What went wrong between Jensen Ackles and Jessica Alba? Actor calls co-star 'horrible'
Over two decades since co-starring with Jessica Alba in 'Dark Angels', actor Jensen Ackles has opened up about the experience, dropping some truly surprising gossip. Fans of the show might be surprised to learn that Ackles and Alba never really got on, despite playing brother and sister in the James Cameron show. "I was the new kid on the block, and I was picked on by the lead," Ackles revealed in a podcast in January 2022, with details that are sure to surprise you.
Of course these days, Ackles has put 'Dark Angels' well behind him. For the past 15 years, he has been a mainstay in the WB horror series 'Supernatural', which sadly ended in 2020. He had to bid farewell to his close friends Misha Collins and Jared Padalecki, but it was far from the end of their friendship. In October 2021, Ackles wife Daneel get the net talking about a subtle promotion for Collins' book 'Some Things I Still Can't Tell You', featuring none other than Ackles himself.
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The success of 'Supernatural' put Ackles' career on quite a high. He was cast to appear in the Amazon TV show 'The Boys', and even in the now-canned Alec Baldwin starring 'Rust'. But, when he appeared on the podcast 'Inside of You with Michael Rosenbaum', Ackles decided to take a trip down memory lane, and reopen some old wounds.
What went wrong between Ackles and Alba?
As Ackles tells it, it appears Alba was irked by his presence in the short-running series that only spanned two seasons. "It wasn’t that she didn’t like me. She just was like, 'Oh, here’s the pretty boy that network brought in for some more window dressing because that’s what we all need'," he told Rosenbaum. Still relatively new to the industry, Ackles says his relationship with Alba was more "professional than personal" back then.
Nonetheless, he still felt "bullied" and left confused by Alba's "frosty reception" to his presence, comparing it to "the worst kind of bickering a brother and sister could do." He asked himself "What the f--k? What did I do?", before deciding he had enough. Ackles told Rosenbaum that he then decided to fight "fire with fire", and returned the hostility till the two got to a place of "mutual respect" for each other. "I was just like, 'Oh, looks like we're getting b---h Alba today'," he said about their standoffs.
Unlike Ackles, Alba was not a newcomer. She'd been working in Hollywood since 1994, appearing in five movies and several shows before 'Dark Angels' aired in 2001. In contrast, Ackles only had a few minor TV appearances apart from being a regular on 'Days of Our Lives' and no film experience. So clearly Alba had a lot more experience, but according to Ackles that wasn't the major issue.
"She was under an immense amount of pressure on that show. She was young, she was in a relationship and that was … causing some undue stress, I believe," he said, adding that he no longer has any hard feelings for her today. He also noted that it wasn't always a fight and that they shared some good moments too. "My grandfather died while I was shooting it and she literally just walked into my trailer and held me for half an hour. So it was that kind of a relationship. If she walked in, we’d be all hugs, but she didn’t make it easy on me."
It's unclear if Ackles and Alba are still in touch today, but at least it appears they've moved on from the fraught relationship of 'Dark Angels'. Alba has never really spoken about her time on set, but did famously tell Marie Claire in 2012, "I felt like I was being objectified, and it made me uncomfortable," about the show. The actress said "I was supposed to be sexy, this tough action girl... I wanted to be chic and elegant!"