The CW Source

CWS: How did the characters evolve? You started with just a post saying "Aren't these funny," and now they've got motivations … How did that happen? Is it something that surprised you?
In the beginning it was supposed to be just this is Sam and this is Dean and they just happen to be played by Barbies. Whatever Plastic!Dean said was supposed to sound like something Jensen Ackles playing Dean Winchester would have said. I don't know if there was a point where it all shifted, where it all went crazy, but we would just sort of go along. And I would think, "Dean would say this here" or "Sam would say this here". I don't know how it evolved to be that way, really. Almost every single week I'm with these characters and they're in my head. I'm thinking of how they're gong to relate to each other and talk to each other. They remember what's happened to them in past episodes. They almost have their own canon that they can refer back to.

CWS: One of the noticeable differences between the Plastic!Winchesters and the TV characters is these guys hug.
Yes! All the time. That's another thing, it's kind of free therapy for me, so everything I want to see on the show … Sam drove so much in my second season, and they hug all the time. They talk about their feelings: "This is how I feel about this, and let's talk about that," and then let's hug.

CWS: And "I just want to cuddle."
Yeah, "I don't want to talk about what just happened to me, just hold me for a while." (Laughs) Would they really do that.? Absolutely not. But the Plastics? All the time.

CWS: Do you have a favorite Plastic!Episode?
I 'm really pleased with how the choose your own adventure turned out. The idea sounded simple when Heather launched it at me, but once I started thinking about it, I realized ok, it has to be seven different worlds, and it all has to end up in one place. It was a nightmare to do it, but because it was so hard, it was so satisfying when it did really work. I was so proud of that episode. That was pretty amazing.

CWS: Which are some of the ones that have been particular fan favorites?
The one where the Impala turns into a girl is one of the big ones. It's funny, because it's not particularly one of my favorites. I made the Impala more maternal as opposed to what some people think, "Oh, she should hook up with Dean." Which I'm like, Ew, it's a car. I tried to say that this is their home, basically, and their home just turned into a person. If your home is a person, it's going to be a nurturer watching over you. Maybe that's what people liked – or maybe people just thought she looked hot in those boots and that leather suit. That seems to be one of their favorites. That always kind of puzzles me. The Christmas episode was really popular, also.

CWS: Did you consciously decide "I'm going to give them something happy"?
Yes, absolutely! Amanda sent me the ear muffs and the scarves and that little Abominable Snowman. Sometimes the plots are easy – I see a prop and I just have the entire plot set to go. Others are a total struggle. But when she showed me the little itty bitty ear muffs and the Abominable Snowman, it was like OK, it's going to be Christmas, and John's going to be Santa, and it's going to be a happy happy Christmas and they're going to get presents.

It was actually really funny because at the end, they exchange gifts, and I get people asking me "What did they give each other?" I have no idea. Whatever you think they gave it each other is what they gave each other. You write yourself into a corner sometimes -- it's like, "I have nothing."

CWS: Does that give you more sympathy for the people behind the TV show? Do you ever feel sorry for Kripke when people ask questions like "Why were Dean's eyes bleeding.? What's the deal with the medallion?"
Yeah. It's funny when they catch me on continuity. There was a continuity error in the Care Bear episode, which was very early on is Season One. I caught it during post production, I realized I'd killed the pink bear twice. I thought "No one's going to notice that, no one will pay attention to the colors." And actually, no one said anything directly to me, but then someone said "Maybe you should check out this thread over at TWOP," and they were talking about it! "Did she do it on purpose? Is he going to come back?" I was thinking, "Wow, they're actually trying to figure out if I was going somewhere with that?" Then I thought, "If they're talking about it, I should try to fix my problem." That's actually where the whole idea of the stuffed animal mafia came from. If the Care Bear is coming back, who's he going to be working for? That's how the whole Snuggles mythology got started, that Snuggles was part of that. It snowballed from there.

CWS: Had you seen Big Pink's tour of Vancouver with Snuggles?
I hadn't – that was another weird thing. Our fandom has certain things we all know --Dean said Snuggles was evil, so we all know that. It's funny how we take that and interpret it in our different ways.