Hell/apocalypse-in-the-making story lines, and to stars Jared Padalecki and Jensen Ackles, who play Sam and Dean Winchester, the intrepid brothers who crisscross the country in their 1967 Chevy Impala, battling the forces of evil in all its many incarnations.

But there's also an unexpected gift from above: Castiel (Misha Collins), the handsome, trench-coat-sporting angel who earlier this season plucked Dean from Hell and who, with his partner Uriel (Robert Wisdom), continues to keep an eye on the Winchester boys. The character has become a fan favorite, and Collins will stick around far beyond the six episodes for which he initially signed on.

"I'm totally flabbergasted," Collins says. "I had no intimation that there would be any kind of reaction like this at all. I just thought it would be another recurring guest-star spot that would fade away real quick. But the fan reaction has been huge and - this is big news - if the show gets picked up for a fifth season, they're going to make me a regular on the show.

"And I think that's in large part due to the fan reaction, which has been really amazingly supportive and somewhat obsessive."

So is Castiel a good guy in a bad situation or a bad guy trying to avert a fatal fall? Collins, who at 34 has a list of credits that includes guest shots on "Charmed" (1999) and "Without a Trace" (2007), a recurring role as a Serbian assassin on "24" (2002) and a part in the romantic comedy/fantasy "Over Her Dead Body" (2008), votes for the former possibility.

"I would like to think that Castiel is a good guy in a bad situation," Collins says, speaking by cell telephone from Brooklyn, where he's visiting friends. "I'm not entirely informed as to what his future holds for him, but that's what I'm working with internally.

"I think that what's going on is that Heaven is not such a perfect place," he continues, "that it's not as perfect as we'd all like to imagine, and that there are a lot of bureaucratic machinations going on and sacrifices that have to be made along the way. I think the ends justify the means in the heavenly bureaucracy, and Castiel is not always necessarily happy with that.

"I could be totally wrong, but I think he's a good guy."

Castiel's personality and his relationships with Sam and Dean, as well as with Uriel, continue to evolve, much to Collins' satisfaction.

"In my mind Castiel is starting to develop an admiration for Dean and the stance that Dean seems to stake out as he goes along," Collins says. "And I have been sent as something of a protector of Dean. I mean, I rescued him from Hell.

"I think that Sam is a bit of a wild card in the eyes of the heavenly authorities," the actor says. "I think that we see him as being either a potentially great ally or a serious liability, and we're not really sure how that's going to play out in the end.

"Uriel, I think he's much more militant and more dogmatic than Castiel," Collins concludes, "and I don't frankly think that we get along that well, but we're sort of forced to work together.

"These are definitely subjective interpretations, but that's what I think."

Now that it's clear that Castiel will be sticking around awhile, Collins sees plenty of room for growth in the character.

After all, the new angel in town hasn't been in the company of flesh-and-blood mortals for more than 2,000 years.

– Ian Spelling, readingeagle.com

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supernaturaldrafts · 26 days ago

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movieweb - "EXCLUSIVE: Misha Collins Gets Angelic in Supernatural"

Sep 23, 2008

The newest cast member of the smash-hit CW series talks about his new role, working with Jared and Jensen and yet another angel down the road

When the fourth season of the immensely-popular series Supernatural hit the CW airwaves last Thursday, viewers were treated to a demonic/angellic new character, that turned out to be more the latter than the former. This new character is Castiel, an angel who was the one who pulled Dean out of hell and was sent down by the Lord to aid in the adventures of Dean and Sam Winchester. The actor who portrays this intriguiing new character is Misha Collins and I just recently had a chance to talk to the latest Supernatural cast member over the phone. Here's what he had to say.

You played a pivotal role in the season premiere last week. How did you originally come across this role of Castiel?

Misha Collins: I came across it when my agent sent me an audition for a demon on Supernatural earlier this summer. I had an episode of Supernatural Tivoed and I watched it and I saw a demon and I saw that he was kind of snarky and nasty, as we would expect a demon to be. So, I went in and I auditioned for (creator) Eric Kripke and I gave him a very nasty and snarky performance (Laughs). He said 'Great work, except, we are trying to hide from the fans that we're introducing an angel to the show, so we sent out the audition material as a demon, so it's actually an angel.' So he gave me a couple of adujustments to try to make me a little bit less snarky and more angellic and, evidently he liked me because I got the part.

So you hadn't followed the show previously before signing on?

Misha Collins: I had seen the show previously, but I had not been an avid follower of the show. I thought it was good, but I'm not a very good television watcher. I'm not very good at keeping up with the show. It seems like Supernatural is one of those shows where it's much better if you watch it all.

