The Vault – TrueBlood-Online.com

Anna Paquin‘s Hallmark movie “The Courageous Heart of Irena Sendler” has been released on DVD.

If you missed the TV premiere in April of this year, let me fill you in on this incredible and true story.

Irena Sendler was a Catholic social worker who helped save the lives of 2,500 Jewish babies and young children in the Warsaw Ghetto during World War II. She used fake identification to pass herself off as a nurse, which allowed her to enter and exit the walled-off ghetto with relative ease. Irena used that advantage to mount the daring and dangerous operation to smuggle children to safety.

Irena Sendler was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007, and died at age 98 in May, 2008. While alive, she was never comfortable being singled out for special recognition. She always reminded people that smuggling and then protecting all those children represented a collective effort on the part of many brave souls, including couriers, nuns, priests and Polish families, to say nothing of the close-knit band of mostly women who were part of her underground smuggling network.

Anna Paquin researched the life and times of Irena Sendler before filming began in November, 2008, in Riga, Latvia.

“She was extraordinarily strong,” Paquin says, “and extraordinarily modest. She had no sense of being in any way special or heroic. She was angry about what was happening to the Jews she knew personally, and the thousands more she didn’t know. She said the only way she could live through that terrible time was to do something. She felt she had no choice.”

Paquin continues, “When she was asked years later, ‘Weren’t you scared?’ she answered, ‘Yes – but my anger was stronger!’

Read more about “The Courageous Heart Of Ireana Sendler” in our Special with photos, movie clips and a video interview with Anna Paquin.

Special reporter for ‘The Vault’ Gretchen attended the premiere screening of  “The Courageous Heart Of Irena Sendler” Monday night (April 13) at the Darryl F. Zanuck Theatre in Hollywood and met Anna Paquin and Stephen Moyer. Read her article here.

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Chris Bauer (Detective Andy Bellefleur) was interviewed on TVTalk Blogtalkradio today July 4th. His interview start at 66 minutes into the broadcast.

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Written by The Vault’s special reporter Gretchen

I have said this before and I will say it again (on roof tops if I have to), what makes True Blood as successful as the great HBO series before it (i.e Six Feet Under) is their potpourri of amazing talented actors. The truth can be said with their supporting cast members, and I have witnessed this first hand when I was invited to see Tara Buck’s play, “Ten Cent Night” at the Victory Theatre Center in Burbank, CA. We all know Tara to be the wild-eyed employee of Fangtasia, beholden to her master, Nordic Vampire and Sheriff Eric Northman (played by the uber talented Alexander Skarsgård).

Tara Buck as Roby

Tara plays the lead role as Roby Finly, daughter of famous Blues Musician, Hewitt Finley. Roby has estranged herself from her family…abandoning them while they languish after their father took his own life leaving a painful permanent reminder in the form of a bullet hole engraved on the wall of their Texas home. Roby leaves her fraternal twin sister, Dee (Caitlin Muelder) to keep the family together from destitution. You will discover as the play progresses, that the surviving children were not even given the rights to their father’s royalties on his hit song, “Ten Cent Night”. The younger siblings are also fraternal twins, played wonderfully by Alison Rood as Sadie Finley and Shane Zwiner as Holt Finley.
It’s a fairy tale, the modern kind, with incredible plot twists – mistaken identity, secret incest and an altruistic aging prostitute that may hold the answer to the heart-broken family’s woes; and like any fairy tale, there is a happy ending. The Chicago Tribune hails it as “…a juicy chunk of Texas gothic that plays like a classic country and western song”. I also give praise to Marisa Wegrzyn who is the creative scribe of “Ten Cent Night”.

It’s singularly one of the funnest, touching stories I have ever seen and I bow down to Tara Buck’s acting prowess. As she slides in and out of the stage, every inch of her is Roby Finley…she puts on her persona like a second skin and with masterful skill. It’s not hard to imagine she’s played an array of roles before True Blood. She’s remembered and given critical acclaim for her role as “Rhea Reynolds” in Nip/Tuck and has guest starred in TV hits such as: The Shield, Without a Trace, The Closer, Bones and Cold Case.

