lexzilla | FIC: Come Play With Me

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FIC: Come Play With Me

Lights up in the theater

Exclusive: Jared Padalecki looks to the future
PREMIERE talks to the legendary filmmaker about his new dark psychological horror Exploitorama and what’s up next for the most successful director in box office history.
By Karl Rozemeyer

Writer/director Jared Padalecki returns to his darker impulses in Exploitorama, a New York-based crime thriller that explores to what length a couple of poor sisters will go to in order to get rich (or at least, get by) and what nefarious schemes those they encounter have in store for them. Comparisons will inevitably be made to Damaged Goods, Padalecki’s critically acclaimed 2012 thriller about the whims of fate and luck, but this time the onus is less on the tensions between young men and their mentors and more about how far family loyalties can be stretched before they snap. PREMIERE spoke to the director in Los Angeles, where he's currently spending some down-time with his husband.

PREMIERE: We didn’t think you were capable of not working. Are there any specific reasons for the break?
JARED PADALECKI: Ha. That’s too true. I’m most definitely bad at stopping and sitting still for a while, but Jensen [Ackles, Jared’s husband] had been away, overseas, for a few months so he could shoot some stuff for Spielberg and I missed him. I always thought I was cool with it, but my friends have recently informed me that I’m a nightmare when he’s not around – especially as he somehow regulates my sugar intake – and they threatened me until I caved-in and agreed to some relaxing, not just doing movie things with Jen in the same room. Not that I didn’t want to spend time with Jensen obviously, I just didn’t see how badly I needed it or that I should stop working to do it. Also I may have pissed Steven off by phoning his set every ten minutes to check on Jen. Sorry Steven. Drinks on me next time we hang.

Are you going to do anything specific during your time off?
I honestly don’t think I can answer that question in any kind of appropriate way.

Can we talk about your relationship with Jensen?
Sure.

At first it looked like you were good for his career, but since you’ve been together you’ve done some different things and retained great critical reactions to all of it.
Exactly. I’m so pleased you noticed that, man. I mean, yeah, Jen got his big exposure from that first film we did together, but if he didn’t have the talent, nothing would have followed. Instead he carved out an Oscar-winning career and is constantly in demand by the most respected and the hippest directors. Although I’m still his biggest supporter and director.

So how did the relationship help you?
What people don’t seem to work out is that Jensen is utterly and completely my muse. For instance when I got all that praise and all those awards for writing the script for Soderbergh, that’s something I never would have done before. But I wanted to see Jensen act this overwhelmigly dramatic and tragic role because he can totally break your heart, so I wrote a script for him to do that and then I just knew that it wasn’t a film I could do justice to, so I gave it away. He inspires that. Of course, you can’t tell him or he’ll get a big head and leave me for Zac Efron.

You seem to have one of the few stable and long lasting relationships in the movie industry. Is that hard?
No. It’s easy. I mean, it’s Jensen. Would you give up waking up next to that face every morning?

You work with a lot of the same people over and over again, so you must have built other good relationships.
Yeah. All y’all hear all the time is about how shallow and stupid people in Hollywood are. And I agree, there are some absolute idiots. But luckily, I just don’t seem to get involved with them. I mean, Chad’s [Michael Murray] been with me since forever. Mike [Rosenbaum] and Tommy [Welling] are great friends of Jen and I, we still like to hang out and it’s been that way since the first time we all did it. We just clicked. We’re all of similar ages, have the same values, similar tastes and whatever and they’re good people. Jen’s manager, Chris, is my chess-playing buddy. I’m still very tight with Sandy McCoy. She used to be my assistant but has since gone on to do some great writing herself. So yeah, some really good friendships and I don’t always feel the need to add in anyone else. But if, like with Exploitorama, the roles demand that I find two young girls, which I’m a bit too old to have inside my immediate group of friends, I’ll spread my wings a bit and find new people and I’m glad I do.

