Why didn't Jensen Ackles' career ever take off?

His mother was once possessed by the devil. It scared the bigwigs off.

What are you talking about? He wrapped up a 15-season series that left him set for life. He had a season-long arc on a very hot streaming show. He guested on Tracker, a big CBS show. Now he's about to star in another streaming show.

If that's your definition of a career not taking off, then a lot of actors would like to have a word with you.

Lol.... what are you talking about, R1?

Are you high?

R2 has stated her boundaries.

[quote] He's a great looking guy, never has any bad publicity, picture perfect wife and kids, and other actors and executives seem to love him and get along well with him.

[quote] Jensen was the one who always kept it professional, never any bad press, family man, and well-liked by his peers.

He's been lucky for a glorified soap actor

He starred in one major film, and that was "My Bloody Valentine 3D," back in 2009.

It was supposed to have a sequel, but that never happened.

I heard he was a pass-around bottom for Hollywood bigwigs.

r2 is correct

I blame Deidre Hall.

I heard he's homophobic

Not the best sounding name.

The poor man’s Jake G.

I said what I said.

He has a bangable ass.

Cute.

He would be much bigger if he wasn't an asshole. Someone made a Twitter account just to expose his potential homophobia - obviously someone with a lot of time on their hands.

Yes, Jensen has a proven history of homophobic behaviors (particularly about male/male stuff). He also was a registered republican for much of his life and came from a fundamentalist christian family. There are numerous accounts of him getting enraged when fans suggested Dean was bi. There is also some theories out there based on interviews that he was against any bisexual elements for Solider Boy on Boys. That being said, in 2024 he went full onboard with supporting Harris and denouncing Trump and supporting trans rights.

As for his career...by all factors he's had a successful career. He's been a working actor his whole adult life and never been unemployed as an actor. Now, he's never become a big A list star, but his career is a success. I think if he had wanted to truly go the big star/leading man route, he should've left Supernatural after his initial contract was up. Staying too long on a fantasy/sci-fi show (not to mention a lower rated cable network show) often results in typecasting. 15 years on the same TV show, good for financial stability, but it does stagnate a career in terms of bigger parts. Also, lets be honest, his range is limited and he falls into the "solid" B-list TV actor well.

One thing though, he's aged like a fine wine. I'm not sure if he's had work done, but he looks fantastic for a man pushing 50.

[quote]Lol.... what are you talking about, [R1]?

Are you high?

Depends what you mean by high, bitch.

Because he abandoned the love of his life!🥲

[quote] Depends what you mean by high, bitch.

She's a high-riding bitch, at R18!

His new series "Countdown" starts tonight (6/24) on Amazon - I think it's either 8 for 15 episodes. I normally stay away from the stodgy action/ crime/ police/military shows like FBI, NCIS, SWAT, Seal Team, but I'll give this a look as I was a big fan of Supernatural and I always wanted to see Jensen in a tactical vest.

He has the career that Jacob Young wishes he had.

He was playing the sheriff in Rust at the time of the shooting. He dropped out when production resumed due to a scheduling conflict.

Not sure where all the deplorable rumors come from because he was part of the pro-Kamala brigade along with Misha Collins. I admired him for that given all the DL talk of his being ultra conservative. Plus, he can SING.

Poor man’s James Spader.

R3 that was a joke. One of Jensen's first jobs was as Deidre Hall's son on Days of our Lives, and at one time, Dee's character was possessed. (Actually, twice, but who's counting?)

[quote] He was playing the sheriff in Rust at the time of the shooting. He dropped out when production resumed due to a scheduling conflict.

Jensen is the type that bails out at the first sign of trouble.

He is very concerned with maintaining a squeaky clean image, which is why it was so shocking that he and his wife completely went behind Jared Padalecki's back, when they produced "The Winchesters" on the CW.

You would think that Jensen would have included Jared in some capacity, since they worked together as Sam and Dean Winchester on "Supernatural" for 15 years.

But sneaky snake Jensen did it completely without Jared knowing, and when the announcement for the show came out, Jared was totally blindsided.... and said so on Twitter.

Interestingly, Jared has still NOT taken down that Tweet from 2021.

I think he wants to leave it there, for posterity.