I met with Tara after the play and just as Anna Paquin and Stephen Moyer impressed me with their humble disposition, the ever gracious Tara did the same by giving me a hug to show her thanks. She is appreciative of the support the fans have showed her and asks we continue to do so by watching True Blood. Tara, your wish is our command.

Gretchen and Tara Buck

We asked Tara Buck a few questions about “Ten Cent Night”.

The Vault: Tara, what makes this play special for you? What make this role interesting for you?

Tara: When I read the play I immediately connected with the role.  Marisa Wegrzyn is a wonderfully talented writer and I think it’s quite an honor to be bringing one of her characters to life.  She currently has two commissions with both Steppenwolf and Yale.  Marisa creates complex characters that are layered with contradictions.  My character Roby is tough and vulnerable.  She’s street smart one minute and has an almost childlike naïveté the next.  She’s an alcoholic, petty thief, her parents both commit suicide and she’s fighting to create a career as an artist while living in her famous musician father’s shadow.  Greek tragedy right?Oh no, this is a comedy!  It’s a dark, dark comedy of course.  My role has been a challenge but that’s the main reason for doing live theatre.

The Vault: How did you get the lead role and did you initially auditioned to play Roby?

Tara: I initially auditioned for the role of Roby.  I ended up having three different callbacks and after the first reading they asked me to prepare for both of the sister roles.  Roby and Dee are twins and there was a lot of mixing and matching.  At the final callback Caitlin Muelder was there to read for the role of Dee and when we read together it was an obvious match.  In addition to actually looking alike, we both have a very similar sense of humor.  She’s wickedly funny but I’ve been watching and shamelessly stealing!

The Vault: How do you feel about Roby’s family situation? Why do you think Roby left them?

Tara: The family dynamic is crazy in this play… but isn’t it in real life.  We leave the nest, we try to prove we can stand on our own and that we have a voice of our own.  We make mistakes more than we want to admit and then we realize we are more like our parents then we ever knew.  Then we find some humility and carry on… That’s what it feels like to me any way.  What Roby discovers in this play is she is deeply connected to her family even though she’s been trying to get as far away from them as possible.

I grew up in a small town in Idaho.  I wanted to divorce myself from my family and create a new life.  I wanted to be fancier, cooler, smarter and more worldly.  Now I play characters that remind me of my Mother or my Father or that feeling in my gut I carried around as a child.  Weird but it’s personal and it’s what I find interesting right now.

The Vault: If an opportunity presented itself would you reprise this role in the future? Would you play another character?

Tara: I would reprise the role in a second AND I would play Roby again… unless of course it was some how possible to play both roles (you know like Anne Heche did in Another World!) The hair pulling sister fight might be tough to pull off believably.  Both parts are fantastic and each has their challenges but at this moment of my life I’m more fascinated by who Roby is.  The courage it takes for this character to move from the beginning of her journey to where she ends up.  Human courage is a beautiful thing and from my observation it seems to takes an enormous amount for all of us to get through the day let alone a lifetime.  I’m drawn to characters who are underdogs.  I see Roby as this iconic Janis Joplin-esc character in so many ways.  She’s ridiculously self destructive but it’s because she has a fire burning in her gut.  Roby is a true artist and a lost soul.

Tara Buck as Roby

“Ten Cent Night” Critic Choices

“Ten Cent Night” is worth every penny!” – Burbank Leader  Critic’s Choice

“Ten Cent Night  is very humorous, amusing and holds more plot loops than an east Texas twister skipping through the lone prairie on a springtime afternoon. Yee-hey!” – Rich Borowy LCP critic’s choice

A well-written play, with all of its passionate feuding familial frenzy, is a barrel of Southern-fried fun! Do see it!” – Toulcan Times Critic’s choice

“Ten Cent Night” is definitely our critics pick, don’t miss it!” – Amer Radio Netwk

“This versatile ensemble hits every emotional note pitch – perfectly” Backstage West.

