It’s incredibly rare for those who become famous in the entertainment industry to land their first paying gig and be able to point to that as the beginning of highly-employable stardom. In short, everyone has to start somewhere, so even notable talents like Supernatural and The Boys actor Jensen Ackles had his own slow start by dipping his teen toes into the waters of fame. This came courtesy of modeling, and you should see his hilarious faces as those pics were revealed on The Tonight Show!
What Happened When Jensen Ackles’ Old Modeling Pics Were Shown On The Tonight Show?
I’m sure there are lots of actors and others with famed talent who did some things to make money and get started in their careers who wish that certain potentially embarrassing early projects would just disappear. But, in an age where anything can be put online and live forever, that’s just not going to happen in many cases.
Jensen Ackles (who just finished filming a bit of a Supernatural reunion with Jared Padalecki and Misha Collins for The Boys’ upcoming fifth and final season) found that out the hard way recently. He paid a visit to The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon to promote his new series, Countdown, on the 2025 TV schedule (which can be streamed with an Amazon Prime subscription) and was shocked to find that the host had done some digging into his pre-pre-pre-Dean Winchester days as a ‘90s teen model. At first, Ackles was confused by hearing that he’d had a “modeling career” (as seen in the photo atop this article), but then he was hit with the reality of his time working for the JC Penney catalog:
Wow. Does he look ashamed or what? I have to say, this isn’t as bad as it was going to get during this segment, so he could have saved this hang-dog look for later. As it is, being seen smiling and rocking out to some ‘90s tunes (for some reason, I imagine he’s listening to Vanilla Ice) at around 13 to 14 years old isn’t that bad. At least he made some money, right? Well, the humiliation continued:
Oh, boy. To me, this is the pinnacle of embarrassment. Listen, there are no fashion eras that pass without the youth who had to suffer through those eras growing up and knowing that they’d be horrified by some of the sartorial choices that were either made for them or that they made themselves. Here, of course, the former Days of Our Lives actor was wearing clothes as work, but still…it’s not great. What’s that you say? You need a closer look? I shall humbly oblige…
He appears to be biting down on a popsicle here, which I don’t think any real people actually do. Although, young Mr. Ackles does seem rather dead-eyed and befuddled in this photo, so who knows what was going on. I do now wonder if this is just how he actually ingests popsicles, but I guess that’s a topic for a different article. At any rate, this is a dude that Dean (whose adventures you can revisit with a Netflix subscription) would 1000% make fun of, regardless of age. There’s just one more photo, and it is truly one of the times. Observe:
OK, I know this is the picture that appears to be the least mortifying, but with the star over his initial feelings of embarrassment, he’s fully playing along. Apparently, he believes that this pose was purposely modeled after one Mr. Joey Tribbiani from Friends, because he thinks it’s his “How you doin’?” look. There may be nothing more purely ‘90s than that.
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