Do Not Piss off Nan Flanagan—It’s “Her Way Or the Highway”

Posted on the 09 June 2011 by Thevault @The_Vault

photo: John P. Johnson/HBO

Do not piss off Nan Flanagan—It’s “Her Way or the Highway”, or so we hear in the Q&A from EOnline below. It’s good to know that Nan will be a regular on the show and will fill the void that was left when the  Magister departed and while the King of Mississippi is lying in his cement tomb.

It sure looks like she will be good at her job (making us love to hate her) as the American Vampire League leader and being the tough minded woman who always gets her way!

EOnline interviewed Jessica Tuck, who plays Nan on True Blood, and she revealed that her character is laying down the law in season four, doing her damnedest to repair frayed ties between humans and vampires. Her take-no-prisoners approach to controlling her vamp frenemies is going to make her a formidable figure this season. As Tuck puts it, “[This season] I’m much more the Nan everyone loves to hate.”

Below is a portion of the Q&A with Jessica from EOnline:

OK, so what is a post-Russell Edgington world?
We have to regain the trust of the human population and just make people understand that Russell Edgington (Denis O’Hare) was truly one bad apple and that all vampires are not like that. It is possible for us all to be mainstreamed. It’s a world that is not as trusting as it was before. We have to make up some ground that we lost. It’s safe, Russell Edgington has disappeared, and we can all move forward from it.

Can you summarize what we know about Nan’s background and her position in the vampire world?
That’s a really good question. I myself, Jessica Tuck, have been trying to figure that out. In terms of Nan’s own personal background—and these are not evasive answers at all—I really know very little about her. To be honest, I think as a character she has evolved and has been plugged in in ways maybe the writers didn’t anticipate at first, so I think my background has evolved as Nan has been discovered.

Is she prominent in the books?
No, no, no, not at all. And originally I was supposed to [only] be in a couple of episodes at the beginning. I feel so fortunate that the writers have woven her into the existing storylines. That’s the thing, there is no Nan in the books.

And what is her past or current relationship with the main vamps we know best, like Bill, Eric and Pam?
You will definitely in season four find out how she is worked into everything. But I would be slapped on the hand if I revealed the tiny specifics that I do know.

Does Nan consider Bill, Eric and Pam to be reliable allies or is their relationship more adversarial?
I think for Nan it’s—what’s that expression?—”her way or the highway.” I think she likes to have things go her way. I don’t know that she’s necessarily very flexible. When the vampires do what she wants them to do she’s very happy and when someone strays from the plan, she’s less than happy about that. At times she feels like she’s working with these vampires, and sometimes she feels likes she’s working against them.

Do we know where Nan falls in the vampire hierarchy or how old she is?
To be honest I don’t know how old I am. But I will tell you this, I would think that in Nan’s case it’s more—she said in that episode when they were all in Texas, she says to Eric, “I’m on TV. I’m powerful.” I think her persona and what she represents is as much her power as anything, but you never know.

read the rest of this Q&A at: eonline.com