The Vault – TrueBlood-Online.com

In the last part of my exclusive interview with Kristin Bauer van Straten I asked her questions that were sent in by fans.

You can read part 1 and part 2 of the interview at the links.

 

Alessandro asks:
Was your single eyebrow lift inspired by Spock from Star Trek?

“[laughs out loud] That is awesome because I love Spock from Star Trek and it probably was a subconscious ode to him. I am a total Trekkie. Years ago I was on a show and another actress on the show could raise her eyebrow and I’d always wanted to be able to do that and she told me to practice in front of the mirror. And I did, it took me a year to be able to do it, in the beginning both eyebrows would go up. I’d been looking for a character and a place to use it, refusing Botox because I knew that one day I would be actually able to use the eyebrow lift. Pam was finally the perfect character for it.”

 

 

 

 

Stefano asks:
You had some amazing outfits again this season. Do you ever wear Pam’s fetish like outfits also at home?

“Sadly for Abri: No. If he wants to see me looking like that he has to watch the show.  After a long day in a corset and heels and leather and rubber I am pretty happy after 12 hours to get back into my sweats and sneakers or flip-flops in the summer. It’s the perfect combination: I love playing dress-up, but I also love wearing no make-up and being comfy.”

 

Monica asks:
The power of social media is simply amazing to me, and Kristin seems to have truly embraced it.  Was it a conscious decision to embrace her celebrity and be so open with her fans? Has she ever regretted sharing so much about her personal life?

“It was and it happened in two steps. First I was nervous about it and that is one reason why my fan page is called The van Stratens because I wanted to be a little bit anonymous and try it out. After I realized, how much love and support and fun it is for people and how much people are enjoying the show I fully embraced it and have made a real conscious choice not to hire people to do it for me, but to do it myself. Because I am sharing my passion directly with people, there is no buffer. I want to hear what people are saying and thinking and be connected with them myself.”

 

Has she ever regretted sharing so much about her personal life?

“I haven’t yet. But I think Abri has had more of an adjustment than I had, because he is not from Hollywood, so he’ll say: “You tweeted that?” He is much more private about what we are having for dinner or when we go to a movie, He’s got an English, Swedish, Dutch background and there is no Hollywood in South Africa, it’s all more private. I took a photo of him with Christmas wearing this funny panda hat and I asked him if I could tweet that and he said “sure”. He came running into the room the next day and showed me that picture on a Facebook page and he couldn’t figure out how it got there and he was in shock. I said: “Well I asked you…”, I think from that moment forward he is much more careful with me and skeptical of his little wife.”

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In the first part of my interview with Kristin Bauer van Straten I spoke with her about Africa and the documentary she is working on that focusses on the poaching of elephants and rhinos and how the local African people are trying to put a stop to the killing. You can read part 1 here.

During the time I Skyped with Kristin we also spoke about the position of women in Hollywood and getting older in Tinsel Town, her chemistry with Rutina Wesley and going nude on camera.

 

What is the Hollywood climate like when it comes to strong female characters?

“It seems to me that it’s improving. It’s hard for me to know what is actually going on out there since I’ve been employed for the past five years. From my perspective playing this incredible tough, strong, smart and kickass woman I feel that yes it is improving. But there is still a lot of talk from women who know more than I that it could be better. Of course I am a doer, so then I think, alright ladies, we need to do it. That is also part of my reasons for directing the Out for Africa documentary and the one incredible thing about moving into the documentary world is that in all the meetings I have had I spoke to maybe one man, the documentary world is filled with women. I was thinking that I stepped into Paradise Island where Wonder Woman came from that was all women. There is a lot of camaraderie there. True Blood has a lot of women writers and a woman director and great, strong female characters so I am living in a wonderful world between that and the documentary land. “

 

They say that when you are over 30 as a woman in Hollywood, you are old. Is there life in Hollywood for actresses over 40? 

“I sure hope so. There is a billion ages for me out there and half of them are wrong, I’ll be 40 in a year and few months and I sure hope so, but I do notice, and I do it too, a man of 30 is still very young and on the cover of magazines. Alex and Joe and I are about the same age, but for woman it feels like it’s different. It feels like the women in their twenties get the same heat as the men in their thirties. If a guy who is older dating a younger woman there isn’t quite as much concern about it as the reverse. We are still living in an older paradigm. My husband has wrinkles and sun damage and it doesn’t matter. My skin is really still pretty damn good and look at him, we are just a few years apart, but if I had his skin my career would probably be over, but on Abri it looks fantastic.”

 

It’s not fair is it?

“It’s really, really not fair! [laughs]”

 

Do you fear the aging process?

“I do now that I am getting close to forty, I am starting to think about it and I never thought that that would be true but, I really love acting and it’s hard to think that because of something that you can’t control and is a natural process you won’t get to continue to do the thing that you love and put food on the table. I see that there are exceptions and incredible changes happening, obviously Meryl Streep and on the cable you have so many women in their forties doing incredible work on beautiful shows. So I like to think there will be life after forty in Hollywood, but I also feel that maybe you also expend as a person and move into doing things that are more you and that could be something like the documentary; that is another reason to explore it. Maybe doing documentaries will be my life after I start to wrinkle.”

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For the past few months everything in Kristin Bauer van Straten’s life has been about getting ready to shoot her documentary in Kenya. Elephants and Rhinos are in crisis. Rhino in the wild have now gone extinct. Poaching for Elephant ivory and Rhino horn is at an all-time high. In 2011, more elephant tusks were seized than in any year since 1989 when the ivory trade was banned.

Kristin has decided to stand up and try to do something about it in the form of producing and directing a documentary about the poaching of these magnificent animals and what is being done locally to stop them from becoming extinct. On August 23rd Kristin flew to Kenya with her South African husband Abri van Straten and a camera crew, where they were joined by Abri’s mother Cicely. Cicely Luck van Straten is a widely published South African author, who grew up on a farm in Kenya.

I spoke with Kristin just days before her departure to Africa. When I asked her how she was doing, she answered: “Exhausted, panicked and stressed. All day long I am either in meetings, pitching the project, trying to get funding, doing press and getting organized for the trip.”

You may have noticed that Kristin was online tweeting and Facebooking at odd hours and she admitted that she slept only about four hours a night for the past month. “The moment I think we are set and I think I can start focusing on elephants and then something goes wrong”, she explained to me during our Skype call. “Fifteen minutes ago I learned that maybe we will have to change airlines. This is the thing of producing, directing and funding yourself in this amount of time; it is probably not the best idea [laughs].”

 

Why did you decide to make a documentary? Why didn’t you collect money and donate it to one of the organizations that fight for the elephants and rhinos? That would have been a lot easier.

“I wish you would have asked me that 3 months ago and I wish I would have taken you up on it”, Kristin answered with a smile. “I’ve been asking myself what this compulsion is to go and film it. I love the film medium and I wanted to do something on my hiatus from True Blood that was more “me”. With acting you have this enormous support, the actor comes in last, after the writing and the costumes have been done and the sets have been built. With this it’s more like my painting, I sink or swim on my own. I wanted more of my voice, this is my journey. We’ll see when I get back, when I am editing if I am still glad that I didn’t just raise money for other groups. But I have a love affair with an African, they have this love affair with their country, and I have a love affair with all life and species, so it kind of dovetailed into me to take this on.”

 

Out of all the endangered animals why did you pick the elephants and rhinos to support?

“I could be doing this every hiatus, unfortunately, for the rest of my life. Everywhere I look from the oceans to our rivers, to cats and dogs in rescue; it’s all the exact same syndrome. And I am doing elephants and rhinos in Africa this summer because Abri’s family is from there. We are going back to the park where his mother Cicely grew up, watching her father save elephants and rhinos. Her father, with two others, formed the first group of people to do research on tranquilizing large animals in order to be able to treat them and relocate them. That is still the protocol used today by the groups we are going to visit, like the Sheldrick Elephant Orphanage in Nairobi. The orphanage takes care of the baby elephants whose mothers have been poached, they would die without help because they won’t leave their mother’s side and are still milk dependent. At the orphanage they raise the babies for five years, 24/7 care and then release them again.”

 

 

Isn’t it amazing how all the pieces are fitting together from the moment you sat down and listened to that CD of The Lemmings? [note: Kristin’s husband Abri van Straten is the lead singer of The Lemmings, she discovered the band by accident, tracked Abri down and married him six months later.]

“Isn’t that crazy?! I think about that sometimes when I am so tired and broke and putting all my energy into this, and I think OMG it all comes back to that damn CD on that one day.” [laughs].

 

And what were the chances that the singer of the CD you listened to was from South Africa? He could have been from anywhere in the world.

“Right! Also, that he happened to be from South Africa and this happens to be his family’s history and passion. If he were from the Amazon, we would probably be going to save orangutans, because they are in as much trouble too.

As humans we think of our own species first, but all life is valuable and beautiful and I believe created by some magical force. Life is special. I want to try to raise the awareness that the things we are doing are affecting other life. A lot of the times, unfortunately, it’s the locals who care the least about their own wildlife. Besides the threat of poaching, overpopulation is also a huge part of the problem, having more children than you can care for. As we have passed the 7 billion mark, and nobody seems to wants to talk about it and nobody wants to touch it, but the problem is that at the efficiency level that we are operating at and the level of care we are taking with other life forms we can’t have 7 billion people. We are going to run into big problems if we don’t change. All we have to do is care a little more.”

 

You are leaving for Africa in just a couple of days.

“I know!” Kristin covered her face with her hands in a gesture of theatrical desperation.

Are you all packed and ready to go?

“Shad, I have no idea how the hell I will actually be getting on that plane on the 23rd. My house is a mess, I got papers everywhere, I haven’t packed, I’ve got to get enough cat and dog food for an army, organizing my personal and the filming stuff, it is so overwhelming. It is not actually doable for me to be on that plane on the 23rd, but I probably will. Every time I can get WIFI in Kenya I will try to send a message to the supporters. I can only do this with the help and support of others. There is no way I could take on something like this alone. My first priority is to connect with the supporters. Without the power of the Internet this wouldn’t be happening.”

 

 

Beside snakes, what do you fear most being out there?

[Laughs out loud] “I have these odd, isolated thoughts about snakes and Tsetse flies and bush planes. I came across one story of a tourist being bitten by a Tsetse fly in the area where we are going and she got sleeping sickness. Abri had to talk me down.”

It will be the experience of a lifetime!

“It really will be. I guess that’s one of the other reasons why I wanted to do this instead of just fundraising. I wanted to learn for myself what’s happening and what we could possibly do and to try to understand it and to try to share that vision with others, so we would go on this trip together.”

 

What comfort or luxuries will you miss the most?

“I am not good at packing light. I think I’m going to eliminate high-heeled shoes and corsets. I am going to miss by blow dryer; my hair will not look so good in this movie. I am going to forgo some changes of clothing for my protein bars that I live on, one of my diet things trying to be a vegan. But of all the things I will miss my pillow the most. I always travel with my pillow; I have this neck pillow that has transformed my life. It’s called Pillo1 and I have not left home without it for 15 years. But at least I will have Abri with me, right?”

But he takes up a lot of space.

“He does”. [laughs out loud]

How will you fit him into a bush plane?

“I don’t know how to fit him in and his guitar, because he is doing the music for the movie. He wrote this song called ‘Gardens Of Sand’ and it is so perfect because where we are going there are miles and miles of red sand; the song is the perfect theme for the movie.”

 

 

In your work as animal activist you often come across horrible images of animal abuse. How do you deal with that?

