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Twice Bitten |
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True Blood: Season 2 Special |
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Three of the stars from the sexy southern vampire TV series True Blood - ANNA PAQUIN, STEPHEN MOYER and MICHELLE FORBES - each open up to STACK this month about their roles in Season 2.
ANNA PAQUIN (Sookie Stackhouse)
How did you get involved with TRUE BLOOD? Had you been considering getting into television?
AP: I had been thinking that it would be really awesome to be a part of one of those really good HBO shows, and then this showed up. I thought, “There’s no way in hell I’m gonna get this, but I’ll give it my best.”
There’s nothing more exciting as an actor than getting to do something that you’re not entirely sure that anyone would let you do, and getting to take a big jump in a completely different direction.
The brightness of my character’s personality is so refreshing; it doesn’t mean she doesn’t deal with heavy issues, or doesn’t have hardship. It just means that she’s not dealing with it by introverting and becoming this dark, tortured person, which I’ve done a lot of.
Were you already a fan of Alan Ball’s work?
AP: His imagination is just astounding. If you look at Six Feet Under, it’s unlike anything anyone else has ever done. His stuff is so unique, and walks that fine line of dark and twisted, but really funny, smart and offbeat – but not so much that you can’t buy into the real emotional stories that are happening with the characters. There’s just no one else who does that. I have a very offbeat sense of humor and it’s so up my alley.
Once I got the job I did a Six Feet Under marathon week because I had the flu, and it was the best excuse ever just to lie in bed. I watched every single episode of the entire series and then started watching them with the commentary tracks, and I thought, “I cannot believe I get to work with this guy.” I was so in awe of how great it was and how well sustained it was and it just made me so excited to really sink my teeth into – no pun intended.
When he cast me, I was a pasty brunette from New Zealand and now I’m a southern blonde. You have to respect and love a director who will cast someone who isn’t necessarily the most obvious choice, and who can see the potential in their actors to actually create something.
How do you view your character, Sookie Stackhouse?
AP: This is a dream role for me. It’s so beautifully conceived by Alan Ball and the other writers. She’s fragile but very intuitive; she’s had a really hard life, but she’s still innocent. She believes in love, and believes that it’s actually possible, even in circumstances that seem completely impossible.
She’s brave, she doesn’t mind being the odd one out and she does what she wants and has her own opinions. She doesn’t really listen to anyone else who tries to tell her what she’s supposed to think. Life’s kicked her pretty hard, but she hasn’t become bitter and she hasn’t become a totally damaged person.
I think it’s an amazing quality to be able to roll with the punches and not be totally ruined as a person because life’s been rough for you. That’s a really admirable way to go through your life.
But Sookie’s not your ordinary girl next door. She’s telepathic. How does her power influence her as a person?
AP: She is telepathic, which is not actually a good thing – it’s been very isolating because unfortunately, she can hear absolutely everything that people are saying around her. She’s very careful about when and how she uses her power, because it’s also been a thing that makes her feel like she doesn’t fit in. But when she gets tired, or there’s just a lot going on, she can’t block it out as much.
Sookie encounters Bill Compton, her first vampire, in the first episode, and later begins a romance with him. How does this come about?
AP: Despite being a vampire, Bill has retained some amount of compassion for people. He hasn’t become an evil, monstrous figure, and we learn bits and pieces as to how and why that is. We don’t fully know that when we first meet him. It’s like any two people – they meet, they connect and despite the obstacles, they try to make it work.
Sookie’s the only one in town who isn’t terrified of vampires when they emerge, and when she meets Bill, she’s just intrigued by him. She falls for him and it’s the first relationship she’s ever been in – and for the first time ever she can just relax.
But it’s dangerous because he’s a vampire and there’s a lot of controversy surrounding that particular issue in their society. She instantly connects with him in a way that she’s never been able to with anyone else, and I think that’s what everyone’s looking for, to meet that person who makes you feel like you can just be yourself.
STEPHEN MOYER (Bill Compton)
So how you do go about playing someone who’s been undead for hundreds of years?
SM: Well, you try and find some 175 year-olds from the American Civil War to interview, obviously, and once you’ve exhausted that possibility you do research.
One of the wonders of the internet is that you can literally Google recordings made in 1920 of people from Shreveport, Louisiana, who survived the war. You get to hear how people spoke, you read about the war.
And I was very interested in the fact that Bill is quite a tortured soul. He loses his children and his wife. He’s made a vampire reluctantly and therefore he’s at war with what he thinks vampires are supposed to be. It makes him slightly different to Eric [Eric Northman, played by Alexander Skarsgard] who revels in being a vampire. And when he first turns up he meets this girl who he’s trying to impress.
So, look, this is an Alan Ball script. There’s so much in there that’s already constructed in your character that you could explore and explore. It’s a joy.
Were you worried about becoming the new Angel from Buffy?