Going back to your films, one thing that you’re famous for is the breakdown of the conventional story. You've been integral to taking straightforward narratives apart and putting them back together in a different order.
Thanks. That’s a pretty nice compliment. One of the things I'm proud of as far as my writing goes is that, even though I play around with the structure, I'm not monkeying around with the story itself and I like my archetypes. I think I’m a very good storyteller. But a story isn't having everything laid out for you in the first 10 to 15 minutes. It is a constant unfolding. In a real kind of story movie, if you see the end of the movie, but didn't see the first two reels and then you go back and watch the first reel, you should go like, "Wow, how did they get to there from here." That’s what’s cool and intriguing and keeps people watching. No one wants to know what the ending will be just as the film starts. It’s boring. I know I can’t sit still long enough to see a movie like that. What’s the point. When I was a kid, my folks used to take me to the movies, you'd just go in whenever and stay to see the beginning of the next program and say, "OK, this is where we came in." Which was its own fun but…after however many years Hollywood has been making movies I think we need more and that we definitely needed a change. It couldn’t always be ninety minutes of setting up a situation and then watching characters react to that situation. Dullsville. Unfortunately, that was the only style in town for a long time. But I suppose that not wanting to see that, led me down a really cool film path and I'm truly very proud of my films when it comes to that because they don’t do it. You do not know all there is to know for the first half hour. And if you watched Mondo Macabre say for an hour and ten minutes and then walked out, you can't say you saw that movie, because you haven’t and you’d have no idea of how things are resolved or even how they came to be. And I think that’s kinda turned people’s view on the possibilities of films and now we get to see some interesting stuff coming out.

What else are you most proud of with your career?
Geez. That’s a hard question. I guess, or I hope, that I’ve brought some respect back to genre movies that maybe the mainstream media were missing before. Also, that I’ve been lucky enough to work my ass off doing what I love for y’all. Oh yeah, and that my folks said they were proud of me. That’s pretty cool.

When you get people to discover these old low budget movies, some people love them and others say, “What are you thinking?" How does that make you feel?
Well, you know, different strokes for different folks, or whatever. The thing about it that is so cool is the fact that yeah, people try or they say, "Do you think younger people who have never experienced this before are going to get it?" Well, they don't have to get it. If you have to get it, then it doesn't almost work. It’s not a cerebral thing, it’s an instinct in your gut thing. You've got to be able to just sit down and enjoy it. That’s what Chad and I did when we were kids and it was a fantastic and amazingly wonderful round-the-world journey that led me to my career and my family. So of course I want that for everyone.

What do you plan to do after your self imposed break?
What I do best, make movies. Seriously, I’m going to do another movie with Jensen. I’ve got some of it planned in my head already because I decided I want to see him sweaty and shirtless and suffering humiliations in a Filipino prison before he has to seduce his way out. Wouldn’t that be an awesome sight?

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I LOVED IT! *smooches* I'm just sad it's over and there isn't more. *pout* BUT STILL, I LOVED IT AND IT ROCKED & YOU ARE MADE OF TEH AWESOMESAUCE!

Awesomesauce? Why thank you kindly :D

I'm so glad you enjoyed it!

What a great story! I love how fully realized and detailed this world is, down to such specifics of their lives, jobs, the interconnecting friendships with the wonderful cast of characters, Jared and Chad's friendship and journey, Chris and Jensen's bond, all of it was fantastic. I really enjoyed this.

Thank you! That's so nice of you to say. I'm really pleased you liked it :D

I'm LJ challenged and because of that I rarely ever actually leave comments. Very not nice of me I know. I can't even remember my username and password combo I am so inept.

I just had to let you know how much I enjoyed this though. It was sweet, fun and amazing. The chemistry between the two was downright perfect. I love fics where Jared woos Jensen and Jensen is all shy and sweet. And I absolutely loved that the focus was not on the sex but on the relationship.

I love coming across fics that make me smile and feel that my time has been well spent. I'm not new to fan fic or even to slash - but I am new to RPS and J2. I was a little weirded out by it at first but stories like this are helping me get over that.

LOVED it. Awesome job!

--shan

Well then I'm really touched that you chose to leave a comment here!

I'm so pleased to hear that you enjoyed it. I was a bit worried by the lack of porn, so its cool to know that that was part of what worked for you. *g* I love those kind of fics too - it was nice to indulge myself :D

Thank you so much for taking the time to comment.

So I went through and copied-and-pasted lines that made me laugh manic, sleep-deprived laughter as I read this, which is something I've never really done before.

Chad: Dude. You spoke to Jensen. That’s so awesome.
Jared: I think I’m gonna vomit. and

“Yes. I am,” Chad admitted while casting a pitying look at Jared. “But I don’t have the added pressure of wanting to get so far in his pants I’ll never come out again.”

