{"id":200214,"date":"2025-07-19T09:00:03","date_gmt":"2025-07-19T13:00:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/?p=200214"},"modified":"2025-09-23T11:16:29","modified_gmt":"2025-09-23T15:16:29","slug":"jared-padalecki","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/?p=200214","title":{"rendered":"“I think something once broken and put back together is even stronger.” — Jared Padalecki"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\nIt’s his birthday today. <\/p>\n

Jared Padalecki talks a lot about his process (when he’s asked, which is not too often unfortunately). He reads the script over and over again, reciting the lines over and over, as he takes a run, as he drives, as he walks around. The script vibrates through him. He doesn’t just get “familiar” with the lines. My interpretation of this process is that the lines are IN him, as a rhythm, so much so he doesn’t need to think about it consciously. <\/p>\n

I admire the thoughtfulness of this approach. Padalecki started working as a teenager, and absorbed lessons on the job. He was an adorable late teenager, with the floppy hair associated with early-2000s boys. The BANGS. He speaks about the vibe for young American actors at the time: it was all about introspective brooding. Maybe inspired in part by Jared Leto on My So-Called Life<\/i>? Padalecki is many things, but he is not a brooder, at least not of the self-conscious variety. He tells pretty funny stories about his initial audition for Sam Winchester in Supernatural<\/i>, and how he went in there brooding like James Dean. This wasn’t the right vibe for Sam and creator Eric Kripke wasn’t keen on Jared. Padalecki’s manager gave him the feedback: “Sam is smart. We’re looking for someone who seems smart.” Pretty brutal, but Jared took the coaching for the callback (because of course he got called back: he clearly had some<\/i>thing). He abandoned the brooding and came in just as his smart self. And it shows. <\/p>\n

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