Asylum Europe 3 Report - Friday & Saturday
So this convention will go down in history as the convention where Misha Collins saw my underwear.
As some of you probably know, I spent the last five months living and working in Orlando, Florida. So when colleagues and friends heard that I would travel back to Germany for a week to attend to Asylum Europe 3 - Weekend at Bobby's (*cough* and visit my friends and family *cough*), most of them were shocked and uncomprehending. I get that I'm a freak and I know it's ridiculous spending almost 900 bucks for just the flight but hey - seeing Misha almost at my birthday was enough reason for me. After all my last convention had been A7 in October, so I hadn't seen the guy in almost 7 months!!
Long story short - I had a fucking stressful trip, what with my alarm not going off, me almost missing the airport shuttle and having to run to my connecting flight... I spent a wonderful day in Frankfurt with my cousin and my aunt, before the Swiss Trio and Krista picked me up in the afternoon. The estimated 2 hours quickly turned into almost 3 ½, when detour after detour crossed our path. Which is why we also missed the Meet & Greet (thanks, Rogue, for postponing that to Friday... it's usually on Saturday, but whatever... -_-)
Finally at Bad Wildungen, we met up with some friends like Rea, Kat, Julia and Kerstin and spent the rest of the night drinking and celebrating my 24th birthday (even got a birthday hug and picture with Jim Beaver, who hung out with fans at the hotel bar).
(Jess, Nati, Me, Sam & Rea <3)
Saturday
Since we'd been too late for registration on Friday, we agreed on getting up early to queue for registration and a decent seat in the main hall. When we arrived at the Maritim Hotel, the line was already freaking long, so I decided to have a look around and search for a friend. I found the merchandise room and a Roguie, who told me they would set up the registration somewhere else. I followed them and ended up being the first in line, when they started registration. Geez, I was fucking lucky! There were so many people who'd been waiting downstairs for hours, who ended up being last in the queue and obviously they were pretty pissed. So the convention started as a Rogue Convention always does - CHAOS!!
After registration, we went to the merchandise room to queue for photo ops, coffee lounges etc. and I snatched a Misha photo and both of his coffee lounges (one on SAT, one on SUN). I didn't buy the group photo, as the price went up from the usual ~80ish € to 270 €!!! Come on, Rogue, I mean... REALLY???? Afterwards we went downstairs and found some seats in the main hall and waited (they were running a little bit late but we all expected that) for the first panel to start.
There was no Opening Ceremony but let me introduce you to the guests of this year's Asylum Europe:
Jason Manns (Singer/Songwriter)
Jim Michaels (Co-Ex Producer)
Steven Williams (as Rufus Turner)
Jim Beaver (as Bobby Singer)
Carrie Anne Fleming (as Karen Singer)
Mark Sheppard (as Crowley)
Mark Pellegrino (as Lucifer)
Matt Cohen (as Young John Winchester)
Misha Collins (as Castiel)
Sebastian Panel
He talked about getting a massage („not THAT kind of massage“) in Romania, where he'd been filming a movie (his character dies at the end, surprise, surprise XD).
It was nearly impossible for anyone to ask him a question since he spent approximately the first 20 minutes talking about himself, singing every song he knew („My Heart Will Go On“, Bob Marley and „I'm Sexy And I Know It“) and messing around with us! He'd learned that „Hi“ was the Danish version of „Hello“, so he made fun of every person at the microphone who started by saying „Hi“ - „Are you Danish?“ ... I have to say I enjoyed it in the beginning, even though it kind of annoyed me in the end. Like, he wouldn't even let people finish their sentences, just interrupting them in the middle of it, shaking his ass and making the crowd cheer. I like Sebastian but he got on my nerves after a while...
Sebastian Photo
Afterwards I left to buy some more photo ops with Sebastian and Matt and then went to get my picture with Seb taken right after. I told him to do whatever he wanted, something crazy and he kind of took my hands and pulled me in front of him and I had NO idea what he was up to so I just smiled all dopey.
My Matt Photo was rather uneventful - I was just surprised by how small Matt was, I kind of thought he was taller... but holy hell, is he attractive!!!
I only saw the end of Jim Michael's panel and the only thing that really sticked was when a fan asked about Stephanie Ware and fans on twitter and elsewhere pretending to be either the guys' wives or the actors themselves, and Jim said that those people should (I don't remember the exact words but it was something along the lines) fuck off.
