Like many of the characters on True Blood, Carrie Preston’s Arlene differs vastly from Arlene in the Sookie Stackhouse novels. What has it been like creating your own version of the character with Alan Ball and the writers? Do you have a lot of input?
At this point, the writers have taken the premise of the novels and totally run with it. I trust them to take Arlene where she needs to go. I don’t have any input with the writing, but once I get to set, they trust me to interpret the words how I see fit. At this point, there’s a natural flow.
Thanks to Patrick’s (Scott Foley) arrival, Terry (Todd Lowe) has spiraled even further down the rabbit hole than normal. How will Arlene continue to cope (or not) with that?
As we’ve already seen this season, Patrick’s arrival has put a great strain on the marriage. Arlene’s family comes first, so she will do what she needs to do to protect that.
Will we see the children more? Where’s the baby? I worry the ghost came back and took him.
This season is really more about Terry’s past than the kids. As we saw at the end of the season 4, Mikey was just a normal baby who was being controlled by a troubled ghost. Once Mavis was reunited with her own baby, Mikey was released from whatever hold she had on him.
Most of the other characters have something supernatural going – even Lafayette (Nelsan Ellis) is getting that creepy brujo mask now – do you ever get jealous of all the fun powers the other characters have? Or are you just glad you don’t have to learn to talk with the fangs?
I definitely think the vampires have more fun on our show! I used to amuse myself by picturing Arlene as some kind of supernatural. But there are too many of them now. I think they need someone to hold down the human fort. And I think Arlene is the woman for the job.
Read the rest of this interview with Carrie at: smallscreenscoop.com