Since he says he's been sent from the Lord, would it be safe to assume that the Lord has been keeping tabs on Dean and Sam then, and sent you down to help them along?

Misha Collins Yes, definitely. Yeah, God is definitely keeping tabs on Sam and Dean, which is probably a lot of pressure, if you think about it. You know, if God is watching your every move, you should probably straighten up your act a little bit.

You said that Eric (Kripke) gave you some adjustments to your character, but what kinds of things do you do to get into the character of Castiel?

Misha Collins: Well, one of the things that I've done is I have been reading Revelations. Have you ever read Revalations?

A long time ago.

Misha Collins: Yeah. It's amazing, rich material that is full of stories about angels and angels being sent down to Earth to wipe out a third of the population. I mean, there are angels that come down and wipe out a third of the population and then another angel will come down and wipe out a third of all the animals living in the sea and another angel will come down and wipe out all the vegetation on the land. They are some vengeful individules, in Revelations, the angels. In reading that, I was kind of surprised. There is a lot of destructive capacity in an angel's being. Kripke gave me a couple of things to work with right in that audition and one was that the angels haven't actually come down to Earth for 2000 years. They've been watching from a great distance, but now this is the first time they're really getting up close in 2000 years. When I'm talking to Dean, I'm observing these qualities that are somewhat alien to me. There's a curiosity and an inquisitiveness that Castiel has and also a real peacefulness and a real calm and wisdom and knowledge that goes along with being a very ancient being. If you spend your whole life in heaven, I would think that it makes you pretty peaceful, so that's a lot of what I've drawn on. My younger brother, this is going to sound kind of weird, but there's something quite angellic about him. He has this way of, very calmly, just staring into someone's eyes and it kind of feels like he can get into your soul. It's a little weird and really kind of amazing so I did kind of base my character on my younger brother.

Oh, wow. That's interesting. So, we don't really get a whole lot about Castiel in the first episode. He's an angel and he doesn't doesn't really affect mortals too well, with their eyes if they look at him.

Misha Collins: Right.

Is there anything that you can tell us that we might see from him down the road in the season?

Misha Collins: Yeah, I guess I can tell you that I'm not going to be the only angel on the show. Muriel is another angel that is going to come down as well. Muriel, he's a much more militant angel and one who is much more eager to stamp out the human communities. Yeah, he's the vengeful, smiting type. Also, my character is somewhat conflicted and not quite as sure of himself as maybe he initially was presented.

So do you and Muriel cancel each other out, or play the balancing of the forces?

Misha Collins Yeah, well there's a conflict between Muriel and I.

I've interviewed Jared (Padalecki) before and both he and Jensen (Ackles) seem like they'd be a riot to work with on this series. How have they both been to work with and how did they embrace you coming into the show?

Misha Collins: They're great to work with. They both have unusually good timing with humor, so there's a lot of sarcasm and witty quips being bantered about on the set, which, I'll tell you, makes working a hell of a lot better. They're not primadonnas… well, if they are primadonnas, they haven't shown me that side yet. They seem like very cool, very fun, very energetic, hard-working guys. They put in long hours on that show, they really do. I've been on shows where the star of the show is like rolling their eyes the whole time and totally frustrated that it's taking a long time and bored out of their minds and spend the whole time on set texting their boyfriend on their Blackberry and just had such a really bad tone for the set. Jared and Jensen, and (director) Kim Manners and the other directors working on the show, they're all really good people to work with, which is unusual and very gratifying and makes it a much better experience than it could be.

I read that you are on for the remainder of this season. Is this kind of like a recurring role or are they talking about a series regular, at some point, for this character?

Misha Collins: I don't know whether they're talking series regular for my character, but that's a good idea. You should maybe recommend that to them.

Absolutely. So can you give us a glimpse of how much you'll be in this season? Will you be in every episode?

Misha Collins: No, I'm not in every episode. It seems to me that the show kind of does this little dance between episodes that are pretty well self-contained. There are episodes where Jared and Jensen take on a particular thing that, within that episode, it's a pretty contained arc and you don't really need to know a whole lot of backstory in order for it to make sense. Then there are episodes that are continuing a broader, more epic storyling and it seems that I'm not so much in those self-contained episodes but in the episodes that are carrying that through-arc. So far, I've been in a little over half of the episodes we've shot.

You've appeared in some very high-profile series' in your career like 24, ER and many others. How has your experience on Supernatural been similar or different to those kinds of shows?