Carrie & Matt
Since it was Carrie's first Supernatural convention, she was all cute and shy but she warmed up pretty quickly when she realized that most of the fans were girls (queue her squeeing) and actually kind and interested in her.
She said that she loved playing a zombie and that playing Bobby's wife got her a lot of respect on set, so nobody dared to play pranks on her. Rea told her that she looks even more beautiful in person but also younger, so Carrie joked that the wrinkles on camera came from smiling so much while filming with Jim Beaver <3
She posed on stage a bit for the fans and then took a picture of the crowd and suddenly Matt entered the room with a „Who's that smoking hot chick on stage?“
A fan asked if she liked Germany and where she wanted to go and she said she'd like to visit the Black Forest. So when someone in the audience squeed, she was like „Aww, do you live there? Are you a hobbit?“
Meanwhile Matt left the stage again and walked around for a bit, messed with the camera and let people from the audience ask questions.
They were being asked which characters of the Sesame Street the guys from Supernatural would be and Matt said Jared would be Big Bird and Jensen would be the Cookie Monster!
Matt then shared that he learned how to say the German word for „I“ - „Ich“ by comparing it to the sound his cat makes when it's throwing up XD
He was being asked if he would be up to a karaoke party at a German con as well but he said he couldn't do it without Richard Speight jr. and then told Carrie, that the Supernatural fandom practically married him and Richard (and they got x-rated wedding gifts).
Last question was about what they were missing about working on the show. Carrie's reply was „Jimjimjimjimjimjimjim“ while Matt stated that he missed „Jensen's lips and Jared's abs“ XD
When the morning program was over and it was time for lunch break, I left to go back to the Hotel to pick up my camera (which I'd forgotten that morning, shame on me) and get some cash (the closest ATM was 15 minutes by foot, JFC).
Misha Panel
Misha's panel..... gee... how do I begin... we'd been sitting in the seventh row or something when we'd left the panel room and I had asked a friend to reserve the seats for us. But when Sofia and I came back, there was a bunch of empty seats in the front row. So I decided to sit there, until somebody chased me away. Which... yeah... best decision EVER!!
The panel started with Misha running on stage, whistling in response to our whistling and asking „Wie geht es euch?“ (How are you?) <3
They had a little trouble with the lights in the room, so Misha had to direct Doug until it was perfect for both us and him.
And then he looked around for a bit... and spotted me in the front row... and smiled and waved and his „Hi, good to see you“ will haunt my dreams for a while!! Anyway, so he pointed to the rest of the first row and said „There's a bunch of empty seats right here - did you fart?“
Yup... way to ruin the magic of your first words XD
I retorted that maybe HE was the one who farted and he was like „Maybe I did - pull my finger!“ (in reference to what Castiel said in 7x21 - Reading Is Fundamental).
The first person to ask a question was a guy and when Misha called him 'sir' he was like „You don't have to call me sir“ - so Misha being Misha continued referring to him as 'Ma'am' and stated that she had a very low voice XD The question was what would be more exhausting for him to do: speak in Castiel's voice all the time or playing the crazy Leviathan!Cas, so Misha explained that Castiel's voice was really a real challenge but smiling all the time like Levi!Cas did would be far more tiring. Of course I couldn't hold back and told him „Your smile is beautiful, though“... and yeah... my second Epic Misha Moment of this convention: Mr Collins smiling directly at me!!
He told the guy (sorry, the lady :P) to sit back down then and was like „Come sit [in the front row]!“ He kept musing about what happened to the people the seats belonged to („Did they pass away? That's very sad...“) and asked me if I was so wealthy that I just bought the whole front row. Aaaaand the third Epic Misha Moment happened, when he suggested:
„In case you get tired you might wanna lie down - yes, put your feet up - I saw your underwear when you did that.“
…
Just a piece of advice from somebody who should've known better...
Don't... put your feet... on a chair... if you're sitting in the front row.... and if you're wearing a dress............
…
Moving on, the next question was which of the brothers he would choose if he could decide who to play, Sam or Dean and he said he would probably take Dean, since he could never play Sam as girly as Jared portrays him! He also shared that Jared wears stilts, which is why he looks so funny in especially the running-scenes.