“I see horrible images almost every day and I cry a lot. And I think that if somebody else had to live it, if somebody else had to suffer it, if that baby elephant had to lose his mommy, the least I can do is look, if my looking will possibly help me change it. I never post on Facebook or Twitter anything we can’t take an action to change it, because I think we are so inundated by bad news that it actually makes us not want to look and makes us shut down. So one of the things I wanted to make sure of, with this documentary, is that we focus on the positive and what we can do about it. We have to understand what is happening but I don’t think that shock will help people to continue to communicate with the problem; I want to communicate with the solution. That’s why I am going to meet the people who live the solution and are actually making a difference but they just need to do it on a bigger scale. If they had more support, this could actually turn around.”

 

As long as there is a market poachers will continue to kill. What is the largest market for the ivory?

“It’s China and Japan. In China it’s a status symbol called White Gold. The growing middle-class in China wants to show they’ve made it and culturally ivory is the way to do that. They are very far from where the poaching is happening, so IFAW did a survey in China and found that 80% didn’t know that ivory meant a dead elephant. In Japan they use ivory for their signature stamps. Further there is also the American and European trophy hunter and tourists that bring back a piece of ivory.”

 

Former NBA star Yao Ming is dedicating his time to work the problem from the Chinese side. China’s best-known sportsman, who carried his country’s flag at the opening ceremony of the 2008 Beijing Olympics, traveled to Kenya earlier this year to film a documentary about poaching. He is one of a dozen of China’s most famous actors, athletes, talk-show hosts, and musicians lending their names to recent conservation campaigns inside their homeland. Learn more about what is being done to raise awareness in China from this article about Yao Ming’s visit to Kenya.

 

You visited South Africa for the first time two year ago. What was that like? Did you feel at home?

“I did. It is such a beautiful place. There is a part of me that think that if I ever retired from acting, which would be very difficult for me since I just love it, that it would be a good second choice to go to a country like South Africa or Kenya and have a very different life. In Plettenberg Bay where part of Abri’s family lives there is so much space and I grew up with a lot of space in Wisconsin. Talking to Gran who grew up in Kenya and Uganda and married the man working to save elephants and rhino and hippos in Amboseli, hearing her stories and the life that she has lived and looking through the photo album of her peaceful coexistence with the Masai was really quite something. She is in her eighties and that country is very different now with the large population explosion of China and Africa, the two countries that are connected to this poaching market. The image that we have of this beautiful land and nature is going away. “

 

How have the fan reactions been so far to the Out for Africa project?

“I am constantly amazed at the loving generosity of humans and more specifically our fans. And you know that even better than I do: the True Blood fans are the best fans. I receive so many emails, not just donations, from people offering their professional services for free. Every day it’s been the most incredible outpouring of love and support that is actually keeping me propped up.”

 

The Kickstarter campaign raised over $64,000, is that enough to cover the cost of the whole project?

“It covers about half the cost of just the filming. It’s incredibly appreciated because when I set out to do this I thought that around $60,000 would be the cost of the shoot and it doubled. It is definitely an exciting project, but there is a huge amount of vulnerability for me, because it is my energy and passion and finances that are on the line. It’s all incredibly nerve-racking and incredibly exciting. I can’t thank the people enough for helping me on this project.”

 

 

Another vampire, Ian Somerhalder, is also an animal activist and environmentalist. He started his own foundation. Can we expect the Kristin Bauer Foundation in the future?

“People have been asking me about that because the nice thing about a foundation is that with the money I bring in I could just give to IFAW or other incredible organizations. It could be an option as this thing goes and I find myself fundraising more and more.”

 

If Kristin Bauer had the ability to glamour. Who would she glamour and why?

“Whoever is president… of every country. First I would definitely start with the head of China. And I would say: stop harming our animals and be kind to other life forms. Africa is being purchased by the Chinese because it’s a resource rich country and I am sure we will start seeing the US moving in there saying it’s for diplomatic reasons, but the bottom line is that it’s because it’s full of resources. There will be a fight for Africa. I don’t involve myself in politics, I just care about preserving all species including our own. “

 

I’d like to thank Kristin for making me care a little more. I too wanted to do something and I am now the proud foster of Kinango, the youngest elephant orphan at the Sheldrick Elephant Orphanage in Nairobi.

Fundraising for the documentary Out for Africa continues on eBay with several unique pieces of True Blood memorabilia now up for auction, such as a signed True Blood script. Upcoming items include a female modesty patch signed by Anna Paquin, an original Authority necklace worn on the show, signed magazines and DVD and Lucy Griffith’s who plays “Nora” signed shoes, to name just a few. Visit Kristin’s eBay page here to see what’s up for auction: http://tinyurl.com/cewfry4

For more information about Out for Africa visit: www.outforafrica.com

Kristin Bauer on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PamfromTrueBlood

 

On her journey through Kenya Kristin visited:
Sheldrick Elephant Orphanage in Nairobi – http://www.sheldrickwildlifetrust.org
Lewa Wildlife Conservancy – http://www.lewa.org
Amboseli National Park
Tsavo East National Park
 
 

I had been to see a panel on Friday at Comic Con titled Designing for the Undead which consisted of costume designers guild members Chrisi Karvonides (costume designer, American Horror Story, Carnivale), Audrey Fisher (costume designer, True Blood), and Alexander Welker (costume designer, Grimm) and costume illustrator Imogene Chayes (True Blood, American Horror Story) who talked about creating all those costumes for the great paranormal television characters we know and love.

 

Watch the video I took while attending the panel at Comic Con.

I had already contacted Audrey Fisher about doing an interview and after the panel, I went up to her to set a time to talk together. I met with her at her hotel on Sunday, July 15 in the morning and it was a delightful interview. I know I sound like a broken record when I say this, but I found her to be, just like everyone else on True Blood, extremely giving and kind. I enjoyed our talk together and was very flattered that she asked me to her room where I could meet her friends and where she could give me some photos to use for The Vault’s charity efforts.

 

Below is my interview with the lovely Audrey Fisher.

 

How did you get into the business?
I was just sitting and talking with someone on Friday, at the signing before our panel and I realized that I have been doing this for 20 years. I designed my first show in NY in 1992.

Audrey with some of her True Blood designs on display.

 

Did you go to school for this or was it something you just fell into?
I went to theater school and that’s why I was in New York. I went to NYU, Tisch in the department of performance studies which is this very esoteric major that sort of mixes sociology, theology, and performance, theater studies and everything all mixed together. It’s a very brainy program and a lot of theory and not a lot of theater making. So what happened is that I thought I wanted to be a dramaturge, a German term, or the Germans developed it. It’s sort of like the person in a theater production is kind of like the editor; that’s what I thought I wanted to be.

A dramaturge or dramaturg is a professional position within a theatre or opera company that deals mainly with research and development of plays or operas. Its modern-day function was originated by the innovations of Gotthold Ephraim Lessing, an 18th-century German playwright, philosopher, and theorist about theatre.

Obviously it’s an even more specialized field and really, theater in America is very different from theater in Germany. So, I was going to this very erudite program but while I was there, I started needing to do things with my hands and I’ve always done costumes on the side. One of my colleagues was a German woman, and a director, and she did a production of Medea and she saw these crazy hats I was making in an art class and she asked me to do the costumes. It totally made sense because my mom and I used to make things in the garage and I was always sewing and making stuff for my dolls and we were always putting on little shows, so there was this tradition in my family of making things and making costumes, so it felt completely natural and I started doing it then and fell for it, hard.

 

How did you get the job on True Blood?
That was the most amazing situation. I had been working by then for over a dozen years in the industry, doing costuming. I started in New York in ‘92 and I did a bunch of small theater pieces there and then I went to Europe and did a couple of operas and some theater. Then, I came back to New York and did some bigger productions there and then I moved back to LA and became a resident design assistant at the Taper.  I started doing various jobs there where I met Merlina Root, she was doing a show at the Taper. She is the designer of “That 70’s Show” and “Twenty Good Years” and “3rd Rock from the Sun.” So I assisted her in theater and she said what are you doing in theater, you should come and work in TV, and I said OK and I hadn’t even thought of it. She hired me on “That 80’s Show,” and I assistant designed with her.  Then, she hired me onto “That 70’s Show” and during that show when we were wrapping, Danny Glicker came and wanted to buy the stock for the movie, “We Are Marshall.” He and I totally hit it off and he hired me to be his assistant designer on that movie, “We Are Marshall.”  At that time, Danny’s career was taking off and Alan Ball asked him to do “Towelhead” and then asked him to do True Blood. So Danny was the first designer for True Blood,’ he designed the first two episodes. Then, we had the writer’s strike and Danny suggested I take over because he was going to go on to do the movie, “Milk” and no one knew what was going to happen.  So, he basically said to Alan and the Producers, “Audrey loves the show, knows the show, I trust her implicitly, she’s great, so what if she took over.” I never thought of it, it’s like a dream when an assistant sort of gets kicked upstairs like that. Now, it’s my baby. The minute I got it I thought, Oh My God, this is my big moment.

What’s fun about your job?
Everything is fun about it. I am kind of hyper and love everything we have to handle every day. I love the multi-tasking, and I love the pace. Sometimes when I wake up and I’m really tired, and I say to myself, I just can’t, then I remember what I have to do today. Hmmm, I have a fitting with Alexander Skarsgård, I have to outfit a bunch of faeries and then, I have to deal with this huge blood rig and then, I have to see Anna for a fitting, so I say, OK, I’m getting up now. So, even on my worst day, I remember this incredible thing that I get to do and I get paid for it.

 

Suzuki Ingerslev, True Blood’s set designer, told me that she doesn’t have the incredible pace that you have to deal with; is this true?
It makes sense when you look at the amount of bodies and details on the bodies vs. the production design. They have a set and all the beautiful details, but they have one set and it’s a numbers game. I have to deal with physical people; underwear and socks, and rings, and earrings.  And then there are ear allergies and wool allergies and, “I don’t like this neckline” and “I look terrible in this color” and “I like this brand of underwear.” There are just so many details and with production design it doesn’t have that element, so that just adds a lot of time to my docket.

 

I liked when you said Kristin was your Barbie Doll.
She is. She is physically a dream in terms of putting clothes on her body. That’s pretty extraordinary with the cast; they’re all so extraordinary, they are amazing.

 

How much advance notice do you have to find items, like finding the Wal-Mart outfit and the onesies for Jason, etc?
The jammies were a total build; we made those from scratch since they just don’t exist.

And they were a huge hit.
Yes, and Angela Robinson wrote that, she wrote “he man onesie” and I was like OK, because I can’t like just call the “He man onesie store” and order it in a man size, we just made it up. Those are challenges that the writers sort of toss up that I’m happy to be able to satisfy.

It just depends, what I try to do is sort of hoard items and if I’m out shopping and I see things I like, I just buy it, I buy six of it.  Then, I have it ready to go and a lot of times, that works out. Because I’m always thinking about the color palettes and the silhouettes and scanning out in the world. Even now,when I’m out in the world it’s so hard for me to shut off the shopping because I’m think, “oh, that will be great for this and that would be great for that,” so, I’m constantly thinking that way.

In the beginning of the season it’s best because we get like two scripts and then we get a bunch of synopsis so we try to front load and we see stuff that’s coming up and we can prep for it.

Kristin Bauer van Straten in Wal-Mart Sweatsuit

Do you get synopsis for the whole season?
No, usually we get 2 – 3 scripts and a couple of synopsis at a time. However, you can’t work too far ahead on a synopsis because things change, so you don’t put too much effort into it. But that’s when my relationship with the writer’s room comes in handy because I can say, “Is this going to stay?”

