Jared Padalecki plays Sam Winchester, a paranormal investigator in the CW’s cross-country spook-hunting series SUPERNATURAL. His propensity for attracting demons strikes again when he takes up residence as Camp Crystal Lake’s new leading man (starring alongside Danielle Panabaker). However, moving from the sublime (if you’re a horror fan) to the ridiculous, Padalecki was recently seen on the small screen playing the young painter of light, who is beloved by mothers and grandmothers all over Middle America, in the “ABC Family Holiday Event” THOMAS KINKADE’S HOME FOR CHRISTMAS. On more familiar ground with Friday the 13th (his previous credits include teen horror flicks HOUSE OF WAX and CRY WOLF), Padalecki took time out from being chased by Voorhees on the penultimate night of filming to chat about his role.

Question: What can you tell us about your character?

Jared Padalecki: I play a character named Clay Miller, and my involvement in the movie is that when it starts out my sister has gone missing, so I go out to Camp Crystal Lake, not knowing the legends, not knowing what happened out there on Friday the 13th and that’s when I run into a group of young guys and gals who are out there for a camping trip. You know, horror ensues.

Q: How familiar were you with the earlier films?

JP: I’d seen the first one and I’ve seen Freddy vs. Jason and I saw one of the other ones, I assume it’s the second one, where he has the burlap sack, still? I wasn’t super-familiar, I knew the story — everybody knows the story. Everyone knows Jason Voorhees, whether you’ve seen one or ten. And everyone knows Friday the 13th, the legend behind that. It’s funny, I got home from work last night at 6:30 and the hotel leaves your stereo on, like classical music, and it was in between songs, and the guy was like, “Here on blah blah blah, we have a long day of beautiful classical music in case you want to stay in and not go risk those Friday the 13th roads and the Friday the 13th traffic.” This was literally as I walked in the door, and it was like, weird, man. I just turned the radio off and went to sleep. But yeah, I knew the legend and I knew Jason.

Q: What was your initial reaction to being pitched the project?

JP: I had seen Amityville, that PLATINUM DUNES  had redone and I had seen the Texas Chainsaw that Platinum Dunes and [director] Marcus [Nispel] had done, the original remake, and I had seen The Hitcher, I enjoyed them all, but I loved the Texas Chainsaw remake. Actually, when I did House of Wax, the director sat us down and we watched that movie as a cast. He was like, “This is a recent horror remake that was done really well, that I think is really good and I want you guys to watch it.” And it was good. It’s interesting, it tells a story visually — it’s hard to remake a classic and give an homage to the original, but still make it new and interesting for younger audiences. I found out about this script from my manager during the strike — I was about to go and do some international press for Supernatural, a show that I’m doing on the CW, and I was literally about to fly out five days later and I hear, “Listen, there’s this movie, a Friday the 13th remake,” and I was like, “I don’t want this, I know what that is.” But [they said], “The director is in town and Brad Fuller, one of the producers, is in town and they want to meet with you….” And I was like, “Alright!”

So I read the script and I really enjoyed it. It was a first draft, that had been written before the writers went on strike and there were certain things that…that night at dinner I was like, “You know, I would wanna maybe do this,” and they were like, “Listen, a lot of changes are gonna be made, but they can’t be made right now because the writers are on strike, but we’re gonna clean this up and clean that up.” The outline was there and it was very exciting — a lot of the kills were really cool and I really wanted to be a part of it and I was grateful that they wanted me to be part of it too. They were like, ‘This is going to be a collaborative effort, everyone’s input matters. Obviously we’re the captains of the ship, but we respect the actors.” I was like, “Count me in.”

Q: What’s your favorite kill in this movie?

JP: My favorite kill in the movie is the police officer who sort of comes to check up on us. We hear a knock and we know Jason is outside, we know someone is killing off the people in this group of friends I’ve hooked up with, and we hear a knock on the door and we’re a little panicky, but we’re like, “Why would this guy knock?” So we go to the door and it’s a police officer and I start to let him in and as I’m letting him in, Danielle Panabaker’s character, Jenna, sees Jason basically drop down from the roof and shove a fireplace poker through the policeman’s eye, through the door — it ends up right in front of me and then we take off. That’s really the moment in the movie where everything has sort of come to a head and it explodes. It’s like, man, everything is so fast-paced and so hectic and the audience is really going to be at the edge of their seats from that moment on. It’s full-speed ahead for the rest of the movie.

Q: What’s been your favorite part of the shoot?