Next he was being asked if he was watching Doctor Who and if he had a favorite Doctor and he confessed that he only saw Doctor Who as a kid and it scared the shit out of him. There was a beeping sound all of the sudden and Misha was like „Was I just beeped? That would be great - we could censor Sebastian!“
Anyway, he had no idea who the most recent Doctor was so he asked the audience for help and finally revealed that he liked Matt Smith best since he was an excellent actor and had an enormous penis XD
Afterwards there was an announcement on the screen behind him that people with Mark Pellegrino photo ops should go now and Misha said that Mark promised to french kiss everyone on this convention. Of course I couldn't keep my mouth shut and asked him „How about you?“ - QUEUE MY EPIC MISHA MOMENT NUMBER FOUR:
„Me? Only for you.“
Yup, I'm still fainting, thank you very much!
Next was Corinna, asking about 7x21, where Dean and Cas played the Sorry boardgame, Dean swiped the board off the table and Cas kneeled down to pick up the pieces. Corinna asked why Cas didn't use his powers to tidy up and Misha was like „Thank you for pointing out this huge story related flaw! Thank you for asking that very, very important question and thank you for not worrying about the trivial little details like... how the fuck did Cas come back to life?“
He kept making fun of her and remembered that back when they'd first met in 2010, she'd been very nervous and how calm she was now. He asked what would make her nervous and if coming on stage with him would do the trick, so long story short, Corinna joined him on stage. He asked her to please assist him in auctioning off a license plate from the GISHWHES scavenger hunt, which had been signed by all the guests at AE3. The money would go directly to Random Acts and the kids in Haiti. He asked the attendant GISHWHES winners on stage and then started the auction.
One girl who had been standing in line, waiting to ask him a question, bid $1,000 so Misha asked her if she really meant it and she said yes.
Obviously everyone was pretty impressed by that and since nobody could keep up with this amount of money, Misha announced that it was hers.
She then said that she’d just been kidding.
You could see his face fall for a moment there, saying that he didn’t know how to handle a situation like this.
When she asked her question after the real auction was done (the license plate got auctioned off for 325 €), he kept saying “I’m gonna answer your question… just kidding!” and she seemed to be annoyed but he just refused to answer her, until she left the microphone.
I just really admire how calm and polite he stayed after something distasteful like this, even when another fan said he should just tell her to piss off, he was like „No, I would never say that... shame on you“. The money would’ve gone directly to H2H and we all know how much this project and the kids in Haiti mean to Misha - so yeah, I just really love how he handled this.
At some point he took off his jacket and of course the crowd went wild, while he was like „Now I'm only wearing a full-length button-down shirt“ - a fan yelled „Take it off“ to which Misha replied „You first“ and then quickly revoked that offer, since another actor had offered the same and the fan actually had taken off her clothes, which had left him in an awkward situation...
The next question (Would he prefer to keep playing Castiel as an angel or as a human) led to my Epic Misha Moment Number Six: while he was thinking about the answer, he looked around, suddenly staring straight into my camera (yeah, I dunno why it didn't melt, either) and muse about how he couldn't shake the feeling that people were filming him XD
He then said that he'd always thought that Castiel's story was supposed to go the way the movie „Wings of Desire“ (based on the poems of Rainer Maria Rilke's) had headed - an angel falls in love with a human and becomes mortal himself (yup, I'm pretty sure everyone in the room, shipper or not, thought of Destiel).
A baby started crying then and Misha stopped mid-sentence to go over and comfort her by playing hide and seek, bless his soul!
He continued afterwards that after Season 5 and all the gloomy, miserable sides of being human, he would like Cas to experience the light sides of being mortal, like drinking a cup of good coffee or having sex - actually he'd like to do a whole season that's about Cas having sex!
He then talked about how Cas had become the most schizophrenic character in TV history by now and shared that in the first version of 7x21 Cas was supposed to be all happy and giddy and full of life and both him and Ben Edlund (who wrote and directed the episode) agreed that it just didn't work. He also shared that Cas will eventually go back to be more like the Cas that we knew back in the old days.
