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Sam Trammell and Rutina Wesley talk about True Blood’s Season 2 on KTLA morning chat on June 11, 2009

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William Sanderson (sherrif Bud Dearborn) was interviewed  by ABC News, he talks about True Blood’s second season and more and a short clip is shown.

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Article on Variety By SANDIE ANGULO CHEN

When Stephen Moyer auditioned in London for the HBO drama “True Blood,” the Englishman didn’t know whether he could pull off the accent needed to play Bill Compton, a 170-year-old Louisiana vampire.

“I hadn’t done a Southern accent since I pretended to be a cowboy when I was 7,” Moyer recalls. “I hadn’t practiced at home, because I’d literally gotten the script the night before, but when I opened my mouth when we were doing the take, it was just kind of there.”

After reading Alan Ball’s pilot script, about Louisiana bayou dwellers co-existing uneasily with the undead, Moyer believed that the show — an adaptation of Charlaine Harris’ Sookie Stackhouse novels — was “landmark television.”

“Honestly, I wasn’t really surprised by the show’s success, because I knew Alan was creating the kind of stuff I’d personally be interested in watching,” he says.

Many fans seem most interested in Moyer’s feverish chemistry with co-star Anna Paquin, who plays ingenue protagonist Sookie, a human who can read everyone’s mind except his.

“I honestly think whether the attraction is there or not, you have to create it,” he says. “I’m lucky because with Anna it’s there.”

In fact, the onscreen lovers developed an offscreen relationship early during the first season, although they didn’t tell the crew until “around the 10th episode.”

“We didn’t want it to look like our relationship was some sort of cheap attempt to get publicity, because it never was,” he says.

Not that his relationship with Paquin in any way deters bloodthirsty fans from asking for a bite.

“I get the Robert Pattinson leave-offs,” Moyer says with a laugh, referring to the young star of the hugely popular “Twilight” vampire movie franchise. “The ones who get to a certain point and think he’s a boy. There’s the Pattinson gang and the Moyer gang.”

What do you like most about your character?

“I love that he has 170 years of experience to draw on, and I like the idea that he’s read every book and learned every language and learned all the music that he was never able to learn when he was alive. I love his longevity and maturity.”

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Article on NYPost by By Jarett Wieselman

PW: Well, there is a new waitress now — Daphne — how do she and Arlene get on?
Carrie: Well, Arlene is happy at first that she’s been brought on to help because they’re short staffed. But that doesn’t last because Daphne doesn’t prove to be a very good waitress.

PW: Not to be rude, but it can’t be that hard — everyone is mostly regulars, right?
Carrie: Sure, but when you talk to Arlene, it’s a true science and a true profession.

PW: Last season she was very anti-vamp. Has she changed her point of view now that a human was revealed to be the bad guy?
Carrie: Um, not necessarily. I think it’s still hard for her to understand something that’s so unknown. And I don’t think that opinion changes overnight, but I do think she sees Sookie’s relationship with Bill differently now.

PW: I’ve seen you in a bunch of other projects, and it took me roughly four episodes to realize you were playing Arlene!
Carrie: Oh, it’s an absolute overhaul. I have fake hair, extreme amounts of makeup that changes my face, a fake tan, a fake bustline, fake nails, crazy tight clothes — it’s really the whole package.

PW: It must make it easier to slip into the character when you look so different.
Carrie: Especially for somebody like me, who is a character actress. When my husband comes to set, he can’t stop staring at me. He said, “it’s you, but it’s not you.” My whole demeanor changes when I’m Arlene. It’s liberating.

PW: How does it work in your household — do you watch one another’s shows or has going behind the scenes ruined the illusion?
Carrie: Oh no no, we’re both big fans of each other’s shows. I was a big fan of “Lost” before Michael joined, so I make him keep the spoilers from me. I mean, sometimes he’ll come home, I’ll ask how his day was and he’ll say, “I killed somebody today honey.” [laughs] So that comes out, but I don’t tell him much about Bon Temps, either. He keeps asking to do a guest spot, I don’t know if that’ll happen this season, maybe next year.

