TRUE BLOOD Interview with Deborah Ann Woll

From IESB.net

Making a brief appearance at the end of Season 1 of the hit HBO television series True Blood, Deborah Ann Woll will be making quite an impression, as newborn vampire Jessica Hamby, in the highly anticipated Season 2.

Mixing romance, suspense, mystery and humor, True Blood takes place in the not-too-distant future, when vampires have come out of the coffin, thanks to the invention of mass-produced synthetic blood that means they no longer need humans as a nutritional source. As Season 2 begins, the mystery surrounding the serial killer in Season 1 has finally been solved. But, just as things are settling down, deadly new twists threaten Sookie Stackhouse (Academy Award winner Anna Paquin) and everyone around her.

In this exclusive interview, Deborah Ann Woll spoke about learning to talk with fangs, mastering a Southern accent and the mischief that Jessica will get in as she discovers herself this season.

IESB: How did you get into acting?

Deborah: I started out mostly in music and dance. I took piano and partner dancing, all through my grade school years. And, through that, I just found that I had a passion for creativity and art, and I liked the idea of working within a form, like a play or choreography or a piece of music, and bringing to it my own experience and feeling that was unique to me. After that, I started doing plays in high school, and I did a couple plays with a classical theater in New York, and I really fell in love with it through classical work.

IESB: When did you know that you wanted to make a career out of it?

Deborah: I was never really a good enough pianist or dancer to take that to the professional realm. But, I remember I was working on Madea, which I was way too young for at the time, and it was a character that was so unlike me and so out of my comfort zone and type, but yet I could still find something to say with it and have an experience with this woman, who I really had nothing in common with, except our humanity. That was a moment where I went, “Wow, I really seriously, honestly felt something there and, if I can find that with this character, then it should be easier with someone who I’m a bit more akin to.” So, I started to really take it more seriously, at that point.

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