Tara and Martin Papazian

THE VICTORY THEATRE CENTER PRESENTS:
TEN CENT NIGHT BY MARISA WEGRZYN

June 19 thru August 2, 2009

Directed by
Maria Gobetti

Featuring
(in order of appearance)
Tara Buck, Martin Papazian , Alison Rood, Caitlin Muelder, Shane Zwiner , Gareth Williams, Kathleen Bailey

For theatre information and ticket reservations call: (818)841-5421

For more information, please visit www.thevictorytheatrecenter.org

Victory Theatre Center
3326 West Victory Blvd
Burbank, CA 91505

photo credit: Billy Hamilton Photographer
www.billyhamilton.com

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TV Guide selected Summer TV’s Sexiest Stars and four True Blood actors are among the sexiest.

Stephen Moyer and Anna Paquin, True Blood
These two just can’t keep their clammy, pale hands off each other, and who can blame them? Their on-screen chemistry has translated to off-screen romance.

Rutina Wesley, True Blood
Even though she stays away from men with fangs, Wesley’s Tara has found herself with several suitors. This season, she’s got an equally sexy man to share her scenes (and bed) with.

Ryan Kwanten, True Blood
We’d write something about how well Jason Stackhouse’s shirts fit him, but, well, he’s not often wearing one. (Bonus: He’s really, really dumb.)

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US Weekly July 13

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Access Hollywood added a new video with Season 2 Red Carpet interviews.

Michelle Forbes, Mehcad Brooks, Deborah Ann Woll, Valerie Cruz, Mariana Klaveno

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This post has been updated with a reaction of Stephen Moyer to this article.
Read at the bottom.

The interview “Five questions for Stephen Moyer” is part of a bigger article. The writer posted the quotes that didn’t make it on her blog.

I found out yesterday that people.com picked up my interview with Stephen Moyer for DirecTV’s Access magazine, which I write for all the time and nobody’s ever heard of, in which he talks about how hardcore his girlfriend Anna Paquin is about boxing. Hence, the failure for people.com to give me a name check. But whatever, I’m not exactly up there with Maureen Orth or, gee, you know, Meghan McCain. Still, it’s  a bit exciting to have an outtake from a piece you wrote aggregated all over town.

Moyer was a fantastic interview. He was super-chatty and informal and off-the-cuff and funny—he joked around and laughed a lot.  I had to narrow the piece down to 700 words so a ton of quotes got left behind, so here’s some of the stuff that didn’t make it in.

Moyer’s a patron at the Brentwood Theatre in Brentwood, in England’s Essex County, where he grew up. His mother is the chairman, and it’s where he got his first acting gig. “I was about 10 in a show called The Gypsy Baron. And I can’t remember very much about it apart from a song that went [lapsing into an impressive tenor] Up in the morning with the lark…  And I also had to run onstage and say, ‘Queen Sheepra is coming!’”

When he hit big as Bill Compton in True Blood, a lot of fans of the show started contributing to the theatre’s renovation—including the BillsBabes, a group of middle-aged women who were rabid fans of the character in the Charlaine Harris books and now are just crazy about Moyer. I asked him what he thought about the BillsBabes.

“They’re wonderful, and they’re totally insane. We were at the Paley festival this week, it was honoring True Blood, and these ladies had flown in from all over America to come to see us live. And there was a load of BillsBabes in the second row with their BillsBabes T-shirts on. But I’ve gotta say, what I really love about it is that all these girls and ladies have never known each other before, and they started… twittering, if you will, in the True Blood wiki website, and now they’ve all become friends, and they’ve started this amazing community of people. It’s quite unbelievable really.”

I asked him if he ever dreamed anything like this would happen to him back when he was touring with the  Royal Shakespeare Company.

“That I would be followed by some middle-aged women across America?”

Ooo-er, cheeky!

