True Blood’s Jim Parrack plays the lovable, and sometimes gullible human, Hoyt Fortenberry. He’s a loyal friend to Jason Stackhouse and up until Season 3 was a virgin still living with his mama. All that changed when Hoyt met Jessica Hamby, the new baby vampire. Hoyt is trying to live a simple life in Bon Temps, but with Jessica as his girlfriend, that is kind of difficult and in the last episode of True Blood we saw the couple break up.
New York Magazine recently spoke with the Jim about what’s next for his character, his dream-sequence sex scene with Ryan Kwanten, and the movie he shot with his real-life best friend, James Franco.
Did you have any inkling that Hoyt and Jessica were headed for all this domestic trouble?
The general rule is to not jump into moving in with whoever you’re nutty for. But, you know, I was in a bad relationship, and the day I got out of it, I moved in with Ciera, and she ended up becoming my wife. Then again, I wasn’t facing issues like, “My mother is trying to kill my girlfriend.” [Laughs.] Now Hoyt and Jessica’s issues are more like, “I’m hungry. Where’s my food?”
Or in Jessica’s case, “Who’s my food?” But, really, why can’t Hoyt make his own food?
If you went off and worked hard and came home to another person whose only obligation was to watch TV and enjoy herself, things might go badly there, too. She knows I have to eat, too, so couldn’t she make some effort? [Laughs.]
Hey — she’s pulling the night shift at Merlotte’s. And she’s keeping a video blog. Where’s yours?
I met some fans who said, “Please start Twittering!” They even walked me through it, but I’m terrible at it. I’m so bad at keeping it up. I forget how to use it. And I’m not very savvy: I try to send a private message, and it goes out to everybody.
That could be embarrassing. Though probably not as embarrassing as making a cameo in Jason Stackhouse’s sex dream?
I still haven’t seen that, but to play the cowgirl straddling my buddy? [Laughs.] That was a very interesting scene to shoot, to say the least.
Once the inevitable happens between Jason and Jessica, will we see a darker side to Hoyt?
Well, Hoyt’s father is dead and gone. His mother is dead to him. So he only has two people left: the love of his life and his best friend. And if they’re gone, what is there? That’s the kind of thing people kill people over, or destroy their own lives over. And Hoyt is somewhere between those two poles. He has nothing now. People took him for granted and misused his love. So I think we’re just barely scratching the surface of how dark he can go.
Think he could take Jason in a fight? I mean, you’re pretty big, and yet here you are playing the “sensitive” guy.
It’s crazy, right? But there’s something about people who are so loving that when they snap, it’s no joke. There are definitely some volatile moments coming up. It’s not going to be pretty.
To read the rest of this interview, go to: nymag.com
