Coming Soon: Independence Day and Supernatural! https://t.co/wi2Xvw94ze pic.twitter.com/216lvDvwEK
— Funko (@OriginalFunko) January 13, 2016
I had started watching the Hot Topic website and did a search a couple of days ago finding that it was listed. I saw someone had tweeted that they'd got one here in Vancouver so on Saturday when I was nearby I headed to Metrotown to grab one. Unfortunately they didn't have any. The guy working there said they hadn't had any and the other stores probably wouldn't either since they usually get the same stock. Not being so easily deterred since someone had gotten one, I stepped outside the store and called the North Vancouver store first. The girl said they had plenty of them so there wasn't any need to put my name on one. I told her I'd be there tomorrow. I then called the Guilford Hot Topic but they put me on hold and never came back to the phone. Sunday I headed out to Park Royal Hot Topic to buy a Bobby.
I was in a hurry for the figure because recently TVLine had run a story about the return of Bobby and Rufus to Supernatural in an upcoming episode. Doing the math, they would probably be starting to film it this week. Since I would like to try and meet Jim Beaver I wanted to make sure I had a Funko for him to sign so I could keep my Supernatural set autographed.
With my Bobby Funko secure I headed home and had set up for a night of TV watching when a friend messaged me, sending me a tweet that Jim Beaver had sent a couple of hours ago.
LAX-YVR-SPN :)
— Jim Beaver (@jumblejim) January 18, 2016
Doing the math and looking at inbound flights we had just over an hour before we figured he'd be here. My friend said she was going after hearing the great success I'd had at ComicCon with the SPN cast at the airport. I told her I'd join her. It's close to my place. Plus, we were planning on hitting as many sets as we could find for this episode because of Jim, but you never know what you might find, if there's anything, it's just a giant question mark. So I grabbed my hours-old Funko and tossed it in my bag heading back out the door.Arriving at the airport there weren't that many people I recognized as autograph hounds there. Must be a slow weekend. A friend of mine was there and he said he had been hoping to catch Steven Amell from Arrow. People were coming by in droves and it wasn't too long before Amell came by. He seemed content to stop and chat, take photos and sign. My friend took the chance to get a photo with him but I didn't. I kind of regret it but I just got a little shy all of a sudden. Ah well. I took the photo for my friend instead.
We noticed that there were two people holding signs, drivers for pick up. One sign read "Beaver" and the other "Steven Williams", the actor who plays Rufus. So we were in the right place. We waited, and waited, and waited some more. Eventually, Jim Beaver tweeted again that he loved doing Supernatural but he didn't enjoy waiting a few hours at customs. Balls. We had a wait ahead of us. At first we thought that maybe he was through because it seems slightly unwise to tweet publicly about not liking dealing with immigration before you are through, but as we continued to wait we realized he wasn't through yet.
There are not many things I don't like about doing Supernatural, but waiting a couple of hours or more at... https://t.co/tLXPLzW7nn
— Jim Beaver (@jumblejim) January 18, 2016
He did admit, though, that he was with Steven Williams.
At least I've got Steven Williams keeping me entertained!
— Jim Beaver (@jumblejim) January 18, 2016
The drivers were antsy, on and off the phone and looking bored. Hope they got paid by the hour. I started to feel bad for waiting for him. He mentioned it was hard to leave his daughter and now he's having a miserable time at customs. The airport is already his own time and I feel bad going at all but it seemed silly to not even try after being so sure that he's there. So close. We continued to wait even though I was really aware that he very well may not stop. And that's all fine.Finally, after many false alarms (when did beards get this popular?) we saw Jim coming around the corner. We hung back and as he got close enough we smiled and called, "Jim?" He looked at us and smiled and then stopped in front of us, pulling his luggage cart over out of the way of others. My friend and I were apologizing profusely for stopping him after his miserable day having to leave his daughter and then crummy time at customs. He seemed to be in good spirits after it all anyway and was quite smiley with us. He even asked us, "You guys were waiting for me?" in a kind of 'aww shucks' sheepish way. In order to not feel too geeky I assured him that I only lived around the corner.
I had my Funko in my hand down low and brought it up to show him saying that I was glad I went to get it today when I heard he would be in town. He saw it and chuckled out a smile. I held it out and asked if he'd find somewhere to sign it for me. He took it appreciatively and I asked if he'd done one of them yet. He said no, he hadn't and then asked my name. I told him and he started writing very slowly and focused, personalizing with a 'To Julie' and signing it. While he was doing it I started babbling about that they're kind of tricky and Jensen complained when I had him do one (in a good natured way). I'm sure he didn't care, but I was just running my mouth. I asked also what happened to Rufus. He had obviously tuned me out because he didn't answer. He was pretty focused on trying to cram everything on the Funko. He handed it back and half joked that no one would be able to read it. I completely didn't care. My friend asked if she could get a photo and Jim happily said sure. I took her phone and snapped a photo of her and then I asked him if I could get one too, but I also said I'd understand if he wanted to go. He was happy and set up next to me, smiling while she snapped a photo of us.
