Misha Collins as the angel Castiel

“At first, people were wary of anybody coming in that might be taking attention away from Sam and Dean, but [now] it’s like ‘All right, there is a little extra room.'”

That’s Misha Collins talking about the initial reaction of fans to Castiel, his character on Supernatural, getting more screentime on the long-running CW series. Collins isn’t kidding about the show’s fans being wary and protective of the show. Supernatural might not crack the top twenty programs on TV when it comes to ratings, but in terms of devoted fandoms, few shows do better.

For years that was due almost solely to the actors who portray the Winchester brothers — Jared Padalecki plays Sam while Jensen Ackles plays Dean. The pair have inspired mountains of slash/fiction.

Castiel was first introduced in the fourth season, in what was supposed to be a six episode arc. But his role as a conflicted angel was quickly expanded, and Collins became a series regular in Season Five.

However, it wasn’t until Collins started receiving needlepoint portraits of himself that he knew he’d really been accepted by the fans.

AfterElton.com spoke with Collins about that fan reaction, why Hollywood still ignores the show, and how the actor first became aware of his gay fanbase. (Hint: It had something to do with us.)

AfterElton: At what point did you start to realize your character was becoming such an integral part of the show?
Misha Collins: I think that I’m sort of perpetually in denial about things like that. I just saw it as a guest star role that turned into a recurring role that turned into a longer run, and I’ve sort of been in denial for some time. But then I started getting fan mail, pillows with needlepoint portraits with my face on them and things like that.

I started to think, “Something is happening here.” I’m not quite sure what it is, but it has been incremental. I sort of gradually see a more and more enthusiastic embracing of my character on the show. It has been incremental because I think, at first, people were wary of anybody coming in that might be taking attention away from Sam and Dean, but [now] it’s like “All right, there is a little extra room.”

AE: Not to discount the rest of the cast, but to me, it feels like the three of you are the heart of the show at this point and you all play off each other so well and you have such great chemistry.
MC: Well, we have a lot of fun too.

AE: Unlike some shows I cover, I watch Supernatural because I genuinely like it. My partner kept telling me, you’ve got to watch this. And he was right about Supernatural, just like he was with Buffy. Speaking of Buffy, do you ever get frustrated that because you’re a genre show that maybe the powers that be don’t give you the credit that you deserve?
MC: Totally, totally. It is frustrating. I went from being a contracted regular character on the show in the last couple of years to this year, I’m a recurring guest star and that means I’m suddenly freed up to do other stuff. It’s kind of amazing coming back into L.A. and into the town and people don’t know Supernatural, they don’t watch Supernatural.

In the industry, no one is aware of it, which is frustrating because I’m like, “Oh, hey, come on. People love me!” [laughs] And I’m suddenly thrown back into the mix [auditioning] with a bunch of guys that I thought, “Oh, I would have advanced past this by now” or “They would know me” so yes, it is frustrating.

There are shows, a lot of small cable shows like Breaking Bad, where in the general population nobody watches them really, but everybody in Los Angeles in the industry watches them, and to get a small role on a show like that actually, in some respects, advances your career more than having a huge hit role on a genre show because they are somehow dismissed as a secondary market in this industry, which I think is strange and unfair.

AE: It’s a bias.
MC: And I don’t know how that bias developed because it doesn’t really, in dollars and cents terms, make much sense to me.

AE: I love Breaking Bad and I think you both have done such interesting and daring…
MC: I do too.

AE: And without repeating yourselves over and over.
MC: Yeah, and you know what’s ironic, I think that’s part of why, I mean this is my personal opinion and I don’t know whether it’s based in fact or not, I think part of why Supernatural has had license to do kind of adventurous things, like truly demolish the fourth wall, is that the network and studio don’t really pay much attention to us. “I don’t know it’s just one of those little genre shows, it’s got its cult following, we’ll let them do what they want.”

And so it’s cool because I think [the writers] get more creative license then they would otherwise.

AE: So what are we going to see for Castiel this season?
MC: Well, just to use the first couple of episodes, Cas starts by trying to clean house as God, trying to do what he thinks God needs to do and things fairly quickly go sour for him. It’s a daunting undertaking and you know hijinx ensue. [laughs] I’m a terrible teaser.

AE: At what point did you realize that you were developing a pretty big gay following?
MC: You know, it’s interesting. I’m not actually totally cognitive of the demographic of my fans. I know that there is a phenomenon of slash/fic which I don’t really understand and my understanding is that most of that is written by straight [women] or lesbian women, and all that gender bending that goes on is very mind-boggling.

But I know I got some ranking on your website at some point. Yes, I guess that’s how it came to my attention. People posted it on my Twitter feed or something, and I pay attention whenever I receive any kind of accolades. It fans my already overblown ego, so I pay attention to that.

But to be honest with you, I don’t have a very good barometer of who is out there. But I’m thrilled to know that I do have a following in the gay community. [laughs] I’m constantly trying to actually figure it out, without actually doing any research, but another thing that has kind of amazed me is how many die-hard Supernatural fans are lesbians too.

AE: And gay men.
MC: Yeah, yeah. It’s a really, it’s a very cool fandom. It seems like the fandom of Supernatural is very inclusive group, and I think that’s awesome.

AE: It’s been fun to see the show come to reflect that over time.
MC: Yeah.

AE: The online world is allowed to sort of feed a little bit into the show. I’m sure you guys don’t write based on what the fans want, but you can’t help but be aware.
MC: You know, I wouldn’t discount the fan input. I know that the writers are taking the pulse of the fan community. Supernatural is one of the biggest shows in the world for fan conventions, so we go to those events and have face to face contact with the fans so we have that sort of direct feedback in that venue. I know that the writers and producers are paying attention to the fans. They are a very vocal minority of the viewers but they are listened to for sure.

 Supernatural returns September 23 at 9 PM on The CW

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