Jensen Ackles Dishes On Working With Jessica Alba In 'Dark Angel'

“Supernatural” star JensenAckles is opening up about his role in Fox’s sci-fi “Dark Angel” series.

In 2000, Ackles appeared in the sci-fi series as Alec/X-5494, in which he starred with Jessica Alba, Michael Weatherly, Jennifer Blanc, and Valarie Rae Miller.

The series was a collaboration between James Cameron and Charles H. Eglee – marking Cameron’s first television debut. The show was a hit with fans and the show’s high-budget pilot was watched by 14.7 million households.

The show opened to positive reviews and even earned a People’s Choice Award for Favorite New TV drama. However, the show’s second season was viewed far less favorably. The time slot was moved to Friday, new plot elements were criticized, and Fox watched as the average number of viewers dropped from roughly ten million an episode to six million per episode. As a result, the show was canceled in 2002.

Now, twenty years after its cancelation, Jensen Ackles is opening up about what it was like to film with Jessica Alba on Tuesday’s episode of Michael Rosenbaum’s podcast, “Inside of You with Michael Rosenbaum.”

Ackles said that the “Fantastic Four” actress was “horrible” to work with.

“I was the new kid on the block, and I was picked on by the lead,” he added.

He said that the two developed an almost sibling-like relationship, saying that interactions between them was “the worst kind of bickering a brother and sister could do.”

“It wasn’t that she didn’t like me,” Ackles added. “She was just like, ‘Oh, here’s the pretty boy that network brought in for some more window dressing because that’s what we all need.’”

Ackles decided he wasn’t going to accept her attitude and decided to “fight fire with fire.”

Jensen Ackles said that while they were bickering, they eventually started to develop a “mutual respect” for one another.

“But we bickered,” he admitted. “We bickered like brother and sister.”

However, he says that he could understand why the “Sin City” actress was so hard on him. “She was under an immense amount of pressure on that show,” he explained. “She was young, she was in a relationship and that was … causing some undue stress, I believe.”

“I love Jess,” he added. “Which I know kind of contradicts what I just said.”

He even recalled that Alba was there to comfort him when he learned that his grandfather had passed away while they were filming the show.

“My grandfather died while I was shooting it and she literally just walked into my trailer and held me for half an hour,” he explained. “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.”

The 43-year-old actor from Dallas, Texas is probably best known for playing Dean Winchester in the CW series “Supernatural,” which ran from 2005 to 2020.

He first made an appearance in the NBC soap opera “Days of Our Lives,” where he played Eric Brady. The role earned him several Daytime Emmy Award nominations. He also played Jason Teague in CW’s “Smallville.”

Ackles has also gotten into voice acting, and has provided the voice of Jason Todd in the animated film “Batman: Under the Red Hood.” He has also provided the voice of Batman himself in “Batman: The Long Halloween.”

More recently, fans can’t wait to get a look at Ackles starring as Soldier Boy in season 3 of the superhero television series “The Boys,” which is helmed by “Supernatural” creator Eric Kripke. The series’ first episode debuted in July 2019 to rave reviews.

The cast also stars includes KarlUrban, JackQuaid, LazAlonso, Tomer Capon, and KarenFukuhara as the vigilantes. Members of the “Seven” superhero group include Antony Starr, ErinMoriarty, DominiqueMcElligott, Chace Crawford, Jessie T. Usher, and NathanMitchell.

Fans of Jensen Ackles can catch him as Soldier Boy in season 3 of “The Boys,” which premieres on Amazon Prime Video on June 3, 2022.