Bonus: Interview with Sean Owen Roberts AKA Chet the Leviathan

Over drinks, Berly and LA chat with actor Sean Owen Roberts about his experience on the set of Supernatural during the filming of season 7. Sean is currently filming the final season of MGM's TV series, Billy the Kid. Watch the trailer and learn more at https://mgm.com/television/billy-the-kid-series. Thank you to Sean for this discussion.  Now, let's get tipsy!  CW/TW for violent and lewd commentary; listeners beware! 🔞

Summary: Berly and LA discuss their podcast "Denim Wrapped Nightmares" and their love for the supernatural series. They interview actor Sean Owen Roberts, who shares his journey into acting, starting from a high school play to booking roles in series like "Supernatural" and "Painkiller Jane." Roberts talks about his character Chet in "Supernatural," describing him as a quirky villain with a big appetite. He also discusses the challenges and fun of filming, including special effects and working with the cast. Roberts hints at the final season of "Billy the Kid" being intense and action-packed. The hosts express gratitude for the interview and excitement for their upcoming season eight episodes.

Transcript

Berly: 0:01

Ellie, welcome to denim wrapped nightmares, Tipsy Exchange Podcast where we explore the supernatural series, episode by episode,

LA: 0:10

over drinks, we'll discuss the lore the gore and what we adore about the Winchesters and their adventures.

Berly: 0:17

I'm Burleigh, and I'm a new fan of the series. I'm

LA: 0:20

LA, and I'm here along for the ride. Now let's get Tipsy.

Berly: 0:26

Hello, LA, hey Burley, a certain someone was kind enough to pause their Twilight movie marathon. Oh, wow. I know you were busy, but I had a chit chat with Mr. Sean Owen Roberts

LA: 0:42

this, oh yes, who knew he liked Twilight? I didn't know he was doing a little

Berly: 0:46

marathon. So apparently it's a guilty pleasure. Okay, by the time he talked to me, he was going to have to be reporting back to set within like, 12 hours. Oh, okay, goodness, that's I cannot imagine my sleep schedule getting thrown off like that. If I get less than six hours, I like need three days to recover. So we have been patiently waiting for shine, and we've had to reschedule. There's been conflicts here, unexpected occurrences on set there, but we've been going back and forth, and I was really happy that we were able to make this happen. But before we present our my discussion with Sean, why don't you tell our listeners who is Mr. Sean Owen Roberts,

LA: 1:30

all right. Well, he is an actor. He is an actor born in Vancouver, British Columbia. He has garnered much attention for from series such as painkiller Jane, the killing supernatural, the Romeo section and frequency. His father and mother are both from East Vancouver. Sean was born and raised as a member of the Baha'i Faith. I apologize if I did not pronounce that right, but before becoming an actor, he studied at the University of British Columbia with a major in cultural anthropology, minoring in art history. Alrighty,

Berly: 2:07

here's my chit chat with Mr. Sean. Owen Roberts, how did you get into acting?

Sean Owen Roberts: 2:14

I mean, I was doing acting and stuff at school, like in high school for fun. When I was in grade 12, I was in a school play, and there was a talent scout there that signed into my first agent. But I still wasn't thinking that was going to be my job. And then so I went to school, I went to UBC, and then my last semester, I ended up booking a lead in this independent film, and then flunking out of that of that semester just because I wasn't there. So then I had, I was on academic probation, and I was trying to figure out what I was going to do for the next four months until I was able to go back to school. And then I ended up booking lead in this TV series, painkiller Jane, which we ended up filming for like, two years in, like, in Canada, and then in Hungary. When that ended, I was like, Okay, I guess, I guess this is my job. Now.

Berly: 3:01

I was on academic probation as well, but my my reasons are not nearly as cool.

Sean Owen Roberts: 3:07

No.

Berly: 3:09

So speaking of filming and acting, I normally save this type of stuff to the end, but I've watched season one and I'm hooked, so I would like to know, what can you tell us about Billy the Kid season three so far? Since you're filming right now, it's

Sean Owen Roberts: 3:25

a lot bloodier. It's a lot more violent. It's pretty hardcore. And I think, I think all of us are putting our, like, literally, our blood, sweat and tears, into this one, because it's, it's our last season. So, oh,

Berly: 3:35

okay, so this is the final one. So, like, the big, historic battle that's this in season three. Okay, okay,

Sean Owen Roberts: 3:41

yeah, so we're all kind of really, really pushing ourselves pretty hard on this one. It's

Berly: 3:45

a good story, though, so that's cool. Yeah, I knew you guys were building up to this battle, so I knew it was going to be limited in some aspects. It wasn't going to be like supernatural, where it could just keep going and going and going, No, is there anything else that you would like to promote or talk about before we take you back in time?

