Jensen Needs You

[oselle]

arabia764 was curious about why there's such a dearth of fics in which Jensen plays a more assertive role and I posted one of my usual excessively long comments about how he's not just pretty but projects an air of needy vulnerability which fanfic writers naturally pick up on. Some of you may recall a poll I did ages ago (can't find it, alas) in which I wondered why so many RPS AU fics cast Jensen as a melancholy rentboy and Jared as his likely or unlikely knight-in-shining-armor and the landslide winner of that poll was the response that mentioned the same thing -- that Jensen seems vulnerable, somehow wounded or needy, requiring care, protection, salvation.



I've been sitting here thinking about this and I've realized that this is hardly something that only fanfic writers pick up on -- casting directors and producers must see it too because that's been the one unifying element of just about every character he's ever played. Now I haven't seen every one of Jensen's roles, but here's a short list starting with the earliest one I know about:

Television
Eric Brady (Days of Our Lives): Never saw him in this, but I think he played the sweet-natured counterpoint to his manipulative bitch twin sister, Sami. His mother was possessed by Satan at one point. God, Days is an awful show.

Ben (Dark Angel): A bubbling hot mess of gorgeous, wounded desperation. Too beautifully damaged to live. Goes insane, comes to a bad end.

Alec (Dark Angel): On the surface a flinty, chronic smartass and self-interested oportunist...beneath it all, a needy lost soul with an unexpectedly kind, compassionate and generous nature. Masks his pain with devil-may-care sarcasm. Memorably described by one character as "all broody and Healthcliff-like."

C.J. (Dawson's Creek): Haven't seen much of this but I do know at one point he was dating Michele Williams, who in spite of her boyfriend's hotness, wore full-length flannel pajamas to bed (buttoned up to her neck) and sported a dreadful hairdo and he still loved her, so clearly he was playing a saint. I think he also volunteered at a suicide hotline. A TEEN suicide hotline, oy. And his name was C.J. And it was Dawson's Creek for God's sake. Do the math.

Jason Teague (Smallville): Affectionate, caring, would-be nice guy who can't escape the dark secrets of his hideous family. Repeatedly victimized, assaulted and manipulated by high-school football players, Lana Lang, Lana Lang's 14th-century witch ancestor, Chinese prison guards, scarves, viruses, nightmares, Lionel Luthor, Lex Luthor and his own predatory mother. Believes Lana Lang can save him with her love. Goes insane, comes to a bad end.

Dean Winchester (SPN): Apparent tough guy and leering skirt-chaser with a heart of gold, crushing self-esteem issues and a desperate craving for love, forgiveness and acceptance. Perpetually self-sacrificing to the point of being pathologically self-destructive. Takes more poundings than a veal scallopine (and much more photogenically). Cries a lot. Goes to hell, comes back to looming bad end. No further explanation needed.

Movies
Jake Gray (Devour): Affectionate, caring, would-be nice guy who can't escape the really dark secrets of his really hideous family. Relentlessly tormented by nightmares and waking hallucinations. Believes Shannyn Sossamon can save him with her love until she turns out to be his own predatory mother. Cries a lot. Goes insane, comes to a bad end.

Tom Hanniger (My Bloody Valentine): Affectionate, caring, would-be nice guy who can't escape the multiple traumas of his hideous past. Takes pills to quiet his inner demons. Did time in a mental asylum. Stares at himself in the mirror a lot. Goes insane, comes a bad end.

So you see, it's not us. We're just picking up on what he's clearly putting out there. Add that vibe to the seriously ridiculous prettiness and you've got...wounded rentboy Jensen, needy Jensen, vulnerable Jensen, passive Jensen (or substitute Dean for any of the above, if you like). If you've seen any of his other roles, feel free to fill in the blanks.

Comments

[janissa11.livejournal.com]

That about sums it up, yep. ::licks him::

Re: wow that is rather devastating...

[oselle.livejournal.com]

I left off Blonde because I saw such a tiny bit of it but I'm pretty sure he played a gay boy in the sexually repressed 1950s so he was no doubt angst-ridden. I don't think his role was big enough to expand upon.

[oselle.livejournal.com]

Don't lick him...SAVE him!

[ariadnes-string.livejournal.com]

IKR? I know I've burbled on about this in overly long comments myself--but the weirdest thing about the unmistakable vibe you've documented is that rl!Jensen seems so unremarkable--his "wildest" characteristic seems to be his kvetchyness about the long hours he has to work...

