Jim Parrack recently did an interview with Vulture to discuss Hoyt Fortenberry’s return to Bon Temps, his heroic actions in last night’s episode, and what the character has been up to since he left for Alaska at the end of season 5. When Maxine Fortenberry (Dale Raoul) met her death at the beginning of this season, I was not expecting Hoyt to actually come back. But the fact that he did was a very pleasant surprise. Jim told Vulture that the phone call was filmed in a cement factory near where the show shoots and that he thought it was a good way to come back:
“…I thought it was a good way to come back, because it was unexpected for the character as much as it was for the audience. I was more curious than anything else, because they didn’t give me much information about what would be next, which is pretty typical of the show, that you kind of get it as it comes to you. I knew Hoyt was coming back because his mom had died, and the rest just sort of unfolded, the way that it did.”
As for how that character has changed since we last saw him, Jim revealed that by going to Alaska Hoyt has probably been free from the influence of anyone for the first time in his life so he had to learn to carve out his own life for himself and create a brand new identity:
“…I imagined Hoyt working, getting respect from people based on his ability to work, and meeting a pretty girl, and things kind of coming together that way, to the point where, by the time he arrives, I feel like Brigitte would probably be his wife. You know? Things are moving in that direction. Like things were going so well in Alaska that I probably went home thinking, This is the girl of my dreams.”
Speaking of his dream girl, Jim says that Hoyt probably would have dated women like Brigitte who were a lot more different than the girls he might have encountered in Bon Temps and of course different from the kind of girl his mom wanted for her son. But as we saw in last night’s episode, things between Hoyt and Brigitte weren’t so sunny once she began to comb through photos of his past. He did however save her, Jessica (Deborah Ann Woll), and Jason (Ryan Kwanten). Jim maintains this wasn’t so much out of heroics but out of what was happening in front of him:
…It was mostly just a reactionary thing. It was not really heroic, or part of a stance against vampires. It’s just, My girl ran off. I want to see where she is, I walk into this room and there’s this hellish torture unfolding. I guess the reaction to that would be, if you had a gun, to shoot whoever is carrying it out. That’s sort of the way I played it, just like, Holy shit! This is different! And then he’s got to smoke the person who’s causing the problems. And he saves a whole roomful of people. But it’s not because of a decision that’s made as much of a response to what’s happening in front of his face. But it was bloody! Oh, yeah. Oh, hell yeah. It mostly squirted all over, and it splashed. You know how the effect is when they get smoked, so Violet left a big mess. In a way, it was sort of exciting. “
Source: Vulture.com- “Jim Parrack on His True Blood Return, Hoyt’s Dream Girl, and Drinking Blood IRL”
Image Credit: HBO, Inc.
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