Misha Collins: Well, like I said, I think some of those shows have been less welcoming and less easy to fit into as the new kid at school coming to join a show. Some episodic television - 24 and ER are not examples of that - but there are some episodic television shows that are pretty formulaic and it feels like the series regulars are doing the same thing every episode and you can just feel their boredom. Supernatural is not one of those shows. Supernatural feels like there's always something new happening and the actors and the crew all have interesting things to work on so there's a level of commitment, artistic commitment and excitement on the set that is nice to be around and is a lot better than a lot of other shows that I've been on. It's a happy cast and crew, too. A lot of times there's a surliness that goes on behind the scenes that's not present on Supernatural, which is really great. Aside from that, it's shot in Vancouver and I've been shooting up in Vancouver in summer and early fall, which is pretty much the nicest place to be in summer and early fall, so that also. Maybe talk to me again in February and we'll see how upbeat I am about it.

I know it's only been a few days since the season premiere, but have you been noticed anywhere as Castiel yet?

Misha Collins: Yes, I have.

You have? Already?

Misha Collins: Yeah. I'm building a garden at my house and I was at a local nursery yesterday and two women who were buying palm trees came up to me and said, 'Are you the new angel?' They were really enthusiastic, incredibly sweet and I was kind of taken aback, but I was also kind of thrilled.

I know the show is immensely popular, but I know it has only been a few days so I was kind of curious to see if it happened already.

Misha Collins: Yeah, and I haven't actually been out much in the last couple of days, so yeah, I don't know. I feel like, in talking to you and talking to a couple of other people I've had interviews with, it sounds like there's a big reaction and a lot of people know about my character, which is kind of a surprise to me. I didn't realize that was happening, so, cool. I love it.

So I don't see any future projects listed for you. Is there anything that you're eyeing up, post-Supernatural

Misha Collins: There's an episode of Nip/Tuck that is coming up that I've shot. I think that there's another independent feature that hasn't been released yet, that I've shot as well, but yeah, Nip/Tuck is coming up and that's very (Laughs) a very different role. It's a decidingly un-PG role and very much not the behavior of an angel I will be exhibiting in Nip/Tuck. I have another role, I mean, it's a movie that's available at Blockbuster that I did not too long ago called Karla, where I'm portraying a real-life serial killer, which is also not like an angel.

Finally, you've worked in some huge network TV shows, and with Mad Men making history last week, it seems that the momentum is starting to shift to these smaller networks. Do you think that Supernatural is one of those shows that can push the momentum forward in the future?

Misha Collins: Well, (the CW) is definitely not one of the Big 3. Yeah, I think that the bigger networks are definitely seeing their market share dwindle because of networks like CW and Fox and F/X and all of the smaller cable networks, HBO and Showtime, they're all doing more innovative stuff. I think that this show is actually pushing the envelope a little bit for broadcast television, definitely. It's got a different feel, a darkness that you don't see in a lot of broadcast TV. Heroes, or something like that, seems a little more campy to me. This feels gritty and captivating and I think that they're doing great work on the show. I'm really happy with it.

Well, that's about all I have for you. Thanks so much for your time today, Misha, and I'm looking forward to see what you have coming up in this season.

Misha Collins: Thank you for your time.

– Brian Gallagher, movieweb.com

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supernaturaldrafts · 26 days ago

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UGO TV - "Three Questions With Supernatural's Misha Collins"

November 25, 2008

Misha Collins is having a hell of a good time on Supernatural.

The actor plays Castiel, the angel who saved Dean Winchester from you know where, and he’s fast emerged as a fan favorite. And so Collins – an actor whose credits include Charmed, Girl, Interrupted, 24 (as Dennis Hopper’s assassin son), ER, CSI: NY and Over Her Dead Body – will appear in at least another half dozen episodes of Supernatural this season and just might stick around far longer than that. UGO recently caught up with Collins for an exclusive interview. Here’s what he had to say.

UGO: So, your gig on Supernatural started out as a six-episode recurring character arc and now it looks like you’re going to on the show for the foreseeable future. How cool is that?

Collins: It’s totally awesome. It’s kind of like a dream come true, really, because it’s so much better to come into a show like this that’s establish and, in my opinion, really good, than doing a pilot that might shoot six episodes of and you don’t know if it’s going to catch on. It’s so great to come into something that’s established and already has a fan base. It’s a great character. I have got nothing to complain about. I love Vancouver. I’m sort of pinching myself. It’s great.

UGO: How are you enjoying working with Jensen Ackles, Jared Padalecki and Robert Wisdom, who plays Uriel to your Castiel?

