What’s Up, Denis O’Hare? The Elling Star on His Peculiar New Play and Camping It Up on True Blood

Your role on True Blood this season was pretty wild.
It’s one of the best sets to work on because the people are incredibly cool and the material is so rich. From the outside, the show can appear to be camp, but it’s a pretty tough acting job. You really have to bring all your skills. It was incredibly emotionally draining. Quite a few of the show’s fans are showing up at the theater, which is great.

As an actor who’s very open about his sexuality did you enjoy playing a gay role on True Blood?
In a strange way you can’t really say Russell is a gay character because ancients didn’t have the same understanding of sexuality as we do. I thought of him as a pagan warrior who was bent on taking over the world. That was the most important thing: The fact that he had a [male] lover was a little incidental.

Do you have any favorite credits from your many film roles?
A Mighty Heart. We shot it in India and it was such a cool project. Michael Winterbottom is one of the great directors of this century. Angelina [Jolie] is really cool and nice to work with, too. She’s as down to earth as she can be given the weird world she’s been forced into. I also loved doing Charlie Wilson’s War because I got to travel to Morroco and hang out with Phillip Seymour Hoffman.

Do you have anything planned after Elling finishes its run in March?
Not really, I've been focusing on this. I don't know about True Blood. My character's not dead [Russell was buried alive in a cement tomb]. For all I know, I'm going to L.A. to get out of the cement!

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Paul Wesley of the Vampire Diaries interviewd by NYPost.com PopWrap

'True Blood' Palace Tour: Rooms & Scenes You Never Saw

Does this room look familiar?

Besides being a room straight out of your dream home, True Blood fans might also recognize it as Queen Sophie Anne's humble abode, where we were first introduced to the character in Season 2. It's here that Bill interrupts her game of Yahtzee (yes, apparently vamps enjoy the thrilling game of Yahtzee) to whine about the crazed Maenad that's interrupting his beloved Bon Temps and his poor sweet Sookie. She blows off the crisis, encouraging Bill to pop a bottle of True Blood and relax. I distinctively remember agreeing with her -- I mean, look around, dude.

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True Blood's Ryan Kwanten Opens Up About Gay Brother

As if there weren't enough reasons to love Ryan Kwanten, he's giving us some more.
Not only does the Aussie hottie talk to The Advocate about the possibility of his True Blood character getting it on with a guy, he also opens up to the mag about having a gay brother...
PHOTOS: True Blood's True Loves
"My youngest brother, Lloyd, is gay," says the 33-year-old actor. "He's a doctor, so he got every ounce of intelligence in the family. He was probably about 18 when he came out, and I can wholeheartedly tell you that from the day that he did, he was a changed man for the better. The sheer beauty of who he is really came through."
Too friggin' sweet!


Read more: http://www.eonline.com/uberblog/marc_malkin/b212043_true_bloods_ryan_kwanten_opens_up_about.html#ixzz15vDDCSPS

True Blood Music Video of the Day: Sophie-Anne & Katherine: King of the World

Sophie-Anne&Katherine: King of the World

ChemAttraction's

Nelsan Ellis of HBO's 'True Blood' finds road from Bessemer to Hollywood

HUNTSVILLE, AL. - When he was younger, Nelsan Ellis, one of the stars of the HBO hit series "True Blood," moved from Chicago to Bessemer, went to school there and eventually worked at Larry's Fish Pot & Barbecue.
But he always had a dream.

A dream to discover the wide world of theater out there.
Now, it looks like he's found it. Besides the role of Lafayette Reynolds in "True Blood," Ellis had a supporting role in "Secretariat" and was also in "The Soloist," which starred Jamie Farr and Robert Downey Jr., and "The Express," a movie about former Syracuse football star Ernie Davis.
Ellis left Bessemer and returned to Chicago when he was 14, eventually attending the prestigious Juilliard School of Arts in New York. From there, patience and hard work has made him a hot commodity in Hollywood and he's coming here tonight to talk about it.

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‘Dracula’ Will Rise Off Broadway, With a Count by Way of Italy Michel Altieri

New York theater’s last major attempts at vampire shows — the Elton John musical “Lestat” in 2006, “Dracula, the Musical” in 2004, and the musical “Dance of the Vampires” in 2002 — were among the biggest Broadway flops of that decade. But the monster success of the “Twilight” book and film series — about young love between a well-coiffed vampire and a pretty, sulky human — since 2008 has led to a host of movies, television series, and books featuring vampires.
Now Off Broadway is giving vampires a go. “Dracula,” the 1927 Hamilton Deane-John L. Balderston play based on Bram Stoker’s novel, which had a hit revival on Broadway in 1977 starring Frank Langella, will have a 13-week run at the Little Shubert Theater starting Dec. 14, with an opening night scheduled for Jan. 5, 2011.
George Hearn, a Tony Award winner for “Sunset Boulevard” and “La Cage aux Folles,” will play the vampire hunter Abraham Van Helsing, and film actress Thora Birch (“American Beauty,” “Ghost World”) has been cast as Count Dracula’s love interest, Lucy Seward.