 

Have you had that happen where something has been changed radically at the last minute?
I can’t think of something where it’s been that radical, but things have fallen away that we’ve started to prep for, but we’ve sort of hit a balance now where we don’t ever go too far ahead because we don’t want to waste money and time; we don’t have it to waste, so we try to keep it tight.

 

What costumes in season 5 required the most from you?
Oh, the Faery Club because we had to dress all of them. The same thing with 1905, the whore house, but the faery club took a long time for us to get to the articulation of the design.

By the time we got it we only had two weeks to manufacture all the costumes before it was on camera, so it was really high pressure and went into overdrive. We hired a whole second team of seamstresses, assistant designers, shoppers. PA’s and costumers, so we had a whole secondary costume shop working. We had to fit a 100 people and we had to get two changes on most of them because we knew we wouldn’t have those resources again. We knew we needed to bang it out so we’d be ready for future scenes that we didn’t know about. We wanted to make sure that each faery had a closet that we could rely on so we would know for example, she has another bra, she has another crown, she already has another selection of jewelry so that for the next time around we could pull out something and wouldn’t be stuck.

It’s amazing too because that scene wasn’t really that long even though a very important scenes.
I think for every department it’s a heartbreak when we don’t have the camera lovingly dwell on each thing, but of course there’s so much packed into each episode, they have to edit so tightly so, those long lingering shots, the wide shots, often end up on the cutting room floor because they have to get to the action. And, people want to see the actors close up and their reactions. I actually was very satisfied with how much we saw the faeries this season.

 

And Hadley looks so cute in that scene with the little crown on her head.
She’s so adorable and cute.

 

How’s the budget? Do you have to work with little or do you think you have enough to do what you need to do?
That’s one thing about having started from the beginning you can look back. I recently was sorting through some files and found my season 1 files and noticed that the budget has doubled. I was laughing. My first episode that I designed of Season 1, episode 3, the cast list wasn’t long and the budget is half of what it is now. I took it into my supervisor, who is sort of like the project manager, and we laughed so hard because now the cast list is like 20 principles and 20 day players, so we laughed about that.

I’m not interested in wasting money or spending a lot for doing something I could do for less. It’s always a balance between time and money; that’s it. It’s just a continuum. I simply can’t afford very expensive designs, for example, I can’t shop at Saks Fifth Avenue all the time. I can do so occasionally though, if I find something on sale for say, Pam.

 

But, also it is Bon Temps?
I do have that interesting split and I think that the reason I could be on budget is because half the people’s [costumes], I can get out of Good Will, out of Kohl’s or JC Penney’s which we have done over the years, but then, where I spend the money is on Chris Meloni and Anna. This season, Anna had to have a lot of different options as her pregnancy advanced. As she got bigger, there was a lot of work we had to do to make sure she was comfortable, a lot of different sizes of everything, a lot of different choices. I had to reserve my main funds for the top ten [cast members] and of course, the vampires. Especially this season  their clothes were very high end so I had to make sure I had the money for that.

But, still I do a lot of tricks. A lot of the dresses that I find are knock offs of designer stuff, like the purple dress that Salome just wore. That beautiful curvy dress, that’s a knock off of a very expensive designer actually, Roland Mouret and then, Black Halo knocked him off and then, French Connection knocked Black Halo off. So, it looks like a very expensive designer dress, but it’s actually French Connection, which I think was maybe under $200. That’s how I can do it because things are knocked off so quickly now, allowing me to give the impression of a very luxurious costume when in fact it’s affordable for the budget.

We kind of thought that True Blood would go on for another year. I personally would like it to go on forever, but yesterday, at the True Blood Panel, Alan said that it could go on for many years, so I presume you’ll be there until the end. What would you like to do when it does end?
I’m just starting to think about it and the future. Obviously season 6 is happening and I’m there, but for me the key is the interesting and amazing scripts. I’d love to travel, go on location, and do a film. The thing I think would be hard for me would be to do something that is really bare bones because that requires so much work on the designers part, it’s like sweat equity. I think that would be hard to do because I’m used to a really logical and efficient way of working. Therefore, I would have to find something that was logical and efficient because I don’t think I could go back to stuff that’s so poorly funded that you’re not really spending the money you really need to make it look right. And that doesn’t have to be a lot, but I feel like I want to work on productions that are smart, savvy and then have an incredible script.

 

Do you have any aspirations to go back to the stage?
You know the thing about the stage is that I haven’t been able to afford to go back because, at least the productions I used to do, the pay is really low.

 

Well, that’s fine because we like you in TV and, HBO specifically. It seems they are very supportive, is that true?
Yes, it’s an incredible company, especially when I’m here (Comic con), and I see the way that they support me as a designer representing the show vs. colleagues from other shows. For example, they produced this incredible handout with a sketch of Jessica. I hired a sketch artist, my sketch artist Imogene, and they tiled together some stills and it’s this beautiful 8-1/2 x 11″ and it has True Blood on it and I signed it and Deborah Ann also signed it.

Below is the photo Audrey talks about above. She gave me a small pile from her inventory for use in our fundraising. I so enjoyed talking with her and learning more about the costume designer’s job and the process.  I have the utmost respect for the designers and those who work on this show making it even a better experience.

Two weeks ago, at Comic Con, I met with True Blood’s incredible set designer, Suzuki Ingerslev and Art Director, Cat Smith, who was with Suzuki, to discuss some of the sets on True Blood.  

I first met Suzuki and Cat at their colleague Audrey Fisher’s Costume Design Panel on Friday night at Comic Con. I went up to her in the audience before the panel began and we agreed to meet that night for an interview in her hotel room. I found both ladies incredibly interesting and just like all the other True Blood people, extremely generous and friendly.

Below is my interview:

What do you think of Comic Con?  Have you ever been here before?
Suzuki: Actually, this is my second time here; we came when True Blood wasn’t even out yet. We knew there was going to be a panel, so Cat (Catharine Smith) dragged me down saying “It’s going to be amazing.”

 

Were you working on True Blood then?
Suzuki: We were, but nobody had seen it yet, it hadn’t aired. We thought, let’s go to the panel, but when we got there the line was around the ballroom and we thought, there’s no way we are going to get into this panel and so Cat panicked and went to the security and said, this is the production designer of the show, you have to let her in. And, with that, they let us in.

It was an interesting experience and we loved seeing all the costumes. And like today, when we stood in line for the Costume Designer’s panel (colleague Audrey Fisher was in it) and there was a woman wearing a Sookie Stackhouse outfit.

 

But you have tickets for tomorrow’s True Blood Panel, right?
Cat: No.  Suzuki does, but not me.  I’ll try to get in. [Update: I saw Cat on Sunday morning and she did get into the panel. So for those of you who had trouble getting into panels, know that it's no easier for members of the crew].

 

The Authority headquarters – what kind of instructions did you get to make that set?
Suzuki: Over the summer, I heard that we were building vampire headquarters. At the time, I was told that we would be building something with ancient walls and it was supposed to have a big conference room and jails and there was also to be some sort of a shrine to Lilith. Alan Ball was on vacation at that time, so Greg Feinberg and I were trying to muddle through it and figure out what to do. Eight years ago, I was in Turkey and Istanbul and there was a cistern across from Haggai Sophia that I thought was amazing. There’s this underground space that is all water and columns and I thought I’d really like to film something like this, that would be really cool.

 

 

Do you have a thing with water in your designs because I remember at Queen Sophie Anne’s house in Season 2 when Bill walked across that walkway with water under it; a similar use?
Suzuki: That was already at that house and was just a fluke, so that was nothing I designed.

 

However in the last episode we see Salome walk across the same sort of walkway?
Suzuki: It’s a nice tie in for sure. What I know is that the water table is really high in Louisiana and New Orleans, so I thought, why not have water in the set, because there really would be a natural run-off somewhere. So, in order to shoot it that way, I had to to get permission from the producers to let me have water on the stage, which I thought was never going to fly, but when Greg saw it he got really excited and said, that’s really cool. And then, we pitched it to Alan and Alan was on board to make this sort of “homage” to vampires. I felt like the scale of the structure had to be huge because you wanted them to feel powerful, but at the same time I wanted to give Alan his ancient walls.

 

It’s underground, too, right?
Suzuki: Yes, that’s what it’s supposed to be like, cavernous, underground, the cells and the jails are all underground. And, you get the reflective qualities of it [the water effect]. And the furniture, I felt needed to be very powerful and modern and it broke it up so it didn’t feel like a period piece or a dungeon. So by adding the modern furniture and the pops of color I feel it just sort of warmed it up and actually gave them some kind of sophistication.

 

What difficulties did you encounter?
Suzuki: The water was the hardest part, we really had to figure that out. I wanted the lighting to be spectacular so we worked with the lighting department closely and built in a lot of our own lighting by just finding certain kinds of lights that looked good and would up-light the columns that we could afford to build and buy so many of them and the same with the water elements. Our lighting department designed a certain light that actually goes into that water that can be taken in and out but looks built in. Money is an issue on the show still, even with a big set like that.

 

Has the budget gotten higher as the years have gone by?
Suzuki: This past season they gave us a decent amount of money for sure, but i dont’ think it’s based on whether the shows a hit, I think it’s based on what we’re building. I think they believed in those two spaces, the faery club and also the vampire headquarters, so that was why we were given the money, they really liked the designs.

 

Speaking of the Faery Club, what was your inspiration and what were you told to do with that?
Suzuki: That was a more complicated set because lots of people had various different opinions on what it would look like. We had to come to an opinion on, first of all, what the faeries were doing in there, so we worked with Alan with that. Originally, we went with a more modern direction for sort of like a restaurant feel and then we heard it was going to be more like a cabaret show and so we did some research on several cabaret shows in town like “Cirque de Freak,” and “Cirque to Berserk.” So, I thought it would be kind of fun to create an atmosphere that is like a circus and also Moroccan as opposed to one or the other. And, the big faces you see on the set are supposed to be the faeries when they turn ugly. So, you have these beautiful faeries dancing on stage and then, in the background are those faces of what they can turn into, which we saw in the fourth season.

 

 

Today in the Costume panel, the illustrator talked about how they had a hard time coming up with the costumes for the faeries?
Suzuki: They had a tough time with that. They were trying to decide what they looked like and there were so many that it’s expensive so they were trying to figure out how to do the faery club and what they were wearing, more like lingerie vs. no lingerie.

 

Were you involved with the location from last year for the flashback scene to London 1980’s with Bill Compton and Nan Flanagan?
Suzuki: Yes. On the outside of the club we did a little bit, but not much, but on the inside of the club, we pretty much gutted what was there and brought in sort of an 80’s sensibility with some punk rock stuff. It had those great walls and everything to begin with including that great bar. We put up wallpaper and the mirrors to hide things to make it kind of dated. Our painter, that I’ve worked with for years, he has a band, and they were actually performing in the background and he wrote a song that is playing during the scene.

 

The one when Bill walks into the bar?
Suzuki: Yes, that’s him on the stage there and he wrote the song. But it is hard efinitely, finding historic things, like the Viking house when we did that, we had to build that because there’s not going to be a big Viking house here in California.

 

I know that the exterior of the Compton house is a house in Louisiana, right?
Suzuki: Yes, but the interior has nothing to do with the exterior and the exterior facade is now built in Malibu. [They no longer use the house in Louisiana].