Sean Owen Roberts: 4:03

No, not really. I mean, we're just filming Billy the Kid, which is fun, and then we can go back in time wherever you want to take

Berly: 4:10

me for supernatural I did have some questions from our Patreon members that I wanted to ask you first, okay, how do you create a character for a thing that doesn't exist, and there isn't much historical screen presence for this creature from which you can draw inspiration.

Sean Owen Roberts: 4:28

I mean, I play a lot of like villains and bad guys. So for this guy, you know, he was a little bit quirky. He was obviously a little bit eccentric. I play him just like how I play like a gangster or like a really bad dude that just really enjoys his work.

Berly: 4:43

I don't think I've told you this before, but we call you nacho cheese chat the entirety refer

Unknown: 4:51

to me like that. Yeah.

Berly: 4:55

We definitely love the nacho cheese. And I sent my co host that meme you sent me where it was. Talking about the books and the nacho cheese was smut, and you'd be like, everything's better. That cracked me up. Got a good chuckle out of that. All right, another question for Patreon, is it more fun to play this creature where you kind of got to make it a little bit more quirky, not quite so human. Oh,

Sean Owen Roberts: 5:21

absolutely. Was a lot of fun. In the first episode,

Berly: 5:25

after you pour the nacho cheese, we got a close up of Leviathan face with the teeth and everything, yeah. And a special feature, they were using you quite a bit to talk about how they mapped out that face. Yeah. Were you involved in that process at all?

Sean Owen Roberts: 5:40

I mean, I wasn't involved when, you know, they, when they went, took it all back to, like, the computer labs or anything like that. But on the day, you know, we filmed it a few different ways. And then finally, they just, they had to put the little dots all over my face. And from that point, it was, my job was, was pretty much easy. That was all them. Now, did they have you on a green screen for all of that? No, that was that was all done right on the real set. So, oh,

Berly: 6:04

okay, not too difficult at all. No, there was another episode that you had a small little part in, but I got a kick out of the scene. I thought it was really cute. Which one the episode Shut up. Dr Phil, yeah, it's whenever you finally catch up to the Winchesters, right, that the witch comes in and you have to kind of fall over, but there was a bit of a tussle there that was you,

Sean Owen Roberts: 6:25

right. Yeah. Are you talking about like, when I when I grab Jared? Jared had a

Berly: 6:30

lucky who's significantly taller than you, and yet you still made it intimidating. Can you talk a little bit about that? I mean,

Sean Owen Roberts: 6:37

the guy's about eight foot two, and he's quite significantly, like, taller than I am. This is probably going to ruin, ruin the, like, the image for people, but basically, so he was on his knees when I grab him by the throat and I lift him up. He's just standing up normally, like on camera that that I was, like, lifting him up. Oh,

Berly: 6:58

how fun. I thought it was going to be so much more complicated than

Sean Owen Roberts: 7:03

that. That was the bare bones movie magic there. Very, very easy. It

Berly: 7:08

was effective. It was effective. I mean, chat was really intimidating there, and you kind of were going, Oh, thinking that the boys were kind of screwed there for a second.

Sean Owen Roberts: 7:17

I almost had him,

Berly: 7:20

if only he hadn't stood up, right? But I loved that scene. I loved the little peppering of Chet throughout these episodes. US kind of getting to know his personality a little bit, made it all the more better whenever we got to hear him more in Slash fiction. So that was the big one where they have you down in the basement. Yeah, you were chained up practically this entire episode. What was the process like, getting in and out of the torture chair between takes? It was actually,

Sean Owen Roberts: 7:54

like, pretty complex, because, like, I was legitimately, like, chained in there. It wasn't the most comfortable of shooting days, to be honest, because it was quite an ordeal for them to, you know, have to get me out of the chair sometimes, you know, in between setups, you have 1015, minutes, so I'd have to just stay there chained and then they'd have to bring me food, and they'd have to eat it in the in the chair, chained up. And what have you. So

Berly: 8:17

was somebody feeding you. Your hands are chained up

Sean Owen Roberts: 8:20

too. They would get me with like, one hand, and then I would have to, but it was like, sometimes it would be too, too much to get me completely out of the chair. So what's the most comfortable?

Berly: 8:30

So the chains. I mean, obviously those weren't, like, really iron, heavy chains. No, no, no, they were.

