Mariana Klaveno sinks her teeth into "True Blood"

LOS ANGELES (Back Stage) - The white-hot HBO series "True Blood" has exploded into the pop-culture arena over the past two years, fueling the international vampire obsession.

But unlike its "Twilight" counterpart, "True Blood" isn't afraid to show the sizzlingly sexy and graphically violent, placing it at the decidedly grown-up end of the blood-sucking spectrum.

Since the beginning of the series, actor Mariana Klaveno has been in some of the grisliest and steamiest scenes of them all -- as Lorena, the vampire who turned Bill Compton (Stephen Moyer) into Vampire Bill during the Civil War and who continues to fight with Sookie Stackhouse (Anna Paquin) for his love. The role has required Klaveno, whose brooding, feline beauty seems to effortlessly morph from charming to cruel in a flash, to flesh out a character who relishes in the bloodsport of being a vampire, unlike Bill. And though she's a true villain in the fictional Southern setting of Bon Temps, La., Lorena is driven by an unrequited love, making her unexpectedly relatable.

As the series returns for its third season, Klaveno talked to Back Stage about the freedom of embodying a supernatural being, avoiding the urge to Google herself, and why she held onto her restaurant job through the second season.

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