Farewell to ‘Supernatural’ Day 12: Rick Springfield’s ‘SPN’ Moment
Hey there, SPN fans! Join us in our 15-day countdown to the series finale of Supernatural, featuring a look back with the cast (and guest stars!) at 15 seasons of demon-hunting and apocalypse-preventing, as well as exclusive content, sneak peeks, and more.
One of Supernatural‘s biggest adversaries over the course of the series was none other than The Devil himself. Lucifer was portrayed by a number of actors throughout the run of The CW fantasy drama, though he was most commonly and memorably played by Mark Pellegrino, who served as the fallen angel from his Season 4 introduction all the way into the final season.
Of the other actors who took a sinful spin as the archangel, though, there is one standout, and that would be ’80s rock ‘n’ roller Rick Springfield. When Lucifer possessed the vessel of the fictional, aging rocker Vince Vincente (Springfield) during a three-episode arc in Season 12, suddenly Satan had some extra swagger. Demon-hunting brothers Sam and Dean Winchester (Jared Padalecki and Jensen Ackles) each reacted differently to this transformation in their foe — Sam was a Vince fan, but Dean definitely was not. Alas, Springfield’s time on the show didn’t continue but was pretty fun while it lasted. (Fans even got one sweet final flashback in Season 15!)
When Springfield first got the call to play Lucifer, he was immediately intrigued by the prospect. “My manager said it was type-casting… he bastard,” Springfield says jokingly. “What actor doesn’t want to play a god at some point in his or her career?”
Pellegrino, on the other hand, was initially horrified to discover his longtime role would be going to the rocker. “There was an article that suggested the part of Lucifer had been recast, so of course I was very thrown,” Pellegrino says. “Fortunately, it only lasted about 48 hours because I just so happened be going in to audition for the Fox series The Exorcist and [I was pulled into] the office privately and shown emails from [showrunner] Andrew Dabb outlining the whole story. I cried when I found out that I actually was coming back, it was such a relief.”
But for at least a few episodes, viewers enjoyed Springfield as the Morning Star. The Aussie rocker’s favorite moment of his time, however, was playing Lucifer’s demise. “I’d chosen to play Lucifer as the abandoned child — abandoned by his father — because you don’t play bad guys as bad guys,” Springfield says. “And when I came to read the last scene it was exactly as I thought of him. He was an angry, disappointed, broken child but with the power to take some form of revenge on his abusive father. The writing in that scene was really excellent.”
Pictured (L-R): Woody Jeffreys as Tommy and Rick Springfield as Vince Vincente — Photo: Katie Yu/The CW — © 2016 The CW Network, LLC. All Rights Reserved
It wasn’t all serious, though. The cast and crew even played a prank on the rocker. “I wrote a ‘Devil’ song that was to be played briefly at a dramatic moment in a scene and someone switched it with ‘Jessie’s Girl’ in rehearsal,” Springfield recalls. “We all had a good laugh.” He adds: “And then I told them if they did it again I’d take them all straight to Hell!”
Sounds like there was no sympathy for the devil! Stay tuned for more Supernatural fun as TV Insider counts down to the November 19 series finale.
Supernatural, Thursdays, 8/7c, The CW
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