Diary of a Fangirl: Meeting Jared Padalecki & Jensen Ackles Part 1

Today's Guest Post is from Suzie:

Meeting Jared Padalecki and Jensen Ackles #1

I have been a big fan of Supernatural since its first season. One of the main reasons I started watching this show was its huge variety of guest stars I loved from other shows, especially from Buffy The Vampire Slayer and Battlestar Galactica.

I have heard of sci-fi conventions before, I knew there were cons not just for Star Trek, but for “smaller” shows, like Buffy as well, but since I live in a country where fans of sci-fi and supernatural shows are considered rather weird,  I didn't go to any convention myself. Besides, all these cons were outside the country I live in and I didn't know any other nearby fans.

After missing out the opportunity to meet Sir Patrick Stewart at the only convention that was ever held in my country (I still cannot forgive myself because I am a HUGE ST:TNG fan), I decided to buy myself a ticket to the next Supernatural convention, in Birmingham, UK. By that time, only Jensen Ackles was announced.  The other main star of the show, Jared Padalecki, was later announced as a bonus guest.

What you need to know about this show is that the friendship of the main two stars is legendary, and fans refer to them as J2. They usually attend conventions together, have stage talks together, and let’s just say they act on the fans love for their friendship and make a huge show of it.

Before the convention I went to, there was another one in Australia, where they auctioned off a t-shirt signed by them for some charity, and a fan made a photo of them, Jared wearing the t-shirt and Jensen signing it. The whole fandom said the way they looked at each other was so full of deep love; they were more than just co-stars, more like family, brothers, just like in the TV series. A few fans I met online asked me to get that particular photo signed by them, and I was like, okay, why not? It’s not an official photograph, but it’s worth a try.

At the convention, we got our J2 photographs and autographs on Friday, the first day.

First it was the J2 photo shoot. When we entered the photo studio room, I saw both guys sitting on a chair, deeply involved in a conversation. The photographer had to tell them to stop talking and asked if they were ready for the photo every single time a fan stepped to them. They looked like they wanted to be somewhere else where they could be alone and able to talk. Back then, I didn't know why, but on Saturday, Jensen said he spent the last 2 weeks in Europe while Jared was in the US, and he arrived only a few hours before the convention.

Back to the photo shoot... 

I stepped behind the boys.  They were talking again.  From what I gathered, Jensen was telling him some kind of story. They didn't even look at the fans, to be honest, so I said, "Hi guys," to politely remind them of me being there, and I remember I was looking at Jared and I thought, 'Whoa, his head is huge and his eyes are really blue-green.'

Then I looked at Jensen because I saw him looking at me.  He said, "Hi, how are you?"  He was eyeing me up, from toe to head and back.  I noticed he checked out my left hand with my engagement ring on it. His hands were on his thighs and he was just about to remove his left hand and starting to reach for me (I guess he wanted to pull me closer, I was standing one or two small steps away from them) when Jared looked at him and he cleared his throat really loud. Suddenly Jensen put his hand back on his thigh, his smile faded and the photographer said, "Guys, okay?" Jared leaned a bit closer and the photo was taken. I thanked them and walked away but I looked back at them as I picked up my handbag from the desk and I saw Jared looking at me with an angry face.

I was shocked because I totally had the impression Jensen had just been reminded not to touch a fan which I found odd since usually these guys are way friendlier at the US conventions. On all the US photo ops I have seen online, they were hugging their fans. 

After the photo session, the J2 autographs were up next.  Since I received that request about daring to get this "t-shirt signing" photo signed (my fan friends said I would chicken out since it was an unofficial photo), I was really excited about the whole autograph session. I was queuing up really early and I told my Jared fan friend to go first so she can get her Jared autos while I receive my Jensen ones. The staff was really unorganized, and they took my autograph tickets at the entrance instead of having them taken by Jared and Jensen's assistants.  So, when I was up next, Jensen looked at me, gave me a huge smile (Jared was sitting 2 meters away at another desk, still signing for my friend) and said, "Hello again."

The assistant asked if I was getting only one autograph and when I said no, they made me walk back to the entrance to pick my second ticket that was taken from me by the staff member at the door.

Jensen smiled at me again and said, "I'll wait."

I walked back to him (I was wearing high heels, so it was a slow walk) and then put the J2 photo in front of the assistant. She looked at it and said, "Uh-oh."  Jensen took it out of her hand and at first, he didn't know what it was.  I said, "Please don't refuse signing it.  It was a dare."  Then he chuckled and said, "Well, I can't say no to a dare, can I?"  He looked at the photo again, took the silver sharpie in his hand and signed it.

Then he signed the other photo as well. As he handed the autographs back I told him, "It was a funny moment, wasn't it?" and I pointed at the pic. He answered, "Right, it was really funny."

Then I said, "Thank you very much and have a nice weekend!" 

He answered, "Thanks, but YOU have a nice weekend too!" 

I waved a little and walked to Jared...

To Be Continued!


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