Event: All Hell Breaks Loose IV.5 Christmas Special, Melbourne
Date: Sunday December 6th, 2015
Features: Jason Manns, Mark Pelligrino, Briana Buckmaster, Rob Benedict, Matt Cohan and Richard Speight Jr

Please note: I am going off memory, so some details may be slightly off. Buy the DVD if you want the funny/quotes and whatnot …

So funny enough, a friend of mine had her friend cancel on her last minute to attend, so I was lucky enough to be given her ticket. I’m not a huge fan of Supernatural. I was up until season 3, until I kind of lost interest, but I believe up to season 5 is the complete series. I have, however, seen every episode (more or less), and it’s been hard to watch a series I loved slowly go downhill over the years. I mean, wtf was with season 6? Even Mitch Pileggi couldn’t understand what was going on – and he was in that season!

Any-who, Rob Benedict charms me every time, so naturally, I had to attend – for Rob alone, although Richard I adore too. Of course, some money had to be spent – I bought single photos with Rob and Richard (Richard looked good! so that was a last minute decision),  a photo double with Rob and Richard (it’s so smushy, I love it!) and an autograph from Rob (a Louden Swain CD, of course).

Here’s some funny antidotes I remember from the panels. It feels like a lifetime ago, but I’ve tried to remember as much as possible 🙂

Mark Pelligrino

• Someone said they loved Mark in Lost. Mark, ever inquisitive, then asked the guy what it all meant and to explain it a little, because he himself couldn’t work it out. The guy, puzzled, could also not come up with a proper answer.
• Someone asked Mark for advice on being an actor. Mark said ‘acting’ is ‘doing’. And wished him luck. Well, that’s the shorter version anyway …
• Someone asked if Mark will return this season – and he said ‘haven’t you heard the rumours?’ Of course, we already know he returns as we just saw it mid-finale. He was also asked about talking to people through the cage, he said this would also be answered – as we also saw mid-finale. (Actually, this answer spoiled the episode for me, as I knew exactly where it was heading after seeing this. Thanks Mark. Haha. Sorry if I just spoiled it for others)
• Mark said Jared didn’t come to him for advice on how to play Lucifer, but he said he likes working with him. Mark likes to change up his performances every take, so this then challenges Jared, and you can see in his mind him trying to make the scene different as well.
• When asked his favourite episode, Mark said he doesn’t watch the show.
• Mark said he liked his character (although he was surprised how people find him, Mark, a scary guy). He liked that he was an angel and yet still needed someone to say yes to enter his body. He said he found humanity in his human character, as with having a grudge against good and that really intrigued him as a character. (I hope that makes sense. I think that’s in Season 5, Episode 1).
• When asked if the audience were going to cry in the finale. Mark asked, ‘well, what makes you cry?’ He loved turning it back onto the audience.

Briana Buckmaster

• Forgive me when I say that I couldn’t remember her character at all … oops.
• Briana said it wasn’t scripted for her to eat a powdered doughnut, but she was all for it.
• She said her Dad is legally blind, and getting worse every year. She said her Mum had to take care of the kids and her Dad. She has so much respect for her Mum because of it. Briana just had a baby and she just doesn’t understand how her Mum did it growing up.
• Briana said she didn’t know her character was going to come back. She did the one episode and then was surprised when she got the callback and the episode was essentially pretty much a whole episode about her and Mills.
• She said she grew up wanting to be a musical theatre actress. So that’s what she studied and did. It wasn’t until she became pregnant that her agent suggested she try TV – and that’s when she started getting booked for everything.
• She said the producers came up to her and asked her what TV she had done previously? She said none. So they asked her what movies she had done? She also said none. Which surprised them. She said they now credit themselves as being the ones who ‘discovered’ her.
• She said Supernatural was a great starting point as she hadn’t done much TV before it, and being that the cast and crew are so lovely, it was a nice introduction to how TV works.
• She said her character note on the show was to be like ‘Frances McDormant on Fargo, but not pregnant’ – which she was. She said she didn’t tell the show because she wanted the job. She hid it until she needed to do a stunt which she thought she shouldn’t do – she said all the people on the show said they didn’t have a problem with her being pregnant.
• She said Jared and Jensen don’t really play pranks on her. She said she did one scene where she didn’t think she could get through it, but she kept a start face – and was later told by the producers that she did a good job not breaking character. She thinks this was probably also part of the reason they brought her back.
• She said she was terrified that her character wouldn’t be liked. But she hoped that her character would be cool and would be embraced.
• She said – and I love this about her – that she loves her body. She hopes that one day there won’t be ‘best body’ articles in magazines, it’ll just be about bodies. And how everyone is beautiful and we should embrace that. She said so much nice stuff that I can hardly even remember, but gosh, it was all inspiring. She said it took her a lot of work to get to that stage where she was happy with herself – but she just had a baby and has to think how amazing it is that she grew a human being inside her. She said, we all have negative thoughts about ourselves, that’s normal, but have those thoughts, and then just don’t think about them. Turn it positive. I wish I could remember more. I left her panel loving every single word she said ❤

