True Blood’s Ryan Kwanten On Playing Jason Stackhouse

From People Magazine

From battling addiction to vampire blood to getting mixed up with a fanatical religious group and then sleeping with the preacher’s wife, Ryan Kwanten’s True Blood character, Jason Stackhouse, is always getting into trouble on HBO’s hit show. Luckily for the 32-year-old Australian actor, who has lived in Los Angeles for seven years, he’s nothing like his rural Louisianan alter ego. “We look the same to a certain degree,” he jokes. “But my jeans aren’t as tight.” Before True Blood’s finale on Sept. 13, which Kwanten calls “the amalgamation of pretty much the entire season,” the actor spoke with PEOPLE about his character, Louisiana cooking and how he stays so darn ripped! –Aaron Parsley

Congrats on the success of True Blood. How does it feel?
It’s is not something that you set out expecting [because of] the amount of factors that have to fall into place for a show to even be picked up … True Blood was already a pretty tasty cake before and then now it’s just a nice little cherry on top.

Do you notice a difference between when the first season aired and now?
I’ve really noticed a difference in how people are aware of the show and of me. It’s certainly a new thing to me.

Were you familiar with the Sookie Stackhouse books before you started playing her brother Jason?
It was only after I got the role that I started reading the books to catch up with it, but even then [creator] Alan Ball made us aware that it wouldn’t be following word-for-word, story-for story with the books.

How far into the books have you read?
Two-and-half books. To be perfectly honest, I don’t think I’m particularly the demographic. It’s just not my thing.

What do you like about Jason Stackhouse?
He’s taught me not to think so much and not over analyze because he’s the type of guy who just sort of jumps into things without really thinking about them and obviously that gets him into trouble.

How did you get the accent down?
I wish I could say it was a long process of learning and arduous kind of hours. I obviously do my research of where it’s shooting and the various types of accents within Louisiana and in discussions with the director and with Alan you hang on something. They seemed to like what I had in the beginning so I stuck with that and refined it if need be.

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'True Blood' Star Jim Parrack (A.K.A. Hoyt) Talks: Season Finale, Alexander Skarsgard's Rising Fame & 'Twilight'

From MTV

Parrack says .."Something will happen. There will be a finale."

That Bill-Sookie-Eric love triangle sure has "True Blood" fans' tongues wagging, but we'd argue the season's most refreshing romance belongs to newborn bloodsucker Jessica and her sweet, mama's boy beau Hoyt. Faster than a vamp can run from Bon Temps to Dallas, actor Jim Parrack has gone from Jason's shy friend to a swoonworthy love interest. We caught up with the actor in Shreveport, Louisiana where's he's preparing to film the alien invasion flick "Battle: Los Angeles" alongside Aaron Eckhart, Michelle Rodriguez and Bridget Moynahan. We chatted with the Texas native about shaping the character of Hoyt, the upcoming season finale and what he thinks about "Twilight."

When Jim signed on to Alan Ball's sexy saga, he had no idea Hoyt would be getting a juicier storyline come season 2. In fact, he didn't know much about his character at all. The actor's never read the "Sookie Stackhouse" novels on which the series is based, mostly to keep his character original, so when it came time to embody Hoyt, Jim wasn't sure what to do.

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Awww -all together now

The Viking and the author



from Charlaine's IMdb page -they will need to add actress !
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm2363895/

True Blood / Sookie tweets from DragonCon

Some of these are pretty intriguing

chelliemo Debbie Pelt's body is found in the next Sookie book #dragoncon

Charlaine: Alan Ball is having fun casting Debbie Pelt for next season of True Blood. #dragoncon

Charlaine: Alcide will have a new gf in the next book, but something bad *may* happen to her. He has the worst judgement." #dragoncon

Erik could kick Edward's butt? Charlaine: *Pam* could kick Edward's butt. And shed *love it* #dragoncon

Jenniceg @truebloodhbo charlaine Harris won't say who she prefers eric or Bill #dragoncon

chelliemo What's next for charlaine harris: something completely different #Dragoncon 1 day ago from txt

chelliemo Sookie stackhouse as the poster child for healthcare reform #dragoncon

@Paradisacorbasi: Harris was asked which vamp Sookie will choose. She replied, 'You assume it's a vampire'. #dragoncon