The other two waiting, one a professional autograph hound and one a multi-fandom-fan also took the opportunity to grab a photo with him. The professional had a Supernatural print of the boys with the Supernatural title on it. As my friend and I were going a little crazy over our photos I heard Jim ask over the poster, 'Who are these two [guys]?' I know he didn't say guys. I seem to recall 'goofs' in that space, but I'm not 100% sure. It wasn't idjits which is really too bad. We let him go and continued to apologize for bugging him. Jim wandered over to his driver and waited for a few minutes while we tried not to stare.
Soon we thought we saw Steven Williams coming out but we weren't really sure. He was wearing one of those cloth masks and a head dress. It was hard to tell it was him so one of the others asked as he went by, "Steven? Are you Steven?" He said yes and kind of paused but it was really hard to read his expressions with so little of his face showing. I couldn't tell if he was unhappy to be bugged or not so I didn't try and I think because we didn't assert ourselves as to what we wanted, he kept going. He went to his driver and they all headed toward the door.
The professional gave chase with the other fan not far behind him. We let them go and chatted for a minute before heading out the door ourselves to head home. We saw the professional coming back and told us that Steven has taken the mask off outside and it looked like he got his autograph added to the poster. We picked up our pace a bit but didn't move too quickly We saw the other fan coming back and he was excited. He said that he took the mask off outside and they got a photo. I asked if he was nice or unhappy but he said he was really nice. I guess it was just that we didn't really say what we wanted inside. I don't doubt that he would have stopped from talking to the guys that talked with him outside. But I didn't want to push him as I couldn't read him at all.
Overall, a fun night and I was so excited to meet Jim Beaver. Such a kind, caring man. :) Funko autograph collection re-complete.
January 28th, 2016 - Fraser Cemetery, Coquitlam
The SPN sightings were pretty sparse the episode when Jim was in town. By our calculations he was starting Tuesday the 19th and wrapping the 28th. I had some friends that met him on set and they re-affirmed he was amazing and friendly. I chose to skip it because it was an interior and unless it's pressing I don't like to go if there's nothing to see.
The last night we had figured Jim was filming I had decided to visit some friends in Abbotsford, where I used to live, for a rehearsal. Just before I left a set broke and I had a friend heading over to check it out. She was giving info and I almost turned around to go home to get better footware and go to set instead but I chose to go figuring I'd already met Jim and we weren't really too sure what was going on anyway. I had grabbed a few things on my way out the door as the info was materializing, the photo I had with Jim at the airport, my camera and a few other items that I carry. I wasn't really ready, though. Not dressed very warm and in flip flops.
As I came home from the rehearsal and post-rehearsal pub hang out at about midnight, I was driving across the river from Coquitlam on the way home and couldn't help but notice that lights were blazing near the river on the Coquitlam side. It had to be Supernatural. I new my friends were still there, they were behind schedule and last I'd heard there weren't any actors on set yet. I took the next crossing over the river and easily was guided to the set by the lights. I parked and one of my friends said she was just about to leave. However, another who was a huge Jim fan and really wanted to meet him was still there. I walked up and found her with another fan that lived nearby.
The PA's were fine with us hanging around and from what we could see we were going to have a great vantage of the shoot. We weren't really sure what we would be looking at. There were lots of graves (obviously) a really nice bouquet of flowers that we could see, the tents, a backhoe and a pile of dirt all spread out. We were watching the backhoe get moved around and then found out that the flowers weren't part of the shoot. Apparently there was a fresh grave nearby. Awesome. Not long after I got there we saw the actors down there. Happily I noticed Jim sitting in the backhoe and got all excited again realizing we were seeing Bobby and Rufus digging up a grave.
I was impressed with Jim's backhoe skills as he really did move the bucket around with Steven standing quite close. Bobby hops out of the backhoe and takes off his jacket. He passes Rufus a shovel and they get down in the hole. They did a couple of takes, at one point the director went over to talk to Jim and I could hear him giving affirmative answers. We could also hear Steven yelling something, probably a joke based on the volume, into the night between takes. They changed the angle once and we waited, watching the silver Ford that we were told Jim was taken there in. It didn't move and they did another angle. Up where we were, the crew was eating hot dogs in the cold.
Once that was finished and we were chatting between set ups and casually watching when I spotted a Jim-shaped-person walking towards us straight up the path. Apparently he took a pass on the transport to get him back to the trailer that was across the street from us. I excitedly pointed out to my friend that he was coming our way but he was looking the opposite way toward the stairs once he was close enough to see us. The stairs led to across the street from the one trailer that was there and also was in the middle of all the gear. We were already pretty close to the gear and the trailers but we didn't want to get in the middle of anything. He came up the stairs and went the other direction. We were standing not 10 feet from him but we didn't want to disturb him. One of the things about being on a set is that they really don't like it when fans call out to the actors while they're passing by. It makes a lot of sense since a lot of the time they know there's fans around (especially if there's lots of them) and can choose to come out and say hi if they want to. Calling out is generally considered pushy and rude and it's frowned upon. Also you never really now what kind of head space the actor is in. Fans are guests, stay out of the way.
