Jared Padalecki OF ‘SUPERNATURAL’ ON TNT

Was it strange letting go of Sam Winchester and “Supernatural” after its long run?

Yeah, big time. ... You know, I lived with Sam for 15 years, 15 and a half because it got delayed for six months with the COVID quarantine. But for me, we were supposed to finish “Supernatural” in early April and then on Friday, March 13th, we got sent home from Vancouver and didn’t go back to shoot until August 18th, I think. So it was five months and so I kind of had a little like a beta test, a B-run to sort of let go of Sam. ...

And then we went back and we had four more weeks to film (on) “Supernatural.” So then when I had the break after we had wrapped “Supernatural,” it was a little easier for me to go back into what life was like living in Austin.

“Walker” represents your first stint as an executive producer, correct?

Correct, yeah, officially. I mean, the way kind of “Supernatural” panned out, by the time we got to maybe Season 8 or 9, there was a point where we had almost an entirely different writing staff than we had day one of “Supernatural.” So in some sense, we had some producorial responsibilities of maintaining storylines and the way they set up the characters. But as far as being officially a producer, this is my first foray.

How do you like it?

It’s great. I like it more than acting. I like it more than the actual filming and being on camera part of it. I’ve always been kind of a fan of puzzles, so to speak, so I like putting pieces together and trying to figure out what’s going to work, what’s not going to work, the ways to solve problems. And then part of me is like, “Man, do I have to be on camera again? I’ve been acting for 20 years. Can’t I just go home and eat some Tex-Mex and pizza and not worry about fitting into my wardrobe?”