True Blood casting Stephen Moyer to play Bill as "as an old soul"

from Variety

Ensembles: Each part vital
TV casting directors tell of delicate balancing acts

......In casting Stephen Moyer as vampire Bill Compton for "True Blood," Libby Goldstein and Junie Lowry-Johnson searched for "an old soul with modern qualities."

It was tricky," says Johnson. "We had to find someone in his 30s that you believed was 150 years old, and Steve had that quietness, that stillness, an older quality. You could believe that he had been alive for 150 years that he had lived many lives. The fact that he's British may have helped. Americans seem very modern."

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