Paradisacorbasi Has True Blood changed your life? Harris: I have a lot more money? #dragoncon

N2F79 There are tons of True Blood fans here. Bubba was walking around last night. #dragoncon

True Blood Episode 12 promo video

Corrupt by Depeche Mode

The Music of True Blood: Getting Caught Up Before Sunday's Season 2 Finale

From Houston Post

Alan Ball was known for his masterful use of music in Six Feet Under. He's lost none of his touch when it comes to his current HBO series, True Blood - which happens to be set in the Louisiana swamps, not terribly far from Houston. Though we're picking up midway through Season 2, from here on out as each new episode airs, Rocks Off will bring you a short report on the featured music.

Dear Houston (and Internet),
We've known each other for a while, and we've started to get pretty close. We think the only thing to do at this stage in our relationship is for me to make you a mix tape of the music from True Blood. We know you like vampires, and since there's no new episode this week, what with the season finale coming up next week, this felt like the perfect gift to recap everything that has come thus

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Review: Must Love Hellhounds by Charlaine Harris

Has anyone else read the new short story, 'The Britlingens Go To Hell' by Charlaine Harris this from Hilcia on Impressions blog

Batanya and Covache, two Britlingen Collective bodyguards are contracted by Crick to go to Hell. He needs to collect an object he stole from Lucifer but left there while escaping from imprisonment. Batanya is assigned this dangerous duty by her superior Tovis, who seems to be obsessed with harassing her.

In this world, witchcraft is enhanced by science and the witches facilitate transportation for the bodyguards. Batanya, Covache and Crick battle their way through the dark and dangerous tunnels of Hell and on their way meet Hell's monsters, Amelia Earhart, Narcissus and two hellhounds.

This is my first Charlaine Harris read and I'm afraid neither the story nor the writing grabbed my attention. The addition of Earhart and Narcissus to the story came out of left field for me and threw me out of the story. This novella was the weakest in the anthology for me.

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Charlaine Harris writes about filming her True Blood cameo

Charlaine has written about filming her cameo on True Blood Episode on June 20th on her web page :

From June:

lindsayb, I was there most of the afternoon, though only an hour or so was taken up with shooting my scene. I ate lunch with Alan, talked to the cast when they weren't working, had my makeup and hair done, watched the shooting on video, and toured the set of Sookie's house.
Booklover, that sounds great. Hanging with mom and grandmother sounds great, too, minda.
Charlaine Harris

I am no actress. But since I was in the scene with Sam, I just felt I was talking to him, and that made it much easier.
Charlaine Harris

The writer of the episode, Alexander Woo, actually wrote that line down so I could remember it. I have to see things before I can learn them.
On rereading my book & blog entry, I see that I used the word "wonderful"
four times! Some days, only one word will do.
Charlaine Harris

BLOG

As I’ve said elsewhere on the board, last Friday I spent an afternoon on the set of “True Blood.” I enjoyed the experience, of course, and it was great seeing Alan Ball, his wonderful henchmen Christina Jokanovich and Gianna Sobol, writer Alexander Woo, director Michael Cuesta, and some of the wonderful actors who make up the cast: Rutina Wesley, Sam Trammell, Carrie Preston, Chris Bauer, Patricia Bethune, and Todd Lowe.

However, though I already knew that there was a crew to support all the actions in the show, I hadn’t realized how many people there were. It was amazing to see everyone who works behind the scenes. There were so many of them, and they work so hard. Makeup artists, hair artists, light men, sound men, continuity people . . . the list goes on and on. Everyone knows what to do, and somehow it all gets done; taking all these people working at the same moment to get one little bit of film.

It was a very interesting afternoon, and I hope I didn’t get in the way too much. I actually spoke a line, but it may end up on the cutting room floor. I almost hope so. I’m no actress. I think the brief time I spend on the set was really illuminating, and it was certainly a fascinating afternoon. I appreciate them putting up with me.

