Comic-Con
2010:
True Blood Panel
 According
to moderator Tim Stack from Entertainment Weekly, True
Blood has become a pop culture phenomenon, nay, an
obsession. When “the most attractive cast on television”
walked out at the start of the panel, they were greeted
with roaring enthusiasm from the tightly packed Ballroom
20.
Unfortunately,
Alexander Skarsgard (Eric Northman) and Ryan Kwanten (Jason
Stackhouse) were off filming a movie, and as Tim Stack had
said, “We wish their ab muscles were here.”
The
panel started off with Anna Paquin discussing her character
Sookie Stackhouse and how much she enjoyed playing a “kick-ass
heroine” this season. “At this point [Sookie’s]
life has beaten her up so much that she’s starting
to fight back and it’s been really fun. I get to literally
kick some ass.” Paquin also enjoyed playing a much
funnier Sookie, and Tim Stack complimented her impersonation
of Bill Compton’s trademark “Sookeh.”
While
Sookie has become a lot funnier, “Bill has gotten
crazy dark and incredibly twisted,” according to moderator
Stack. On Bill’s evolution throughout the seasons—mysterious
in season one, love-struck in season two, and incredibly
dark in season three—Stephen Moyer admitted that he
and Alan Ball were concerned about taking Bill too far into
his dark side, but described the acting experience as “so
delicious to do.”
 Moyer
commended show creator Alan Ball’s writing and expressed
his joy over being part of a show where “you always
get this opportunity to do something so different, so weird
like [the twisted sex scene with Lorena]…it’s
utterly other, and it’s been amazing for me.”
Describing
the head-twisting scene between Bill and Lorena “one
of the most grotesque moments” in True Blood
history, Tim Stack asked the panel to share any other favorite
gross-out moments. Sam Trammell had one he couldn’t
share because it hasn’t aired yet—so keep your
eyes open!
Paquin’s
favorite was in the second season, where Maryanne takes
over the house of Sookie’s grandmother: “I came
home and there was a small naked man in my sink, who was
doing something that looked quite…intimate with what
I believe were some intestines.” Obviously, you can
always count on True Blood to stay classy like
that.
Rutina
Wesley talked about Tara, Sookie’s best friend, and
her uncontrollable attraction to crazy people, the most
recent psychopath being vampire Franklin Mott. “Tara
attracts these types of people who love to see someone who
plays the victim all the time. When Tara actually gets close
to loving someone, she immediately runs away, like we’ve
seen her do with Sam Merlotte and others.” Wesley
attributed Tara’s insecurity to her lack of a strong
and protective father figure during her childhood, and she
also expressed her hope for some stability for Tara in the
future—“though [a stable Tara] won’t be
as fun.”
Adding
to the list of unbalanced characters, Tim Stack described
Sam Merlotte’s family as “pure Maury Show
trash.” Sam Trammell, who plays Sam Merlotte, explained
his character’s determination to help them: “Sam
is really intent on helping his brother, and the family
kind of goes along with the brother. And unfortunately,
that’s not going to be the best thing for Sam.”
 Denis
O’Hare (dressed very much like he does as King of
Mississippi) revealed that he had actually created a whole
back-story for Russell Edgington, which helped influence
the way he interpreted his character. “Alan encouraged
us to fill things in [about our characters], and […]
I love doing research,” said O’hare. “It
was a great opportunity with this character to create a
vampire who had such an ancient way of thinking, a different
morality, a different way of relating to humanity, a different
way of relating to werewolves.”
The
panel turned its attention to the many celebrity fans of
True Blood. Although he has an upcoming project
with Oprah, Alan Ball had no idea if The Big O watches the
show. Kristin Bauer van Straten (Pam) recently heard from
a friend that Elizabeth Taylor likes True Blood,
while Charlaine Harris (author of the Sookie Stackhouse
novels) said Anne Rice is also a big fan.
 When
Tim Stack asked about the origins of Snoop Dogg’s
“Oh Sookie” True Blood music video, Ball explained
that Snoop Dogg was a huge fan and had wanted to be on the
show since the first season. “I loved [the video].
I particularly loved the Sookettes,” said Ball. He
also had a sneaking suspicion that those Sookettes wore
the same wig as the Eric Northman in the porn parody of
True Blood — just a fun little tidbit.
The
discussion returned its focus to the characters, and Nelsan
Ellis was asked if Lafayette’s new boy toy Jesus is
more than “a nice nurse in a cute purple polo.”
Ellis was reluctant to share any spoilers on that, but he
was relieved that Lafayette was finally gettin’ some
lovin’: “Normally, when you’re love-making
with Lafayette there’s a financial transaction. It’s
good that you see the softer side of Lafayette, where he’s
falling for somebody.”
Ellis
also discussed how his mother Peaches and his four sisters
inspired Lafayette’s pizzazz: “They’re
crazy. I take all their crazy, twisted antics and behaviors
and I stuff them into Lafayette.”
