On the ‘Countdown’ set with Jensen Ackles and the cast

They’re running out of time. The room is silent except for the sound of a few panicked whispers and the gradual beep of the timer. Somewhere, a pen clicks. A foot nervously taps. The whispers grow louder as the beeping becomes more frequent until finally, the alarm sounds. Time’s up. And that can only mean one thing: The stars of Countdown have to reveal their Scattergories answers.

On the set of the new Prime Video series back in March, the juxtaposition is jarring. On screen, Eric Dane‘s Nathan Blythe — the special agent in charge of a very important government task force — is stern, spewing classic cop show phrases at his team: “I just heard from computer forensics.” “I want everything within the hour.” “This is our guy.” But off screen, about 20 feet away from the office set where the task force is hard at work trying to track down the latest bad guy, Dane sits with his castmates as they compete in another round of the board game.

“Jensen and I have both had experiences on The Boys, and they play backgammon,” Countdown‘s Elliot Knight tells Entertainment Weekly of his costar Jensen Ackles. “When I was on set, that was how they welcomed me, so we recognized how useful that was in having a communal space where we can all be welcome and exist. And it was nice to create our own version of that.”

If only their characters’ problems could be solved with the right word. Unfortunately, they’re not only dealing with life and death — they’re dealing with life and the death of… everyone in Los Angeles?

In Countdown‘s first five episodes (the series premiered June 25), it’s established that Blythe’s task force — consisting of Homeland Security agent Damon Drew (Jonathan Togo), FBI agents Keyonte Bell (Knight) and Evan Shepherd (Violett Beane), DEA agent Amber Oliveras (Jessica Camacho), and LAPD detectives Luke Finau (Uli) and Mark Meachum (Ackles) — isn’t simply trying to find a bad guy. They’re trying to stop the next Chernobyl.

After all, this isn’t your standard cop show about a local police department (though creator Derek Haas, who launched Chicago Fire and Chicago P.D., knows that terrain well). By definition, task forces are only formed when there’s a bigger-than-usual problem to deal with. As Blythe says in the premiere, this is a “law enforcement all-star team.” And their problem is a Belarusian named Boris Volchek (Bogdan Yasinski), who has a penchant for explosions and revenge.

“You want the stakes to be big,” Haas says. “I’d done a lot of reading about what kind of things task forces are put together to thwart, so I thought: What’s bigger than a whole city being in jeopardy?”

And with those stakes comes the chance to keep viewers on the edge of their seats. Already, the series has delivered a number of twists, from opening with a surprise cameo from Milo Ventimiglia — whose character’s death kicked off the entire investigation — to losing team member Drew after three episodes, to Ackles’ carefree maverick Mark Meachum having a secret brain tumor.

“I wanted him to be a smartass, and inherently people don’t like smartasses if they’re over the top,” Haas says of Meachum. “So right from that first episode, I wanted that turn of like, ‘Oh, that’s why he’s doing the things that he’s doing.'”

Ackles, who accepted the role after seeing only a few scripts and an outline as part of his overall deal with Amazon, has known about the possible death sentence from the beginning. “It gives a real reason for him being cavalier,” he says. “It gave a little depth to the character. It’s not just him being like, ‘I’m the cool guy.’ There’s a reason. I even said it in the trailer: ‘If I’m going out, I’m going to go out saving something.'”

Ackles smiles and adds, “Which clearly felt like a nod to something prior.” 

That something prior, as Ackles fans know well, is Dean Winchester, the protective older brother and fearless monster hunter the actor played across 15 seasons of Supernatural. It’s a role Ackles still happily talks about, and one he considers his “master’s degree” in this business, which raises a question: Where did he get his bachelor’s?

Sign up for Entertainment Weekly‘s free daily newsletter to get breaking TV news, exclusive first looks, recaps, reviews, interviews with your favorite stars, and more.

