Jared Padalecki

Jared Padalecki isn't slowing down when it comes to shooting horror flicks, and he seems to be enjoying the ride.  This year, he's ready to join Jensen Ackles once again, and return as Sam Winchester on The CW's Supernatural.  He rose to fame in House of Wax, and he's on a roll with another big screen hit, playing the Clay on Friday the 13th.  The star recently spoke to the press about his projects, especially facing off with one of cinema's notorious masked killers, Jason. 

 
“It's hard to describe the preparation for Friday the 13th,” Padalecki said.  “I don't have a method ... I just try to get some ideas and familiarize myself with the character.  I filmed Friday the 13th on April 30th in Austin, Texas, and was filming Supernatural in Vancouver, BC, on April 28, so I flew straight from set to set.  If you talk to anybody in the cast, it was kind of a crazy shooting schedule—a lot of handheld, a lot of run-and-gun.  It was kind of like guerrilla filmmaking, but I think it'll turn out great.”

Apparently, Jared Padalecki felt he needed to bulk up for his role in the film.  Battling an infamous villain is certainly a daunting task, but he's probably used to it.  “The last thing I wanted to do was watch a movie where some skinny pretty boy was fighting.  I tried to work out hard and drank my protein shakes.  As it is, I like to work out and keep in shape anyway, so I just tried to lift heavier.  And it was a good thing because when I got to set, Derek Meers, who plays Jason, is 6'5”, solid muscle.  I am nowhere near that, but at least I looked like I could have run away from him a little better.”

Jared also admitted that he does get involved in physical conflict with Jason in the movie.  “I get to have a few confrontations with Jason, so I kind of lucked out,” he said.  “At the end of the day, you're fighting Jason, and no one can take Jason, but at least I wasn't 140 pounds.”

Even though he's targeting all these terrors these days, Padalecki says “I can still go into a movie theater and sit down, and get scared.”  It must have been quite a thrill for him to shoot Friday the 13th then.  “That's one of the great things about horror movies in general—it's total escapism.”

As for Supernatural, the actor claims things couldn't be better.  “It's been going really well,” Padalecki confessed.  “[W]e're halfway through with our 15th episode, so when we come back we only have about seven and a half episodes left.  We've really done quite a bit, and we're all really happy with the work.  Season 4 seems like it's really found its stride.”