Jensen Ackles Explains Why Jessica Alba Was ‘Horrible’ to Work With

While he is best known for his work in 15 seasons of Supernatural, Jensen Ackles got his start on a show called Dark Angel, which starred Jessica Alba. The action drama ran for two seasons on FOX from 2000 until 2002 and launched Alba’s career, and in a recent episode of the podcast Inside of You with Michael Rosenbaum, Ackles implied that it may have given her a big head too. “I was the new kid on the block, and I was picked on by the lead,” Ackles told Rosenbaum, likening their “horrible” fights to “the worst kind of bickering a brother and sister could do.”

Ackles explained that Alba didn’t necessarily agree with the addition of his character in season 2. “It wasn’t that she didn’t like me,” Ackles said. “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.’”

Ackles learned to roll with the punches and “fight fire with fire,” revealing that they eventually reached a place of “mutual respect” after the long hours on set. “But we bickered. We bickered like brother and sister,” Ackles said. However, he emphasized that despite their differences, in the beginning, he had nothing but love and respect for Alba now.

“I love Jess, which I know kind of contradicts what I just said,” Ackles elaborated. “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.” While filming Dark Angel, Alba met and got engaged to actor Michael Weatherly. She was 19 and he was 32. They would eventually split in 2003.

Ackles also opened up about how kind Alba was to him after the death of his grandfather while they were filming Dark Angel. “My grandfather died while I was shooting it and she literally just walked into my trailer and held me for half an hour,” Ackles admitted. “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.” While they may have had some bumps along the way, It seems like the hard-headed twosome worked things out in the long run.