Kristin Bauer van Straten (Pamela Sywnford de Beaufort) has been waiting four seasons to find out how her character became a vampire. In this past Sunday’s True Blood episode, the audience finally glimpsed how that happened. Access Hollywood recently chatted with Kristin about what it was like to film those pivital scenes in Whatever I Am You Made Me, seeing Magic Mike, and more.
Last weekend Kristin attended the premiere of Magic Mike which starred her True Blood co-star Joe Manganiello (Alcide Herveaux) who plays the stripper Big Dick Richie. The actress told writer Jolie Lash that Manganiello left quite the impression:
“Joe leaves a big impression and I think I had the same expression on my face that the women in the film did in the club. It’s super fun. It’s a very sweet love story actually, a coming of age story for Channing Tatum, but there is also eye candy. It’s a lot like ‘True Blood’ – it’s got a great story, but then you get to see some fun stuff.”
She did admit however that she was glad not to have been sitting in the actual strip club because she might not have been able to watch.
After starting off easy, the interview got down to the business of discussing True Blood and last week’s episode, specifically what it was like to film. Kristin says her immense trust in co-star Alexander Skarsgård (Eric Northman) helped and allowed her to focus more on what made Pam become the harsh and blunt vampire she is today. This required going back and finding the vulnerability audiences saw in the last episode that made her want to choose this life with Eric.
While the flashbacks looked effortless on screen, actually playing the part was made a little more difficult by costumes and lighthearted ribbing from co-workers making kissing Alexander the easy part:
“It didn’t feel weird… But Stephen [Moyer, who plays Bill Compton] and Mariana Klaveno [who plays Lorena]… they were standing right outside the doorway to that room in the brothel… So we kiss and [Alex] sort of scoops me and twirls me out of the scene — one of my legs is incredibly tangled up inside the skirts… I’m battling with this fabric and six inches from Stephen and Mariana who are staring at us like they’re watching their parents make out. I look at them and go, ‘What?’ and they go, ‘It’s like watching our parents kiss.’ I’m like, ‘What do you mean by that!’ So there’s always this difference between the experience of filming it and then what it looks like, and I felt like when I watched it that it was good. It was perfect.”
Pam’s turning however as not so perfect on the show. But the actress felt personally and after speaking with the episode’s writer Raelle Tucker, that her character had to force this issue with Eric. This is in part because the character has a ballsy nature and that Eric was unwilling to do it. Bauer van Straten also noted that quality of life for women at that time, particularly in that profession was grim and that the character was really only giving up maybe five years of her life.
As for what will happen to Pam and Eric’s relationship in the present, Kristin revealed that the Authority begins to affect people’s lives forcing them to make very tough decisions. For Pam that means her relationship with Eric may become compromised even further. Sookie (Anna Paquin) may not be bonding with Pam any time soon either, even if Tara (Rutina Wesley) is her progeny. It would be fun to Kristin though:
“That would be really fun. For some reason, it’s fun to play a character that hates other characters. I just love Pam’s hatred of Bill, but what’s great about this show is like last year, Pam and Bill started having to work together and that’s where a lot of these alliances shift, shift back and shift again this year and I do not know what they’re gonna do. We’re about to film Episode 12, so I’m not sure what that end is for all of this, but it’s a pretty chaotic year. It’s a pretty hard year for relationships because the Authority really wreaks some havoc.”
She also added that it would be fun to see Pam in every decade and peel back more layers of her personality. With True Blood slated to wrap for the season soon, Kristin will be doing something completely opposite of Pam. She’ll be heading to Africa to film a documentary on ivory poaching, an issue close to her heart:
“I’ve gotta take a camera crew over to Kenya… I’m setting up meetings in all different parts of Kenya with people on the ground who live and breathe trying to stop the poaching of the elephants and the rhino. Two species of rhino have gone extinct in the last six months. The numbers they’re guestimating of elephants that are being poached daily is so sickening. We’ve heard really heartbreaking numbers, so I’m going to interview these people and say, ‘What’s happening? You live here. Please, tell us what you think are the solutions and how can we help you.”
Source: Access Hollywood.com- “True Blood Q&A: Kristin Bauer Van Straten Talks Kissing Alexander Skarsgard & More”
Image Credits: Alberto E. Rodriguez, WireImage, Angela Weiss, Getty Images, HBO, Inc, and Jerod Harris, Getty Images
Tags: access hollywood, acting, causes, Interview, ivory poaching, Kristin Bauer van Straten, Pamela Swynford De Beaufort, Whatever I Am You Made Me