I have an unhealthy attachment to fictional Chad Michael Murray, forged entirely through fanfiction as I have never seen One Tree Hill or an interview with him in my life. In my more desperately insomniac moments I call him Douchebag (In A Good Way) Chad to myself and laugh.

Er. That sounds mad. But what I'm trying to get at here, is--I think he's funny, and probably fun, to write, but working a dynamic in which he has a real, non-comic-relief, role to play into a story is not so easy; I think you've managed it here, so well.

Sure he had once joined, but that was years ago and it was most likely that, as he had never renewed his subscription because he couldn’t afford the $20, he wasn’t actually still a member. and

“Er…They look like underwear. And you know, everyone wears them, except for slutty people. Slutty folks don’t wear them at all, but I do. And, hey, you do too. So kudos. To us. I mean. For not being whores.”

I think you've worked this aspect of your Jared, this non-cease-fire rambling, in perfectly as well. I love the very unclear line between what goes on in his head and what he says out loud; you also played with it magnificently in the short excerpt of the script, which had that same rambling quality to it. He's very--easily imaginable, here.

And finally, this:

“Hey! Grabby hands,” Jensen said very, very clearly. “What did we say about using indoor hands outdoors?”

“Not to do it,” Jared sighed, while simultaneously pouting and rolling his eyes and regretting ever telling Jensen about Jeff and his stupid sayings.

Because the developing relationship between them is sweet, and moves jerkily forward in what by the end of the story clearly is a single smooth arc. Your narrative is very cinematic, in some ways--hinting at exes past, villains and complexities lurking in the shadows--and though I know a limited amount about the amazing genre(s, I should say) of film you were discussing here, I thought that worked beautifully, too.

Thanks for this.

Man, thank you so much for this comment. *g* Hearing it made you laugh is awesome as I wanted it to be funny but was never sure if it would make anyone but me chuckle.

Ha ha ha. I've never seen Chad on TV either - but I love douchy fic version of him. But, yeah, you're spot on - as fun as that would have been I didn't think there was room for that Chad in the story. Jared's flaily enough for both of them :D

Wow. Thank you. I'm blown away that you thought so many good things about it and that it worked for you. I was so nervous about posting because it was my first ever fic so I'm really appreciative of you taking the time to let me know.

♥

Oh God dude, just finished the story and..........
AWESOME. I loved it! Just - GAH! THE STORY ATE MY BRAINS ♥
I love the way you slipped all these different people in and man,
the interviews.. LOVE.
Also, John McKay? Was that a reference to a SGA pairing? I thought so since in one of the sites there was a picture of Joe and David.
Or were you just, you know, making names up randomly? : DD
And Steve Kane?

Anyway, the point was that you're amazing and you now have my soul.
Thank you for making me laugh until I cried. Yes, that's a good thing.

Hee. Does that make it a ZOMBIE then? Because that would be cool...And now I've just realised why I should never be allowed near the internet when I'm tired.

Man it's cool that you noticed the names. The awesome artist, gwentastic, is a fellow SGA fan, so she slipped it in as a little nod & a wink. Yup. steve Kane was intentional too.

I'm really pleased you enjoyed it and doubly happy that it made you laugh. THANK YOU :D

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hyperactivelolz.livejournal.com - 2009-04-29 15:15 (UTC) - Expand

Oh. My. Godddd. Firstly: this is awesome and, like probably awesomecakes as well. Secondly, you really know your shit. Whoa! I am loving it! Any plans on writing more? Not that this isn't toally great as a single story, but I am greedy. ;)

YAY. Awesomecakes is indeed a compliment I would take. Thank you. I'm really glad you enjoyed it. Hee - it took many many years of horror movie watching to get a good level of dorky trivia going :D

Alas, no. Or at least I haven't been inspired to fill in any gaps yet ;P

Just coming back here to let you know your amazing fic has been recced here (http://community.livejournal.com/spn_themes/39623.html). <333

*bounces* Thank you so much honey ♥

Wow this was awesome. I loved it :)

I'm really happy to hear you enjoyed it. THANK YOU :D

This fic cost me so much sleep (note to self: never start reading long stories two minutes before midnight), but I don't even care.