Rob Benedict

• First off, Jason didn’t have a panel but he did come on stage to sing with Rob for a bit. They sung Hallelujah, Little Drummer Boy, possible others and one with Richard. They said, with (a fourth? who was it?) they plan on calling their band Quarto Formaggio. But they wrote it down once and they spelt Quarto the Italian way, and Formaggio the French way, by mistake. It’s all a little bit cheesy.
• Anyway …
• Rob firstly wanted to make it clear that he does not hate Perth (a rumour started by Richard). He said he has never been to Perth but he’s sure that he would like it. He said that he was thinking about just popping over there for a bit – but upon hearing that it’s a 4-5 hour flight, he’s like ‘Australia is huge!’. He thought it was just a quick flight and could do it in a weekend or something.
• He also explained how he didn’t know his character was God. He says it at every con so google if you want to know more.
• When asked why didn’t Chuck recognise Sam and Dean when he first meets them, he didn’t have an answer.
• He said he has no plans to release the Sidekick on DVD here, but may bring some next time he’s down here.
• He said they all do cons about 14 weeks a year, so he and Richard thought they would turn that into a series. Which he says is coming soon – Kings of Con, I believe, you guys funded it after all. He said it is based on his crazy, unique relationship he has with Richard.
• He said, as part of the funding for the show, they did a skype with fans and in the shot was a bag (I want to say pretzels, but I’m not sure) from some company. He said he got a tweet from them asking for his address so they could send him something. He said he got sent a huge box of products he didn’t even know they make, to the Kings of Con office. Richard then asked where the snacks went, but Rob had taken them home, as it was his product in the skype shot that he figured the snacks were his haha.
• He said Chuck’s song would be ‘What if God was one of us?’ by Alanis Morrisette. He liked the idea of Chuck just drinking to fall asleep and whatnot.
• He mentioned the Hillywood Supernatural video. He said that the girls showed them a little preview of what they were doing, but they didn’t really know what they were in for. He said they appeared at a con and the cast had to dance. Osric, who is Sam in the video, later called Rob and asked if he wanted to play Cane in the video. Rob didn’t think he could as he is short – but Osric said, that’s the point as the girls are short too. Rob said the girls flew them down to their home in Las Vegas, and he then couldn’t believe how much he looked like Cane in the hair and make up. He said it was a lot of fun. He was also surprised how huge the video is and how the fans just know all the words.
• Rob says one of his favourite Supernatural characters is the Trickster – but don’t tell Richard that.
• Rob’s team also won the balloon popping competition. He was accused of cheating and putting thumbtacks on the chair.
• Rob was also very confused about it being Summer here in Australia. Bless him.

Richard Speight Jr and Matt Cohan

• Richard said he once booked Rob into a hotel under the name ‘Heywood Youblowme’. True story. He said Rob wasn’t happy.
• Richard said Jared and Jensen were really encouraging and respectful of him directing his first episode. He also said he’d like to direct again. Matt has also directed a bit and would like to again.
• He also pointed out the person who was dressed as Sam’s invisible friend in the audience. He said she was officially the first person who has ever cosplayed as the character. He also took a photo on his phone and sent it to the actor who played the character. He said he got a text back of the actor with a big thumbs up.
• When asked why Matt looks so different to how he looked the last time he was here earlier this year, he pointed at his hair and said ‘he hadn’t had time to get his haircut since having a baby’ Richard said ‘that’s parenthood’.
• Richard said, and he said the same for Rob, Brianna and Matt, that they all thought they were just going to be in one episode and have no idea that his character would return. He also said that he had no idea that his character was Gabriel, and he didn’t think the writers knew either that his character was going to be Gabriel in the end.
• Richard said he loved working on Band of Brothers, also Supernatural, as they have both given him friends for life.
• Richard said all his scenes were cut from Independence Day. His character hijacked a TV station. He said he found out he was cut from the movie at the premiere. Matt said it would have been Oscar winning if Rich was still in the movie.
• Matt said he didn’t know who he was playing the last time he made an appearance on Supernatural. It wasn’t made specified in the script, so he decided to play it a bit of his version of John, Jeffrey Dean Morgan’s version of John, God and Lucifer too. Though they both said the good thing about the show is that any character could always return.
• Matt said, yes, if someone shows $5000 to give to charity, the rule is he will do the whole panel topless. Richard said if they give $10,000 Matt will panel in only a thong, and for $50,000 cash, Matt will do the panel nude with Richard running around holding a fig leaf in front of his genitals. Matt said he makes no clam to any of those promises.
• Richard said after his Mum would make his bed all snug, he used to try and slide into his bed with his arms out front and pretend his was a pen in an old man’s pocket. Matt laughed. Richard said he would pretend to talk to the stapler and stuff. When asked how one talks to a stapler, Richard changed the subject.
• Richard said he didn’t believe it when the con people said that people would dress up, but then he saw a cactus.
• They had a tree where the guys could get presents and give them out to people in costume. Richard went over to the tree and Matt asked what he was doing. Richard said, “I’m grabbing my package”
• When asked to sing their favourite Christmas carol, Richard then sung Ava Maria.
• Matt spoke of Christmas traditions but I can’t remember what he said. It was something with a funny word which we Aussies said different to Americans. He then also made fun of the way we said Tumblr. haha.
• When asked what their favourite meme was, Richard said he had no idea. Matt says Americans call it (me-me). We pronounce it (meem)

Until next time – or until I can think of anything else to add – I hope you’ve enjoyed reading! x