Monday, March 14, 2011

{alltv} 'Supernatural's' Jim Beaver: How will Rufus' death impact Bobby?

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Season 6 of "Supernatural" has devoted lots of time to rounding out the character of Bobby Singer (Jim Beaver) as we learn more not only about his daily life, but about his past. 

In the most recent episode, "...And Then They Were None," we learned that once upon a time, Rufus (Steven Williams) and Bobby were hunting partners, similar to the way Sam and Dean are now.

Just as we were getting some insight into their time on the road together, Rufus was killed by the monster (or the herpe, as Dean would say) possessing Bobby. Zap2it caught up with Beaver at PaleyFest's "Supernatural" event on Sunday to see whether the death would have a lasting emotional impact on Bobby.

Beaver assures us that Bobby didn't walk away from Rufus' grave unscathed, which we'll see in the upcoming episode "My Heart Will Go On." He says, "That deals a little bit with Bobby's response to Rufus's death. There's some resolution there."

It's an episode in which Sam and Dean wake up in a world in which the Titanic never sank.

"Balthazar didn't like the movie," executive producer Sera Gamble tells us, "so he decided to go back in time, and he un-sunk the ship. We have all these explanations as to how that could have happened." She laughs. "There were a lot of mental knots that we had to untangle to figure that episode out but it's a really cool one. It's kind of a twilight zone episode."

Changing history has a "butterfly effect," according to Gamble. Mary Winchester (Samantha Smith) and Ellen Harvelle (Samantha Ferris), both of whom are dead, will be back in town. Beaver teases that Bobby has some exciting scenes with Ellen.

"Put it this way," he says, "It's a relationship between Bobby and Ellen that nobody's ever seen on this show before, and it was a lot of fun to play."

Whenever we approach a "Supernatural" season finale, we begin to fear for Bobby's life. Gamble tells us to expect more than one death in this year's wrap-up, but with this show, there's no telling whether the deaths will last. If you remember, the press was told that the Season 5 finale would feature the death of a beloved character... but by the end of the episode, all beloved characters were topside.

Still, there's always the chance that someone's going to be permanently ganked. Beaver says he doesn't worry about it. "No. I mean, I'm an actor. There's always 'I'm never gonna work again' but I don't worry about it," he says. "For one thing, it's six seasons now and it feels to me like it would be kind of hard for them to permanently get rid of Bobby."

Frankly, it's hard to permanently get rid of anyone -- which brings us back around to Rufus. Is there a chance we'll see him again? Nothing is ever a sure thing with this show. "Steven Williams was maybe a little down when we killed off Rufus, and I was trying to make him feel better, I was like, 'So is this the first time you've been killed on 'Supernatural.'?" Beaver jokes. "You get used to it. You get killed, you come back. You get killed, you come back."

As it stands currently, however, Bobby is the only human friend of the Winchesters left standing. He's also one of very few recurring characters from Season 1 who is still around today. During the PaleyFest event, show creator Eric Kripke spoke a little bit about the genesis of Bobby's character.

Long-time fans of the show will remember Missouri Moseley, a psychic played by Loretta Devine. She was an old friend of John Winchester's who helped Sam and Dean on a hunt in their home town.

Kripke says that his original plan for the Season 1 finale involved Missouri. "I'm writing the Season 1 finale, 'Devil's Trap,' and the way that the finale opens in the first draft was that John's been kidnapped and the guys need advice, and they need a place to hole up. They go to Missouri Moseley's house, Preparation for the episode, directed by the beloved late Kim Manners, had already begun when the "Supernatural" powers that be got some bad news. "We got word that Loretta had booked a movie and was totally unavailable. We were already starting the prep at that point and Kim was directing, and Bob [Singer] and I looked at each other like 'Oh, sh**, what are we going to do? We need another character," Kripke says.

They began to sketch out an idea for a male version of Missouri -- an old friend of John Winchester's who Kripke describes as a guy "who is grizzled and cool and has bad history with them." Bob Singer suggested Jim Beaver for the role. "It's interesting how these little moments create what was meant to be," Kripke adds.

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