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True Blood Music Video of the Day: The Women of Trueblood

True Blood: The Women of Trueblood

Westendoftown

Snoop Dogg Oh Sookie T-Shirt

Snoop Dogg Oh Sookie T-Shirt

$15.00

Snoop Dogg wants to get in Sookie Stackhouse's head on this T-shirt inspired by his "Oh Sookie" promo for HBO's popular series True Blood.

Hot Topic exclusive

100% cotton

Wash warm; dry medium

Imported

Listed in men's sizes

SKU: 939641

 

Buy here 

Building Character: Denis O’Hare by Mark Blankenship

Mark Blankenship our good buddy recently interevewed Denis O' Hare

Welcome to Building Character, TDF’s ongoing series about actors and how they create their roles.
When we first meet Elling, the title character in the Broadway play now at the Ethel Barrymore Theater, he’s hiding in a wardrobe. From his roommate. In a mental hospital.
His behavior is just as quirky in the outside world: Somewhere between his disastrous attempt to order pizza and his decision to hide original poems in boxes of sauerkraut, it becomes clear that Elling is not like other guys.

Yet there is something familiar about him. Elling charms because Elling, his roommate Kjell, and their pregnant neighbor Reidun are strange people facing everyday problems. When they’re ordering in a restaurant and there’s no more soup, they don’t just get disappointed: They have a conniption fit. We can laugh at them because we recognize our own tendency to turn small nuisances into global news.
Of course, getting us to laugh is delicate work. “This play is a tightrope,” says Denis O’Hare, who plays Elling. “It has a very narrow shelf you can exist on. If we are too casual about these guys, then we don’t pay homage to their unique circumstance. You kind of go, ‘Well, why is he in an asylum? He looks like a normal Joe.’ But if we go in the direction of making them too mentally ill, the audience won’t laugh because you’re not going to make fun of someone you feel is ill.”

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Publish Post

Queen Sophie Annes house is for sale ..

Wondering what to get me for the holidays this year? Here’s the perfect gift: Queen Sophie-Anne’s mansion from “True Blood.” The gorgeously ornate house with ocean views is easily my favorite set on the show because of its old-world decadence. And now the actual house is for sale. Sadly, the abode isn’t in Louisiana—it’s in Malibu—and it costs a pretty penny. Seventy-five million dollars to be exact. But hey, I’m worth it, right? Plus, the 20,000 square foot house comes complete with an indoor pool where I could swim laps and a lion sculpture found at the base of Mount Vesuvius. Now just get me Queen Sophie-Anne’s wardrobe and her ability to never age, and we’ll be good to go. [NY Post]

   

Location: Malibu, Calif.
Price: $75,000,000
The Skinny: How much does a Hollywood set cost? Well, if it's located on almost eight prime acres in Malibu and features 13 beds and 14 baths, quite a bit. Tack on the fact that it appeared in such modern cinema classics as Funny People, I Love You Man, and HBO's blood-sucking extravaganza, True Blood, and we're talking seriously expensive. At $75M, the listing was almost guaranteed to make that familiar sideways claim: "Considered by many to be one of the great estates in the world." On stats alone, this place has got the goods: 20,000 square feet, panoramic views of the Pacific, "saline and ozone" infinity pool, a massive greenhouse, and a 2,500-year-old lion found at the base of Mount Vesuvius. Er, yeah, in case the price tag wasn't a tip-off, this place is yet another temple to maximalism. Is it possible to spend $75M on a home and not get a bit too much?
· 26848 Pacific Highway [Chris Cortazzo - ColdwellBanker]


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True Blood Music Video of the Day: Wild Horses

TRUE BLOOD: Wild Horses

smvgrey74

True Blood Survival Guide: How To Survive Until Season Four and the Next Sookie Stackhouse Book

Winter is a difficult time for fans of True Blood and the Sookie Stackhouse novels (the books upon which the series is based). Season four of True Blood doesn’t begin until summer of 2011 while fans of the books traditionally wait until May to receive a new installment.
When I met author Charlaine Harris at the Free Library of Philadelphia last year, I made friends with some True Blood fans while waiting in line. We discussed how difficult it is during late fall and winter…when there is little new True Blood content out there.
Here are some essential methods for survival:
Delve into another ‘verse. Sometimes it’s possible to obsess over one fandom to the point of exhaustion. This can make the dry spells between books and episodes seem especially difficult. Don’t let this happen with the Sookieverse! Try alternating your fandoms by obsessing over alternate TV shows during True Blood’s off-seasons.

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