Collins: I can say in all honestly that this is probably the best television set I have ever worked on, which is amazing because it’s probably also the hardest-working set I’ve ever been on. They are working incredibly long hours and Jared and Jensen are shouldering virtually ever scene. So they work really hard, and they’re not doing season four eye rolls or yawning or spending the entire time off in a corner texting their girlfriends. They’re really there and they do their work, and they have senses of humor. They’re both actually really witty and sarcastic, which makes it so much more fun to work with them. And Robert Wisdom is an awesome guy. We had an incredibly long van ride back from the set one day, where the traffic was just horrible and we were in the van for about two and a half hours. We told each other our life stories and we found out that he had lived in Washington, D.C. and I lived in Washington, D.C. I had interned at the White House and he had interned at the Capitol. We both worked at National Public Radio headquarters in D.C., and we’re both now playing angels. We both practice similar kinds of meditation. So he’s a fascinating guy.

UGO: We couldn’t help but notice that in last week’s episode, Uriel did all the heavy lifting in the fight scenes. When is Castiel going to kick some ass?

Collins: I’m going to make an uneducated prediction and say by the end of this season there will be some ass-kicking. The show is going on a little break, but it should pick up after that. (In last week’s episode) I was a bit disappointed when we choreographed the fight scenes and I thought Castiel got cheated of his warrior qualities, but I’m sure that time will come.

– Ian Spelling, tvblog.ugo.com

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supernaturaldrafts · 26 days ago

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TV.com- Top Ten: Best new supporting characters of 2008

Dec 15, 2008

They may not be the center of attention, but these guys and gals keep us coming back for more; we count down the secondary characters that caught our eye this year. Behind every leading woman or man in television, there's one character setting them up and opening the door for them to shimmy on through. At their best, supporting actors are stealing scenes from their higher-paid compadres, and at their worst, they're dragging a show into the ground and being deservedly killed off.

We're going to focus on the former in this list, which covers our favorite new supporting characters from this television season. Are these in any particular order? Sort of. Is this the definitive list? Absolutely not. We're just opening up the discussion and want to hear who would have made your list.

10. Charlotte Lewis, Lost (played by Rebecca Mader) As one of the Freighter Folk on ABC's best show, Charlotte entranced us as soon as we saw her hanging upside-down from a tree in season four's second episode. We have lots to learn about her past, which links her to the island more than any of the Oceanic Six.

9. Castiel, Supernatural (played by Misha Collins) Forget his character and all that--how about that introduction with those gigantic angel wings! As the heaven-sent servant ordered by the big man upstairs to help guide Sam and Dean Winchester, Castiel, with his brooding gaze and menacing voice, makes it clear: he ain't no ordinary angel, and he don't need no harp. […]

– TV.com

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supernaturaldrafts · 26 days ago

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zap2it- "Misha Collins Is 'Supernatural's' Dark Angel"

November 18, 2008

Misha Collins, who plays the angel Castiel on The CW's Thursday-night thrill ride Supernatural, may not wield the awesome powers of a heavenly being in real life, but that doesn't mean he lacks skills.

"I've built most of the furniture in my house," says Collins, a native of Western Massachusetts. "I want to get to the point where I've built everything. I built my couches; I built my table and chairs; I built my bed and all my bedroom furniture. There's a couple of things on my deck that I didn't make. Eventually I'll get there.

"But I also built the house, so, you know, hey!"

And since he's playing an emissary from the Almighty, Collins is taking some of the time he doesn't spend woodworking or acting to peruse his Holy Bible.

"I've actually spent a fair amount of time with the Bible," he says. "It's been on my to-do list for a long time. I wasn't raised in a religious family, so I haven't picked up the Bible since I was in high school. I've never really devoted much time to it, so I'm spending a lot more time with it now."

On Thursday, Nov. 20, Supernatural airs Heaven and Hell, its last original episode until January. A character introduced last week, Anna (Julie McNiven), remembers her past, and demon-hunting brothers Sam and Dean Winchester (Jared Padalecki, Jensen Ackles) discover why Castiel and his fellow angel, Uriel (Robert Wisdom, The Wire), want her dead.

But the Winchesters have other plans for Anna, while also fending off attacks from the evil Alistair (Mark Rolston) and his demonic minions.

In his white shirt, loose tie and rumpled tan overcoat, Castiel looks more like a young Lt. Columbo or a depressed Wall Street banker than the traditional, white-robe-and-sandals idea of an angel. He doesn't make booming pronouncements or wave around a flaming sword, either (although Uriel, who first appeared under orders to smite a whole town, probably has one in an insulated pocket).

"I got two kinds of direction," Collins says, "before we actually shot. One was that Castiel hasn't been around human beings for 2,000 years, so there's a curiosity when he looks at people. 'How do these strange beings behave?' It's fun to play, interacting with Dean and Sam, looking at them like, 'What are you doing?'