JP: You know, it’s been hectic hours. It’s a horror movie and it’s Friday the 13th so we’re shooting a lot of exterior nights, but the camaraderie between the cast has been a real joy. I’ve worked on stuff before where the cast — it’s not like we didn’t get along, but we didn’t get along this well. So, meeting a bunch of new people and Derek is awesome — he’s such a kind, generous man and very hard-working and it’s been fun to get to know him and Travis Van Winkle and Amanda Righetti and Danielle. I’ve been doing this a while, and I can say without a doubt that I’m gonna keep in touch with the people I met on this movie and that’s nice to be able to say. Usually it’s like summer camp — see you later! — but you don’t call them. Here, I can’t wait to hang out with them again whenever I’m in the same city.

Q: Do we get to see you topless in this movie?

JP: [laughs] Not yet! If there are re-shoots, who knows, they might try to yank off my shirt.

Q: We were wondering about the female cast, so equal treatment.

JP: It’s absolutely fair to ask. That’s also something I brought up with the writers and the producers and the writers and the director. I was like, “Listen, guys, I’m already on the CW, which is kind of a pretty-boy network, the last thing I want to do is do this movie with a lot of fans and just be like, ‘Hey, here’s me taking my shirt off,’ and just be douche-baggy.” Honestly, I just want Clay to just be a normal guy. I don’t want him to be like, “Watch me fight Jason, I’m cool, I’m a ninja.” I just wanted to be a guy trying to find his sister. It’s not about how he looked and whether he worked out or whatever, so I steered clear of the topless scenes.

Q: For a character like this, do you feel the need to construct a backstory? Is that important to your process?

JP: It is. It’s important to my process and the film. I always start the process of building a character by just reading the script over and over and over again, to where you can kind of hook into his motivations and his instincts and what’s driving him, and just little things. You can be like, “Listen, earlier in the movie I’m saying this and now I’m saying this and it kind of contradicts — can I change it up a little bit?” And they’re like, “Yeah, of course, we didn’t think about that.” The backstory is important and usually you have a chance to talk with other characters, other actors in the movie about how we know each other, how we met each other. But really, the only character that I know in this movie is my sister, so all the people I spend the movie with, I meet them during the course of the movie, so it was nice to have that freedom. Who knows if it comes across, but just so I know, you know?

Q: You mentioned fighting Jason earlier. Do people actually fight Jason in this movie or are they mostly running from him?

JP: Mostly running. That’s another thing, like not taking my shirt off, I wanted to make sure it wasn’t like, “I’m a guy trying to find my sister and now I’m going mano y mano with Jason?” He’s Jason Voorhees. It’s basically that Jason is after us and we’re fighting like cornered dogs, trying to defend ourselves. But there are some big-time skirmishes and a lot of injuries, and it’s been fun. We’re fighting because we’ve been forced to fight.

Q: How does your camaraderie with Derek Mears affect your scenes with him as Jason?

JP: I guess for everybody it’s different. For me, it makes it a lot easier. I’m not method. I don’t enjoy not enjoying my work. If I’m playing someone who’s sleep deprived, I’m sleeping nine hours, you know what I mean? I don’t want to get to work and be miserable, because it messes with my focus. Likewise, I don’t want to worry about not getting along with someone I’m working with and be faking it during the day just so you can get on. It’s nice to be friends with somebody, because it’s so weird; You’re bruised up and banged up and there are scenes where we’re having fights and there’s a scene where I cut my face open for real and you don’t want to go from that to, “And … cut,” and not want to talk to anybody.

It’s nice to go, “Hey Derek, I just messed myself up,” and him be like, “What, you all right?” And me be like, “Yeah, I’m fine but I’m gonna have a scotch when I get home.” It’s also nice to sit down and have lunch with everybody and joke and kid around.

Q: Do you think you’ll stick with the genre after this?

JP: It’s a genre I’m a fan of. I enjoy scary movies, horror movies, and scary shows. I grew up watching The Twilight Zone with my old man. If the role is right or if I want to work with the director or the producers…each job is so specific. I’m not at the point in my career, where, like Brad Pitt, I can say, “I want a comedy,” and then twenty comedies show up at my front door. So, for me, I have to fight for the roles I want and this was a role I wanted and I fought for it.

As far as the process being different, this has been very different than House of Wax. House of Wax was a 90 day shoot in Australia and I wasn’t the lead, I was fifth or sixth. This is very different — we’re shooting the same length of movie in half the time and it’s so hectic, and I’m number one on the call sheet — I’m the lead. There’s a lot of responsibility. I’m in most every scene and if I’m not in, they might need me, so I have to be close by. That’s happened a few times, they’re like, “I know you’re supposed to have a day off today, but we kind of need to shoot this scene today.” I’m like, “Okay, sober up!: [laughs] I also did House of Wax before Supernatural, so I’ve become much more comfortable acting with visual effects. House of Wax was my first time being submerged in the world of prosthetics and special effects and, “Here’s a camera and there’s a green piece of tape and you have to scream when you see it.” That was all new to me. Now I’m used to it. I’ve done it sixty times for sixty episodes of Supernatural. Now I don’t feel like an idiot when I’m staring at the green tape.