The shock of Terry Bellefleur’s death this past Sunday sent shockwaves out amongst True Blood fans everywhere. But the cast of the HBO series felt the sting of it long before the episode aired. Carrie Preston (Arlene Fowler) recently chatted with Entertainment Weekly about the loss of her onscreen husband Todd Lowe and what we can expect to see in the coming episodes as a result of the tragic death.
According to Preston, Terry’s death had been in the works before production on season 6 began. She found out about it via a text message from Todd Lowe which simply said “Goodbye Terry.” Upon learning the specifics, she and Todd were devastated because of course no one wants to leave the show and they had worked together for so long:
“But we put ourselves in the hands of the writers and we trust them, and I think the way they chose to have that moment happen was very poignant and not like anything else that happened on the show. I think it was a necessary turning point for the show to bring it back to its original roots, which are grounded in relationships — in particular, human ones. What is making this season so special is that it’s also going back to [the idea that] the worst thing in this world is humans. In season 1, Rene [Michael Raymond-James] was the murderer, and he was human. Then we went off for many seasons into the worlds of the supernatural, and now we’re back into the world of the humans — both glorifying them in the relationship with Terry and Arlene, and vilifying them with the Governor and the Vamp Camp.”
When it came time to shoot the scene, Carrie says it took about 8 hours to film due to all of the camera angles. But there was nothing else added to the scene. The moment between Preston and Lowe had no score, no other dialogue, or any other distractions. It was raw, not oversold. And it allowed the audience to truly feel the loss of this character as someone who was loved and whose death was not decided lightly.
As for the fallout of this decision, Carrie says Arlene will be having a hard time and the funeral which will be seen later in the season was quite sobering:
“We saw the moment where she was holding her husband as he died in her arms, now we’re gonna see the shock, and the aftermath, and the true coming apart. How do you not be unhinged? “There’s a scene coming up that was just as challenging as the death. And then the funeral, which will come up somewhere down the line — also quite sobering, to say the least,” she teases. “I was constantly texting Todd photos when we were shooting the funeral.”
Source: EW.com- “‘True Blood’: Carrie Preston talks this week’s casualty (and more difficult scenes to come)”
Image Credit: HBO, Inc.
