Saturday, June 27, 2009

HBO's 'True Blood' star Sam Trammell finds his way home to Louisiana


The Times-Picayune

It is not such a long way from New Orleans to Bon Temps, La.

The Crescent City and the fictional setting of HBO's "True Blood" cast similar shadows.

They're both places where you can comfortably change your shape, howl at the moon and acquire unexplained bite marks. The trip from suburban Maryland Avenue in Metairie to Bon Temps is a different kind of journey.

Sam Trammell, who plays the Sookie-struck roadhouse owner Sam Merlotte on the saucy vampire drama (Sunday, 8 p.m.), traversed that route via West Virginia, Brown University, the New York stage, prime-time TV and feature films. Born at Ochsner Medical Center in 1971 while his father was in medical school at Tulane University (both his mother and father earlier attended LSU), Trammell bounced around with his family early on but they landed long enough on Maryland Avenue for him to compile glowing childhood memories.

"I remember it being pretty big," he said during a recent telephone interview. "I went back a few years ago and it's just so tiny. I remember playing kick-the-can right before dusk. It was such a great neighborhood to grow up in. I also remember going to Mardi Gras parades and just yelling at the people, 'Give me something, mister!' That was what I was taught to yell. I think that's what all the kids yelled back then. I remember the doubloons and the beads. It was really fun, really exciting."

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2 comments:

Unknown said...

Psst, Dallas...your HTML's broken. Try this link: http://www.nola.com/tv/index.ssf/2009/06/hbos_true_blood_star_sam_tramm.html

" Dallas " said...

Thanks Sam!