The True Blood fandom has been very good to Joe Manganiello.
Speaking with Hollywood Crush, Joe recalled that a friend once showed him a website where fans were offering their own casting choices for several yet-to-be-cast “True Blood” characters, including Alcide. To Joe’s surprise, his name was at the top of the list.
“As fans were posting pictures of who they’d hope would be cast as Alcide, some of them were posting pictures of me,” he told Hollywood Crush exclusively. “That’s how I found out about the books. I made sure to order the books, read them, and it looked like Alcide was described as pretty similar to me physically. I made sure I watched every episode, started bugging my agents and managers about it and that’s how I wound up getting the part.”
“I had a good idea about [Alcide and Sookie's romantic potential] from reading the books — they get into it a little bit,” Manganiello continues. “You want the fans to accept your character, and I’ve been overwhelmed by the amount of fan attention on my character. It’s been amazing, right from the get go. I think some of the other characters maybe have to get in there and work a little bit harder for it, but I’ve been so fortunate. It seems like there’s been built-in fan support for my character.”
In fact, support for Alcide isn’t relegated to fans gushing about the character online and at conventions — some fans are making their allegiances known through fashion products!
“There are all these websites online that are selling Team Alcide t-shirts and sweatshirts. They even have booty shorts for girls,” laughed Joe. “It’s amazing! I told my manager that we’re going to have a party for Alcide’s first episode, and I told my manager that nobody’s allowed to come unless they’re wearing Alcide booty shorts!”

And where can you buy this Team Alcide merchandise? Right here in our Billsbabe’s Shoppe.
The Billsbabe’s Shoppe is a non-profit – at cost fansite store. With every item purchased a small charitable donation will be made to the Brentwood Theatre in Essex, UK, of which Stephen Moyer is patron.
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