The native Texan moved to L.A. at 18, as so many do, where he landed the NBC sitcom Mr. Rhodes. “I was thrust into that world of call sheets and learning lines and dealing with crazy egos and personalities of the industry,” Ackles says, admitting to feeling “really homesick” at the time.

“All my friends were having the time of their lives in college, and that was where I questioned, ‘Is this what I want to do?'” he says of life after Mr. Rhodes was canceled in 1997, after just one season. “I kind of hung it all on the audition process for Days of Our Lives,” he continues. “I was like, ‘If I get this, that’s a three-year contract, I guess that’s the universe telling me that this is something I need to focus on.'”

Not only did he get that contract, but as someone who didn’t go to film school and has no formal acting training, he approached his time on the soap as a chance to learn. “I had some good advice from my dad,” he says. “He was like, ‘Listen, you want to be a mechanic? You just got a job inside one of the best garages you can possibly get a job inside. Pay attention, be a sponge.'” 

In 2000, after roughly three years of playing Eric Brady on Days, Ackles took his degree and tried some new things with projects like Dark Angel, Dawson’s Creek, and Smallville. And then, in 2005, a certain Impala rolled into his life and everything changed. “It was just work, work, work, and try to outmaneuver at auditions guys like Josh Jackson and Chris Evans and all those dudes I came up with,” he says. “It was a fight for every role. And then of course, it all solidified with Supernatural when I was like, ‘This is where I get the master’s degree.'”

After 327 episodes, it’s probably fair to say he also got his doctorate. Either way, coming out of Supernatural, Ackles was 42 years old and very aware of the kind of actor he wanted to be. “I’ve spent my 10,000 hours on set playing a certain type of character. I’ve honed those skills and sharpened those tools,” he says. “So there’s certainly a wheelhouse I feel like I have. I can either play to that or I can go outside the box and play something that scares the s‑‑‑ out of me, which is also interesting and something that I wouldn’t necessarily shy away from. But the opportunity to play somebody like Mark Meachum or somebody like Russell Shaw or somebody like Soldier Boy… I feel I’ve got the skill set that I can utilize to deliver, and that gives me confidence in my performance.”

Ackles is referencing a few of his more recent post-Supernatural roles, from America’s first superhero, Soldier Boy, on The Boys to Colter Shaw’s flippant older brother on Tracker. And then there’s Meachum, the unpredictable cop who doesn’t much care for the rules. 

Ackles, however, doesn’t mind rules. And when he once again found himself leading a series with Countdown, he shared a few of his favorites with his fellow cast members. “Jensen gave a speech at the very start that was like, ‘I have four rules,’ and that really set the tone,” Beane, whose Evan Shepherd is the task force’s tech genius, recalls. “I mean, there’s a reason that Supernatural went on for, what, 18 years? He is a great leader, and I don’t think we could have asked for anybody better.”

His rules? Show up on time. Know your words. Respect everybody. And have fun. 

“When I was starting out, the egos were rampant on set and people were just not friendly unless they felt like they needed to be. And I just remember early on going, ‘I don’t like that. I don’t want to be like that. That doesn’t seem fun,'” Ackles says. “And so I feel like the more opportunities I get to help create a fun environment and an enjoyable creative workplace, then sign me up.”

There’s one more thing he asks of his cast: “Hang up your wardrobe at the end of the day,” Ackles says with a laugh. “That’s my four-plus. But that kind of falls into respecting everybody, because if you respect the people you work with, then you do things that show respect, and that is a form of showing respect.”

Camacho, whose no-nonsense Amber Oliveras finds herself partnered with Meachum at just about every turn, adds, “Jensen is this beautiful combination of self-deprecating humor and tenacity, drive, passion for what he does, but also immense gratitude for what he has and the people that he gets to create these stories with. More than anything else, that gratitude leads the charge, and that really is palpable from everyone.”

