The first day of Dragon Con 2013 kicked off in the Hyatt Regency Atlanta’s Centennial Ballroom with Rutina Wesley (Tara Thornton), Lauren Bowles (Holly Cleary), and Tara Buck (Ginger). Janina Gavankar (Luna) and Jim Parrack (Hoyt Fortenberry) joined the panel a bit later. One of the interesting things I noticed is that in the years I’ve been going to Dragon Con, the True Blood panels have always been male dominated in terms of the cast members on them. But this year it is female dominated and the cast is composed of people who haven’t gotten to work with each other a lot or even at all.
Rutina, Lauren, Tara, and Janina are all attending Dragon Con for the first time. So the panel opened with the first three ladies discussing their impressions of Dragon Con. Rutina always attends Comic Con so she said she was interested in seeing the fans and hearing from them because they are the reason they show still exists and she is gainfully employed. Lauren and Tara echoed these sentiments and said that the fans will always tell them what their honest opinions are and they always know tons of things about the cast that they themselves were not aware of.
Janina is in town shooting for her role on the Vampire Diaries. She didn’t give any specifics. But check out the casting information here for more information. A self-proclaimed geek, she got excited while driving around Atlanta on Thursday seeing all of the people dressed up in costume.
Jim is now currently awaiting the release of a film he did with James Franco called Child of God. But on the True Blood front, he said he would never rule out a return to the show especially since Hoyt only asked to forget Jessica (Deborah Ann Woll) and Jason (Ryan Kwanten).
The highlight of the panel had to be the frank discussion the actors had regarding cock socks and snatch patches. As the only guy on the panel, Jim was able to provide insight into the entire process. Joe Manganiello (Alcide Herveaux) had mentioned this in previous years at Dragon Con. But hearing Jim describe the choices of cock sock that the guys are given was priceless! The choices are brought out on a velvet lined tray and one is about 4 feet long, another has a little bow on the end of it, there’s one with a cinch at the end and something else. It is the most humiliating experience he said and agrees that it would be easier just to go naked. Rutina added that one cast member had no problem with nudity but wouldn’t name names.
Another highlight had to be when Janina called a fan an ass in a lighthearted joking sort of way because he confessed to missing the last three episodes. The fan then admitted that missing the last three episodes of season 6 was due to be deployed. The audience was very supportive and clapped for him. But Janina looked positively horrified because obviously she hadn’t intended for it to go that way. It could have been an awkward moment. But everyone from the fan in question to the audience took it as a humorous one.
Watch the entire panel below and enjoy the photos!
