Tuesday, June 29, 2010

Nelsan Ellis (Lafayette) Talks 'True Blood,' Gay Marriage, Tyler Perry

Part of True Blood’s appeal is that the cast portrays their characters so well that it’s hard to believe they aren’t real. Enter Lafayette, played by Nelsan Ellis. Lafayette is a gay man who is flamboyant and egregious but at the same time isn’t stereotypical. He’s masculine but also feminine and will knock any man out if he’s pushed that far.

However, the man behind the character is the opposite. Ellis is a Julliard trained, perfectly straight Alabama native who initially struggled with bringing Lafayette to life but now that he has it down, he’s hoping that other industry insiders will remember that the character he plays is fictional. In edition to True Blood, he recently rapped a feature film, has his own screenplay in the works and wouldn’t mind appearing in a Tyler Perry project. Here, he tells VIBE how he brought Lafayette to life, what the gay community thinks about the character and how he plans to transition beyond his True Blood role. ⎯Starrene Rhett

VIBE: Lafayette is dead in the book so how did you make the TV character your own?

Nelsan Ellis: I think by the second or third audition I got some bad notes from the casting director. They figured I was playing a stereotype or something like that so I got a friend of mine to come and work the audition with me and somehow I found the character inside of me versus putting on something that wasn’t real. Alan Ball wanted the character to be a myriad of things and at first I was skeptical but I somehow found it, maybe it was God helping me out.

So that stereotype you were playing must have been a Queenie type of gay guy, huh?

Yeah, at first because in the break down he was supposed to be almost drag queenish but I didn’t really play that right coming in, even when I got the job. I didn’t really find Lafayette until the third or fourth episode because I certainly didn’t have him in the pilot. There were takes where I was playing with who he was and takes that I was—they just happened to pick takes that were consistent with who Alan Ball thought the character should be.

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True Blood, Season 3, Episode 1: Beck Is Thicker Than Water

Episode 13.1: Bad Blood

Welcome back to Bon Temps, LA, where the men drink blood, the women hear your thoughts, and the children don't figure much into the R-rated happenings. When last we left True Blood, Sookie Stackhouse (Anna Paquin) was rushing out of the bathroom of a very nice restaurant to tell Vampire Bill (Stephen Moyer) that indeed she would be his until her death did they part when he was suddenly abducted. We pick up the vamp-napping in progress as three hillbillies take turns using Bill like a wine cooler in the backseat in order to get high off his blood.

Blood figures in any vampire series. It's kind of a big deal. But the impression Gothtopia gets is that the concept of tainted blood will play a big part in this season. Are we as people, even undead or shape shifting people, fated to become like those whose blood gave us life in the first place? Certainly nurture battles nature. The children of rock stars become accountants. Last we heard, none of the children adopted from the Manson family, including Charlie's own biological children, have become hypnotic murderers. And yet, 500 years after the death of Vlad the Impaler (Who served as the inspiration of Bram Stoker's Dracula), one of his direct descendants owned and operated a Turkish blood bank. Is a blood link to a bloody past an indicator of an inescapable fate?

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* Log in Blood Work! “True Blood” vlog 3.03: Twist and Shout

Talk Blood Radio team members, Brian and Andy just posted their #.03 episode vlog
" PULLED A MICKENS ! HAHA"

Sh-Sh-Sh-Shake it up, Lorena!
Yes, Gay Pride in NYC just so haaaaaaappened to coincide with the most insanely effed-up True Blood moment of the season … so of course Andy and I did what any good horror-lovin’ homos do when faced with vampire-induced severe spinal trauma: We threw a dance party!
Seriously, lady – this week’s episode had it all, from Bud Dearborne’s anal overshare to Pam’s Estonian boxed lunch to the greatest WTF sex scene in the show’s already quite checkered history. Relive it all – minus the chiropractor Bill bill – above.
Bonus: A screencap of the scariest thing you’ll ever see before your morning martini coffee, after the jump!

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True Blood Music : Episode 3.03 – It Hurts Me Too

Episode 3.03 – It Hurts Me Too

“Classically Inclined” by Eduardo Ponsdomenech

“Same Old” by The Roadhawgs

“Coming Down” by Acumen Nation

“One of Them Days” by Jesse Dayton

“Dry Your Tears” by James Clarke
“Howlin’ for My Baby” by M. Ward

“Wild One” by Those Darlin’s

“Two Many Days” by Judy Fields

“Spoonful” by Howlin’ Wolf

“Ain’t No Invisible Man” by Jakob Dylan

“It Hurts Me Too” by Gaye Adegbalola

True Blood, Vampires, and Redheads with Carrie Preston

With True Blood now in its third season and picked up for a fourth by HBO, actress Carrie Preston and her True Blood character, Arlene Fowler, are still in the HBO mix after speculation the True Blood waitress may be leaving. With Preston and Arlene still waitressing at Merlotte's, season three keeps in line with The Southern Vampire Mysteries, Club Dead, as True Blood has quickly become a popular staple for HBO in the new era of bloodsuckers.
As True Blood enjoys its best ratings to date, with new mysteries surrounding Anna Paquin's Sookie and Stephen Moyer's Bill Compton, we tracked down Carrie Preston for a True Blood one-on-one to chat about the popularity of vampires, working with Alan Ball, the inner motivations of Arelene, and the true blood of redheads.
THE DEADBOLT: Congrats on getting season four.
CARRIE PRESTON: How about that? And only on the heels of getting a second viewing on season three. So that's a good sign.
THE DEADBOLT: How do you relate to Arlene?
PRESTON: Well, I relate to how confident she is. I relate to her work ethic. I know that sounds funny, but she takes her job extremely seriously, as do I. And she doesn't suffer from any fools and she really wants things to be done in the right way, and I appreciate that [laughs].
Also, I can relate to how strong she is and she's a survivor. She takes whatever comes her way. Even if it creates some kind of histrionics in her, she is somehow able to overcome it, pull herself together, and do what needs to be done. I can really admire that in her as well, plus she's funny.

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True Blood's vampire sex scene that will live on in infamy

Team Talk Blood Radio member, Meredith Woerner posted her excellent episode review today

True Blood's vampire sex scene that will live on in infamyWTF did we see last night on True Blood? And will we ever be the same for viewing it? Let us explain it to you Pro/Con style.

We've got a lot of material to cover Con/Pro wise, before we can get to the meat of last night episode. And by meat I mean terribly disturbing sex scene. So let's get on with it!

The next episode picks up right where it left off. Vampire versus wolf, versus Sookie and her pants pistol.

Con: This Matrix bullet opening scene. True Blood you don't have good enough special effects to be wasting money on this ridiculous thing. We know vampires move fast we don't need to see the bullet make little spirals of time and air in Sookie's house. We're good, vampires, they're fast, gotcha.

True Blood's vampire sex scene that will live on in infamy

Con: What are the noises that Eric is making after he inhaled that werewolf? Vampire hairball?

Pro: "I got your rug all wet," says Eric to Sookie with a marvelous shit-eating grin. And for some reason Sookie isn't having sex with him right there on top of the naked, dead, waxed werewolf. Something is wrong with her, beyond the light-fingers thing.

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True Blood Crossword: S3 Ep 1 " Pack of Wolves"

Pack of Wolves S3E1(2)

Thanks so much to our amazing Kristie!!!

True Blood Music Video of the Day: Shakin' all over



Thanks, bittersweetgirlelle