PW: Who should he play on “True Blood”?
Carrie: Well, I got to play his mother, so maybe he can play my daddy! No … that would be so wrong. Well, actually, he’s 13 years older than me, so in the South, I guess that could work! [laughs]

PW: Looking ahead to season two, what would you tell people to prepare for?
Carrie: Well, it’s interesting because season two has a much more chaotic feel to it. It’s a little more fragmented — it feels like there are four different TV shows going on. You’re splintering off into these different worlds: you’ve got the Sookie and Bill story, the Merlotte’s story, the Tara story and Jason’s story.

PW: And for Arlene?
Carrie: Arlene finds herself in some new situations that are kind of disturbing. It’s an amazing season!

“True Blood” premieres Sunday June 14 at 9 pm on HBO and don’t forget to check back all week for more cast interviews!

Photo: HBO

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Article on thehollywoodreporter.com

Katie Jacobs, left, Jenji Kohan, Alan Ball, Shonda Rhimes, Matthew Weiner and Greg Daniels (Photo by Dan Busta/Danbusta.com)

How do TV’s busiest showrunners keep their jobs and their sanity?

The showrunner is the workhorse of the television business, acting as the head writer, producer, casting director, editor, sound mixer, studio liaison, network communicator, hand-holder and surrogate parent. The Hollywood Reporter’s Ray Richmond and Matthew Belloni recently gathered six of the best in the business — Alan Ball (HBO’s “True Blood”); Greg Daniels (NBC’s “The Office,” “Parks and Recreation”); Katie Jacobs (Fox’s “House”); Jenji Kohan (Showtime’s “Weeds”); Shonda Rhimes (ABC’s “Grey’s Anatomy,” “Private Practice”); and Matthew Weiner (AMC’s “Mad Men”) — to explain how they wear so many different hats.

The Hollywood Reporter: What do you tell people who aren’t in the business when they ask what your job is?

Matthew Weiner: I tell them I’m a writer — the head writer, sometimes. And I tell them that I basically have a job where I get to oversee the writing and control all aspects of physical production, from casting to editing to sound mixing. And while any show requires hundreds and hundreds of people to put it together, I see myself as the guiding taste on the show.

Jenji Kohan: We are the big casting agents for our show. We cast our writers’ room. We cast our crew. We cast our department heads. There’s a skill there for understanding who will be good at their jobs.

THR: So you’re basically saying it’s the perfect job for a control freak.

All: Oh yeah. Absolutely.

Weiner: When people ask me, “What do you think of this?” I enjoy giving the answer — and then changing my mind.

THR: Greg and Shonda, you’re now running two shows simultaneously. How much more creative energy goes into a series at the beginning compared to one that’s been on for awhile?

Continue reading »

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True Blood’s Carrie Preston gives RadarOnline.com exclusive all access to her house, her hubby (Michael Emerson of Lost), and the red hot premiere party preps.

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Article on popwrap.com By Jarett Wieselman

Deborah Ann Woll joined the cast of “True Blood” late into season one, but she immediately made her presence known during one of the series’ most dramatic scenes. What else would you expect from an episode that features the show’s first human-to-vampire transformation?

Yes, Jessica the good Christian girl became Jessica the vampire when Bill was forced to sire her. Since then, she’s become his student and a thorn in his side. But as season two plays out, fans will watch Jessica go from puppy to predator — a dichotomy that Deborah absolutely relishes playing!

PopWrap: For Jessica, this season is very much about learning to be a vampire — does that put a crimp in Bill’s relationship with Sookie?
Deborah Ann Woll: Well, we certainly both need his attention. Jessica is young, inexperienced and needs his guidance, while Sookie needs her boyfriend. But some events arise that bring us together.