 Back
on the topic of relationships, Deborah Ann Woll said of
Jessica and Hoyt’s troubled romance: “Particularly
for young people, you have to figure out who you are and
learn to love yourself really, truly. With the confusion
right now of being a vampire, I don’t know if Jessica
loves herself very much, so we have to wait for that to
happen first.” Woll speculated that perhaps with some
help from “Auntie Pam”, Jessica may finally
get a hold of the whole vampire business.
In regards
to the future of True Blood, Charlaine Harris said
she hopes to see Sookie’s great-grandfather, who plays
a very significant role in the book series. Joe Manganiello
(Alcide Herveaux) revealed that he has been promoted to
a season regular, which means more were-action for Sookie
and fans.
Alan
Ball had the most to say about season four, albeit cryptically.
“Obviously people who know the books know that there
is a character who doesn’t really know who he or she
is and becomes kind of a different person than we’ve
come to know,” Ball teased, eliciting very enthusiastic
cheers from the crowd. “And maybe someone who has
hated this person doesn’t hate them so much anymore.”
Moving
on to the audience Q&A, the first questioner asked the
actors what was harder to film: graphic depictions of sex
or violence. “Well, we have to fake the, uhm…
violence,” replied Anna Paquin after giggling during
the awkward pause. “No, actually, I prefer to get
naked earlier in the day and kill people in the later part
of the day, particularly with anything that’s going
to be really messy, because then you’re not stuck
with it all over you for lunch.”
 Stephen
Moyer preferred doing the violent work because he can allow
himself to eat during those scenes. He revealed that everyone
who had a nude scene basically starved themselves in preparation,
except for Ryan Kwanten and Joe Manganiello, whom Moyer
described as “physical anomalies.”
One
fan wanted to know about the challenges of working with
live animals on the show. “Skarsgard isn’t so
bad once you get used to him,” joked Bauer van Straten.
Since his character is the show’s main shape-shifter,
Trammell dealt with a variety of animals and thought the
deer was the best trained out of all of them, even when
compared to the dogs.
As the
King of Mississippi with his personal army of werewolves,
O’Hare had the extraordinary opportunity to work with
the more dangerous animals: “The wolves are very intelligent
and observant, so you have to be incredibly still around
them. My first day on set, Stephen and I got to meet the
real wolves… and we were told ‘Now, don’t
let them smell your fear because they’re very powerful.’”
When
asked about his writing career, Alan Ball said his fascination
with death and loss comes from his experiences with death
at a young age, which continue to influence him as an artist
today. However, Ball doesn’t think True Blood
is so much about death, despite the number of characters
who have died on the show: “To me, it seems to take
place in a world where death really isn’t the reality
that it is in our real lives, and that’s part of what
makes it such a fun place to visit.”
 Another
fan wondered if Bill and Sookie’s relationship would
progress in a way similar to the books. Ball was reluctant
to say much except that he believed Bill and Sookie are
soul mates: “I personally root for things to work
out between them. I don’t know if they will, but I
do believe their love is genuine.”
It should
be pointed out that Bill and Sookie in the books are very
different from Bill and Sookie in True Blood, something
that author Charlaine Harris really wanted to make clear
for the audience. “Things are evolving differently
in my world, so I think you need to regard this, in terms
of which relationships will last, as two separate entertainment
experiences.”
Harris
also said that she has known the ending to her book series
for nearly ten years, and plans to write thirteen books
in all. Commenting on one fan’s hope to see thirteen
seasons of True Blood, Ball said, “I would
love to see the show run as long as it possibly can—but
I don’t want to get to the point where we start having
to explain why vampires are aging.”
The
panel was then asked to share their favorite True Blood
moment on or off the screen, and Alan Ball admitted that
being at Comic-Con was definitely at the top of his list.
“Just being on the receiving end of this kind of fervor
from fans, that’s the closest that I’ll ever
get to being a rock star.” Stephen Moyer and Denis
O’Hare had an incredibly fun time working together,
while Anna Paquin was very excited about finally fighting
another character in a “full on, fully choreographed,
dirty, dirty fight.”
 Ball
then thanked Charlaine Harris for creating the supernatural
world of Sookie Stackhouse and company, for without her,
the cast and crew wouldn’t be having so much fun.
In fact shooting her cameo was Harris’ favorite True
Blood moment because she had never been on a working
set. “It was really illuminating to me, and it was
also gratifying to be treated with such great respect by
everyone I met. Writers don’t meet with that too often,”
she shared humorously.
The
last question of the day, which was about possible future
characters, was hijacked by fans’ pleading with Ball
to introduce Bubba, a brain-damaged vampire Elvis—
yes, the Elvis — into the show. “The
great thing about Bubba in the books is that you can totally
believe that he’s Elvis, whereas [on the show] we
would have to use an Elvis impersonator or a guy whose face
you never see.”
Many
people screamed “Bruce Campbell!” as a suggestion.
“But then it would look like Bruce Campbell,”
replied Ball but most of the audience didn’t seem
to mind—in fact, that’s probably what they want,
judging from the sounds of cheering.
And
the fans just kept on cheering as one of the most high profile
television panels came to close, and the cast exited the
stage to a barrage of camera flashes and exclamations of
“We love you!” Be sure to catch True Blood
in all its blood and gore and sexiness, Sundays at 9 p.m.
on HBO.
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