Michelle Forbes: Wild Force of Nature on ‘True Blood’

From Black Book.com

Last night on True Blood, we all clung to the edge of our seats as Sookie, Jason, and Bill returned to find their sweet hometown of Bon Temps ravaged by Maryann Forrester's madness. And then we realized that after nearly 14 episodes of meticulous construction, series creator Alan Ball has brought to life one of the most horrific forces in contemporary culture, a force that appears immortal no less, but remains frightening in her moral ambiguity. Say what you will about the wickedness of maenads like True Blood's Maryann, but the outstanding player behind the character has a different look on the madness of this Dionysian handmaiden. After the break, Michelle Forbes explains how blood and gore don't necessarily make the character sinister and how portraying such a maniacally carefree creature may have been one of her most upbeat roles ever.

In True Blood, you play Maryann Forrester—a character we now know to be god-like and malevolent and essentially diametric to your portrayal of Kate on In Treatment. How did you adjust to the part of Maryann Forrester?
Kate was down-to-earth and had no self-esteem whatsoever. Bless her heart. Maryann is quite the opposite. She tends to laugh at all the things that would fill the rest of us with terror. Initially it was suffocating to sit in her expansiveness. Most of us are led by fear or guilt or sorrow. She’s absolutely fearless. Then it became the most fun game in the world.

How did you prepare for this role—were there any characters you drew inspiration from?
I watched a lot of Ken Russell films. These women are running around dancing and drinking. Running through the hills of the countryside of England—being mad. Those were the two places thinking about “abandon” and hedonism in a way that certainly we’ve experienced time and time again. I also thought a lot about Lydia Lunch in the 80s in New York. She was a woman who had no boundaries and was very sexually free. And sort of revolutionized music with all of that chaos and destruction of rules and boundaries and limitations. So many people in New York City were doing the same thing, really trying to breakdown these social ideals and be creative in a different way. It came through the funnel of chaos and destruction.

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