The Alan Ball interview that LA.com didn't want you to see

Here's a little from a September interview with Alan Ball did with InsideSoCal

Q: Your previous work didn't have bad guys, per se, but morally ambiguous characters dwelling in dark areas. What's it like working with characters in "True Blood" who are just flat-out bad guys?

Ball: "Certainly, in the source material, they're bad. That's part of the joy of it. It takes place in such a fantastic world where vampires exist. I think it makes me less inclined to seek the humanity in every single character. In 'True Blood, it's pretty clear that these are bad people and you're not supposed to want to see them do well. There's enough moral ambiguity going on elsewhere."

Q: You've said you've never been a big fan of vampire tales, but there's a cult addicted to the genre. Why do you think there're so many huge fans?

Ball: "I only have my own half-baked theories. Vampires are certainly a huge sexual metaphor. At one point, Chris Albrecht, back when he was [running] HBO, asked me, 'What is this series about?' And I thought, 'I can't say, (in a dopey voice) "It's about a lot of vampires, 'cause I think they're real fun,"' so I said, 'It's about the terrors of intimacy.' (laughs)

"But the more I think about it, the more I think that's true. It's about how terrifying it is to really let your guard down and open your psyche up to another creature. And with vampires, you're not only opening yourself up emotionally, you're opening yourself up physically - you could die.

"We live in a world where emotion and the need to connect with something deeper and more profound has been distilled into these negative doctrines - 'Feel bad about yourself. You have to behave; you have to be controlled.' We live in a culture that wants people to be afraid and protect themselves from everybody else, which is the exact opposite of what the human soul wants.

"We all have that part of ourselves that needs abandon. We all have a need for transcendence, so maybe people turn to this fantastic fiction for that."

Q: "True Blood" pokes fun at the religious right's intolerance, and "Towelhead's" subject matter is certain to offend them. Are you prepared for their attacks?

Ball: "I don't really care what they think. There's already been some vicious, kneejerk reactions to it. You know what? Yeah, this stuff punches emotional buttons and some people are going to be able to see beyond that and some won't. And some people are just going to flat-out not like it. And that's OK; I don't need to be liked by everybody. I think there's an audience for both of these; that's the audience I write for and that's the audience I belong to. I'm not interested in people who are close-minded; I don't care what they think."

read all here : http://www.insidesocal.com/tv/2008/09/the-alan-ball-interview-that-l.html