"And the other one was that he is compassionate. At first brush, reading the first and second scripts, it looked like this guy is just tough, just mean, just bad-ass. But they wanted that [compassionate] aspect as well, the more angelic side, a little of both."

Over its first three seasons, Supernatural dealt with a wide variety of folklore and urban legends, along with building its own mythology. There has been a lot of talk about Hell -- the same Hell from which Castiel yanked doomed Dean at the beginning of this season -- but not that much about Heaven.

But in season four, the show has taken on an ambitious storyline that features nothing less than Heaven vs. Hell, angels vs. demons, with the freedom of Lucifer himself hanging in the balance.

"It is ambitious," Collins says, "and it sounds so daunting. It sounds like you need the biggest budget in the world to tackle this kind of stuff. Not only are they tackling it, but they're doing a pretty good job of it. It feels real."

Sometimes when TV shows take on biblical subjects, religious folks object to how Hollywood screenwriters interpret their beliefs. If they're unhappy with this storyline, Collins hasn't heard about it.

"It doesn't seem to be stirring up much furor from the religious camps," Collins says. "I imagine that some people would take exception to the idea of angels coming down and destroying this town. I mean, biblically there are precedents, but it's not everybody's idea of an angel."

Of course, when playing an angel, talking about elevated subjects and the Apocalypse and all, it can be hard to maintain one's composure.

"I give it the requisite level of seriousness," Collins says, "then sometimes I crack and start laughing."

Apparently Padalecki isn't making Collins' task any easier.

"The first scene I was in with Jared," he says, "he started making fun of my acting like nobody's business. Coming from anyone else, it would have been devastating, but it was so good-natured and so lighthearted, it was great.

"It's great to work with those guys."

Padalecki and Ackles are somewhat legendary pranksters on the Supernatural set in Vancouver, Canada, but appear to be keeping it in check when the angel is around.

"No serious pranking," Collins says. "I'm kind of sad about it. I don't know if they like me -- maybe not. Or maybe they're just building up to something special."

– Kate O'Hare, zap2it.com

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supernaturaldrafts · 28 days ago

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Fanbolt - "Interview: Eric Kripke from Supernatural".

July 31, 2009

(…) What has the network told you about this season after the show exploded with critic acclaim and popularity?

Eric Kripke: They've been really supportive from the beginning in the key and most important way. They've always let us do exactly what we wanted to do. I mean, we are sort of in the CW class and we're the Goth kid is sitting in the back row. They don't try to pretty us up. Which is great. They let us do what we want. They let us have episodes about suicide and death and gore. And then episodes about angels and God, and angels that swear and are cruel. I appreciate that because I'll definitely take that. The creative freedom is great, and they let us just kind of work in our mad laboratory.

Have you gotten any negative feedback on how God and angels are being portrayed on the show?

Eric Kripke: Nothing major, which shocks me quite frankly. I still kind of keep waiting for more. Not really. Every so often you catch on websites with just random comments that people don't like where the angels story is going. Even though there are malevolent angels, that doesn't mean we're still not talking in overall order of the universe. Again, God being a character was not saying there aren't more benevolent higher powers at play here. Funny enough we're actually becoming a very religious show. We've actually heard anecdotally, fundamentalist really love the show [laughs]. I swear! I swear! One of our writers has friends of friends, from where he grew up, that know a group of fundamentalists. No other show on television has ever talked about end times with any vague references to the Bible. I think they appreciate it, even though we're saying angels are evil and it's a Godless universe, and God is either missing or dead. I think they just appreciate the little we are talking about it.

Was this the direction you planned the show to originally, or did it just kind of happen?

Eric Kripke: These things always evolve. The main thrust of the plan is happening. The reality is, when you sit out in the beginning you sit out with a cocktail napkin sketch of what you want the season to be. The progression of demons and evil, which is what I was initially interested in. What's the bad guy plan? What are they up to? And that's always been the same of building from Yellow Eyes, to Lilith, to now the Devil. That was sort of how I structured it, and that's where we're going. You can go back to interviews I gave where I said I'm not putting angels on this show, screw that. The angels kind of evolved because we started to realize that we needed this sort of cosmic battle. We had the empire, but we didn't really have the rebellion. We sort of saw that missing. Then we started talking more and more about angels, and that we wanted to open the door to a whole new real-estate. It has triggered all sorts of stories. But if you look at what the main thrust of mythology is, it's always what the demons are up to. Now the devil is bringing about the end of the world, and all that was still going to be true - that the fifth season was going to be the apocalypse. At the beginning of last year we said that we should maybe have warriors fighting in the apocalypse, so that's sort of how that evolved.

– Emma Loggins, fanbolt.com

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