SM: When my manager rang and said there’s this amazing script, everyone wants it, and it’s about vampires – I said, you’ve lost me at vampires. I just wasn’t interested. Then she said its Alan Ball so I had to read it and then I was amazed by it.
Like any other well-written supernatural show, True Blood is not about vampires. It’s about human relationships and how people interact. How, when obstacles are put in their way, what they do to overcome those obstacles. That’s great drama.
What’s it like working with your real life fiancée?
SM: Well, Anna and I met each other at the audition. It was me and Anna sitting next to each other on a sofa in Alan Ball’s office. She’d come off doing five years on Broadway and we were throwing things at each other going – how about if we did this or that? What if I did this? You could do that… It was like, oh my God, if I get this job there’s somebody I could fire against.
It doesn’t hurt that you kind of fancy that person as well. Then that really grew to the point where it was – oh my God, I’m working with you 18 hours a day and I want to see you even more. That’s a good sign I think.
The show also seems to have a political subtext – the outsider in the Deep South, the questions of sexual identity?
SM: I think it does if you’re bright enough to see it. But you can equally watch our show and it can be a frothy camp romp. If you want to look beneath that there’s a lot going on.
There’s a newspaper headline in it ‘Angelina adopts vampire baby’. It’s a funny line but a comment on celebrity. So there’s two ways of looking at it. The religious right is attacked and we’re going to lose some viewers because of that. But do we want to comment on the power that the religious right has over American society? Yeah, please…
So it’s brilliant that these things are in there, but it’s like any good drama or any great script – it’s good for everybody. And I think that’s why our demographic is 18-80. 30 percent of the people who watch True Blood are over 55. It’s amazing – and it’s a sexy show. But people love it.
Talking of sexy, most of you spend quite a lot of time with very few clothes on…
SM: Yes, sometimes I get into my trailer and I open the wardrobe and go… no costume? Oh, no, this little thing… But sex is part of our lives and our culture.
In Sweden the spas are – men and women go into the same room together. If you go to one in England they’re separated. For goodness sake, it’s 2010. Why can’t we see people making love in a romantic way like Sookie and Bill do... and then there’s lust… why are we even talking about it? We all do it. And yet Jack Bauer can kill 200 people at 7 o’clock and no one raises an eyebrow.
But do the nude scenes mean you have to work out?
SM: Listen, you’ve seen Ryan Kwanten who plays Sookie’s brother [Jason]. He’s the fittest, most ridiculous ripped guy I’ve ever met. Which is just a nightmare for us because when I’m watching the DVDs, do I want to see my love handles? I’m never going to look like Ryan. I just don’t have enough time in the day but, yes, I have to do a little bit of work. We all do. It’s part of the job.
MICHELLE FORBES (Maryann Forrester)
Set the scene for your character, Maryann...
MF: When we meet Maryann in the first season we’re not quite sure what she’s up to. She’s this odd benefactor, and she’s got some odd fascination with Tara – it seems altruistic at times but then you have to question what it is. We also know that there’s some relationship with Sam but we don’t quite know what it is. Season two starts off with a bang for everyone – but Maryann’s agenda and her intentions and her quest are revealed over the course of time.
Did they tell you where it was all going when they gave you the part?
MF: No! I had no idea where it was going. Not a clue. But when Alan [Ball] and I first met we had a few quick conceptual conversations about it. We discussed what a Maenad is, had a brief discussion about Greek mythology and what have you. But it didn’t always line up to what was on the back of the page. You have that knowledge in the back of your head but then you open it up and you’re dancing to the B52s! People don’t even know what a Maenad is. I certainly didn’t.
What is a Maenad then?
MF: A Maenad is a female follower of the Greek God Dionysus. And they can get pretty wild. It was an enormous amount of fun to run around in evening dresses and bare feet and dance in the woods… and there are quite a few orgies involved.
Sounds like Maryann throws all the best parties.
MF: She’s quite the hostess. I like to think that Maryann was there during all of those transgressive periods in time. That she was texting Caligula: what are you doing this evening? And that she had something to do with Woodstock as well – working everyone in to a frenzy.
Would you say Maryann is evil?
MF: I suppose you could say that. I could never see or play her as that because you can’t approach any character like that. And hand over heart, I really didn’t get how evil she was until probably the last week of shooting.
There was one scene of shooting that actually kind of turned my stomach. It was a scene where Eggs and I pull out a heart from Miss Janette. It’s in a flashback. It was really stomach churning. And then hearts and cookery – yuck! And I’m not going to say anymore or I’ll spoil it.
What have been your Maryann highlights in Season 2?
MF: God, there are so many. I have a scene where I come in after a night of ravaging in the woods and I just have a casual conversation with a dead rabbit over my lap. I love that scene so much. And I love the frolicking in the woods and dancing. I had no idea how bonkers it was going to get towards the end of the series. I can’t imagine I’ll ever play another character like her again! It’s insanely unique.
Discover True Blood: Season 2 on DVD and Blu-ray at JB Hi-Fi » |
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