The next question was about Random Acts and his work in Haiti and if there was a moment that stood out for him. Unfortunately (for the fan) she added a quite suggestive „If you know what I mean“ at the end of the question and Misha being Misha couldn't help but taking advantage of such a good opportunity to make fun of somebody. So with his best German accent he imitated her „So you have a lot of fun with the children.... if you know what I mean...“ even her attempt of saving herself „You said in an interview that meeting the children was very special“ was just countered with a ambiguous „If you know what I mean“ from Misha's side XDDD
Eventually he decided to answer her question:
„I think my most memorable moment there was when I went the first time... I was just walking down the street and this was about 15 years ago and it was in a military coup and people were getting shot on the streets. It was a very dark time for the country. And most of the kids that you saw had distended abdomens because they were malnourished […].
And I was walking down the street and went into this little courtyard […] and there were these kids, dancing around and playing with some sticks and a little hoop and just... laughing like they were in absolute bliss. There was something so pure and innocent and life-affirming in their eyes and it made me realize […] 'I don't think I ever saw a group of American children being so absolutely and purely happy as these kids were' and I definitely took a life lesson from that.
All of the material comforts that we enjoy in Western civilization don't really mean shit. It's so much more about what goes on inside and it's really easy to forget that.“
As usual when he talks about Hope To Haiti, the room got quiet and instead of cheering when he was done talking, everyone simply applauded. It's just... this man NEVER answers anything seriously, he's ALWAYS messing with the fans and does whatever the fuck he wants. But whenever he talks about his charity, you just know how much it means to him and how much blood, sweat and tears he shed working on making life for the people in Haiti better.
Next a girl asked if he was responsible for making Season 8 happen and he said that indeed, they hadn't planned to but then he said „Let's do it“ so... yeah... ;)
Doug (the Host and Master of Ceremonies) came on stage next, which is always a sign for the panel coming to an end so Misha decided to make out with him a little (Susie, his girlfriend, wasn't amused by that, even though they both confirmed it's completely physical).
So since neither us nor Misha wanted the panel to end, he just sat down in the middle of the stage, singing „We shall overcome“ until Doug came and literally dragged him off stage XD
Steven Panel
I saw bits and pieces from Steven's panel. He talked about mentoring young Johnny Depp in 21 Jump Street and how he doesn't believe in technology. He doesn't have a computer, never has been on the internet and keeps his contacts in a book rather in his phone. And he encouraged the fans to keep asking the Supernatural producers & Co about „What the hell happened in Omaha?“
Over all I was very impressed with him - I never liked Rufus particularly but Steven Williams is - and I mean this in the best way possible - a sassy, fabulous bitch!
Misha Coffee Lounge 1
Oh dear Lord was it perfect!!
When he'd sat down and got some coffee, he looked around and spotted me (I was sitting about 4 seats away from him) and told everyone „I saw her underwear earlier“... yup, I pulled down my skirt a little, cleared my throat and quickly welcomed him back in Germany, asking how the hell he found this place. He said he got picked up but his driver had been so slow that it took them about 4 hours and he arrived on Saturday morning rather than Friday night ^^°
He asked us what Season of SPN we're at in Germany and how we managed to stay updated, since they just aired Season 5. Rea yelled „Downloads“ and Misha yelled back „Arrest her!“ XD
She then told him about how she would bring toothbrushes and toothpaste for the children in Haiti and Misha introduced Rea to the rest of us as one of the people who'd been with him to Haiti the first time and would go back with him soon. He also said that Rea was one of the meanest people you would ever meet (quite the contrary, sir), that every time she tried to look mean, she looked like a cute rabbit and that she's a perfect angel (oh and Rea, if you read this and EVER say something like 'Misha doesn't like me' again... you know what's gonna happen! I have a sharpie right here, that's just waiting to land in your face, my dear XD)
I asked him what he thought would be a reason for Cas to be in Season 8, because right now all they're doing is making everyone believe how useless and unnecessary he is. He agrees that Season 7 didn't really make sense at all, like they remembered about the Leviathans practically 4 episodes or so before the finale and decided they needed to bring Cas back to save the day again („How the fuck is he even alive?“). He hopes that this would get better in S8.