He’s the kind of actor who shows up to his EW cover shoot already looking like a movie star, in his suede jacket and designer sunglasses — and who, a few hours later, will help push the 1975 Bronco he’s supposed to be driving into the shade when it dies in the middle of the L.A. River.

It’s a scorching hot June day in Los Angeles when Ackles and Camacho gather to take some photos in the middle of the rather pungent river, only a few hours before they’ll celebrate the premiere of their new show. Jokes are flying as the two get into character as the will-they-won’t-they couple that’s constantly butting heads on the series. “We’re stranded?” Camacho asks after the car breaks down. “Well, you got behind the wheel,” Ackles responds.

It’s a dynamic they’ve perfected over 13 episodes of working together, and one that started on a Zoom chemistry read. “It’s been a minute,” Ackles says of the last time he did a chemistry read prior to this project. “I was sitting in my basement on Zoom almost a year ago and read with a few different choices, and Jessica was just a standout. It was immediate.”

Camacho remembers it similarly. “Chemistry can’t be forced,” she says. “Either you have a good rapport with someone or not. I got on that Zoom call with Jensen and, I’m not exaggerating, within 10 seconds of him being on the other end and dropping a dad joke and just being so real and authentic, I was like, ‘Oh, this is really special.'”

Oliveras and Meachum aren’t the only will-they-won’t-they on the show. (Haas jokes that his favorite shape is the triangle.) But romance will certainly take a backseat to, you know, saving the day as Countdown continues its run, with new episodes dropping every Wednesday through Sept. 3. 

“That’s why I like to write ensembles,” Haas says of the many different dynamics at play on screen. “You’ve got to have six or seven characters that the audience wants to go home with. And I think then it makes the investigation more interesting. There’s always one more thing going on.”

And Task Force Hurricane already has plenty going on. When episode 6 premieres July 16, they’re still reeling from losing one of their own, Meachum’s headaches are only getting worse, and they’re not exactly getting close to catching Volchek. “Derek really knows how to write a cliffhanger,” Uli Latukefu — who plays Finau, the team’s lovable family man — says of what’s to come. “He really is in tune with the audience, and I feel like even as an actor reading [the scripts], I was on the edge of my seat.”

Back on the set, sitting around in a circle of director’s chairs, Latukefu is once again on the edge of his seat. Though this time, it’s not about a nuclear event — it’s about those Scattergories answers. He’s waiting to find out who will win. But just before the cast members can reveal their responses, another alarm sounds. Don’t worry, it’s just the production assistant letting them know they’re needed on set. It’s time to save a fictional Los Angeles.

As for the Scattergories winner, perhaps that’s a case for another day.

—————-

Directed by Alison Wild + Kristen Harding

Photography by Beau Grealy

Motion – DP: Maddie Leach; Steadicam Op: Luke Rihl; 1st AC: Kyle Summers; Gaffer: Bailey Clark; Best Electric: Noah Shettel; Key Grip: David Gonzales; Best Grip: Corey Milikin

Photo – 1st Assistant: Richard Luong; DigiTech: Porter Count

Production – Styling: Caroline DeJean/The Wall Group; Styling Assistant: Isabel Stern; Producer: Anesia Potter/HSTL; PA: Jake Beal; Driver: Michael Adams

Post-Production – Color Correction: Taylor Pool/TRAFIK; VFX: Luke Fritz; Design: Alice Morgan; Score: Tony Morales

Jensen Ackles – Grooming: Elle Favorule/Independent Artists Group; (Cover) Shirt: Isaia; Jeans: Citizens of Humanity; Boots: YSL; (Header) Shirt: Vintage, Denim Revival; Jeans: Citizens of Humanity; Boots: YSL

Jessica Camacho – Hair: Arleen Chavez/Rogue Artists; Makeup: Elle Favorule/Independent Artists Group; Top: Vintage, Frenchie’s House of Vintage; Jeans: Vintage, Denim Revival; Boots: Duo Boots; Earrings: Vintage, Lilou