Sean Owen Roberts: 8:35

They were just plastic. But they had really, like, wrapped me around with the with these with these chains. It looked great, though. That was actually a really fun day down there in the in the basement. That was actually a lot of fun. I

Berly: 8:47

loved a lot of the inflections and the way that you chose to deliver all of the lines. It to me, gave the vibe that Chet was almost excited telling them that they were fucked because of the other stuff that was happening with the other leviathans. Like, he was almost giddy about it,

Sean Owen Roberts: 9:05

absolutely, yeah. I think in chet's mind, he was, like, enjoying the fact that, okay, they've got one over me. But in his mind, he's like, this is not going to last, like, and I'm going to and, I mean, I think I say that I am really going to enjoy eating you.

Berly: 9:18

You do? You call them meat sickles. Yeah, it was, it's, it's such a fun episode. But, you know, speaking of he thinks he's gonna get away with it. You get it decapitated at one point. I do, what was that like? Obviously, you didn't actually decapitate it. Do you recall how they created it?

Sean Owen Roberts: 9:44

I think I'm still your honor. I don't know, none of that was green screen. They, you know, they, obviously, they fake the thing. And then I, I filmed that. And then they, they went back and took all that footage and do my head. And then, like when I was on the ground, same thing with that. I was just. Like I was just lying on the ground as, like, you know, my whole body, and then I kind of rolled over, like, in post, they just took my body out. Yeah,

Berly: 10:07

we found out talking to a prosthetics guy, uh, recently he said that it's way too complicated to make molds of your of your heads and everything. And that's what I was convinced they were doing. And I was like, oh my god, it looks so real.

Sean Owen Roberts: 10:19

Well, I've done, I've done molds twice. Oh yeah, I did this TV series, brand new, cherry flavor. I can't remember which company did it, but so because, like, in that I get my, like, my neck gets bitten out this mold of my head was like, I was blown away because it looked exact, like it was down to, like, my little freckles and my individual hairs. Like, it was amazing, amazing, amazing, amazing. So

Berly: 10:45

you have gone through both processes. Which one did you prefer? Well, I mean,

Sean Owen Roberts: 10:49

the CG stuff is, like, pretty easy, because I don't have to do any, but obviously it's a little bit when you do the mold, you you're in there for a good like, 30 minutes or so, and it just, like, just air holes, like through your nostrils. So it's, it can be a little bit, uh, claustrophobic, but, but the end result is like, I'm just a wow. That is absolutely amazing. I'll send you a picture of the like later on, I'll send you a picture of of the mold of my head, because it is, it is amazing work.

Berly: 11:17

I'd love to see that. I'll have to look up that show also. Okay, so I'm going to ask you to ask you to use your imagination on this next question. Okay, after you get decapitated, we like hear noises, but by the time we see you again, your head is basically already back on your body. Yeah, and it's getting How did it get there?

Sean Owen Roberts: 11:38

I think it's worth more like, like mercury, you know, okay, you know, because there's a trail of blood and what have you. So I think it just kind of works like that, and just groups up together, and then sort of like that, just pulled back up and on. Some people think maybe, maybe it grew little legs, and it's like a little spider, and it and it found its way back up. So

Berly: 12:00

that was what I was saying. I was like, How did his head get back up there? Yeah,

Sean Owen Roberts: 12:03

to me, I think it's like, you know, it's like, Mercury is where it's like, it's attracted to one another. But that's just me. Well,

Berly: 12:10

I remember, I remember what you're talking about, the black blood, like, kind of pulling it back up as your head came back up straight. So that makes, what

Sean Owen Roberts: 12:21

does Jim say? He's like, he bleeds black goop, but he bleeds whatever he says.

Berly: 12:29

What was it like working with Jim Beaver? You guys got quite a bit of time together. He's

Sean Owen Roberts: 12:33

a, he's a really sweet guy. He's a really sweet, like, really nice, just genuine. I mean, every, to be honest, everybody on the show was, was nice. I mean, Jensen and Jared, they were all very warm and welcoming and loving. And so everybody was like, so because, like, Jensen directed my first episode, actually, he cast me, oh, that was, that was

Berly: 12:50

at the end of that episode, when we see you in the call center kind of thing. Well, the

Sean Owen Roberts: 12:54

whole, the whole cheese episode, that was Jensen. Jensen was directing that episode. So I met him at the audition, and I guess he likes something about me. So

Berly: 13:05

I know that you play like most of your villains aren't campy. Most of your villains are honestly just like intimidating and scary, but you did a campy villain. Well, yeah, like I said, he just seemed like he was having a blast the whole time, and I loved that about his character. So speaking of meeting Jensen and the guys and everybody, what is a favorite memory of yours from working on Supernatural, to be honest?