 

 

 

This year you had San Francisco sets to do with Pam. I imagine that historic sets are more difficult to do, is that true?
Suzuki: They are tough, there’s not many areas that look like old San Francisco here in LA, so we were lucky to find an historic district near Alvera Street by Union Station. The exterior is always harder than the interior. The interior was filmed at Castle Green in Pasadena. You can always find rooms that feel dated, or you can make them feel dated, but finding an entire street that could pass as San Francisco is hard. For the exterior scenes we had to make due here in LA by putting dirt down to cover a lot of the concrete and asphalt, hide signs, and emergency escape signals.
Was it difficult to find the right places and ambiance for the brothel scenes in Season 5?
Suzuki: No, that one wasn’t, the interior wasn’t so bad. Castle Green was a great choice because it’s one of these structures where they haven’t modernized it, so you don’t have the recessed lights and we just had to cover a couple of smoke detectors, etc. The wallpaper was already there, the colors and then, our decorator brought in some furniture.

 

 

Audrey Fisher said today that she uses a lot of black, and doesn’t use red on the humans because she uses so much red on other things, and also there’s the blood. Do you have the same kind of restrictions?
Suzuki: No, I don’t, but I try to mix up the colors and make it interesting because it is easy to fall to using red in this kind of a show.

 

Well, some of the sets are just so amazing with the attention to detail, like in Lafayette’s House, and Jason’s house, etc. I loved the touch of seeing one TV on top of another, for example. Do you enjoy these sets, too?
Suzuki: Yes, those are fun, I like those character driven sets. The vampire authority is a great set but you look at Gran’s house and all the details that we put into that; it makes it somebody’s home and it shows you who that character is.

 

 

True Blood is finished filming for the year and yet there is another season to come. Are you working on anything else now?
Suzuki: I think i’m going to try to take some time off; I’ve been busy the last two years and haven’t had a vacation.

 

Do you have the 80 hours work weeks that the costume designers have?
Suzuki: No, they have it tougher than we do. We come in early in the morning, but we leave around 6 or 7pm.

 

Russell Edgington’s house was in Mississippi, but did you build the interiors on set?
Suzuki: Yes. We couldn’t believe that we got to shoot in Mississippi. Cat and I found that on a little boondoggle that we went on. We like going and visiting the places. We couldn’t believe that we were able to film in Mississippi because it was never slated, but that building was so gorgeous that when we showed it to the producers and we said this is where the King has to live and it’s never been shown on another television or feature. It was the first time Longwood was ever on anything.

 

Special reporter for The Vault Lisafemmeacadienne drove up to Natchez, MS to the Longwood House and did a full report on the set location in Mississippi.  To read her story about Longwood, click here. 

Last week on Friday at Comic Con, I waited in line for most of the day in order to get in the room just to see one panel. The panel I was hoping to see that day was Entertainment Weekly’s: Powerful Women in Pop Culture (aka Women Who Kick Ass!) featuring True Blood’s Kristin Bauer van Straten.

Next to the True Blood panel, I enjoyed this panel the most, and I saw a lot of panels. I am a big fan of Kristin and I thought she was, and is, very “kick ass.”  One of the highlights was when Kristin was introduced and walked out on stage wearing Pam’s Wall Mart sweatshirt. Also, I loved it when she discussed her bedroom scene with Alexander Skarsgård.  

Moderated by EW’s Lynette Rice, during the panel, each woman opened up about the power and privilege of playing characters that have redefined the rules for women or represent women who kick ass. The other members of the panel were Sarah Wayne Callies (Walking Dead), Kristin Kreuk (Beauty and the Beast), Nikki Reed (Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn-Part 2), and Anna Torv (Fringe).

While I found the other ladies of the panel interesting, I think we can all agree, that Kristin was the one who really “kicked ass” on this panel.

Below is a video containing the clips that feature Kristin’s participation on the panel. 

 

 

Sorry for the movement of the camera; it was pretty crazy in the audience.
 
 

Last Friday, July 13, 2012, I met up with Michael McMillian, a.k.a., Reverend Steve Newlin at the IDW booth at Comic Con.  Michael answered a few of my questions in this short video interview about his True Blood character, his comic book Lucid and his continued work on the True Blood Comics. We previously reported that Lucid has been picked up by Warner Brothers, and Michael talks about it being made into a feature film.

 

 
As Micheal reminds us in the video, Steve Newlin’s wife Sara was supposed to be in Season 5, but the scene got cut from episode 2. Here’s the script showing the scene with Sara Newlin that was cut courtesy of Inside True Blood’s Blog.
 

 
He signed my hard bound copy of the True Blood comic, The French Quarter and Lucid, as seen below.
 

 

Thanks to Shadaliza for the video editing.
 
 

The six writers on True Blood are an ensemble group who create all we see in the show. The writers first block out what’s going to happen in each of the 12 episodes and then one writer is assigned to compose the final script.

Alexander Woo is one of the six writers who make up Alan Ball’s team and he was kind enough to grant an interview to the Vault to talk about his experiences. We spoke last week for about 1.5 hours where we discussed the writing process in depth and during our chat, I asked him lot of questions about True Blood. So, get ready . 

In the interview below you’ll not only learn a lot about Alex, but also about the process of creating True Blood and what it takes to come up with story lines or to write those famous scenes and dialogue.

Some highlights of our discussion include:

Regarding Season 5, Alex says, “I feel more excited about this season than I am about any other season, including the first one.”  And, there’s more below about Season 5.

Alex is a fascinating person to talk with and, in my opinion, he has written some of the best scenes and story lines in the show.  He spoke about, for example:

• In the very first True Blood episode that he ever wrote (Episode 5.01 – Sparks Fly Out), he had the daunting task of writing about Bill’s speech in the church to the DGD and his turning during the Civil War. 
• Alex created the story that took us back to the Civil War when Bill, trying to get home, sought shelter and food at a lonely cabin in the woods.
• Alex also has a reputation for coming up with some of the quirkiest aspects of True Blood like when he created the “wheel” in the basement of Fangtasia.
• He has also written some of the funniest and most clever scenes, such as the now famous scene, known as the “Aidsburger scene” where Lafayette says some of his greatest lines.
• He also discusses the process of using a prop to help make seamless a transition of a scene from present to past. He illustrates by discussing his use of the antique “toaster” in Bill’s Civil War scene when he met his maker, Lorena.
• When Denis O’Hare gave that great speech on National Television after killing the newscaster, that speech was written by Alex.

So sit back and get ready to learn more than you’ve ever known about the making of the show in this fascinating interview with the “Master Storyteller ” that is Alexander Woo:

STEPPING STONES TO TRUE BLOOD - Alex’s Bio

To learn more about Alex’s background and how he got his job writing and producing for True Blood, click on the link above.

 

WRITING TRUE BLOOD

Can you talk a little bit about the collaborative writing process on True Blood and how the “team” works together?
We plot out each story together and that takes days and weeks and then the writer who is assigned to that script goes off and writes it. The actual beats of the story are figured out as a team but how it’s done is often figured out by the individual writer when they’re under the hood of the car, in the privacy of their own office or home.

 

Has there ever been a time when a writer has changed a decision because it isn’t working.
A big decision such as killing a character is a big one, and requires everyone’s buy in. If it’s minor, we have the freedom to do it and bring it in when we’re all going over the script together. If it’s something larger that impacts future episodes then there will be communication and we tell each other and talk through it. And yes, it happens all the time. I analyze it as the difference between the outline and script. It is like the difference between the recipe and the cooking. As you’re working on it, there are things that change the plans and the writer is the one behind the stove so, if, for example something in the story is screaming to be told and and the writer feels, we’ve got to do this, it can be done. One of the aspects of Television, which is sometimes a little bit scary, is that it’s a living breathing story and sometimes the story wants to go a certain way and one of the great things about television is that you can honor that.

In season one for example we were telling a story that kind of screamed at us.

One was the character of Lafayette which Nelsan Ellis gave such a dimension to, we couldn’t kill him. The world we had created wanted Lafayette to be there. And even though he wasn’t much in the earlier episodes, you just couldn’t take your eyes off of him and that was the world that we created. It was born out of the novels, but it’s like planting two seedlings, they had grown in different directions and the strategy that Alan had applied from the beginning was that if our story goes in a different direction, we will let it. Now five years in we, in some ways, we are in very different paths.

 

The other example from season 1 was a character that didn’t exist at all in the books, [Jessica]. Bill has to answer for his crime of staking LongShadow by having to turn another vampire. That character, again this is a testament to the actress [Deborah Ann Woll] more than anything else, you suddenly want to know what it is like to be a baby vampire. In many ways, this is a great parallel to Sookie who in both the books and the novels is living in a very sheltered world and then the world just burst open with vampires and shape-shifters and werewolves and all sorts of stuff and Jessica feels very much the same way. Sookie is mourning her grandmother and Jessica is mourning her parents being cut off. There is a good scene that we did in the second season when Jessics tries to go back to her family and realizes she can’t. Emotionally for us, this is the vampire corollary to Sookie. Her life has been highly sheltered and in some ways to the fans of the series both book series and the television series, it seems very similar. You’re starting from a place of zero knowledge and suddenly all of these things burst forth and I think that Jessica is highly relatable because it’s analogous to a lot of the public’s viewing experience.

 

 

 

Are you and the writers’ team in touch with what happens in the fan community? Do you check online to see if a scene or storyline worked or not? Do the fans have an “influence” on the writers?
I think the entire experience of the show is a giant symbiotic one. This is one reason television is so exciting, unlike a movie or a play where it’s over and done with and you can wash your hands of it when you walk out. There’s nothing the fans can do to change the outcome of the Avengers, for example; the experience is locked in no matter what happens. Since its ongoing and everyone is experiencing it at once, and I feel that as writers, we’re the biggest fans of the show ourselves and we have many that are fans on our own crew, you hear what people are talking about even if you don’t really read every single fan site or every single message board, you feel what everyone is feeling and you feel it yourself. And we feel it ourselves. We feel it when Pam gets to say those terrific lines and wear those terrific outfits. And, if it was a movie and we were locked in we might say, OK, here’s a line Pam gets and that’s it, we’re done.

You feel this ground swell when the show goes to Comic Con or any other appearance and you feel this surge of popularity. People love these characters and love certain things about other characters, we feel it, too and we honor that in the show because we’re fans just like anyone else.

ALEX’S WRITING STYLE

Of all the episodes you wrote, which is your favorite?
It’s difficult for me to answer that because each episode I feel like is part of the longer narrative. I write episodes that kick off stories that then become much bigger things or other episodes that end stories that have been keyed up several episodes earlier, there are some things I pick up on in the middle. I do feel though that within an episode I’ve written there is something that I’ve really loved.

 

Can you give us an example of that?
In the first season I got to write Bill’s big Civil War speech which really introduced a human side of Bill to the town so that was a really great opportunity and was the first episode I did and started off my relationship with Stephen. Later on in that episode I had the opportunity to give Lafayette his first really big showcase scene. This is when Lafayette takes back a hamburger. That was such an opportunity to showcase the character of Lafayette and that was extraordinarily fun. The other thing that is extraordinarily memorable for me was that I had been a fan of Denis O’Hare’s for a very, very long time. I actually met him when I was a student in grad school and that was 1994 and it was much, much later that I got to work with him as a writer and by that point in Season 3 we had seen how he just sort of takes the stage with his presence. I got to write a monologue for him after he has just killed a newscaster on national television. It was a huge luxury to have an actor that gifted to deliver those lines. That also was such great fun to give to an actor. It’s like handing over a piece of sheet music to a master musician and watching them play it.