The three of us standing away were pretty innocuous and not very noticeable but myself and my other friend had the courtesy rules drilled into us as second nature. When we heard Jim talking nearby with some crew and laughing, we knew he would be coming our way but as he walked down the stairs he was chatting with the people on the crew behind him. Opportunities were there to get his attention but we didn't want to push. He headed back down to the set and we stood watching some more. While we watched, one of our friendly, chatty crew members was intimating that we should have maybe done something to get Jim's attention because he is so nice and happy to chat all the time. We considered maybe breaking the quiet code the next opportunity if there was one. During this evening every crew member we talked to just absolutely raved about how kind, caring and friendly Jim was to them. The biggest thing we heard was that he always wanted to know everyone's name and worked to learn them. Apparently that's a little unusal on a show this size. They all talked about how much of an amazing man he was and that he seemed genuinely happy to be back working on SPN.
They filmed the scene from another angle. Crew where we were was starting to get quite antsy about time because they had to be 'tail lights' by 3am on this location. That meant that they had to have everything packed out and gone by then. It was getting to be close to 2 and they still weren't finished. I thought I heard there was another scene to go but soon it was called 'window' (meaning the last shot of the night). Everyone seemed a little surprised and soon enough they had wrapped.
We were given the greenlight to walk down the sidewalk through the work trailers to where the vehicle that Jim would probably be in would be coming up to get to the trailers across the street. We headed through but also kept our eyes back at the walkway where he'd come up before thinking that he may very well just refuse the ride and walk. It wasn't exactly far but I've seen celebrities take rides much shorter distances. Sure enough, while we stood we saw what had to be Jim walking up with another member of the crew. We asked and were told we could go back through to where we were standing before. I had a few seconds of panic where I thought we were going to run directly into him as he got to the top of the stairs. The last thing I wanted was for him to feel like the *had* to stop or that he was boxed in by us.
We got just passed when Jim hit the top of the stairs. We turned and he had just finished his conversation with the person he was walking with. We gave him some space but this time I prodded my friend with a 'here's your chance.' She quietly, tentatively asked, 'Jim?' as he was turning our direction anyway. He smiled and came right over to us saying hello. My friend started explaining that she was a huge fan of his since the show started and she loved the character of Bobby. She had a great photo of Singer Salvage for him to sign. She has this great project of getting screen captures from the show and taking photos of them on the actual location. She showed it to Jim and he seemed really impressed by it, smiling large when he saw that it was Singer Salvage. She asked if he could sign it and he was more than happy to. He asked her name and then seemed to be struggling to find somewhere to sign it that was solid enough. She offered her back and Jim agreed and went to work. Meanwhile, crew was coming by working on packing up the night. The head carpenter came by and had a look to see what was going on. I managed a couple of great photos for her of Jim signing on her back with crew looking on. Awesome.
I had gotten the photo printed of us at the airport for just this occasion and when he looked to me I produced it and showed it saying that my friend and I had come to meet him at the airport. He remembered and I asked if he'd mind signing that photo for me. He was graciously happy to do so and asked my name again. I told him and he personalized this photo for me too. Taking the opportunity I asked if he'd mind doing another photo. He was more than happy to do that too. About this time, Steven Williams made his way up the stairs nearby us literally yelling about where the trailers were. Judging by how little anyone reacted I'm pretty sure that he was just messing around. He was mere feet from us but I'm not sure he realized what we were doing there and he kept going to his trailer. He was all decked out as Rufus, though, which was great.
The other guy that was waiting with us took a quick photo with Jim and as he finished up the props lady came over, sidled up next to Jim and said quietly, 'Flask?' He immediately jumped to action checking the pockets of his outer, non-wardrobe jacket in reaction but then reaching inside his deeper pockets as she asked with a smile if he was trying to take it. He pulled it out and I asked, 'THE flask? Can we see it?' For those that don't remember, Bobby's spirit was tethered to his flask when he died in the show and Dean carried it around for a while before they started seeing him. Eventually they had to salt and burn it to allow Bobby to move on, but it was such a big part of Bobby's character.
He held it out and my inner geek took over, reciting lines from the show like they're 2nd nature, "I need you to let me touch it." Probably came off as creepy, nearly needed to recite another Cas joke as I was thinking, "I don't understand that reference." as I reached out and ran my hand over the leather and then the metal top of it. I backed up and went to take a photo, looking to the props girl first to see if she was going to panic. She seemed okay and I took a few pictures of Jim holding it out. He showed it around so the others could do the same and then handed it back over.
We had taken enough of his time and we thanked him profusely as he parted ways for the trailer across the street.
Bobby may be rough around the edges but a sweet guy at heart. You don't have to dig nearly as far to find the sweet guy in Jim. An amazingly kind and caring individual through and through.
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