Sean Owen Roberts: 13:31

Like, my favorite memory is probably the actual audition. You know, because it was I was looking forward to doing the role, and then when I went to the audition, I saw that it was Jensen who was casting it, and, you know, direct it. So I just really went for it. And I just went for like, I kind of played him, like, just kind of like a Joe Pesci from kind of good fellas, almost a little bit. And I could see, from like, the peripheral Jensen, he was sitting on the couch, and I did the, I did the cheese scene in the audition. And I could just see Jensen, like, like, just really, like, excited. And I walked out going, I think I might have booked that one, you know. So

Berly: 14:09

I Joe, he from goodfell. I see it now, now that you've said that, yeah, I wouldn't have connected that. Dot myself. But now that you're saying it, I definitely see it. So there is there anything about your supernatural experience that we haven't asked and we should, or anything else from Supernatural that you just remember, that you'd like to share honestly.

Sean Owen Roberts: 14:28

I think I'm just always like, impressed and and kind of taken aback. How, how like the the Fandom of the show, like, how many people really love the show, and also like my character, Chet, how much, how many people loved this character, or maybe hated this character. I don't know one of the two.

Berly: 14:44

It's like, he's annoying, but you can't help but love him, yeah? Because, like, I said, He's just having a He's just having a good time. Yeah, I

Sean Owen Roberts: 14:51

was, and I'm always just, like, shocked, because, like, out of a lot of the stuff that I've done, like, this is the, this is the, like, one of the characters that I've gotten the most recognized from. It's so funny.

Berly: 15:01

So our last question, a lot of people are saying they're hoping there's going to be a supernatural survive, not survival revival or another season. It's going to get rebooted. Yeah. And my co host and I, we thoroughly enjoy a lot of the guest stars who come on Supernatural. Yeah. So we've kind of thought that it would be great if they did a spin off where it was self enclosed episodes that we got to revisit some of these characters, and maybe the Winchesters were involved, but maybe they aren't. Maybe we're getting a backstory or something. So if there was going to be a Chet episode, what would you want that story to be.

Sean Owen Roberts: 15:41

I mean, this is I'm just spitballing right now. I think it would be really funny to watch him at at the call center, but he has a very big appetite, and he just has to keep moving to to call center, to call center, because he just ends up eating everybody so and he doesn't really have, and he doesn't really have any other skill set other than working at a call center and just eats all the people from the different call centers so and then maybe, like, maybe until he gets his like, his directive is that he has to go hunt down the Winchesters. Up until then, he's just sort of just Biden his time, just going from call center to call center going, well, this is not the life I really want for myself. I think I could be a lot more, but

Berly: 16:26

that's why he was so having so much fun. He was just happy to be got out of that call center, right? I

Sean Owen Roberts: 16:33

wasn't set down here to Earth to just be a call center.

Berly: 16:38

I can't remember what he said, what the line was, and I didn't jot it down in my notes, but he had another campy line where he had a victim in his trunk, and he was on the phone and said something as he was shut in the trunk on this dead body in

Sean Owen Roberts: 16:50

there. Oh, yeah. I have no idea what did I say? I don't

Berly: 16:53

remember, but I remember getting a little kick out of it. Giggle in a little bit.

Sean Owen Roberts: 16:58

Yeah, he had some good lines. He did. He did,

Berly: 17:02

like I said, he was in multiple episodes, and he would just kind of have this great line and then be gone. And then we got more of them in Slash fiction. He was, he was a fun character, but really quick back to back to Billy the Kid. So I still, I still need to watch season two. Can you give me an idea on when I need to have that done by, in other words, when do you, do you have a timeline for season three yet?

Sean Owen Roberts: 17:27

Well, I mean, we should be finished season three filming by, I guess, July. And then it usually takes about a year for it to until it until it airs. So, so you have a little bit, you have a little bit of time, you have a little bit of time.

Berly: 17:42

Of time, okay, because I benched through I sat down to watch season one, and I ended up binging it, because it's good. And then I was like, oh, I need to, I need to slow down, because if I bench through everything, yeah, I'm not going to remember what happened by the Time Season Three came out.

Sean Owen Roberts: 17:56

Hands down, season three, I think, is going to be the best season. Absolutely, a lot of action packed, and the characters are really fleshed out. And like, even just, like, selfishly for me, like, my character is just, in particularly, just a bad, mean, scary person in this this season, like, I'm having a lot of fun with him. Okay,

Berly: 18:19

I saw in season one, he he's not like a warm, cuddly guy, that's for sure.

