Anna Paquin spills her guts over True Blood via the vancouver Sun
Truth be told, Anna Paquin looked nothing like True Blood’s Sookie Stackhouse on this day.
The Winnipeg born, New Zealand-raised actress who plays Sookie in Oscar-winning writer-filmmaker Alan Ball’s trippy, twisty vampire drama based on the popular series of novels by Charlaine Harris, appeared both resplendent and visibly relaxed in an immaculate ivory cocktail dress and sensible shoes as she made her way from the Beverly Hilton lobby to the main ballroom, through a shaft of reflected sunlight, accompanied by her beau and marriage partner of 11 months, Stephen Moyer.
The real — some would say surreal — world of Hollywood glitz and glamour is a far cry from the ill-fated telepathic diner waitress and emotional roadkill Paquin plays on TV, where her character is chased, day and night, by all manner and matter of vampires, werewolves, Wiccans, creepy babies and shapeshifters — each and every one of them hidebound determined to see that Sookie not live to see another sunrise….
This season is proving to be particularly arduous, with Paquin having already been on the receiving end of mock fights and physical confrontations that have, well, gotten a little out of hand at times.
Paquin is high-energy, impulsive and talkative, cheerful even, where Sookie is stubborn, self-reliant and given to sudden flashes of anger.
“Stubborn people get themselves in a lot of trouble, but they also get things done,” Paquin said. “She’s a pretty good person to have in your corner. She’s willing to put herself out there.
“Besides, if Sookie wasn’t so stubborn, our show would be a hell of a lot less exciting,”
Paquin was just 11 when she won the Academy Award for supporting actress, for Jane Campion’s 1993 film The Piano, filmed in New Zealand.
People change over time, even fictional TV characters and hard-luck heroines of vampire romance novels.
“I feel she’s undergone a pretty radical change from the first time we met her to who she is now. What’s interesting about her this season is she’s made the decision to be on her own and to tell both her gentleman callers to get lost. And in a way that makes her even more open to things happening, because she’s no longer as needy.
“Yeah, I think she’s definitely grown.”
Behind the scenes, Paquin doesn’t mind taking the occasional accidental crosscheck or mistimed hit for the team. True Blood’s fourth season has seen Sookie get into more than her share of physical scrapes, in fiction and in real life, while performing in front of the camera.
“Is it fair?” Paquin said, with a bright laugh. “I’m having the time of my life! Are you kidding me? And I’m not just a little thing, thank you very much. I can hold my own. I dare Alan to come up with something I say no to.”
Ball’s vision of True Blood has already veered from the original source material on several occasions, but that doesn’t mean any kind of “massive transformation” lies in Sookie’s future, at least as far as Paquin is aware.
“I would welcome anything that adds to the texture of who she is. I think that any time your character gets to do something wildly different, it’s fun, because you also have to somehow incorporate that into who they already are. As an actor, that’s always an interesting challenge. I don’t think, in our case, that it would damage the show. But I also don’t know if that’s in the cards.”
Paquin said it’s exhilarating, at times, to send somebody flying, “and do crazy shit,” even if it’s only a TV show.
As for her personal life with her real-life husband intruding into their performance on the screen, it’s not an issue, even in the fights.
“Just speaking for me, our love in real life is fine,” Paquin said, openly. “I’m totally happy for our characters to be as sad and distraught and messed up and hating each other as they like. We don’t have everything perfect and happy for too long. I mean, let’s face it, it’s not interesting television if everything works out for Bill and Sookie and they adopt five babies and live happily ever after, you know.”
Paquin says she and Moyer have worked long enough with Ball that they feel comfortable pitching the occasional idea, but it’s not a privilege she would abuse. As a performer, Paquin was raised to read what’s on the page, and let the writer write. Besides, Ball is an Oscar winner, too, for best original screenplay for 1999’s American Beauty.
“I certainly feel like the writers write to our strengths,” Paquin said, “or maybe that’s a giant coincidence. I don’t think I’ve ever come in with a ‘I think this should definitely happen’ suggestion. Sometimes, I pitch things that are kind of a joke. There’s an episode coming up with a scene with me and Steve and Alex (Skarsgaard) that I pitched. Which I can’t tell you about. But that was just sort of a joke, really. Sometimes I kind of wonder if I say things that are really outlandish because of the nature of our show. Maybe they may actually end up in the show.
“Besides, our show kind of beats you to the punch as far as, ‘Wouldn’t it be really crazy if we did, blah, blah.’ I mean, it’s not a show where you feel there’s a lack of imagination.”
True Blood airs Sundays on HBO Canada at 9 ET/8 PT.
True Blood S4, Episode 7 Trailer via gather.com
The preview trailer for True Blood season 4, episode 7 has been released by HBO. Spoiler alert! If you don’t want to know what will happen during episode 7 “Cold Grey Light of Dawn,” stop reading now! Click the video below to see the preview.
I don’t know…it just doesn’t look that exciting to me…to much witch crap…
Alexander Skarsgard on Regis and Kelly via entertainment weekly
True Blood‘s Alexander Skarsgard paid a visit to Live! with Regis and Kelly, and Regis Philbin and Kelly Ripa were appropriately giddy in the presence of the man who plays Gelman’s favorite character on TV. (Pause while you process that.) They hit the standard talking points — he grew up as a child actor in an acting family, he was in the Swedish military, he doesn’t have a problem with nudity. But it was interesting to hear him articulate why he quit acting at the age of 13: “I didn’t like the attention. I didn’t know who I was, so to hear people on TV or on the radio, in newspapers, magazines talking about me and who I was and what I like was kind of confusing.” Watch the clip below.
Looks like Regis did his homework!! And after they get past all the boring stuff Alexander even makes me laugh a few times!! And that picture they showed of him made me laugh:)