Also:
1. Your description of Dean made me laugh--in a oh, Dean! kind of way.

2. I've never seen Smallville, but you make it seem like it has epic amounts of Jensen whumpage--is it worth watching? will is assuage my holiday crankiness?

[oselle.livejournal.com]

rl!Jensen seems so unremarkable

Yes, but that discomfort he has with public appearances and with talking about himself can come across as either charming bashfulness or vulnerability and you know then you've got Jared always LOOMING over him like a protective Momma Bear so this air of vulnerability translates into him as a person, even outside of his roles...and I think it's part of the reason he keeps landing roles like this. I don't think you'll see him play the kinds of swaggering, invulnerable guys that say...Brad Pitt tends to play.

Re: Smallville. Taken in perspective of all of Season 4, he's not in THAT much of it, but when he's there he's getting whumped in one way or another, physically or emotionally. My favorite scenes (aside from the Shanghai prison, an episode I've dubbed "Shanghai ShAckles") are the ones with Jane Seymour playing his crazy mother. BRILLIANT! And he gets to go stark raving crazy by the end of the season! EXQUISITE! He looks gorgeous throughout the whole thing too...this was the year before he started on SPN and he's a lot more slender, a little blonder.

[i-o-r-h-a-e-l.livejournal.com]

oh

[i-o-r-h-a-e-l.livejournal.com]

jared will

[tigriswolf]

Huh. I'd never really noticed all those similarities before.

Re: wow that is rather devastating...

[tigriswolf]

You mean Ten Inch Hero? He's pretty woobie in that one, too.

[i-o-r-h-a-e-l.livejournal.com]

have to go see sv again...

[vshendria.livejournal.com]

You'll get no disagreement from me!
Actually, I think what Jensen does really well is the portrayal of a man who has a lot of brittle defenses. Then he gets to gradually reveal the wounded soul beneath and we just gobble it up, not least because he looks so beautiful while he's doing it.

[layne67.livejournal.com]

Fans of limp!Sam and limp!Jared would be writhing in agony with this post.

[mara-snh.livejournal.com]

There's also the possibility that he SEEKS OUT roles like this. Or shuffles through the other ones to accept these. Who knows what non-vulnerable stuff he's been turning down all his life? He does seem to be a blank canvas. I think he wants it that way, but I'm not sure what sort of paint he hopes is going to stick eventually.

[roque-clasique.livejournal.com]

That is an interesting pattern! not altogether surprising, because I knew already that Jensen needs me, desperately...

[ariadnes-string.livejournal.com]

yes, the LOOMING...it makes Jensen seem all pocket-sized and frail...then you see him in other contexts, and he's actually kinda strapping...

"Shanghai ShAckles"
Okay--that sounds like it's worth filing away for a rainy day!

[oselle.livejournal.com]

Oh believe me, Season 4 of Smallville is definitely worth having on hand for rainy days, snowy days, windy days, heat wave days...pretty much any day.

Doesn't Shanghai ShAckles sound like the title of some intentionally awful mock Broadway musical? Get me Nathan Lane!

ETA: Your icon is such a perfect example of classic Jared LOOMING. Look at Jensen there...he's like a little doll! Eeeeeeeeeeee!!

Re: smallville

[oselle.livejournal.com]

Actually this season is pretty good.

[oselle.livejournal.com]

Yes, right?

[oselle.livejournal.com]

LOL, you wouldn't think "guy who goes crazy and comes to a bad end" is something one could get typecast as, would you?

[oselle.livejournal.com]

I think what Jensen does really well is the portrayal of a man who has a lot of brittle defenses.

Yes, and it makes me wonder how he'd pull off a very straight dramatic role, either on television or in the movies. Because most of his career has been in sci-fi or horror genres, the breaking down of those defenses tends to be via something very shocking and far from the ordinary, not some more commonplace everyman sort of tragedy. To be honest I really like him in these genres -- not just because I like these genres to begin with, but because he manages to make what could be ridiculous seem so real and affecting.

[oselle.livejournal.com]

Given Jared's redwoodian stature, it's very hard for me to imagine Jared or Sam as limp!anything without shouting "Timber!" first.