This was really interesting and I had so much fun. I enjoyed how you set up Jared as a fanboy in the beginning, and his friendship with Chad felt both guy-ish and real. I loved that you made him a movie buff - and grateful that it wasn't in a Dawson's Creek kind of way - and even had him go to a convention. It was a great choice to have Jensen see the photograph later, but not remembering the time it was taken.

I only got very few of the references, but still it added so much to the world of the fic and really made it come alive.

Jared was such a dork (in the best way possible, of course) that I had to shout at my screen a couple of times, but also had to laugh so hard at various points. The title Twink Hunt alone almost killed me, and when you describe the scenes and the expertly ripped underwear I cracked up completely.

It was nice that in spite of his fanboyish obsession, Jared got to know and appreciate Jensen as a shy but smart person and perceptive actor.

While I really wanted to smack Jared in the head in the beginning of the official courtship (messing up two dates, Christ ...), I was glad that Jensen was protecting himself and taking things slow, but not shutting Jared out completely.

Overall, I loved how fresh and different this was. Great job.

THANK YOU. I'm really pleased to hear you enjoyed it and I appreciate you taking the time to let me know.

Man, I've been doing exactly the same things with all the big bang fic this year! Why is it that great stories seem to get posted either just before work or just at bed time? Meh, the early hours were designed best for reading anyway *g*

My beta did mention I'd kind of hidden it, but there's a link to a note page in the masterpost that explains all the film references. Although, if you haven't seen it, it's pretty much me going 'watch this it's great' and acting like a pusher.

Again, thank you. I'm really pleased that you had fun with this.

This was too fabulous for words. I loved out loud through much of it. I really loved how you didn't make Jensen just fall for Jared. That Jensen had been treated badly enough to make him skittish. And Jared screwing up date after date was priceless. I absolutely adored this.

Man, I'm so glad it made you laugh and that you enjoyed it. THANK YOU so much for taking the time to comment & your kind words :)

WOW!

This was like totally awesome. I loved it to pieces. Goofy Jared is such a fun character and it was so sweet how concerned he was about their first dates. Oh and Chris Kane and Jared playing chess is something I'd pay to see :)

Thank you ;)

THANK YOU! That's so nice of you to say :D

Hahaha. I'd like to see it too. Possibly with Jensen hovering in the background trying to stop them being too competitive :)

I decided I want to see him sweaty and shirtless and suffering humiliations in a Filipino prison before he has to seduce his way out. Wouldn’t that be an awesome sight?

I need this is my life. ._.

I love the characters all throughout this. I love shameless!fanboy!director!Jared and adore shy!talented!pretty!Jensen. It's so amazing.

Plus, the different articles and the layout and everything? Inspired. =)

*g* Total wish fulfillment!

YAY. I'm really glad you enjoyed it. THANK YOU.

gwentastic did an awesome job in making the articles come to life, and I've got to admit to getting a bit bouncy each time I saw a new piece. It makes me happy to hear that the format worked for you :D

Okay. So I found your list of recs through, well, honestly I can’t remember how and it’s really not an important part of this message so we’ll just drop it, lol. Moving on I was going through and I saw something about you pimping your own fic and I knew I had to read this to be nice if nothing else. I mean, you took the time to put together this huge list and I really appreciate it and wanted to say thank you so I thought that I love reviews and took a chance that maybe you do too. So anyhoo I started reading and have been blown away. There is so much love for this fic I can’t even tell you. I can tell you I just read the sentence ‘So kudos to us for not being whores.’ And I literally stopped reading so I could go to a blank screen and begin to type because anything that makes me laugh like that has got to be appreciated immediately in my book. Now I’m going to go back to the story…and I’m back. And still as full of love as anything. The slow build was just wonderful, and Jared’s inner ramblings were just both pace and pitch perfect. I really wish I had all the right words to let you know how much I loved this but I’m afraid I’ll just have to settle for ‘I loved it.’

THANK YOU. I really appreciate you taking the time to let me know that you liked the rec lists and that you enjoyed my fic. It means a lot and makes me beam like this --> :D

I'm glad it made you laugh. You never know how well humour translates from your brain to the page, so it's very cool to hear. Again, thank you <3

What a refreshingly awesome take on J2 :D
I could eat up Jared's ramblings for breakfast and Jensen being all adorably... adorable is awesome ♥
Great mix of geeks meeting nerds loving dorks and ~~buttseks~~ LOVE ♥♥♥

Hahaha. ...geeks meeting nerds loving dorks is now my favourite way to think of this fic! I'm really happy you enjoyed it - THANK YOU ♥

What a great world you created for your boys. Everything was so well done; I love the interviews and the short gossip sightings and well- just everything. This is one of the only stories I have read that I could see being an actual film. The story was that visual for me. Thanks so much.

