True Blood’s lead, Anna Paquin in Beverly Hills last week talked about True blood, but stayed very tight-lipped about her expanding family during the Press Conference for the show. In the excerpts from her interview below, Anna talks about how the anticipated new arrival has has some impact on Sookie this year, she doesn’t get her ass kicked as much.
Q: You look fantastic.
Oh thanks!
Q. The fact your body is changing at the moment, how does that play into the storyline? You spend a lot of time naked in the show. How does that work?
Well, Sookie was actually not scheduled to have a boyfriend this year, so the recent occurrences in my personal life actually has it turns out, have nothing to do with how naked or not naked Sookie is this season.
Q: Do they use a body double?
Well, they are shooting around. It’s been done before. It’s clothing and camera angles. And actually fewer shots of me getting my ass kicked.
Q: Hopefully.
[laughs] You know what I mean? My stunt double is getting a pretty good work out this year. But it’s not as challenging as you would think.
Q: How are you feeling?
I feel great. I’m almost done with my season. It’s been a long one this one as well.
Q: You must be enjoying the fact that you don’t have to work out a lot because you are not on screen in that way. Your husband was saying, you can tell when he’s not doing a sex scene by what he’s eating for breakfast?
That’s because boys are babies about being on diets. [laughs] I think girls are on them most of the time. The boys are the ones that kind of stare sadly at the craft service table and be like, ‘I’m not allowed that.’ And the rest of us girls are kind of like, ‘Yeah, welcome to our world. [laughs] That’s been the last 20 years of our lives.’ It’s like, you just happen to be on a show where there are lots of naked boys and man candy, so obviously the visual aesthetic, the whole thing is part of our jobs. I’m not really going to talk about the sort of specifics of my situation. It isn’t something I’m comfortable talking about in public, but obviously when you are not taking your clothes off tomorrow, there’s a little less stress about it. But cameras are cameras, and it’s not just like everybody sits around and eats donuts just because they are not taking their clothes off. It’s not like everything just goes out the window. So, my situation, no exception.
Q: Did you enjoy Joe Manganiello’s stripper moves in Magic Mike?
Joe did give us a private performance, [laughs] which is one of the funniest things I think I’ve ever seen. He was very committed to it. [laughs] And really busted out some routines, and it was very, very funny. In fact, I am very much looking forward to seeing that movie. All his moves ended up in dry humping a lot of inanimate objects.
Q: What do you do in your hiatus? Do you work some more or do you relax?
Usually do back to back jobs. I try to cram as much into my hiatus as possible, which is really smart. [laughter] Cause then you show up one day on the season already tired. Super smart. But I am kind of a workaholic, I kind of find it hard to not, I love what I do, but also when you are like, I only have x number of months, and I want to do other stuff and I want to do this and I want to do this…
Q: Why do you think people love watching supernatural programs?
Well it’s the fantasy. You can completely leave behind whatever it is that you do for a living, or a normal or not so exciting life, and often to a world that’s too often all-consuming, and exciting and there’s no limits. If they can dream it up and we can shoot it, then we do it. It’s certainly a very expansive genre of entertainment. People are never really dead and there’s power or another this or another element, and I think that’s exciting as a viewer.
Q: Would you do another series?
Probably not right away. I have deeply loved doing this show and I hope we are not done yet. Never say never, but I understand that these sort of constraints if you are working outside of the cable arena are very specific and that doesn’t totally sound like something I would find as enjoyable as my current situation, and if I was going to do another series again it would be HBO.
Q: What do you like watching on TV?
I love Breaking Bad, love Breaking Bad and I think the new season is starting really soon if I’m not very much mistaken, that’s going to be good. Really looking forward to that Aaron Sorkin show, Newsroom, really excited for that, I’m a huge, huge, Aaron Sorkin fan, and all those actors are amazing.
Q: Do you think the fact that you’ve been in show business since you were a little kid just changed your perspective on fame?
I mean, I certainly have a lot of firsthand experience from which to have the opinions that I have about things. This has obviously been a huge part of my life for a very long time, but for me it’s not the only thing in my life. This isn’t a job I do because as a means to be famous. Being recognized for your work is, if you have success is part of it, but I think I don’t quite understand the people like, ‘Well I want to be famous when I grow up.’ Well what you do? ‘I want to be famous.’ I’m like, ‘Well yeah, but for what?’ If people are going to know who I am, I’d like it to be because they draw something and they connected to it. But I’m also a very private person. So that has a whole kind of concept, like that’s part of my job, but that’s not sort of who I am or what it’s about for me.
Q. Your husband, Stephen, was talking about directing an episode and was really excited and really proud of it. How did it play for you? How was the experience for you?
It was wonderful. He’s really wonderful director.
Q. You can’t say otherwise?
I certainly can. I’m very well mannered and well brought up but I don’t sugar coat. No, he’s great. He really, really is and this is something he’s wanted to do for a really long time and something I see being a part of his future and I’m so excited that he got to do it and they’re pretty specific about who they let direct the shows so it’s a big deal, it’s a really big deal
Q. Would you do it?
Not our show, but yes, directing.
Q. Why not this show?
I don’t even have enough words to explain why I wouldn’t want to direct. Just the scope of it, it’s so big. I love checking myself into the deep end as much as the next workaholic, not quite that deep. Not with that, you know. I mean he’s directed stuff in the past. He has actually been the boss in that way. I haven’t. I’ve never even directed a short
Q. How empowering is it for you to be a woman playing such a kick-ass character?
Well its fun. I mean it’s funny. She’s really tough and she’s really feisty and he gets herself into kind of trouble but actually as far as getting physically kick-ass, it doesn’t happen quite as often as it sort of feels like it does. I mean really I’ve only had one actual full on brawl. I’m usually because whoever I’m coming up against has more superpowers than I have so it’s not really a fair fight it’s more like and then I got thrown into a brick wall, kind of thing but she’s tough
Q. Now in its the fifth season, do you kind of get that five year itch that you have to do something else?
No, I love what I’m doing.
Q. Do you have an idea of how many seasons it’s going to last?
No, I don’t. I really don’t. I mean I would be sort of surprised if it didn’t go a sixth. I don’t really know. It depends if people keep watching and keep enjoying it. I don’t know. I’m trying not to sort of think about that too much.
Q. Is there going to be a new love interest for her?
That is definitely something I am not allowed to tell you.
Q. Is there a possibility?
There are infinite possibilities. It is True Blood after all [laughs]
Q. For a girl from a small place, is Sookie kind of shooting herself in the foot by turning Bill [Stephen Moyer] and Eric [Alexander Skarsgard] away? She had so many interesting situations with them.
Well, I guess there’s only so many beautiful men that you can handle in your life before you have to say, ‘Enough!’ Enough with the cheek bones!
Read this interview in it’s entirety at: omg.yahoo.com