PW: What does Jessica think of Bill?
Deborah: Jessica thinks Bill is kind of lame, the way most teenagers probably see their parents. I think people who treat teenagers like children get a certain amount of attitude back … and Bill will get everything he deserves. Promise.

PW: Some fans see Jessica as annoying. How do you see her?
Deborah: The amazing thing about being a teenager is that they have feelings that run very deep and don’t feel constrained by society — they express those emotions. There’s something incredibly beautiful about Jessica expressing, to her fullest ability, exactly how she feels. Sometimes that might come off as annoying, but in a way it’s very self confident and self assured. I wish I had more of that in me.

PW: It must be fun to play someone so open, experiencing everything for the first time.
Deborah: It’s interesting — in the script where Jessica is first turned, it’s written that she feels like a newborn. She’s like a toddler in her terrible twos mixed with a teenager, and it creates something so heightened that I don’t know if any parent could deal with it. So it hasn’t just been an angsty teen’s coming of age story, but also seeing someone go from a baby who knows nothing about the kind of creature she is to someone who is learning about life through intense experiences.

PW: Jessica also dabbles with her sexuality in an upcoming episode. How dangerous is it to have basically this child mentally in a teenage girl’s body running around Bon Temps?
Deborah: Oh, that’s very dangerous because you don’t know what to do with those feelings, or how to control them. And your heart can take an unexpected turn at any time. I think she has all the same urges any 17-year-old would, but not the presence of mind to control them.

PW: What first attracted you to “True Blood”?
Deborah: Well, I love things that are just on the edge of reality — or even a little further is fine with me [laughs]. I think it’s fun to play with worlds that you can add a lot of your own imagination to. With “True Blood,” you’re not limited by anything, there are just leaps and bounds of the imagination you can take with these characters. And I love genre pieces because you can do or say anything and hopefully you’ve got someone like Alan Ball attaching an important message with it as well.

PW: I couldn’t agree more — whether it’s “Buffy” or “Dracula” there seems to be something about vampires that really lends itself to social commentary.
Deborah: Absolutely. There are the obvious comparisons to minorities and disenfranchised groups, which is important to talk about. Apart from being a woman, I haven’t experiences a lot of that. It’s interesting to take a look at people who deal with prejudice on a daily basis — it’s been a real eye opener for me. But my favorite theme we explore on the show is intimacy.

PW: In the romantic or interpersonal sense?
Deborah: When you really love someone, they know details about your soul and if they shared that with others, it would hurt so deeply, it could kill you. And the idea of doing a love story with a creature who could not only emotionally but physically harm you is an interesting idea.

PW: Jessica’s back story is a little murky — will that be explored more in season two?
Deborah: Oh, absolutely. Where you come from is such a huge part of who you are today. There would be no way to explore this new person Jessica’s become without looking back at who she was.

PW: How do you think season two stacks up to season one?
Deborah: Season two is much bigger. Last year, I think I only worked with three different actors essentially. This year it’s been much more about huge group scenes and that’s a little unusual for the show, but it’s more fun that way!

PW: And how would you describe Jessica’s journey in season two?
Deborah: I would say that this season is about growing up for Jessica. Every episode she becomes a little bit more adult. In the beginning, when she does something wrong, it’s “that’s your fault!” A lot of whining and complaining — what you saw in the first season. But as the episodes go on, Jessica starts to learn how to take responsibility. When things go wrong it becomes about learning how to deal with them in a more adult and compassionate way. You know, for a vampire.

“True Blood” premieres Sunday June 14 at 9 pm on HBO

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Stephen Moyer is in New York where he attended the The Cinema Society & The New Yorker screening of “Whatever Works” at Regal Cinema Battery Park on June 10, 2009.

“Whatever Works” is the latest Woody Allen movie in which new True Blood addition Evan Rachel Wood plays a role.

More photos in the Photo Gallery.

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HBO went to the set and presented the cast with questions from the fans.

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Stephen Moyer was a guest on the Jimmy Fallon Show.

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