And the show, for good or bad, ended after one year. So what is your point, R27? It’s not as if it was some great success and Jared wasn’t a part of it. Jared’s own show Independence was a much better, albeit also failed, venture.

He had other projects to do so he couldn’t continue with that movie. Nobody knew when they would go back into production. He had to go and do The Boys. He couldn’t hang around and wait till production resumed. He had this project to start.

He’s a busy guy.

I still can't believe that Supernatural" lasted for 15 years.

I'd had enough after the first few seasons.

Where is the proof that he's homophobic?

He's DEI

R30, I don't know but it seems to have been a source of debate on DL for many years now.

I think it's because he originally comes from a conservative family in Texas and had a father who was involved in conservative causes. He appears to have brought some conservative Christian beliefs with him into his early days in the entertainment industry and 'Days of Our Lives' (eg. when he thanked his "Lord and Savior Jesus Christ" on TV after winning a soap award).

But I've never really seen much evidence to indicate he is right-wing politically. He has supported a number of Democratic Party campaigns, including for Beto O'Rourke in Texas.

[quote] Where is the proof that he's homophobic?

He's best friends with the homophobic, MAGA "Duck Dynasty" Klan.

Asked A.I.:

[italic]is jensen ackles friends with the duck dynasty family[/italic]

[bold]Yes, Jensen Ackles is friends with Jep and Jessica Robertson of the "Duck Dynasty" family. They are close enough that the Robertsons opened a food truck called Jep's Southern Roots on the grounds of Jensen and his wife Danneel's brewery, Family Business Beer Co., according to Eater Austin.

Jensen and Danneel Ackles co-own Family Business Beer Co. with the Graul family, while Jep and Jessica Robertson run Jep's Southern Roots. The brewery is located in Dripping Springs, Texas. The Ackles and Robertsons have been friends for some time, with the Robertsons even visiting the set of "Supernatural" where Jensen starred. This friendship is the reason for the collaboration at the brewery[/bold]

His possibly being conservative is not what limited his career. I think he’s just too pretty to completely pull off the macho kinds of characters that he wants to play.

Because he's cheesy af.

He’s a himbo. So is the other one. Thats why.

R30 see r16 as well

Jensen Ackles on Moving from Texas to NYC on "Live! With Mark and Kelly"

Because he didn't take his pants off

Sadly, OP, making the jump from television to the big screen isn’t really how it works anymore. Jensen spent 15 years on a very popular series (Supernatural), then had a flashy guest role on another hit (The Boys), and stars in a new Prime Video show (Countdown). He’s in a pretty high tier as far as working actors go.

I always see this guy mentioned here but I have never seen him in anything. He looks like the generic TV actor. Is he especially good?

He should do comedies, he has fantastic comedic timing.

Because only one Chris Pratt type actor at a time is allowed to be on the A-list.

Jensen is hot but I agree he has had a successful career for that type of wooden actor.

He is Soldier Boy!

He’s gonna start filming the new series which shows the early days of Soldier Boy.

Eric Kripke ain’t no fool. He knows what he has in Jensen and his built-in fan base.

He moved his whole family from that shit-hole state to Connecticut, much closer to Toronto than Austin.

His wife isn’t hot enough, it’s strange

Hotness incoming!

Nice 😍

His wife is pretty, but not beautiful.

Her fashion sense is calamitous, however.

Such a missed opportunity not to cast him as Leon Kennedy in one of the Resident Evil movies.

I've liked Jensen since has Eric Brady and have watched all of his shows. I think he recently got some eye work done. I'm not certain, I'm bad at that stuff, but it seems to be the same thing that Ryan Phillippe got done to his eyes.

Who?

Well, if he did, he is supposed to look way younger when he starts filming that new show with soldier Boy.

They’re going back to the ‘50’s, I believe.

He’s always had that crinkly skin on the corners of his eyes.

Jensen has definitely had work done on his face.

I remember the final scene of Supernatural. He and Jared Padalecki were standing on a bridge, thanking fans for their 15 years of watching the show.

The camera zoomed in on their faces, and I was pretty shocked at how old Jensen looked in that close up.

He didn't look bad, but the skin around his eyes was very wrinkly, as R53 pointed out.