While I was in Los Angeles, I had the opportunity to go to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art to see the Pompeii exhibit. It was wonderful, and I’m so glad that my trip to have some business meetings and visit the set coincided with the time of this wonderful exhibit. I highly recommend it. While I was in the museum, I also visited some of the “ancient art” galleries, and felt overwhelmed by the richness of what I saw. This is not something I get to do often, so I really had a little vacation.

Charlaine Harris

'All Hail the Viking Warrior' and 'Long Live the Queen'

Yes, Alex was on a boat with friend and also spotted with a certain monarch. I really don't do a lot of posts on my blog that are the Hollywood hype, paparazzi photos and gossipy stuff. There are millions of web sites that do that ...

But I am always interested when there is a True Blood connection.

Well, Mr Skarsgard and Miss Woods are also connected to True Blood in a very interesting way!

Should make that Sophie Eric embrace more interesting Sunday night to know this ..huh ?

'All Hail the Viking Warrior' and 'Long live the Queen' !

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From MTV : According to Perez Hilton the co-stars have been spotted together in Louisiana where Skarsgard is currently filming the remake of Straw Dogs

True Blood Fan Convention in Europe - Poland

Our friend Silva who runs the True Blood Poland site is planning a True Blood European fan get together -boy, Poland sounds great !

( Silva's videos are also featured as TB Music Video of the day- she did the Drinking Game )

She says "As True Blood European Fans we would like to organize and take part in Convention which could take place in Poland in 2010. Sign the petition and show us your support! Thank you."

http://www.petitionspot.com/petitions/truebloodconvetionpl/
http://www.true-blood.com.pl/

'True Blood' Conspiracy Theory

I'm still having problems with folks writing True Blood spoilers that are just being events pulled from the books - this is the "throw the bookie a bone" moments from True Blood that I was talking about last week on the radio show.

It seemed like to Mark, our reviewer that there wasnt a really a point to all of the Bill /Sophie visit or in meeting Hadley. To which my answer was, that WAS the real purpose in the Bill/ Sophie visit because it set up the Bill/ Sophie betrayal storyline.

Buddy TV is working on the Hadley and Bill connection.

True Blood sure has a lot of mysteries to unravel, whether it's about vampires, shape shifters, maenads or whatever the hell Sookie is. But there's another mystery that came to my attention as I went through your comments in my article last week. BuddyTV reader Dogdogdog particularly caught my interest when she posted, "i got a question that will make you all think some more... how did the queen know about sookie and bill never mentioned her... and bill never ask the queen how did she know about her... its a set up i think...that queen and bill is plotting something."

Watching the penultimate episode of True Blood's second season already sparked my curiosity as to why Queen Sophie-Ann knew about Sookie without Bill ever mentioning her. But realizing that other people were thinking the same thing certainly got me thinking some more. Then BuddyTV reader Maria1023 enlightened me with the possibility that this could all be part of a conspiracy: Bill and Queen Sophie-Ann are working as a team and that Bill getting close to Sookie is all part of a greater plan.

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True Blood Music Video of the Day: Breathe into me by Red

Breathe into me by Red LYRICS

Thanks, cindyds1

‘True Blood’ star stakes claim

True Blood” star Rutina Wesley says it’s not easy playing Tara Thornton, the orgy-attending, organ-devouring spellbound buddy in Alan Ball’s bloody good HBO vampire hit.

“I open up the script and there’s orgies and things going on and I’m like, ‘You want me to do what? In the freezing cold? With the contact lenses again?’ But then I figure, it’s for the theater, it’s for the cause, and you just do it and the reward comes when you see the show and say, ‘Oh my gosh, it all comes together!’ ”

Wesley was in town this past weekend - courtesy of the RCN cable company - to promote the “True Blood” season finale Sunday night and an RCN- Red Cross “True Blood” blood drive Sept. 17 at Boston University’s Hillel House .

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Stephen Moyers on Regis & 'not Kathy Lee' this morning

Fresh blood for vampires and their followers

From Los Angeles Times

The undead are alive and thriving, with still more movies ('Twilight' sequels, 'Dark Shadows') and TV shows ('The Vampire Diaries') coming to feed an unholy hunger

Forget the garlic, the crucifixes, the security of daylight. Nothing is holding the vampires at bay these days. With the wild popularity of movie, TV and literary properties including "Twilight" and HBO's hit series "True Blood," the bloodthirsty undead are dominating the pop culture landscape in ways Count Dracula could have never imagined, and the trend seems unlikely to abate any time soon.

