Last Sunday night we saw Jacob Hopkin’s child vampire character meet the true death. He may be just 9 years old, but on HBO’s True Blood, he’s been playing one of the oldest, most cunning vampires alive, Alexander Drew. Alexander was a member of the Vampire Authority, the government that rules over vampires and is led by Christopher Meloni’s very intense Roman.
This week, Roman discovers there is a traitor in his group of leaders, and it turned out to be Alexander.
“I think it’s cool sometimes to be the villain,” Hopkins tells The Hollywood Reporter about finding out that his character would be the traitor.
THR spoke to Hopkins about his character’s traitorous ways and how he prepared for his final, bloody scene.
When Hopkins, whose previous work includes appearances on How I Met Your Mother and a role in Priest, joined the show to play Alexander, he wasn’t aware that he would end up being the traitor of the group, and says he was shocked when he read the script for the fourth episode of season 5.
“I didn’t really know,” he says. “It really surprised me because I didn’t think that I was going to be a traitor on the show.”
He says he played the scene bravely because he feels a vampire that old and in that position of power would not cower even when he had been discovered.
“I didn’t think Alexander was suppose to be scared because he is suppose be a really old and wise vampire,” Hopkins tells THR about his character’s frame of mind.
Hopkins says that the special effects crew and the director of the scene, Romeo Tirone, made sure to walk him through all the details of his dramatic death scene.
One of his favorite moments was getting to touch the pile of blood and guts that was used for after his character Alexander had been staked.
Hopkins tells THR he wasn’t afraid of shooting the gory scene.
“We had done so much preparation and I knew what was happening before we shot it, so to me it isn’t like what the viewers really see,” he says. “I got to touch the stake to and even though it looks real, it’s rubbery.”
Hopkins worked closely with Meloni, who joined HBO’s vampire drama after spending more than a decade on NBC’s Law & Order: SVU. The seasoned actor walked through the death scene with Hopkins before they began shooting.
“Chris told me that he was going to grab me very close and to get in his face and be really angry,” Hopkins tells THR. “He prepared me for what he was going to do before he did it.”
Hopkins adds that working with Meloni was enjoyable since “he’s a dad.”
“He knows how to act with kids. He is a very, very nice and very lovable person,” says Hopkins.
With Hopkins’ run on the show over, the young actor said he was “sort of sad” to leave because he had such a good time.
“But I’m looking forward to keeping my fangs and it was all such a great experience for me,” he says.
source: hollywoodreporter.com
