Deborah Ann Woll
True Blood, Deborah Ann Woll recently spoke to The Los Angeles Times, Hero Complex about the upside of portraying an impulsive young woman struggling to find herself — who just happens to have a taste for human blood — and what fans can expect from the striking redhead in the series’ upcoming fourth season, which begins June 26.
Deborah Ann plays Jessica Hamby on the show, the good Christian girl turned angsty adolescent vampire made by Bill Compton at the end of Season 1. Baby vampire Jessica might not appear in any of Charlaine Harris‘ Sookie Stackhouse mystery novels, but there’s no question the character, as played by actress Deborah Ann Woll on HBO‘s vampire series “True Blood,” fits seamlessly into the multidimensional world show-runner Alan Ball has crafted from the work of the bestselling author.
Below is part of the interview with Deborah Ann and LA Times contributor Gina McIntyre:
GM: What can you reveal about Jessica’s story arc in Season 4?
DAW: It’s always very important to me that Jessica end up in a different place at the end of the season than where she started. In some ways writers do that obviously — they’re creating plot for you. But just in myself and the way Jessica might have reacted to a scene last year, if a similar situation comes up this year, I try to think, ‘Well how would she have shifted in her approach toward this a little bit?’ Even though Jessica’s still 17, time has gone by, so there’s a maturity coming about but even out of that, Jessica’s searching for something, she’s searching for herself and she’s going to make some mistakes along the way. I think audiences will love Season 4. I’ve really enjoyed reading all of our scripts this year. As you’ve seen in some of the teasers, it’s very political. All of the vampires are motivating to improve their self-image. That will be a fun way to see this season, I think.
GM: “True Blood” has such a fervent fan following. What would you say it is about the series that most appeals to audiences?
DAW: I think it’s this idea of connecting with your darker sides and that they don’t necessarily have to be all bad. That sexual desires and even, I don’t want to say rageful desires necessarily, but even these more angry impulses are not necessarily unhealthy as long as you sort of know how to control them and use them and what they do for you. If more people punched pillows, we might be a happier society in a way, but we’re so used to having to bury all of those instincts that they fester. “True Blood” is a nice place to go that says, ‘You know what? We have all of these shades of gray in us and maybe we should start accepting that and working with it as opposed to against it.’
GM: Do you feel that genre-based series like “True Blood” or AMC‘s “The Walking Dead” are finally beginning to garner more mainstream respect and acknowledgment?
DAW: It’s always good to be respected no matter what genre it is, but you have to get people to watch that genre in order to respect it. I think that’s maybe the shift I’ve seen — a bit more of an interest and I think there’s something that’s being scared that’s kind of fun. Maybe that’s just me, but I’m hugely into scary movies and roller coasters and haunted houses. I enjoy that feeling. Nothing gets under your skin so much as something that scares you. Things can make you cry, they can make you laugh, but if it really scares you, it got into your core in a way that very few other things can. I think sometimes what’s really cool about doing genre work, at least for me, if we can scare you and get into your middle with that, then we can talk about something that might be interesting or thought-provoking. You can use this genre in a really strong way to get inside people’s minds and try to open them.
Read the rest of this inteview by going to: latimes.com
