Interview pour Wired.co.uk

par **Marian911** Mer 14 Oct - 16:05

True Blood: Interview with a vampire

By Charlotte Duck

Stephen Moyer has challenged America's sensibilities as a brooding vampire in Alan Ball's controversial new series True Blood. The show details the co-existence of vampires and humans in Bon Temps, a fictional small Louisiana town. The series centres on Sookie Stackhouse (Anna Paquin), a telepathic waitress at a bar, who falls in love with vampire Bill Compton (played by Meyor). As the show, dubbed "Twilight for adults", makes its debut on Channel 4, the British actor talks to Wired.co.uk:

Wired: We loved Six Feet Under, which was also created by Alan Ball. What did you like about the way he used the material for True Blood?

SM: Alan takes this idea of the outsider coming into the world and how everybody reacts to that outsider. The metaphor is about someone who is a pariah in society trying to prove he is not what people thinks he is and this can be a metaphor for homosexuality, the black and white civil rights movement, or any minority that you want to bring to the table.

Has there been much backlash in America because of True Blood's sex and the supernatural themes?

Certainly in the second season I think there are people who are very anti our show because we see a cultish church and we don't shy away from showing the hypocrisy within in. That doesn't mean that Alan believes that but it's a forum to be able to talk about it some more.

Why do you think vampires are so popular at the moment?

I have read a lot of interesting things about the fact that when society is in recession, people want to escape from their world and they don't want to escape to a world that they know; they want to go somewhere different and therefore supernatural stories take on a stronger meaning because we are looking for a reason of why things are going badly.

Is there a pressure on the show now that you are HBO's "hit"?

There is a pressure. You can't forget that the two shows that AMC make are the biggest Emmy winners this year [Mad Men, 30 Rock]. You can't pretend that that isn't the case but I think that Alan Ball thrives on that pressure. I think that our show can only get better. I don't worry at all. It's the only show I've ever worked on where every single member of the crew and the actors, 18 hours into a normal work day, on week 17, when the new episode comes in a brown envelope, everyone tears it open and reads it in-between their breaks. It's exciting to be part of it.

What do you think it is about British actors that makes them so perfect for the vampire role?

Traditionally American actors don't like playing baddies, because they are always thinking about how they will be perceived. Also I think that nearly everybody that has played a vampire has been to drama school and has trained and, because most of our characters that we are talking about are based in the 18th and 19th century, it's about holding yourself in a different way; it's about manners and a way of acting that is different to how we are today.

SOURCE: wired.co.uk