Sean Owen Roberts: 18:24

Yeah, I'm definitely. I'm just getting less and less warm and cuddly as the seasons go

Berly: 18:28

by. All right. All right. So I could go, I'm probably gonna have to re watch everything anyway, so I'm probably gonna go ahead and binge through season two. Then I have a year. Yeah, you got, you got a year, so you have some time. All right, wonderful. Well, thank you so much for fitting us in. Of course, no

Sean Owen Roberts: 18:45

thanks. Thanks for having me.

LA: 18:49

When he came onto the screen, he was giving me some Tom Hardy vibes a little bit with his big leather jacket and then the little hat. I was like, Wait a minute. What's happening here? It's like, it's little spring. Where is

Berly: 19:00

he? It snowed like he Right, yeah. Isn't that crazy?

LA: 19:05

When he was like, well, because, you know, we always talk about what Texas weather is crazy. So when he said he was wearing shorts yesterday, and then it's snowing today, I was like, Okay, well, he understands, right? But no, he was, he was very nice. I thought it was pretty interesting when you were talking about. I was surprised they didn't use the green screen for the things you were asking him about for special effects. That surprised, right?

Berly: 19:27

I totally thought that he was going to have all these stories of having to film it and then do it again and do it again on a green screen or something for motion caption and whatnot. But, yeah, you know, like he said, No, he didn't have to do any of that

LA: 19:41

we've learned so much about, like the behind the scenes for this show and the way they did things. But I just wonder if other shows and movies, they have to get that kind of creative and do it that way, instead of like the harder way that we kind of think they are doing it, taking care

Berly: 19:53

of it. You know, Agreed. Agreed. Definitely. Whenever we were talking with Sean, I just kind of started thinking because, or when I. Was talking with Sean, especially when he started talking about how he didn't have to get his head molded for the decapitation scene, right. And yet in I think it was painkiller Jane. I think that's the one he was talking about. I think so too. Yeah, that they did do this full mold of his head. And he sent me some pictures, so I'll share those. But he said they went through and like, did every single hair individually. I just kind of made me think about Benson, Benson's interview, whenever he was talking about how, you know, they'd get the script and they'd go through and try to figure out what they could do. Well, I think that the script was only done, like, didn't they say, like, 10, maybe 14 days in advance? I think so. Yeah. So Benson and his team, they didn't have time to go grab Sean, do a mold hand, do all that like they did what they had time to do. And so I wonder with painkiller Jane, I didn't ask him, but I do wonder it what the difference was, how much time did that special effects team get? Like, were they told before they even started filming that see that season. Hey, this is going to happen to Sean's character, so do what you got to do. We want to mold, you know, right? So now I have even more questions I

LA: 21:12

know. I'm like, Does, does that show just have a bigger budget for special effects? I want

Berly: 21:16

to go watch it. I've heard good things about it, and I think it's on my list, but it's just one of those shows that I was like, oh, and added and just forgot about and never went back to. I know I do that so much. I do too. I do that. I did that with Billy the Kid, until he was like, I'm film. I'm going to do season three. And I was like, Oh yeah, I wanted to see that.

LA: 21:33

It's so dumb too, because I have this huge list of stuff to watch, and then I'll be like, What should I want? Scroll through other things not on my list. It makes no sense.

Berly: 21:42

I do the same thing. I do the same thing. Well, I'm happy we were able to make this happen. Me too. I'm very grateful to Sean for giving me some time on his day off and pausing his Twilight movie marathon. I'm

LA: 21:56

bummed I couldn't make it, but I'm glad, I'm glad that y'all got it fitted and everything. And it was, it was cute. He was he was cute.

Berly: 22:02

We hope you guys enjoyed this discussion as much as we did. It was something that we had thought we weren't going to be able to make happen before our next season. But here you go. We are already recording those season eight episodes, so we're going to be getting those edited and in the can and ready to go with premiere in May. Haven't decided on the date just yet, because I haven't started editing anything yet, but follow our socials, and we will be announcing a premiere date soon. Until then, we have a quote to close it out from, you guessed it, Chet nacho cheese Leviathan, whenever he had been captured and was chained down in the basement, Sam and Dean came walking down and Chet said, How are my two favorite meat? Sickles. Cheers, cheers. Thank you for listening to denim wrapped nightmares. Follow

LA: 22:58

us on Twitter or Instagram, leave a review and let us know how we can get involved in the fandom. This

Berly: 23:05

was fun, jerk. It always is,

LA: 23:08

bitch. You.