 

On Sparks Fly Out, what gave you the inspiration to have Bill smash the ‘toasting fork’ at the end of the scene of his turning and how much research did you do to even find / think of having Lorena use one?
I wanted a smooth transition into the flashback of how he was turned into a vampire because during the speech in front of everyone, you can tell there’s something darker and sadder there, so in the episode there needed to be some kind of transition in to the flashback. I thought there should be some sort of souvenir or item that is in this really old house that Bill has recently moved into that has stayed as the Compton Residence for 150 odd years. And, that antique toaster I think came from a bit of research (I didn’t spend terribly long on it). I was looking for some sort of implement that might seem very sinister but have a benign purpose. I believe I found it from some sort of dealer in reproductions of colonial cooking equipment. I saw that piece and I thought this would make a really nice transition because Andy can pick it up and he can have very, very dark thoughts about it and Bill can explain its really a very benign thing. Then we can transition into a flashback with it and discover that it was the thing that housed the last meal he ever ate. So, he has mixed thoughts about this item. And, it’s one of those things that when you’re under the hood of the car you think, we’re going to this flashback, how am I going to get there. So, with a little bit of digging, a little bit of homework I found that one strange item, an old toaster, which I never would have otherwise known about, and it seemed right.

 

 

You have a reputation for writing a lot of the twisted stuff on True Blood, where does that come from and what is your favorite? You were the one who came up with the “wheel” in Fangtasia’s basement, right?
This came about purely out of practical necessity and whether or not that’s a deserved reputation or not, I don’t know, but I’m not actually like that.

The wheel in that room underneath Fangtasia came about because of one small problem. I couldn’t quite figure out if you had a whole bunch of prisoners in a room together how they could go to the bathroom without killing each other. It was that simple, and I couldn’t figure it out.

I suppose that they could all have buckets, but then I thought wouldn’t it be more fun if they just had one bucket and in order to get to the bucket, anyone that had to use it would have to inconvenience everyone else, which was hilarious to me. That’s the sort of thing that makes me laugh. So, you had all these people tied to a giant wheel and in order to use the bucket they had to go move and make everyone else rotate so they could relieve themselves. It felt to me that if you had a whole bunch of prisoners and you were Eric that you didn’t want to clean out seven or eight buckets, you’d want the minimum of buckets. You’d much rather build this elaborate contraption so you only had to clean out one bucket. That’s the answer to how that came about.

 

It’s nice of you to be considerate of Eric, I must say.
I feel like Eric, certainly at that point in his evolution, was not going to be one that was going to provide creature comforts.

 

Shadaliza interviewed True Blood’s Production Designer Suzuki Ingerslev about the Fangtasia dungeon and you can read more about it and see photos by clicking here.

And watch below a video of the scene of the wheel that Alex talks about above.

 

Get the latest Flash Player to see this player.

 

QUESTIONS ABOUT TRUE BLOOD

Why do you think True Blood took off and became such a huge hit?
The cop out answer is, “I don’t know.” It was a delightful surprise to all of us. I don’t think any of us could have hoped for it to be as popular and successful as it’s been. None of us would have told you that it would have been this popular. Looking back on it, in retrospect, I think the heart of it is that it’s a character show. We’re writing characters that people care about. They are in highly unusual circumstances, there’s no question about that, but I think what makes the show compelling and for the fans of the show, addictive and the characters make you come back again and again and again. Though we do a lot of special effects and crazy stunts, the things that people talk about from week to week are “can you believe what happened to Sookie, etc.” It’s not “can you believe that giant explosion.” It’s all about these characters that you’ve grown to love or hate and now you’ve known them for five years and that’s a long time to be friends with anyone.

 

The books and the show – it’s pretty evident that the show and the books are completely different animals, what was behind the decision to make it so different, especially the last two seasons?
I think it started at the very beginning that we would honor the story wherever it wanted to go as a series. The first season runs pretty closely to the books, but for practical reasons, it would be born from the same seed, with the same characters and the same world, but as we we’re going was to make the show be a big ensemble it became an issue of practicality. If Sookie was in every single scene, we would wear Anna Paquin into the ground. It’s impractical to have a show where one person is in everything. And for a show that’s more visual, it’s just more fun to show this world.

Because the novel really tracks only Sookie we had to build a Bill story, an Eric story, a Tara story, a Jason story and those things had to be created based on some of the things suggested in the books. Once those were created, we found branches sprouting in all sorts of directions, so inevitably we found ourselves going in very different directions now in seasons 4 and 5.

 

One of the fans wanted me to ask you if Quinn was going to make an appearance on the show.
I can’t say for certain. Quinn is, I know, a very popular character and we still want to save some surprises.

 

Is ad-libbing permitted by the actors or are they required to stick to the script. I heard that Lafayette came up with something once that wasn’t in the script.
After we’ve spent so much time together often you know exactly how these lines are going to sound from these actors mouths, so at this point, when we write lines for the various characters, it’s pretty close to how those characters should sound.

At the very beginning of the series since none of us had known Nelsan or what Lafayette was going to sound like we saw Nelsan playing around with the character and with the language. We saw something that was so distinctly Lafayette that we let him play for a while and now we know that patois that he speaks with so we write to it. The cast is very, very diligent about saying the lines as written, but we are always open, because the writers are onstage and on set for all of the shooting. If something feels better to an actor, if they have a suggestion we are always open to it. These actors know their characters so well, if they have a suggestion often it’s better than what you had written, so there’s always a discussion; it’s never a surprise, we come to that agreement

 

What true blood scene looked great on paper, but turned out to be a different story on set?
That hasn’t happened very much. Certainly we’ve never had to “change things on the fly” because usually things are planned out in advance and there isn’t much of an opportunity to change things on the fly. You can maybe change a tiny bit of dialogue here and there but because the cameras are positioned so specifically, the blocking is locked in, the props and special effects and everything else, you can’t really change something drastically. We can try to help things along in post production by editing something. Something that may have felt slow when we were shooting you can pull all sorts magic in post and make it feel faster. Score helps a great deal and there are opportunities sometimes where you can add in tiny bits of dialogue in post, but we don’t really have the ability to change something radically on set. Usually if something isn’t working we will get to it long before it’s there. By then it’s almost too late.

 

Who is your favorite True Blood character? Which character do you love to write for?
My favorite True Blood characters are the ones that make me laugh. To me they are the most fun, so they are Jason, Andy, Lafayette and Russell and Steve Newlin. It’s a combination of characters and the actors to embody those characters; you kind of know how it’s going to sound already. I’m just lobbing you to hit one out of the park because I know you’re going to hit it out of the park. Pam, for the same reason because you know the kinds of things she is going to say and how Kristin is going to do it and it’s going to be terrific. And even with some of our characters who go through highly emotional things, and get a chance to be funny, I love that, too. Eric often does and those are my favorite moments. My favorite characters are the ones who can surprise you with something funny because they’re suffering a lot and when we can bring in those brighter colors and that’s when the show is at its best.

 

One of the criticisms about True Blood is that there are too many characters and storylines. How do you see that and do you agree with them?
From a creative standpoint, I do feel like boy, I only have one hour to tell all these stories, but it’s a challenge. On the other side of the coin, part of the show is this sort of breathless feeling. I just saw episode 1 of Season 5 and it has this feeling, this breathless feeling of “oh my goodness, we’re going here and then we’re going all way over here and this thing is happening. Part of the fun of True Blood is its bigness and that there are so many different things going on with so many different characters at once.

I don’t disagree that it’s difficult at times to best service everybody and we do our best to try to keep it as contained as possible. I hope we’re more successful than not. It’s about a world where so much is going on and the emotional feeling of the show is watching it where you’re immersed in the density of the story.

 

What do you think of Alan Ball leaving the show and Mark Hudis taking on the reigns?
I feel great about it. This is the most seamless way. If we brought in someone from the outside, it would be a very, very difficult change. This is the family that has sort of been with the show since the beginning. I love Mark. Of all the choices, he is far and away the best choice for this because he is an experienced guy with experience of running a show. He is someone that everyone likes and he has been a show runner of “That 70’s Show” in the last couple of seasons and a short lived show called “Misguided.”

 

I started watching the show because of Alan Ball but it’s so obvious that the writers are such a team and work so well that even with Alan leaving I feel pretty confident that all will be well.
Thanks, we feel the same way. Alan has always, from the very beginning, put a great deal of trust in his writers. It also puts a great deal of pressure to deliver as well when the creator of the show says here ya go, go ahead, you write it, you produce it. It’s a wonderful feeling to have but it’s also a great deal of responsibility as well. Because we’ve been given this much trust so far, we feel confident in our ability to run the show day to day. He’ll still be there, his office is right there, and he’ll be there to give notes on scripts, but he just won’t be doing the minutia of running the show day to day.

 

How much story is there still to tell? How many more season of True Blood do you think there will be or could be?
I do think there is certainly more story to tell. I think it’s a question of whether or not the viewership vs. the cost of making the show which is a science I know nothing about. I think we’ve seen the life of most shows on HBO, and most serialized shows are between 5 and 10 years. And vampires’ don’t age, but people do, but it’s OK because they’re all in great shape. The show is more like humans than it is like vampires.

 

With shows always being cancelled left and right, fans fear a cancellation of True Blood in the future without a proper ending. Will True Blood have a real final season with closure for the characters and the fans (as for example Six Feet Under did)?
Emotionally, as a fan of the show I think it would be a shame if we did not land the plane. We have told really sort of an epic story over a huge period of time and to stop it in mid air would be, as a story teller, very unsatisfying to me. Unfortunately, I don’t get to make these decisions; there’s an entire corporation that makes these decisions that’s far above my level. Certainly from the people I know at HBO, I feel that they understand that; the value of telling a complete coherent story and the importance to satisfy an extremely loyal audience to the show. That’s the one thing that the writers have talked about as wanting more than anything else to be able to tell an ending to the story. Everyone one associated with the show wants that and I do believe that everyone’s intentions are for that to happen.

SEASON 5

Is there anything you can say about Season 5?
Yes. We’ve really only edited and finished the beginning, the first several episodes, but I will say that I feel more excited about this season than I am about any other season, including the first one. The first one was apprehension, is anyone going to watch it?  There is seriousness to this season that I think we have earned over the past several years and a substance to what the characters are going through. When you watch the first episode, I think you’ll feel it. From what we’ve seen so far, I’m more excited than I ever have been.

 

From my perspective, the authority seems really interesting and to learn more about the vampires and their world is exciting. And the new hires, Christopher Meloni, Christopher Heyerdahl, etc. are awesome.
They’re terrific and it gives a great feel of the past, real gravitas to what is supposed to be the nerve center of the vampire world and, you want it to feel big and impressive. The set design is incredibly impressive; all of this is hugely impressive.

 

Thank you for bringing Denis O’Hare back.
Denis is just such a joy and he is a delightful person to be around and he is an extraordinary master of his craft. We’re not doing anyone any favors; it’s great for the show.

 

AFTER TRUE BLOOD

What’s next after True Blood?  Will you continue writing or are you interested in producing, directing, etc.
I would just love to continue telling great stories. The title of writer producer just means that I write episodes and have a supervisory role as they are being made. I’m not someone who knows how to schedule and budget. Whether I’m writing for a show that someone else has created or if I’m lucky enough to create my own, I just want to continue to tell great stories. I think television is a writer’s medium. I get to be on set and supervise the production of my episode. If I were a writer on a feature film, I would be lucky to be invited to the set, let alone speak.  That is a director’s medium and traditionally has been. So, I think writer’s have migrated to television for that reason and television has taken advantage of that and it’s taken advantage of being in many ways a better medium for telling character stories, giving an intimate experience where these people come into the privacy of your home week after week and go on journeys that are open ended and go in directions that you might not expect. A feature film is another story. At a film, it’s you and a bunch of other people at this event to witness something, a spectacle if you will, and at the end of it you wash your hands of it, you’re done with it; they don’t live with you any longer after that. So the great advantage of film is that you can have your mind blown for 2.5 hours, like Exception for example, and I loved that film, but I have to tell you that I can’t remember any character names in that film. And it wasn’t what matters, what mattered was that crazy hotel room, that cave of ice and all that other stuff, and you get your mind blown for 2.5 hours and then it’s over.

