“I keep saying it was fun to be captain of the creative problem-solving squad. Because that is essentially what you are,” said Jensen Ackles when asked in July at San Diego Comic Con 2010 about his directorial debut of the “Weekend at Bobby’s” episode of the CW’s hit series, Supernatural, which he had just completed. Tonight, fans get to see the long anticipated episode in which Ackles did double duty by helming an episode of the series he acted in. “Every time there’s an issue, like… we just lost that location,” he said, giving an example of that captaincy, it’s “…back to the drawing board, what are we gonna do? This, this, this… Just having that responsibility… It was refreshing. It was kind of nice.”
In their jobs, actors get a general sense of directing as they have to be aware of how big or small to make their movements depending on whether the camera is framing a close-up, two-shot or master and how the director stages a scene they’re in. However, those who wish to pursue directing, producing or writing in their futures and add those hyphenates to their name are smart to learn as much as they can while acting on a long-running series. For there is no better school than learning from those professionals who have made their show a success.
“I got a lot of advice from guys I really respect,” Ackles affirmed, “especially who work the show, between Bob Singer, Phil Sgriccia, Kim Manners who told me in season two, ‘you’re gonna direct one of these days. I can see it. And when you do, I’ll be right there.’ So that was…” he paused at that moment, since the well-loved director died last year, but was quick to add, “I kind of felt like he was. So that was kind of cool.”
Ackles quickly learned that directing was a totally different ball game. He realized that for the past 5-6 years, he had been looking at each script in a certain way. “I’ve looked at it as an actor, looking at it for my character, and trying to creatively come up with ways to do scenes as an actor.” Now as a director, his field of vision has to be all encompassing. He had to “look at the entire script, every scene, every character, every stage direction.” But he found it “refreshing to have a completely different outlook on the way I was reading the script. And it was a lot of work. It was more work than I’m used to. There’s a lot of questions that… you’re fielding like a dozen questions a minute. People are constantly coming up to you and asking you, do you want the red one or the black one? Do you want the big one or the small one? Do you like this one or this one? Do you want this truck?”
Jensen Ackles Shooting Order
In general, to keep everybody working, as a rule of thumb, an episode has a week of prep, then a week to eight days of principal photography, and a week of post. This means that episode 1 is being posted while episode 2 is being shot and episode 3 is being prepped. It isn’t often that the shooting order of episodes is changed to accommodate an actor-turned-director while acting at the same time. Nevertheless, the Supernatural producers showed their commitment to the quality of the show and their caring for Jensen to do the best job he could by rearranging the shooting schedule to make it easier on him.
“We shot it first so I could have time to prep without working,” Ackles confirmed. “Because if we had shot it in order, I would actually be acting in episode 3 while trying to prep for episode 4, and it would have been…” He circled his head as if to say crazy or too much. “It would have been a lot more difficult if it hadn’t been done the way we did it. So they moved it up in the shooting schedule so that I could prep beforehand.” By the time he was talking to the press at Comic Con, he had already shot his directorial debut, plus the season opener and they were working on episode two.
Asked about what he was going to do about the post production of his episode, which is generally done in LA, while he was filming new episodes in Vancouver, Ackles said, “I’ve just gotten the editor’s cut. And now I’m giving notes. Actually, I promised all of them tomorrow, and I’ll give them my director’s notes.” Because as episode 4 in the rotation, “Weekend at Bobby’s” wasn’t slated to air until October, he believes he’ll have time to “go down for a weekend or two in the next month and sit in the Bay and do some editing, which I’m looking forward to, since I’ve never been a part of post. I’ve never been a part of prep either, which is a totally new experience for me. I basically show up on the day that we film and I do my thing. So to be there in the beginning, through the middle and now the end, it’s unique.”
Luckily for Jensen, since this story is about Bobby (Jim Beaver) trying to undo the deal with Crowley (Mark Sheppard) for his soul (which Bobby was forced to barter away in last season’s finale), he didn’t have quite the acting load that he might have had under other circumstances. Still, it's almost obligatory to ask an actor doing such double duty if he wants to do it again. “If you had asked me the day after I stopped, if I’d do it again,” Ackles admitted truthfully, “I’d probably say ‘not a chance in hell’ but now that it has settled down, yeah, I’d definitely do it again.”
Sera Gamble on Director Ackles
Which is good since Sera Gamble, this season’s Supernatural showrunner, said of Ackles at the same Comic Con 2010 press conference that “he just sounded like a seasoned director in the first meeting. I think it was something he’s wanted to do for a long time. I’m just really glad we were able to have him shoot that episode. I think it’s going to be really good.”
Especially when she said that the inspiration for the episode was “we were curious about what 48 hours or so in the life of Bobby would be like. What happens when he hangs up the phone and the guys are like eh, it’s gonna take him five minutes, he’ll find the obscure word that could be in any f**king book in the world. Like how hard is it really to do all that, so it’s pretty hilarious. And it’s more work than Jim [Beaver] has ever had to do on the show.”
Tonight, the fans will get to decide if they approve of the directing job Jensen Ackles did.
Note: Bob Singer on Director Ackles
Since at the time of Comic Con this past July, the producers and Director Ackles had only the dailies (the raw footage shot the day before) and the editor's cut (the first assembly of the episode) to view, I later asked executive producer, former showrunner, and many times director of Supernatural Robert Singer to give his thoughts on the final product and the job Jensen did helming it. Because he was involved in directing his own episode, Bob Singer wasn't able to answer me until after the broadcast date, so his comments also include how well the episode did.
"Jensen did incredibly well for a first timer," Singer said. "I told him the show looked like the work of a confident director. Well shot, story told, beats all hit. The crew very much enjoyed working with him, and he had a great time as well. The show performed in the ratings, so all in all, a plus experience for everyone involved."
And nobody can ask for more than that positive outcome.
Supernatural airs on CW Network on Fridays at 9pm ET/PT.
Crystal Taylor - I'm a writer of TV one-hour scripts, screenplays, novels, short stories, articles, and poetry. I'm most proud of a story (episode outline) ...
