True Blood’s Kristin Bauer will be attending the Phoenix Comic-con this weekend, but before that, she sat for an interview about her character on the show, Pamela Swynford De Beaufort. As one of the many vampiric femme fatales who populate the fictional world of HBO’s True Blood, she can not only kick ass, but can do so in style.
And much like her character, actress Kristin Bauer isn’t afraid to pull any punches. In the interview below she talks about this season’s fairies and witches and a bit about Pam’s past. She also talks about her motivations behind playing the character, but wouldn’t spill too many spoilers about the season, other than the fact that Pam’s gonna be in mortal danger and that both witches and fairies will be afoot.
What can you tell us about the upcoming season of True Blood? I’m sure you’ve been sworn to secrecy.
Yeah, on fear of death, literally (laughs).
So if you reveal too much, HBO might send some vampires or werewolves after you?
Yeah, they’d send the witches, werewolves and vampires after me. Pam is in dire straits this year. I personally love when I watch TV to see the characters that I love get pushed to their limits. They did that to Pam last year as well and she had a more vulnerable response at the thought of losing her maker [Eric Northman]. And this year she’s lost him in a sense because he’s lost his memory. I can’t tell you more than that what happens but it was really exciting and challenging for me to play and to see this other side of Pam.
What can you say about the fourth season? I’ve heard there will be plenty of fairies and witches.
Yeah, they’ve released one of the previews where we’re allowed to say witches and it makes it very interesting for the vampire world because they have different powers than we have and it creates interesting drama. Right now we’re shooting episode 10, so I don’t actually even know how it’s going to wrap up.
When you first started back when you took this role, what did you do to get into the character?
The way that it was written was, especially season one, she has these great lines and she’s very sarcastic and I’ve been known to be a little sarcastic so i just basically channels my most unapologetic and caustic self. There’s so much humor in Pam’s lines that I just looked for that sort of unbridled personality who has a very dry sense of humor. And that was all that I did because that was mainly the roll and as the seasons have gone and they put her in more dire situations then I discover … like season three I really discovered and again in season four the depth of her devotion to Eric, which is fun because she really doesn’t have many attachments in the world and it’s really fun to me that she has one.
Will she still be pining for Eric throughout this season?
Yeah, I think it’s such an interesting complicated relationship between a vampire and a maker because there’s usually a sexual relationship at some point and so there’s a romantic one and then there’s definitely a progeny relationship a father/daughter relationship. And then they’re also coworkers and coadvisers to each other so it’s really at any given time the scene calls on a different of that relationship because you would never have in a human relationship a romantic relationship and a father/daughter relationship. But for vampires it works because you know each other over thousands of years. Can you imagine a thousand year marriage? There’s going to be some days when you can’t stand each other.
Will there be drama between Sookie and Pam over Eric. We’ve heard about a possible love triangle this season.
I can’t say what we do this season and I certainly don’t know what we’re going to do in the future but it is interesting that dynamic that Pam appears to be attracted to Suki and loves to flirt with her but yet Eric has a deeper connection to Sookie and Pam always has to respect that. But I tend to wonder if Pam wouldn’t want to share. Last season Eric had a thing for … I always keep confusing the character named with the show name … he had a thing for Yvetta and Pam, of course, has a love scene with Yvetta on Eric’s desk. It seems like Pam is definitely the rebellious child.
When you started acting did you ever envision that you’d be doing such a scene?
No, and I think of that almost every day on the set. I look around and say out loud, “You guys, we’re at work, this is what we do for a living.” And I think it strikes everybody as hilarious.
Is the blood really corn syrup and food coloring?
It is, that’s exactly what it is and there’s a few different kinds. I think that was one of the things I wrote down last year, the cabinet of different kinds of bloods and I said there are different kinds of bloods and Briget Ellis the make up artist just listed them off. Oh yeah, and she went through all the different kinds. Hysterical.
Do you ever get tired of the taste?
Yeah, it’s very nice of them to make it sweet for us but you definitely don’t want to swallow a bunch of it. We always use spit cups, it’s very glamorous.
Can you reveal if Pam experiences “true death” this season?
I cannot.
To read the entire interview go to: blogs.phoenixnewtimes.com