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STEPPING STONES TO TRUE BLOOD – Alex’s Bio 

Alexander Woo was raised in NJ and went to Jr. High and high school in New York. He went to undergraduate school at Princeton for creative writing and then received his graduate degree from Yale Drama School where he wemt to become a playwright.

When talking about his schooling he said:

I had some extraordinary mentors there [Princeton] and I was planning on being a fiction writer, short story writer or novelist, but it’s very lonely doing that and also at the age of 17, 18, 19, it’s very hard to focus on something as big as a novel. I also had been doing some theater, both acting and directing and I thought that in my naivety, I could combine the two and try my hand at being a playwright. It certainly didn’t happen very quickly and wasn’t easy but I went to Yale Drama School (spent three years there) and that was sort of my training in play-writing.

Yale drama school had an extracurricular theater called the Yale Cabaret where everyone gets to do a little bit of everything, so you get to direct a little, act a little, etc., which gives everyone a chance to do a little bit of everything, but within the school I was strictly a playwright. It was a wonderful incubator because we did 60 new plays a year at the school. I don’t think I’d been to 60 plays even in my life. New plays are always a risk in this economic climate and theaters tend toward more classics. Doing this was probably the most valuable part of going to drama school. You got to see the inner workings of a play in process. Being with a large group of your peers who were at roughly the same stage of development as you and creating theater that starts from the moment of inspiration and is developed over time. Between the creative writing workshops in my undergraduate and the play-writing workshops in my grad school experience I had spent 7 years doing nothing but sitting in writing workshops talking about and analyzing other peoples work n process. That has turned out to be one of the most useful tools to develop, to analyze and be able to give feedback in a way that is constructive and encouraging.

He moved out to LA because he had only experienced his little corner of the world on the East coast and he wanted to experience something else. He had friends in Los Angeles, so he moved here. His plan was still to be a playwright, but even with a good year working as a playwright, it’s very hard to make a living, so to supplement his income he started writing trivia questions. He first wrote for Trivial Pursuit and then went on to write for Jeopardy. Alex is a big sports fan (his favorite teams are Boston Red Sox, and for Football, New Orleans Saints) so his focus was sports questions. That led to a job in the SF bay area working for electronic arts producing and designing video games. He said that he was so far afield from what he wanted to do, and was so bad at it that he was laid off very quickly and had to move back to LA.

At that point he was working for the syndicated version of the game show, “The Weakest Link” as a researcher and when that show went away, he had nothing going on. However, he did have a play that ran off Broadway at the time and received a very nice review in the New York Times.

With that experience, and the help of some friends he had gone to school with who had worked their way up within the entertainment business, he was recommended to give a shot at Television.

He wasn’t a fan of TV at the time:

I had kind of ignored TV for a while because I had grown up in the 70’s and 80’s when TV was still the “idiot box” and had avoided it. I didn’t think I would get any joy out of writing purely for hire, but there was a real change in the late 90’s early 2000’s like The Sopranos and The Wire, The West Wing that really changed the landscape. I’ve just mentioned several shows that were written by playwrights. Playwrights that had come to television whether or not for economic reasons I don’t know, but suddenly, the work for television got much, much better and I attributed it entirely to serialization.It’s something we take so much for granted now, but it’s not that long ago that the norm on TV was that the episodes were interchangeable, there was no real character journey from one episode to the other and there was no real reason to come back the next week other than to have the exact same experience you had this week. I think in the hands of some of the real pioneers of the craft TV found it’s great strength which was giving its audience an ongoing relationship of living with a set of characters which they live with for, in some cases, years.  And that’s what I think is the great strength of TV.

 

Alex is a fan of films that tell good stories above all. 

Things I like to watch on TV are the shows that get under your skin. The ones that really emotionally feel like these are your friends that are coming to visit you every week and you are excited for them when good happens to them, you get upset when they do things that upset you, you fear for them when they are in danger. And, even though you know they are characters who are speaking lines, you feel they are people and you talk about these people with your friends, spouse and co-workers as if they are real people. For me, those shows are “Breaking Bad,” “Game of Thrones,” and “Mad Men,” and previously, “The Wire,” “Six Feet Under,” “The Sopranos.,” “Dexter,” and “Homeland” currently. These are shows where you want to know how your friends are doing and that became very attractive to me and really to a large number of writers who are sensing that’s the real power of television. You can really get under someone’s skin and develop an ongoing long term, open ended relationship between a show and its audience.

 

His first TV show was a show called “Wonderfalls” which aired in 2004, it was on Fox.

It was a show created by Brian Fuller who did “Pushing Daisies” and he is a wonderful mad genius. That show was so whimsical, theatrical and wonderful, I honestly think if the Internet was a little more developed then, it was in 2004, it probably would have had a ground swell of support because it had a cult following. But, there was no Facebook and Twitter to tell everyone about the show and it only lasted about 4 episodes. It was a great experience because I was working on something that was so inventive and playful and original. It was a great first step into Television because all my fears about it being soul sucking and formulaic were quashed by that first experience.

His next jobs were on a show called LAX and then Sleeper Cell.

LAX was a difficult experience because that was on NBC and at a time when NBC was struggling. I learned how a show can be pulled in many directions at once and that lasted 5 episodes. So, luckily that made me available when Sleeper Cell was hiring.

Sleeper Cell: It’s dark and about terrorists so it’s difficult material, but it felt really worthwhile doing that. But it was one of those quirks of fate that if Sleeper Cell had done just a little bit better and had a third season, I never would have been available when True Blood was hiring and if it had been cancelled after one season I could have been on another show.  So, I happened to have been unemployed when Alan was looking for writers and there were many other shows that I interviewed for and met with, but True Blood was clearly the best opportunity.

 

GETTING THE JOB ON TRUE BLOOD

Did Alan Ball interview you himself and what was the interview like?
Yes Alan interviewed me. They read a number of scripts before the interview so they have already responded to the writing, but I believe that Alan had read one of my stage plays. It was a play I had written that was set in the south, in the 19th century, but I’ve never asked him, so I don’t know the for certain, but maybe he responded to the southern dialect in that play or maybe he responded to the fact that I was a playwright which he was and is and he wanted a playwrights sensibility. Whatever it was, he responded positively enough that I was able to meet with him and that meeting was as much as a “get to know you meeting” and certainly not an audition. We talked about the show; we talked about the script and the pilot. At the time nothing had been shot yet, he had written the pilot and most of the parts had been cast; and we knew that Anna was going to play Sookie. We talked about the places where the show could go. I had read the books because you certainly want to come prepared abd I had not read the books before. We talked very generally and what I had responded to in both the novels and the pilot script.

 

And it went well?

Yes. Attached to all of these interviews is “can I stand being around you for what may end up being years.” because the writers are going to be in a room for long, long hours almost like being sequestered for a jury. And there’s a certain alchemy that the show runner has to put together to get a team of people that can play along well. I think that involves not just a bunch of people who are all the same exact types, but also people who can work together well. So, for whatever reason he thought that I would be a good fit for the team of people he was putting together and I don’t know why, but I’m glad he did.

 

If you found this interesting you might want to read Inside the Writer’s Room.

And, please tell us what you think of this interview by leaving a comment below.
 
 

 
Even though Roslyn Harris hasn’t yet made an appearance on True Blood, talking to Carolyn Hennesy, the actor who plays her, made me feel like I knew what Rosalyn will be like. Carolyn seems to be full of energy, feisty and creative. She also described Rosalyn in a nutshell as “a woman who will have a glass of whiskey with you and then, if you cross her, she’ll drain ya.” In addition to talking about Rosalyn, Carolyn also told me how she loves True Blood (she watched all four seasons in 10 days). She said that after viewing all the episodes, she became a TRUE fan and during our time together she shared some of the things that made her gasp and awe while watching.

Carolyn’s not just an actress, she is a trapeze artist, knows sign language and is also a New York Times bestselling author of a pre-teen series called, “Pandora.” She is truly an amazing woman and I can’t wait to see her in Season 5.
 
I started out our discussion by asking her about her experience of seeing True Blood.
 
You are now known for having watched all four seasons of True Blood back to back.  Bravo!  However, I’m not surprised that you couldn’t stop watching because I think it’s like a novel that you can’t put down. Was that your impression and how did you like it?
Carolyn: I watched it all in 10 days and after the first couple of episodes, naturally I was wondering exactly what rock I had been hiding under that I had not delved into this show before. My husband and I didn’t get HBO, we got to see things through Netflix and other sources, but as soon as I got HBO, now the whole world has opened up to me. True Blood, with the pilot episode, literally got me “hook, line and sinker.”
 
For me it was episode 3, “Mine” when we first hear Bill Compton say, “Sookie is Mine.”
Carolyn: Oh yea, oh yea, that’s when he [Bill] is sitting in his mansion and she [Sookie] kind of walks in there, it’s the mansion pre-makeover, the old mansion.
 
When Stephen Moyer graciously took me on my personalized tour of all the True Blood sets, oh yes, oh yes, forget the industry, he’s the hottest man on the planet. And, we talked about the house, post-decoration and pre-decoration, but it was so much fun to wander around, to wander around Merlotte’s and wander around Sookie’s house. Again, having watched it all so recently,  I felt, “I’m home.”  This is where they shot this, and this is where they shot that, etc.”
 
What is your impression of True Blood now that you have been part of the cast vs. when you saw the show?
Carolyn: Being a member of the vampire authority, we are isolated, we are very much by ourselves in our own little world and we have really only come in contact on the show with Vampire Bill and Vampire Eric. So, it’s really just those two, and for me, knowing them even to the slight degree that I do, there’s a much more human face that I’m able to put on those four seasons and really savor the acting, because these are very funny, delightful, kind of cut ups and that’s not what really comes across, certainly not with Alexander. But, the sense of humor that both men have is extraordinary and so much fun to be around. They’re like blood brothers, brothers under the skin after four almost five years.

I would not be surprised to learn that Alexander is shy [or reserved] with the fans though. There are so many women and men who are just chomping at the bit to get within 10 feet of this man, I can imagine that it’s just overwhelming for this beautiful, beautiful young man. It’s like my first fan club weekend when I was on General Hospital, the amount of adulation coming at me was like the most wonderful Tsunami, but it’s still a tidal wave, and you’re simply not prepared for it. The second time you know a little about what to expect going in, but it’s a wonderful Tsunami, and that’s what it is.
 
Who are you favorite True Blood characters?
Carolyn: Lafayette and Sam, I’m Team Sam all the way. Love, Terry Bellefleur and I love Andy Bellefleur. I love the Bellefleur family. I loved Cooter [Grant Bowler] and I loved the Maenad. I thought she was exquisitely played by Michelle Forbes and that was a fearless performance. Oh, and of course, my favorite and yours, Mr. Russell Edgington, III [Denis O’Hare]. It’s like being in a master class. Talk about fearless, I like to think I’m fearless as an actor, and then you get around somebody who just chews up the scenery in the most profound way and the most delightful, exquisite and fully realized way. Thank you for that class mister, thank you so much, what do I owe you?
 