"The Twilight Saga: New Moon," the second film adaptation of the popular series of novels, is set for release in November, with the third installment to follow in June 2010. "True Blood," drawing some of HBO's largest audiences since "The Sopranos," concludes its second season on Sunday. Now, the CW network is taking a stab at the genre with "The Vampire Diaries," which premieres Thursday.

"Vampires are the bad boys," says series co-creator Kevin Williamson in trying to explain their popularity. "They're dangerous, but they're also just sexy and they can protect you. You can challenge them. There's so much there -- epic love, epic romance, epic epic! Everyone wants their life to be epic."

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Anna Paquin Stephen Moyers interviews with NW

How’s life as a blonde?
It’s very high maintenance.

It must be...
Yeah it turns out my hair grows really fast and I have really dark hair naturally so, you know, this even the tiniest bit of roots, not okay. But now that we’re wrapped it’s okay because I’m not suppose to look like a natural blonde but not really a fan for sitting still for the hairdresser once every ten days for a couple hours. Makes me feel really vain and nutty.

Do people treat you differently?
It’s such a cliché but yes. I really didn’t think that was going to be the case, but people stare at blonde girls. It’s funny. It’s bright and shiny and it catches the light. Like a magpie.

Do they think you’re less intelligent?
I sometimes get that sense, yes.

Why does the world like vampires so much right now?
The honest answer is I don’t know. I mean they’re dangerous and sexy and most films and TV shows cast very good-looking people which probably helps!

How is it working with your fiancé Stephen Moyer?
He’s great. He’s really talented, and so is every other member of our cast and crew and writing staff and directors I mean, we have, we have such an amazing group of people and it’s a real treat.

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How are you enjoying this crazy role?
I’m having a lovely time, thank you very much.

Is it difficult to have an on/off screen relationship with Anna Paquin?
Our relationship obviously started at the beginning of the show. We got together because we loved being together and created the thing in the first place. So I think this might be easier because the crew has grown up with us, watching us as a couple and we feel comfortable with them. So, we are able in some ways to explore an intimacy which maybe some people aren’t able to.

Was it love at first sight?
No, we both were absolutely single and we were doing this job and HBO puts us in the same hotel. We were the only two out of towners as everybody else lived in LA.

And there’s nothing else to do, right?
[Laughs.] That’s right. There was nothing else to do! No, we just had some time off so we started hanging out together and literally finished the pilot, went home and felt very strange not being together suddenly. And I think we were both really surprised about that. Really nicely surprised by that.

Is it hard not to talk about work non-stop?
That’s a good question. I’ve never thought about that. I don’t think we do. Certainly, I’ve got enough going on in my life that work is not my be -all-and-end-all and it certainly isn’t Anna’s. We do talk about that a lot. Of course we do, but it’s don’t think anymore excessively than any other couple.

Are you comfortable with all the racy scenes? Happy with your sock?
I love the sock! Everyone has got a different size sock, as you can imagine.

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Fashion & Costuming: Interview with Costume Designer Audrey Fisher

from Fashionably Marketing

This past year, I had the pleasure of working with Audrey Fisher, costume designer for HBO’s True Blood. As someone who loves fashion, I thought costuming would be closely aligned with the ever revolving door of fashion trends and style as they exist now and in the future. What I found was quite the contrary; costume design and fashion are quite different. Fashion is mask, it tells the story that it’s creator want to tell the world, while costume design goes below the surface to tell an inner story.

Audrey, how did you become a costume designer? What was your inspiration or the force that drove the passion?

From a very young age, I was always making costumes for myself, my friends, and my family. My path to costume design, however, was roundabout. In college, I had actually started toward a career in the literary department of theater studies, but in my extremely academic graduate program I found I was still making costumes in my spare time. It was all connected: I was interested in the way costumes could tell stories. Based on some hats I was making for an art class, a director asked me to design the costumes for her production of Medea at a downtown theater. That’s when costumes became my professional passion, with that first off-off-off-broadway show.

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