And mind you, this was five years ago, back in 2020 when the Supernatural finale was filmed.

You can't tell me that in 2025, Jensen now looks younger than he did back then, without having had any work done.

No sir.

I'm guessing that he saw his close up, and decided to have work done on his face, if he still wanted to have a career in Hollywood.

I remember during the pandemic, he went to live in the mountains of Colorado all by himself for a few months.

My guess is that's when he had his work done, and went there for his recovery.

The other thing I remember is someone saying how Jensen never used moisturizer on his face, because "guys don't use moisturizer."

HA!

But guys get plastic surgery done on their face? Bitch, please.

It was mainly around the eyes and forehead, that the wrinkles were showing on Jensen.

The rest of his face looks okay.

Thanks for posting that picture. Now I'm sure he got something done. I'm not sure what, but whoever did the work did a great job. He looks refreshed, not pulled.

I love that picture of them both.

You can tell Jared has been crying, a lot, and he’s trying to keep it together for those last few moments of filming.

🥺😢

Here's the "new" Jensen, as opposed to the one at R55.

No more eye crinkles. 😯

Hate the beard, though. I’ve always hated the boys with all that scruff. It ages them way too much.

At 20, maybe.

Jensen's problem is that he's trying too hard to appear young, rather than just aging gracefully.

He's a lot like Ryan Phillippe.

Two guys pushing 50, who still think that they're in their 20s.

Jensen knows he isn't cast for his grand thespian skills, he's a model who got lucky, as JLO would say. There's nothing wrong with trying to maintain a youthful look unless it starts looking silly

He's got a fear of looking like his mother's brother, instead of her pretty boy son.

He and Ryan P. have [italic]most definitely[/italic] had the same eye procedure(s), as someone mentioned upthread.

Is it just fillers? It looks unnatural, probably because they seem to be going for ZERO wrinkles or bags and that makes it look almost cartoonish.

The first season of Jensen Ackles’ new Prime Video series is almost halfway over, but the show has found continued streaming success since its premiere near the end of June. After earning comparisons to Chris Pratt’s Prime Video series, The Terminal List, Countdown has become a streaming hit globally for Prime Video, charting in the top 10 in more than 25 countries, including the United States and the U.K. Countdown debuted with a Rotten Tomatoes score from critics of 31%, but the show has begun to win over reviewers — its score has climbed to 38%.

Audiences are much bigger fans of Countdown than critics, though, as the series currently sits at 72% on the audience-driven Popcornmeter. Countdown also stars Jessica Camacho (Bosch: Legacy), Eric Dane (Euphoria), and Violett Beane (Drop).

Countdown was written and created for television by Derek Haas, who is also the mind behind the One Chicago universe. Haas has written over 600 episodes of television between his work on Chicago Fire, Chicago P.D., and Chicago Med, and that doesn’t even count the nearly 100 episodes he’s penned of FBI: International.

However, he got his start in the movie business before becoming such a prominent television scribe. He first made his feature writing debut on Invincible, the 2001 action thriller starring Billy Zane. He then transitioned to bigger projects like 2 Fast 2 Furious (Vin Diesel), before he also penned 3:10 to Yuma, the Western remake starring Christian Bale and Russell Crowe. Haas is also known for his work as a writer on Wanted (Angelina Jolie), The Double (Richard Gere), and Overdrive (Scott Eastwood).

After being mostly absent from Season 4, Ackles will reprise his role as Soldier Boy in The Boys Season 5, which recently wrapped filming ahead of its planned 2026 release date. Ackles has also been tapped to lead Vought Rising, a prequel series showing Vought’s rise to power set years before the events of The Boys. The show is also bringing back The Boys Season 2 veteran Aya Cash to play Stormfront. There will also be a Supernatural reunion in The Boys Season 5 between Ackles, Misha Collins, and Jared Padalecki.

Countdown is one of the most popular shows on Prime Video at the time of writing. Stay tuned to Collider for more updates and coverage of the show and Ackles’ future projects.

Woohoo!!

I told you guys Jensen fans will follow him anywhere!

Hopefully there will be a season 2, though, how they can manage that, given Meachum’s circumstances, will be mystery.