What can you tell us about your character of Rosalyn Harris?
Carolyn: Here’s what I have deduced from working with the writers and from the little drips and drabs I’ve heard and by talking with Alan. Rosalyn is very old, but has found her heart in Texas. Now, that means that Rosalyn, as far as I’m concerned, is one of the gals who helped to settle the old west, so Rosalyn is a “man’s man, in a man’s world’ in a very strange way, yet she is always a lady and she has found herself kind of stuck in the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s in the great grand dames of Texas. Rosalyn is what we call a “broad.” She has a fantastic sense of humor and I like to think of her as a combination of May West, Ann Richards, and Joan Crawford in Johnny Guitar. She takes no names, no prisoners. She’ll have a glass of whiskey with you and then if you cross her, she’ll drain ya.
 
So she is very Texan then, right?
Carolyn: Yes, she is very Texan, but Rosalyn has retained a wonderful sense of humor about herself and about everything else. Rosalyn just gets the joke and finds the humor and understands that mainstreaming is really the way to go and just plays it that way. But above everything else, she is also a survivor.
 
What kind of dresser is Rosalyn? Do you have any interesting outfits? And, what’s with the big hair?
Carolyn: Rosalyn is exquisitely tailored, there’s nothing that doesn’t fit and there’s nothing that doesn’t match. Her clothes are only the finest designer labels, but she’s got this hair which she just teases up to God and calls it a damn day. That’s Rosalyn. And, they have not wigged me and I don’t know how they manage it with my hair in a short and adorable little bob, but they do. There’s a lot of hairspray flying around that makeup trailer, lots of it.
 
Regarding the clothes, does Rosalyn wear all kinds of outfits and dress contemporary?  What I mean is Pam wears a variety of outfits, sometimes she is in pink looking very 60’s and other times she wears outfits with thorns sticking out and is dressed very voluptuously. What about Rosalyn?
Carolyn: No, Rosalyn is very, very conservative, but very chic. Rosalyn looks as if Ann Richards was brought into this particular age and very contemporary. Rosalyn is just chic head to toe. Listen, what about the boys? Stephen and Alexander are in T-shirts, jeans and leather jackets and they still look like they are runway ready. Audrey Fisher is a genius, pure and simple.
 
How many episodes will you be in this season on True Blood?
Carolyn: I honestly don’t know how many, at the end of the season I’m going to be in, but from what they’ve filmed so far, I’ve been in the majority.
 
You’ve already shared that you’ve mostly worked with Alexander Skarsgard and Stephen Moyer, but what about other members of the cast who are also on the Authority?  For example, we know that Chris Meloni is a member of the authority so I’m guessing you’ve worked with him a lot.
Carolyn: Yes, he is absolutely on the Authority and is the guardian of the authority and I work very closely with him and he is just a delight. The password for Chris Meloni is just “sexy.”
 
What about Christopher Heyerdahl, have you worked with him yet?
Oh yes, absolutely. He is also a member of the Authority. Chris Heyerdahl, Peter Mensah, and Valentina Cervi, but I just call her the beautiful Italian woman. We are all members of the authority and all work very closely together.
 
Any favorite quotes from the show?
Carolyn: That I can remember from the show?  Oh Gosh, The aids burger scene when he [Lafayette, Nelsan Ellis] takes that hamburger over to those three boys in that booth and he drops it on them and then gives that speech about aids. What makes a great quote is how it’s delivered, so he [Nelsan Ellis] just pulled no punches and it was just “heaven.”
 
Below is the scene Carolyn is talking about from Season 1.
 

 
What do you think of Alan Ball leaving the show? Do you think it will change because of his leaving?
Carolyn: I know, it’s like Papa come back, don’t leave. I think he knows, and everyone on that set knows, that first of all he’s not walking off into the fog; this is not a “Casablanca” moment. He’ll be back. He will always have a shepherding eye, I believe, on the show. I know in my heart of hearts that he would not be leaving if he did not know that the show was left in spectacular hands. The show is simply going to continue unabated. I don’t think he would leave if he felt there was going to be a misstep, so we all have to feel very, very confident, I certainly do. No one wants to see change especially when the machine is so well oiled and is running at top speed and is so incredibly good. No one ever wants to throw a monkey wrench in that machinery, but this is one case where the technology is fantastic and the operator can walk away so to speak. Is it pleasant, of course not, but his is a machine that is functioning like a Swiss watch, so I think we’re good.
 
You’re originally from Los Angeles, right?
Carolyn: Born and bred in Encino. My father was in the business, and I had an aunt in the business. My aunt is [actress] Barbara Rush. She is my aunt on my mother’s side. So, I’ve been around the sound stages a few times.
 
And, I see that you have lots of stage experience and also were a member of the main company at the Acme Comedy Theater.  Can you talk about that a bit?
Carolyn: I came out of the Groundlings and was still looking for and needed to work out and I loved, loved sketch comedy and a friend of mine told me about the Acme Comedy Theater which was run then, by MD Sweeney. I went down and started working out with them and then they moved over to a beautiful theater on La Brea and I was there for what I consider to be the “Halcyon salad days” of the Acme Comedy Theater with some amazing talent and created some high watermark sketches. I still keep in contact with those people today and they are some of my very best friends. Some of the best work and some of the best sketches came out of that.
 
Most of what I see on your resume is stage and TV.  Do you plan to do films, too?
Carolyn: Absolutely, of course, always, wherever they’ll take me I shall go there. Working actor, have makeup kit, will travel.
 
Here’s Carolyn’s demo reel showing some of her other amazing performances:
 

 
Can you talk a bit about your one woman show “Carolyn Hennesy’s Big Leap” and what that was all about?
Carolyn: I took a number of the characters I had created at both the Groundlings and Acme and put them into a very sort of, funny, multi-character, ensemble one woman show. I had it up at the HBO work stage for a while and that was a tremendous workout. You talk about a good workout. I worked very closely with a couple of creative directors and producers who sort of shepherded me through the whole process. I wrote the whole thing and it was a great experience.  It was exhausting, but very rewarding.
 
Am I right that you are currently acting in Cougar Town, General Hospital and True Blood?  How is it juggling all that as well as all your other interests?
Carolyn: Cougar Town has finished filming for this season and I was on Cougar Town this season. Fans will be able to catch me on Cougar Town this season as the inimitable Barb. General Hospital never stops filming so I go back to that when I can. But, now True Blood has really taken priority. We managed to sort of juggle everything.
 
How long have you been on General Hospital?  What is it like playing a “mob lawyer?”
Carolyn: Diane Miller, smart, sassy, witty, no nonsense no guff, a little bit of a cougar and takes absolutely no nonsense. She is the only one on that show who can keep the head of the crime family, the head mobster, Sonny Corinthos in place. She’s the only one who can talk to him and not get shot in the head for what she says.
 
See Carolyn in her part of Diane Miller from General Hospital below:
 

 
Do you think that playing the part of Diane Miller on General Hospital had any influence on your getting the part on True Blood?
Carolyn: I don’t know that for a fact, but I wouldn’t be surprised. Alan Ball is very savvy; he knows everything that’s going on. I think that Alan Ball is like JFK and probably reads several newspapers every morning cover to cover, so he knows what’s going on. I wouldn’t be surprised if he said, hey, here’s a quality that I like, I want to bring this actress in as part of the vampire authority to see where it goes to see where it leads. Do I know that for a fact? No, I don’t. Would I be surprised to find that out? No. Diane, I like to think was the Greek Chorus for General Hospital. She was able to say what the audience was thinking, she was able to give that viewpoint especially to these mob characters that were just running amuck and lacking tremendously in common sense. She was able to say if you do “A”, then “B” will happen, guaranteed.  She is smart and sassy, witty and funny, so I think Alan Ball might have taken a look and said “OK, let’s see her. “ That’s not to say that I didn’t have to audition and earn it, but maybe that helped a little bit.
 

You were on Once upon a Time in the first Season, will you be back?
Carolyn: I hope so, I had a wonderful time doing it and you know, Jiminy Cricket’s mother, his parents, they’re still there, Martin and Myrna, they’re not dead, there not gone. I would love to see a return of Martin and Myrna because they were so deliciously evil.
 
I think it’s interesting that now we have two True Blood cast members who have been on this show, you and Kristin Bauer.  Have you and she talked about it?
Carolyn: Yes, Kristin played Maleficent, well what a great choice.
 
We don’t have too much time left, and I’d like to mentionother parts of your life, like that you speak sign language, have flown the flying trapeze, but I want to be sure to ask you about your books because that’s another big aspect of your life I’m sure.
Carolyn: Of everything that I have ever done in my life, to date, and there have been a lot of wonderful adventures, the best thing that I have ever done in my life is the seven Pandora books.
 
What made you start writing your books and why did you decide to write pre-teen books?
Carolyn: My books were originally a series of short stories featuring Pandora as a thirteen year old. At 13 you know everything and you know nothing. My Pandora was a teenager and I just wanted to combine my love of Greek mythology, and I started to expand this particular short story at the suggestion of a fellow writer who said, “You know what?  This could be a series of novels for young adults.” I really remember my twelve, thirteen, fourteen year old years as particularly angst driven and I thought if I can help some girl get through this and understand that you’ve got to develop your character,  and if you mess up, and we all do, you have to step up to the plate and take responsibility for your actions. Yes, you have to suffer those consequences but sometimes, in suffering the consequences, you get to save the world. So you really need to look at the larger picture and you can have fun doing it, you can learn about yourself, test the bonds of friendship, live by your wits and I thought those teenage years can be a grand adventure, they don’t have to be angst ridden. And, that’s why I went off in that direction.
 
Below is an appearance Carolyn made discussing her books.
 

 

I enjoyed speaking to Carolyn and again, am looking forward to seeing her character in June. Look for more information about Carolyn at her website carolynhennesy.com and she is also on Twitter at @CarolynHennesy.
 
 

I had the opportunity of meeting up with the very lovely Janina Gavankar who plays Luna on True Blood at a party in Hollywood and when we spoke together, I asked her if she would be willing to speak to me for an interview. She consented and we spoke together this week where I asked her about True Blood and all the other many projects she is involved in.

Janina is bright, energetic, and above all talented. She is not only an accomplished actress, having been in several television series in addition to True Blood, such as The Gates, the L Wrod and several films now, but she is also a musician and a self proclaimed Internet Geek, and proud of it. In my opinion, she is truly “a renaissance woman” and has her life in full gear!

When we sat down for our chat, I started our conversation by asking about what I know all the fans want to hear about, True Blood Season 5.  She was quite candid about this upcoming season without giving away too much.  From what she revealed, it looks like its going to be an exciting season for Luna and Sam and also for all the shapeshifters.  And, another big spoiler she gave away is that she confirmed that this is the “year of the bromance.”

Learn what she had to say about our favorite show, and about all her other projects, by reading below:

Lynn: How’s is Season 5 going?
Janina: It’s awesome, it’s insane. I can tell you that for shapeshifters, we’re in episode 8 right now and its complete craziness for shapeshifters. Well, it’s crazy for everyone right now, but for us, it’s insanity.

Lynn: Stephen Moyer’s directing this one right?
Janina: He’s awesome he’s a great director. He has this great way of going in your face about the moment and being completely relaxed about it.  He doesn’t move on …he doesn’t move on unless you, the actor, are completely happy with the take. Most director’s make you THINK they are going off of you, but are really going off of the DP (director of photography) before they move on. Ha ha! Stephen is one hell of an actor, and not surprisingly, he is one hell of a director as well.

Lynn: Is there anything that you can share with us? What is the general feel of season 5?
Janina: It’s different for me because it’s my second season so I’m much more relaxed. I would say that overall that this year is “the year of the bromance.” I can’t tell you who I am speaking of. It’s also when we will see where vampires come from and that’s really cool, but pretty scary.

