The Star Online posted a long article with interviews with Alan Ball, Alexander Skarsgård, Anna Paquin and Stephen Moyer. Read the complete article at the source.
Alan Ball talks about stepping down as show runner.
“It is for mental and physical well being – it is such a demanding job. I’m very close to being seriously burned out. I have been working with a lot of the same writers since the beginning, so the show kind of runs itself now and I feel very confident that it will maintain a level of whatever it is that makes True Blood, True Blood. I work with five other really good writers who are spontaneous. The actors continue to approach the material with what I feel is exactly the right tone for the show. They take it seriously, they play it as if they are emotionally invested in it, which makes audiences care about them. If they didn’t have that, and if you didn’t care about these characters, they would just be camp.”
Anna Paquin will miss Alan Ball.
“I have huge abandonment issues so I will be sending him letters weekly to make him feel guilty. Honestly though, he wouldn’t leave if he felt that we weren’t in amazing hands. I think we’re all sort of in denial with the fact that he’s moving on to other things but in all fairness, I’m not sure that man has slept since the show started prepping six years ago. That concerns me a little.
Stephen Moyer explains how he and Anna have tried to schedule the pregnancy.
“It was always in our minds to plan for this in a way that wouldn’t affect the schedule … oh I’ve gone all American! I said ‘shed-ule’ instead of ‘sked-ule’, I’ve sold out.
“Seriously, though, it was just important to the both of us to make sure that (if we were to get pregnant) it wouldn’t affect our gang. The show is people’s bread and butter, you know, and you don’t want to mess it up for them.”
Even though Ball will not be working on the show in the next season, he has already come up with ideas on which direction the story should best take, and which characters would be given more – or less – prominence.
“Somebody that we always thought was very good is going to be very bad,” he shares after much thought, careful not to divulge any more than that.”
“Oooh… really? Like ‘Dark Sookie’? Well, how many times can a person get kicked around before she kicks back, right? But then again, Sookie may or may not even be who Alan was talking about,” says Paquin, cheekily.
“There’s a sweetness and a sort of hopefulness about Sookie even after everything she’s been through, which I find really endearing about her,” she continues.
The bromance between Bill and Eric caused a little trouble on the True Blood set. In fact, the duo had a little too much fun that Ball actually had to put a stop to it. Skarsgard lets out a laugh remembering the incident.
“Yeah, Alan called us into his office and told us that we needed to keep the stakes up on the show so we had better stop fooling around so much.”
Moyer reveals what really happened on set.
“It’s kind of hard to be locked in the trunk of a car with somebody and having to say lines like ‘reach around’. I mean, how do you not laugh and make obscene jokes at that? It got to the point that we couldn’t even look at each other’s face because we would just burst out laughing. But I’m much worse than Alex, he’s a lot more professional.”
According to Stephen Moyer is there still hope for Bill and Sookie to get together again?
“I think there’s a chance for Bill and Sookie like there’s a chance for Sookie and Eric, or Sookie and Alcide, or even Sookie and Sam. The way this season goes, it’s very complex.
Read the complete article at the source.