[oselle.livejournal.com]

He's already done so much sci-fi and horror stuff that it seems like that is what has stuck, whether he wanted it to or not. I recall an interview where he specifically mentioned No Country for Old Men and said those were the types of movies he'd like to be in, but I think it might be a hard slog for him. Not just because he's so damn pretty in such a TV sort of way but because I'll bet that a lot of casting directors and producers really have him pegged as this science-fiction actor and nothing else. It seems to be fine, and even welcome, for an established "serious" actor to have an occasional lark in sci-fi or horror or fantasy (or even a soap opera, the way James Franco is inexplicably guesting on General Hospital), but not the other way around.

Re: i find it has some alarming similarities to spn

[oselle.livejournal.com]

My friend has always watched both shows, and she says the plots of Smallville's and SPN's episodes have always had a tendency to parallel each other, for whatever reason. This season they've both done time travel, zombie apocalypses, a looming end of the world, etc.

[oselle.livejournal.com]

It's just a fact that anyone that sweetly pretty must be needy and vunerable and all broken inside. Just one look in those big green doe eyes tell the whole story.

LOL, what could be further from the truth. The ones among us who need the most care are exactly the ones whom no one cares about.

Re: pretty and woobie or mostly woobie and sorta pretty?

[tigriswolf]

I thought he was adorable. *hee*

[tigriswolf]

He was very good in A Few Good Men. There wasn't much 'guy who goes crazy and comes to a bad end' or neediness or any of those other things there.

[i-o-r-h-a-e-l.livejournal.com]

Can't be more right. You always describe him so perfectly - and beautifully. *sighs*

:)

[corbyinoz.livejournal.com]

May I friend you? I *love* the way your mind works re the Ackles Boy.

And you know, I started out thinking hey, in my BigBang fic I wrote Jensen as the strong one... but then it all went pear shaped by the end. Goes insane, comes to a bad end. Well, not quite, but there was angst a-plenty. For me, he manages a convincing tough guy exterior but he always lets the cracks show, and it's this combination of tough and vulnerable that does terrible things to me. I can't abide TremblingFlower Jensen in AU fics; I need the strength and the weakness.

[oselle.livejournal.com]

Yes, you can friend me. And I just noticed that in my recap of My Bloody Valentine, I forgot to mention that Tom thinks Jamie King can save him with her love. Before he goes insane and comes to a bad end.

I haven't read much RP fic so I haven't come across any TremblingFlowers but in the ones I've read he's almost inevitably the one in need of saving. He does it good, what can I say?

[corbyinoz.livejournal.com]

I've read a lot of damaged Jensen in RPF - so he's the one on drugs, having self-esteem issues, has abusive parents/ issues with his sexuality, etc. And yes, he trembles. Frequently.

And it's interesting, because in RL he seems very level headed, down to earth, with a sarcastic wit and strong family ties. I would guess Jared to be far more emotionally labile. And yet I often see him written as serene and wise, in the face of Jensen's helpless neuroses. Very funny!

[corbyinoz.livejournal.com]

'LOL, what could be further from the truth. The ones among us who need the most care are exactly the ones whom no one cares about.'

Very true. It's always a hard sell, to me, to try and portray these boys as being ignored or socially outcast. Beauty has its own rules. If you're beautiful and socially inept, people will search you out and coddle you into the group. Lesser mortals will often struggle where beautiful people will find the way eased for them. It's a fact of life, across all cultures, although I was interested to read not that long ago a study about the issues that beautiful people can have (and that no one cares about because, hey, they're gorgeous so what do they have to complain about?)

[oselle.livejournal.com]

The thing about people who are reserved, like Jensen, is that others often misjudge them to be shy or emotionally withdrawn. When someone's as pretty as Jensen, that misjudgment translates into this notion that he's vulnerable and needs to be shielded from the world -- in contrast, if a naturally introverted person is plain, they're usually just considered weird or unfriendly. Although as pretty as Jensen is, I have heard him described as stand-offish and unsocial, which I doubt is true. He seems very charming and personable when he's with people that he knows. Jared on the other hand, probably is more emotionally volatile, but because he's such an extrovert people just see him as being fun and outgoing and friendly.

Also the fact that Jared's SO HUGE kind of wipes out any air of "vulnerability." Stripped of all the bulky Carhartt layers that Jensen wears on the show, he tends to look slender and almost delicate in his off-the-show appearances, an impression that is reinforced whenever he's standing next to that Padalecki lumberjack, who, if he gets any bigger, will need to start traveling around with an axe and a blue ox.