Stephen Moyer told usatoday.com that there’s a whole lot of incentive going on in the background at True Blood. Two months ago Moyer, who also directs Episode 8 of the new season, challenged the cast and crew to a Biggest Loser-style fitness challenge.
“We started because I hadn’t had any love scenes in particular, because I’d been directing, and I hadn’t been to the gym as much as I normally would during a season,” said Moyer. “I was laughing with a couple of the camera boys saying, ‘I’ve got to get back on it Monday.’ And one of their standard jokes is, ‘Yeah, we’re going to start our diets on Monday (too).’ And I went all right, well why don’t you then? It started off as a little joke but by Monday, we decided to do a Biggest Loser competition for the whole crew.” Thirty six people jumped into the two-month-long competition, which will end “probably July 12 when we finish shooting.”
The prizes could be bloody hefty. “Me and Anna are going to do something,” says Moyer – perhaps even a weekend away for the winner and a guest. “I think HBO is, too.” But the loser will have to face Paquin, and a possible public running of suicides. “Anna was talking about doing one of her crazy juices (for the loser), like some kind of kale and ginger and – they’re (expletive) nasty,” he said. Pregnant or not, “she’s pretty intense,” he grinned. “She can get people do do sh–.”
But come on, we protested. How out-of-shape could Vampire Bill really have been in the first place? “There is a difference between looking all right in a shirt and taking the shirt off,” promised Moyer. “The older that us dudes get, the more the paunch has to be worked on. It’s hard.”
P.S. Not all the cast needed the incentive. “You’ve got people like Joe (Manganiello) who is a two-a-day fitness freak to somebody like Ryan (Kwanten) who runs at his lunchtime. Ryan won’t even get in the mini-van when it’s going to location,” said Moyer. “He’ll run by the side of it.”
