Feature: Supernatural

Sam As He Ever Was?

Star Jared Padalecki seeks our help with the vast array of issues affecting his character Sam this season

After much anticipation, Supernatural fans have been able to breathe a sigh of relief as the third season of the scary-meets-sexy show has returned triumphantly to our screens. Jared Padalecki, alter ego of Sam Winchester, looks forward to the evolution of not just the show as a whole but also his own character, as Sam’s fate, once shrouded with mystery, soon becomes very apparent. “This season it’s certainly delving a lot more into Sam’s past and Sam’s troubles and story,” Padalecki tells us intently. “It’s sort of asking, ‘Is he completely normal, is he not? Is he Human, is he not? Is he evil, is he good?’ So it’s definitely got darker and in my opinion more exciting, because I’m really into that and going there.”

Although, on the exterior, butter wouldn’t melt in Sam’s mouth, his previous brief tasters of evil left us all wondering if he would ever gorge himself on it. Padalecki explains how Sam’s dark side will develop this time around. “Sam starts to be rude where he wouldn’t have been rude before and acting out of instinct instead of saying, ‘Well, wait a second, we have to make sure that they‘re evil and maybe they can be helped and there’s a way to save them instead of kill them’. Now he’s just going, ‘They’re bad: kill, kill, kill,’ so we’re seeing the dark side of him come out for sure.” What does this mean for an actor, to have a go at playing evil? “I love it,” he smiles broadly. “I had a chance in the second season where I was doing a show called Born Under a Bad Sign where Sam is possessed by a demon, and that was a lot of fun to make. This isn’t as intense obviously, but it’s fun to flip it around and play the bad guy so I’m excited about it.”

While relishing the prospect of playing a trigger-happy hunter with a huge demonic chip on his shoulder, Sam’s fate is now, potentially, in the hands of his brother, due to that fact that Dean (Jensen Ackles) was told in Season Two that he might have to kill Sam. “Yeah, obviously there is that issue because that’s what dad told Dean,” Padalecki reiterates. “No doubt viewers thought, ‘What? Why would your dad say that about you?’ But now we’re starting to find out.” Fellow hunter Gordon, now keen to dispatch Sam himself, is not only also a threat but of the mind that Sam probably isn’t even human. “Sam’s almost been scared himself that he’s not all Human,” Padalecki confesses, “and we find out this season what Sam’s relationship was like with his dad beyond what we know and if his dad really was his dad and if Dean really was his brother,” he says.

by Lucy Gooderidge

Read the full interview in
Cult Times #150

Photo © The WB
Feature © Visual Imagination 2008. Not for reproduction

Taken from

Cult Times #150
March 2008
ships from Feb 26 2008
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