He talks about the sexual potency of Twilight vs True Blood:

“Twilight is about a chaste love affair. And in many respects, it’s the same with True Blood, up to a point. And then when the sex happens, it fucking happens, and it’s real and it’s almost breathtaking. You know, you’ve been waiting for it and it’s: Will they? Won’t they? Yes they fucking will. And it’s gonna be dark sexy sex. And you’re gonna see it. And of course you don’t see that in Twilight. And you don’t get to see it on terrestrial television. Luckily on HBO you do get to see that, and I think the viewer does want to see that.”

Which gets him going about the hypocrisies in American culture. “I think we live in a puritanical society where we should be able to say to our children, ‘No you can’t watch something after 9 o’clock,’ and we should be able to watch it on television without having to pay for it. We’re grown ups. I don’t understand that you’re allowed to shoot 200 people in the first 30 seconds of 24 but you’re not allowed to show a nipple? And how are we gonna bring up our kids with that kind of right-wing puritanical…. Oh it drives me fuckin’ nuts.”

I asked him if he thinks Robert Pattinson has stolen his thunder. And he gets totally earnest.

“No! I truly don’t. I was in England, I didn’t even know about Twilight. I was in England living my happy little life and being with my kids and walking the dog. So as much as I think people want me to say I am affected by it, I’m not. I wish him all the best. He’s a cracking lookin’ dude and good luck to ’im. There’s room for all of us, there really is.”

Moyer has described himself as a bit of a lad, a geezer. He translates, for those who think geezer means old man:

“A geezer is somebody who is confident, who’s a little bit cheeky and cocky and maybe a little bit too cocky for his own good. A bit of a lad means a bit naughty, maybe you do things that you shouldn’t do.”

I’d read that Moyer had become a vegetarian because Anna was a vegetarian. I asked him if this was true. He’s genuinely taken aback.

“Noooo!  Anna’s not a vegetarian. She was at one point.” He pauses. “But, she likes her meat and two veg, know what I mean?”

Ooe-er! Nudge nudge, wink wink.

Note from Shadaliza:

I would like to set a few things straight. The writer of this article could have contacted me to know more about the Billsbabes, but instead she guessed and she guessed wrong.

Most of us hadn’t read the Charlaine Harris books before True Blood and many of us still haven’t read them. Our demographic includes many different ages, countries, cultures, body types and colors. Stating that we are a bunch of middle-aged women seems very short-sighted to me. It makes it sound like we are dull and colorless.

Stephen is right that we are totally insane and we have become best friends, we chat, twitter, Facebook and Skype and organize meetings in various parts of the US. But our roots are not on the True Blood Wiki, we started out on the HBO message boards, but that was a long time ago, we now have our own virtual community.

I sent Stephen Moyer a link to this post on The Vault and this is part of what he responded to me:

“Oh God..
I am so sorry this has been edited this way.

Whenever I talk about your web site and your group I have always made a concerted effort to represent you in the best of all possible ways.
At the beginning I say something like ‘what I really love about it is that all these girls and ladies have never known each other before,’ and truly I mean that..
The interviewer then asked me something about aspirations..if I remember rightly.. something like “did you see yourself followed by middle aged ladies…?” and I took the sentence and made it what it became because, in that moment, I probably thought the sentence would sound funny.. (something that is increasingly getting me into trouble!)

So – apologies indeed”

Thank you Steve. Knowing you, we knew you didn’t mean it the way it sounded. You’re the best!

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Chris Bauer (Detective Andy Bellefleur) will be on TVTalk Blogtalkradio at 12 AM tomorrow July 4th.

TVTalk Blogtalkradio

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Five question for Stephen Moyer.

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As co-founder of the Billsbabes I would like to add that the ‘profit’ of the fan merchandise we sell in the Billsbabe’s Shoppe is donated 100% to the Brentwood Theatre of which Stephen Moyer is patron. And yes… we ship internationally.

Enter the Billsbabe’s Shoppe

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