I want in on the love.
Misha acts like a douchebag, but it’s just that: an act. When he’s not in character as The Overlord, you can see his real personality come out, and he is just a sweet, sensitive guy with an off-beat sense of humor. He turns red if someone compliments him, he writes poetry about flowers, he married his high-school sweetheart, he bakes cookies, and he’s incredible open and giving to his fans.
In order to find pictures for this blog, I do a lot of research on Misha and read a lot of people’s personal accounts of meeting him. And I have never read anything from a fan saying, “Misha made me feel like I wasn’t important.” I read things like “We weren’t supposed to take pics but he was all ‘look the other way’ to his aid so I could take one” . Or “One of my friends had managed to pay for an ‘official’ photo with him, which he quickly signed despite the fact that he knew she was supposed to pay for that as well. He also quickly posed for a photo with another of my mates - which was also against the rules, as he knew damn well - because she couldn’t afford to pay for one.” I read about how sweet he was when he met an eight-year-old Castiel cosplayer, how he showered him with attention and made sure he got to ask him his question at panel. And then gave him a free autograph.
“I ended up telling Misha about my depression, and my attempted and close calls with suicide. I told him what a difference he had made, how he- and the other members of the Supernatural cast- inspired me and continues to inspire me to keep fighting back against the depression. He took my hand in both of his, stared me straight in the eye and simply told me how glad he was that I hadn’t gone through, and how loved I really was…and it’s funny. I’ve heard it from a thousand other people- close friends and family- and yet, hearing it from a near-stranger; someone that didn’t know me at all…it sort of all clicked in my head this evening.”
Even when he’s not at a convention, he’s still incredibly sweet, like when he randomly met a couple of fans at an airport. He could have brushed them off or been rude, probably without consequence. But he wasn’t; he didn’t just give them his autograph and took a picture with them, he was truly sweet and welcoming to them. That could have been a horribly negative experience, but Misha made it an incredible one for them. And he didn’t have to. He wasn’t getting paid to do it. He did it because he wanted to.
There is no reason to hate Misha. I’ve never heard anything that wasn’t completely bogus, and I’ve looked for dirt, for rumors, whatever. He’s a sweet guy; he’s intelligent, supportive, compassionate, creative, open-minded, weird, and he trolls like nobody else. And frankly, if you say you want him off Supernatural and out of the fandom because “he’s ugly” or “he’s so awkward,” I really want you out of the Supernatural fandom because you’re a bad person.
Not because you said that about Misha but because you’d say that about anyone.