Dominic asked him to how many conventions he'd gone so far and Misha said he didn't remember, asking how many he did attend (something about 36 o_O). He then asked my friend Sofia, too, and what her favorite con was. And Sofia said that she can't really decide, cause her favorite thing about conventions is that she can be with people who are like her („other freaks“) and who love the same thing you do. Misha agreed on that, talking about how rewarding conventions are to him and the other actors, since in television they don't get a response from the audience, other than statistics and ratings... I said that it also gave them the chance to talk about the show with people who actually cared about it and the characters and he just smiled and sighed kind of resignedly.
He said that he was sorry Jared couldn't make it but they'd all been confused, when they heard how many cons he'd accepted to go to. But when they asked him if he was sure, he would say it was fine. Only after Jus In Bello he seemed to realize „Fuck, I have a baby. I wanna be at home!“ …
I said that it was okay, that we got Sebastian and he shrugged his shoulders and said that everyone was kind of scared to have a panel with Sebastian, since he was like this little kid who just couldn't sit still and would just talk and talk for hours. He felt like he couldn't compete with that. Eventually he decided that he would just dance in a cage in a corner of the stage and when I suggested he'd do it wearing the trench coat, he said that he would start wearing it and end up wearing nothing to keep the attention XD
Somebody asked if he would go to Jason's concert that night and he said he didn't plan to but it depended on how big Jason's puppy eyes would be, when he asked him.
Rea then offered Kleiner Feigling (alcohol) as bribery and another fan explained to Misha how we drink it (you twist the cap off, put it on your nose, tap the bottle on the tabletop to make a lot of noise and then drink it - he called it a very sophisticated, very classy way to drink something XD
He was having a cold and Susie offered him medicine and I was like „You still trust her after you made out with her boyfriend on stage?“ - Misha then shared that Doug had a very soft tongue and very soft skin as well...
He also shared that in some of the close-up shoots with Jim Beaver doing dramatic scenes, in reality Jared is giving him a blow-job off screen... Jim is THAT good with not cracking up during filming XD
I went outside afterwards and sat down with Rea and Sofia to take notes of the CL (even then our memory was flawed... fuck, I hate how bad my brain works...) - Sofia left then to get a photo taken or another CL (I don't really remember, sorry :S) so Rea and me stayed behind. We were sitting close to the room where the Coffee Lounges took place and soon a group of people gathered in front of it - it took us a moment to realize that it was Matt, Steven and Misha (I think there were more but I'm only sure about those three) - anyway!! They apparently wanted to crash another Coffee Lounge but while one of them sticked his head inside, Misha looked over and spotted us! He waved and I thought he only meant Rea but after she'd waved back he looked at me and continued to wave <3
Dear Lord, I really don't wanna sound like I think I'm Misha's BFF or anything... but after all the anonymous hate I got last year from people who claimed to KNOW that Misha doesn't like me, it just feels so good knowing that he DOES like me. I mean, after meeting him a few times I am pretty sure to know the difference between how he acts around people who annoy him and how he treats people he likes. So yeah... like I said - don't wanna come across as a conceited fangirl but after this weekend I think I can say that he doesn't hate me ;)
Misha Photo
Since Rogue was running late (as usual) I didn't have that much time to kill and sooner than later I was queuing for my only (!) Misha photo. It was chaotic so (as usual) I decided to wait for the end of the session. I had 'planned' to do a simple hug or standing-back-to-back op but when I got in Misha grinned at me and wiggled his eyebrows and I was like “You're gonna make fun of me all weekend, will ya?” and somehow in the next few seconds this happened...
I met up afterwards with my Swiss friends, Kat and Krista and had a nice dinner at a local restaurant, before we got ready for Jason Mann's concert.
Jason Concert
Queuing for it was a bitch, since Rogue had decided to sell the tickets at the door (WHAT THE HELL??) - we got it, talked a bit with Susie (poor, sick thing didn't have much of a voice left...) and found a place on the floor. We had some drinks during the concert, sang along, clapped and just enjoyed it, as we always do. Jason was a cutie (as usual) and the queue for his autographs was freaking huge! Mark Pellegrino was there, too, but we didn't really noticed his presence, since he just stayed for the concert and left as soon as Jason was finished.
Aaaand... that's it, I guess - Saturday left me breathless and giddy and so so glad I had decided to come all the way from Florida to Bad Fucking Wildungen!!
Sunday report will follow ASAP folks, so see you then <3