Lynn: Can you give us any hints as to what Luna’s going to have to go through this season?
Janina:Without giving too much away, I’ve said before that something happens to her that she’s going to have to deal with for the rest of her life and she still dealing with the fact that her husband is dead. It’s not like he was just human or a shapeshifter but he was a wolf and an “Alpha.” An Alpha dying within a pack is a lot to deal with in its own way and we’ll see some of that and what that means.

Lynn: Sam and Luna seem so perfect for one another; will they at least find a little happiness together?
Janina: They found happiness last season and I think they really got to find each other and fall in love and that was really nice, but Luna’s a complicated girl and that’s something we’ll learn about this year. She’s not perfect and she is really just trying to keep life together, but remember she is a shapeshifter who ended up marrying an alpha wolf. For a chick to do that, she has to be a little crazy. To put yourself through that, you know and it’s not like, at least when they first met each other, they were in love, but they definitely fell out of love. What she went through to have fallen in love with a wolf and to deal with the repercussions of being a shapeshifter and being the one who got the alpha, to me that means she is a bad ass.

Sam and Luna from Promo for Season 5 – click here to see the promo

Lynn: Well, one thing we know about Alan Ball is that none of his characters are ever perfect and Luna falls right into a description of a typical Alan Ball character.
Janina: Right, exactly, she’s a complicated chick. You’re going to learn about the wolves through Alcide, but the thing that’s interesting is that even if their storylines aren’t intersecting you’re also learning a lot about what Luna has gone through in her life because of what Alcide is going through dealing with the pack. You have to remember, that He (Alcide) killed Marcus last year and we saw a wolf coming after Sam at the end of season 4. What we’re going to see from this world this year is that they obviously think that Sam killed him, so we’re going to have to deal with that, because we’re picking up [Season 5]  from the moment we left off last season.

Lynn: The death count of True Blood is notoriously high. Do you fear for your place on the show?
Janina: When I signed onto the show, I knew that any moment I could die so I’m not really worried until somebody tells me that I have to go and then I’m like I’m going to go big. No, that’s what the show is and I don’t mind, if I gotta go, I gotta go. I don’t want to sound flippant about dying or wanting this gig, because I will be devastated if they have to kill me, but I think we all are. I think everybody who has died on the show is like “Shit, it’s the best show on Television.” But if I have to go, I will be proud to go.

Lynn: Do you have a favorite scene in True Blood so far?
Janina: My favorite line of the entire fifth season is said by “Hoyt.” He gets to say my favorite line.

Lynn: If you could bring back one True Blood character from the dead who would it be and why?
Janina: That’s a good question, I would bring back, hmmm, I love Bill’s maker Lorena. I think she is who I would want to come back. I really like her. She’s amazing.

Lynn: How has your life changed since you started playing Luna on True Blood?
Janina: Not much really, this is my third series; I previously did the L Word and The Gates.

Lynn: Do you think your role in The Gates had any influence on your getting the part in True Blood?
Janina: I don’t think so; I don’t think anybody had seen that show when I auditioned for this show. Interestingly enough we shot The Gates in Shreveport, Louisiana so I lived there for five months and the entire back story I have for Luna is based on the experience I had there.

Lynn: Can you talk about how you got the role of Luna?
Janina: Once I decided to audition, I was like; I want this show very, very badly. And, it’s not like I had seen it because I had only seen one episode, but everybody who’s taste I respected loved the show, so there are some trusted people in everybody’s life and if they tell you it’s amazing you believe it. And, when I did my chemistry read with Sam it’s like, oh this would be so great to work with him. He’s such a sweetheart and a super soulful guy.

Lynn: Can you talk about playing an American Indian vs. your real culture of your mother being from India?
Janina: Both of my parents are from India, and my mother is half Dutch and Luna is half American Indian. I do research on every character that I play and it’s not just an ethnic study. Do Irish people only play Irish people? And, if they play someone Italian do they have to do more research because they are Italian? Maybe, maybe not. But, I talked to just as many American Indian people as I did teachers. These are all the things that make up a person; nobody is just their ethnicity. And she is a mother too, and by the way, I didn’t know that she was a mother when I got the part. I think its episode 3 that she is revealed to have a little one, I was like “what, she’s a mom?” And she was even a single mom. That was a lot more back story to make up. So, I did a lot of work on Luna.

Lynn: One thing we know is that you are an Internet Geek, can we talk about that? Tell us a little about your online life, i.e., Posterous and Ms. Dewey, etc. By the way, I want you to know that I knew Ms. Dewey back when.
Janina: Ms. Dewey was an interactive search engine using Microsoft live technology and I just like any other acting gig, I auditioned for it. But, the funny thing was that when I went into the audition and the directors were trying to explain and, I’m sure they had to explain what it was going to be about to a lot of people, so they explained it to me that it was going to be an interactive search engine, and I was like, that’s freaking awesome, let’s do it. So, I went big with the character.

I think she’s probably my favorite character that I’ve ever played. She was such a bad ass, and she knew everything, she was smarter than everybody and she knew it and she was such a super smart lady and those are always fun to play.

 

Video of Ms. Dewey

 

Lynn: Is Nerd the new Sexy?
Janina: It always has been for me. [Laughs] If you’re not smart, then I am not interested.

Lynn: According to you what social media application should be developed this year? What are we still missing?
Janina: The end of last year, I created a template for artist and actors to use. Do you know this? Yes, on Posterous. I created this because I feel that everyone in the public eye should have an easy way to be able to control their online persona and presence. There really was no tool for that, which infuriated me, so I just made it on my own. As the years go by there is always going to be apps, new platforms and ways for people to connect so, it’s kind of like finding the one that can apply to all, and right now Posterous is doing that the best. They just sold to Twitter, so I was like, “Ah ha, I told you so.”

Lynn: Do you have stock in that company?
Janina: No, I wish! And you know I was the first actor to use Twitter, so I’m kind of two for two right now.

Lynn: You’ve certainly been promoting them, that’s for sure.
Janina: Yea, but only because I think they [Prosterous] are doing the best job and I will continue to do so unless they fail or somebody else replaces them. Probably you saw me give the social media talk earlier this year. That was pretty telltale because the major shift is that people are locking down their usage and/or their content. People want to share less with less people. We’re either going to fuel big brother or we’re not going to let that happen. I think that people have realized that social networks are not going to go away anytime soon and it’s really what you make it and however you use it, there’s not a “right way” to use social media and it’s absolutely OK if you un-friend people.

Lynn: You are also a singer and musician, right?
Janina: I am. I’m in the studio right now.

Lynn: What’s your instrument?
Janina: Piano and percussion and I oftentimes use my voice as an instrument as well. I’m not a go in the booth and cut this song I wrote kind of person. I have a heavy hand in everything I do. I produce and engineer my own vocals and I’m pretty anal about it.

Lynn: You have all these technical skills and now you’re producing music and doing all these wonderful things. Have you ever been interested in working behind the camera?
Janina:Yes, absolutely, but “all in due time.” I’ve produced shorts and I have many a talented friend and I’m the first person to show up and help at any moment. I’ve produced my own music video and with my very talented friends, Caitlin Pashalek and Ian Lyman  and, Ian is a technologist as well. I’m up for anything as long as it’s a challenge and I’ve never done anything like it before.

Lynn: You went to the Dallas Film Festival for the premiere of Satellite of Love and you’ve been to other film festivals right?
Janina: Yes, I’ve been to other festivals, but this was the first time I’d been to a world premiere of a film I’d done and this was the first time I’d seen the final cut, so I was nervous beyond belief. But, it was good; I was happy with it.

Lynn: Is it going to open anywhere else?
Janina: Yes, I think it will be doing a few more festivals. NAPA just asked for the film to be included and we’ll do a round of festivals and I’ll definitely keep you posted on that. If you can get Netflix to distribute it, than many more people will see it. Also, for the readers, Shannon Lucio who played Bill Compton’s wife on True Blood roped me into it. She guest starred on The Gates and I like her so much and think she is very, very talented. She is also a filmmaker herself and she was signed on to do this movie and then said that one of the characters, the one that I played, was the last to be cast and she wanted to pitch me. I read the script and I loved it and I signed on because of her.

Satellite of Love trailer

Synopsis: To atone for his absence at their wedding, globe-trotting and hard-partying musician, Samuel, invites his best friend Blake, a successful chef, and Blake’s new wife Catherine (with whom Samuel has previously shared both a bed and a bond) to idyllic Nadi Vineyards for a week-long party in paradise. Samuel imports hottie, cosmopolitan DJ, Michelle, from Barcelona to stir the pot and as the wine flows and records spin this complicated, revolving love amongst young “adults” is thrown out of orbit. Satellite of Love stars Nathan Phillips (Wolf Creek, Surfer Dude), Zachary Knighton (The Hitcher, Happy Endings), Shannon Lucio (The OC, Prison Break) and Janina Gavankar (True Blood, The League).

Lynn: Have you had any weird fan encounters?
Janina: No, nobody really recognizes me unless I’m really done up in some sort of fabulous look as if I’m going on the red carpet. So, if I’m not red carpet ready, nobody notices me.

I also think you ask for it. I would say that more people recognize me as Shiva from The League, because Shiva is a more normal girl. Going back to what I said, you have to ask for it. I got off the plane at LAX this weekend, and came up to baggage claim and there were paparazzi there and the guy looked me straight in the eye and I just casually walked right by him. I think he was like, “I know her, I know her, maybe…” But, I think if I walked out and I changed my posture, and I looked at him and looked away like, “please don’t photograph me” or I did something erratic then I would cause attention to myself and therefore ask for it. But, I really don’t do that; that’s not why I became an actor at all. So, it’s stayed pretty tame for me and I get to do whatever I want, and I’m ok with that.

Lynn: What’s next for you?
Janina: I just finished a film called, “I’m Afraid of Virginia Wolfe.” This is not the play “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Wolf,” this is a film within a film within a film. We re-enact Virginia Wolfe. We basically do a super-bastarized version of Virginia Wolf in this film. It’s amazing. And the cast is Guinevere Turner. Guinevere pulled me into it. Guinevere, who wrote American Psycho, was one of the writers on the “L” word and that’s how I know her. She was signed on to do it and then she called me and said, by the way, Carrie Preston is in this movie. And, Carrie has amazing taste, she is a filmmaker, and her film did so well at Sundance (That’s What She Said) and we also have the same managers. So, I went to my managers and said, tell me about this project and they said, well Carrie likes it, so OK, well that’s all I need to know.

And, I’ve never worked with Carrie. I don’t think Arlene has ever served Luna at Sam’s diner, or at least not that I know of so, it was my chance to get to work with her and she is “awesome.” So, I’m so glad I signed on to it. Now, that movie is now officially done and is in post-production now.

I’m also always doing Funny or Die videos and I’m in the studio making music. I’m a busy girl.

Here’s one of the videos that Janina did for Funny or Die – “Self rehearsal” with Justin Miles

 

Janina: And, Randy Jackson, of American Idol is now overseeing my entire project.

Lynn: Really, that’s awesome!
Janina: Yea, he kind of noticed me at the end of last year and we took a meeting. I’ve had a few people sort of fall out of the sky, like big fancy people, but they all want me to do a “pop song.” I’ve been signed before and it’s also not authentic to who I am?

Lynn: What’s your type of music?
Janina: It’s hyper musical and I’m kind of finding the perfect middle ground between acoustic instruments and electronic sounds so I’m picking really very cool producers and we’re making little music babies together.

 

It was so much fun talking to Janina and hearing the energy just come right out of her.  She is an inspirational woman and we know that she will be successful in all her many pursuits to express herself artistically.  I am so looking forward to see what happens to her character this season in True Blood.  Be sure to look for her when True Blood Season 5 starts on June 10.