Kristin Bauer van Straten (Pamela Sywnford de Beaufort) has had quite a year thus far! In addition to having a stellar season on True Blood playing highs (her backstory and becoming a maker) and lows (being released), she’s also about to embark on a journey to Africa to help the elephants. With the help of International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) and a Kickstarter campaign that has already raised over $50,000, Kristin will be making a documentary entitled Out for Africa in Kenya starting in just a few short weeks. She spoke to TV Fanatic’s Chris O’Hara about this and Pam’s journey through True Blood’s fifth season.
Without a doubt, one of the saddest moments on True Blood this season was when Eric (Alexander Skarsgård) released Pam. This provoked a lot of tears from not just the audience, but also from Kristin herself. She admits that she cries easily and when she tried to tell Alex why she cries, she cried again:
”…It’s the triumph of the human spirit I finally was able to tell him.At the table read I cried, at rehearsal I cried. Normally you save it up for when the camera is on your face but since I had been crying so much my nose was already all red and runny, but Alex assured me they would make my snot match the color of my blood tears. It was such a sad scene, though. Usually you need to keep a thought of your dead dog in your mind during those scenes, but this scene was just seamless. I’ve done a lot of guest stars and and a lot of acting and sometimes you just have to make the words work, but not on this show. The characters have evolved over five seasons in such a slow build, it’s been really great.”
True Blood is facing a significant change as it heads into production on season six later on this year. With creator Alan Ball leaving the show, Kristin says it has been talked about among the cast and that it was sad during the last table read (she cried and asked him to sign her script). But she believes in the strong cast, crew, and staff of writers that have been with the show for a long time. It is because these people and the way that things are set that Alan can step away from the show and allow it to continue without him.
Speaking of change, Pam became a maker to Tara Thornton (Rutina Wesley) this year and Bauer van Straten says she’s been having a lot of fun working with someone new:
“It has been super fun for both of us. I didn’t really know Rutina and she has been so great to work with because she really cares about the scene and the relationship and I think she is having so much fun being a super. For example, she was really excited about Comic-Con and I thought that seemed funny because she has been multiple times before but she said ‘yeah, but I’ve never been as a vampire!”
It was so, so cute. Comic-Con is such a great opportunity to put faces with our fans instead of just Googling our ratings. We are all just really grateful to all the fans out there. I think we probably have the best fans of any show.”
Pam and Tara got off to a rocky start. But the actresses that play them have been striving to find little moments to connect their characters on screen. One of those moments for Kristin came when she decided to have Pam look proud of Tara for telling off her classmate a few episodes back. She says Pam sees similiarities between herself and Tara especially now that we know Pam’s backstory.
Like the fans, Kristin and Alex had waited for a very long time to see how Pam was made. And for Kristin, it was a very much welcomed experience after having spent time creating one in her mind.
But now that Pam has been released and has a progeny of her own, she is being forced to confront the reality of the Authority without the support of Eric. Authority hired Sherriff Elijah has taken over Eric’s position and pushed Pam off of her stage in the last episode. So what does this mean going forward? The stakes are being raised:
“The stakes are just getting higher and higher. Pam is a tough girl but doesn’t want to go forward without Eric so she takes action. Pam’s whole existence, her entire world, is in jeopardy but the bond between her and Tara will be strengthened in the remaining episodes as things get really intense.”
Now that True Blood has wrapped for the season, Kristin has found herself faced with the choice of staying in LA and working or doing something that could make a difference. She chose the latter as I mentioned earlier and for a very good reason:
“…I’ve watched rhinos go extinct in the wild with the only remaining specimens having to be kept in sanctuaries under armed guard for their protection and I’m seeing the same atrocities happen to elephants at alarming rates. I just wanted to see what I could do to help these people in Kenya who are trying to prevent this.”
So in order to do that, Kristin decided to launch the Kickstarter campaign where she’s offered up many True Blood related goodies, either signed or requiring participation from her True Blood co-workers. With 6 days to go, it would be awesome to see her campaign reach $60,000. Click here to view the campaign.
True Blood Fan Source thanks Jackie Adams of Mediavine, Inc. for sharing this interview with us.
Source: TV Fanatic.com-”Kristin Bauer Speaks on Tears, Tara and Looking Out for Africa”
Image Credits: She Knows, HBO, Inc, and Jerod Harris, WireImage
