When he entered the scene in Supernatural’s fourth season, Misha Collins had some catching up to do. The series already had three incredibly successful years behind it, and audiences had grown to love Jared Padalecki and Jensen Ackles’ duo of demon-hunting brothers: Sam and Dean Winchester, respectively. Fans will know that to stand out from the crowd and fully define his character, Collins dropped his voice a solid octave into a sort-of Batman-like growl that became synonymous with his angel, Castiel. But decisions like these come at a cost — particularly when the part that you thought was only going to be a one-off episode spawns into more than a decade of work.
During a recent chat with TV Insider, in celebration of the 20-year anniversary of Supernatural’s pilot episode, Collins, Ackles, and Padalecki chatted about what aspects of their characters they brought home after cameras went down. For Collins, the voice of Castiel will never leave him — just maybe not in the way you’re thinking, as he revealed,
“I did my Castiel voice, which was like, [growls] ‘Hellloo, Dean.’ I had a very deep voice, which, as you may intuit, isn’t my natural voice. And I was a year into filming Supernatural — I thought that I was only going to do a couple episodes… So I went to the doctor and was like, ‘I don’t know what’s going on, but I have a sore throat that’s not going away.’ I got checked for strep, and it’s not strep. I was literally causing damage to my vocal cords. So, that’s something that I carried with me from Castiel. Actual physical trauma.”
How Sam and Dean Winchester Inform Jared Padalecki and Jensen Ackles’ Parenting
While Collins might have a lifelong affliction thanks to his Castiel-voice, Padalecki and Ackles’ responses were much more wholesome. Both men are fathers, and they admit that aspects of their characters have made it home and into their parenting styles, with Padalecki revealing,
“Every now and again, when I’m putting the kids to bed, they want to hear a story. And not a real story; they want me to make up a story. And I’m like, ‘Sure. A story about what?’ They’ll say whales, and I don’t know anything about whales, but I’ll find myself going, ‘All right, so get this….’ Which Sam said quite a bit. [Laughs]”
As for Ackles, his kids will first hear Dean’s demon-hunting voice when they’ve pushed him and his wife, Danneel Ackles, to their breaking point, adding,
“You just made me think of whenever I have to use ‘dad voice,’ it sounds a lot like ‘Dean voice.’ And it’s not on purpose, by any means.”
Supernatural is now streaming on Netflix.
Source: TV Insider