I also must thank you for your awesome list of story recs. I have spend many enjoyable hours reading the stories you suggested.

Awww. I'm glad you enjoyed it! THANK YOU. I'm not really a visual person, so to hear you found it so is really cool :D

You're welcome. And YAY I'm pleased you're finding fics you like from them. This fandom really does have some seriously amazing writers \o/

SO MUCH FUN! I loved this whole story. I loved the way you created this whole 'if Jared just happened to be Tarantino' reality. sweaty and shirtless and suffering humiliations in a Filipino prison before he has to seduce his way out. Wouldn’t that be an awesome sight? Yes! I would pay good money to see this in the theatre! And ... possibly rent it for later, private enjoyment. *coughs*

SO MUCH FUN! YAY. That's the exact reaction I was hoping for. THANK YOU! I'm really glad you enjoyed it. *g* That is who he's written after, but I think Jared has better movies...

Hahaha. Yep. I would too \o/

Edited 2010-02-23 15:44 (UTC)

omg! I cannot believe the fabulousness that is this fic!!!
The most unique idea, and so brilliantly done!
THANK YOU FOR WRITING THIS AWESOMENESS!

Awwww. Thank you bb. I'm both pleased and flattered *g*. And really happy you enjoyed it!

9 months after you posted the story---

I'm so totally loving this XD, I love all the turn of phrase you sprinkled on this, the format and potrayals. Oh, where do I start:
- Jeff's 'Outdoor voice indoors' to Jensen's 'Indoor hands outdoors' XD and consequently drunk!Jared and his grabby hands XD
- Twink Hunt scene you wrote, oh lord! LOL
- The OWTF meeting Chad had with Mike that led to Mondo Macarbe, priceless. It's one of those things you can JUST SEE happening to Chad.
- The magazine articles! Esp. the one I unexpectedly saw Flanigan/Hewlett. Lulz. Great job on your and

gwentastic collab.
- Jensen with two painkillers for the hangover, aww... that's love.

Those are my most memorable moments from this, I love it to bits! :D

I'm really happy to hear you loved it! THANK YOU :)

Yeah. I was soooooo lucky to be paired with

gwentastic. She's awesome. *g* I got stupidly excited when I saw she'd managed to get those two into the art. I may have flailed at her for a while.

I really enjoyed this!

Thank you! It's nice to hear that you enjoyed it :)

Am loving your Faster Pussycat icon BTW.

Dude! SO MUCH FUN! Srsly, I laughed so much my throat is actually sore ;) I am having a hard time putting into words why I loved this so much, lemme just say that any fic that has me grinning like a lunatic and laughing my ass off is pretty much perfect in my book. So, yeah *two thumbs up* thanks so much for writing and sharing :D

YAY. Honestly, you laughing is the BEST reaction I could ask for. It makes me happy to hear. So THANK YOU :)

This story was so much fun to read and I just loved the included articles and stuff :) . Thanks for writing and sharing this! <3

YAY. I'm pleased you had fun and that the formatting worked for you. THANK YOU :D

I feel I have to say again HOW MUCH I LOVE THIS.

I just--someone mentioned it earlier, and then I went to my iPod and found the soundtrack, and oh oh oh.

I love this story,

lexzilla. So much.

AWWWWWWWWWW. This made me happy! And YAY I still listen to the soundtrack too *high fives* for us on our awesome music tastes :D

Thank you so much for commenting again. It really does mean a lot that it's liked <3

AWESOME

YAY. I'm happy you liked it. THANK YOU :D

This was so much FUN!!! Thank you!

Thank you! I'm glad you enjoyed it :)

absolutely loved it!))) tho' wouldnt mind reading about road to the marriage))

*wink wink*

thank you!

YAY. So glad you liked it! Thank you <3

LOL I'd love to say that would happen, but I think I'm an only got one story in me kind of gal :P

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FIC: Come Play With Me

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