Kristin Bauer Van Straten on Pam Being a Maker, Eric Northman, and Period Fashion

Posted on the 01 July 2012 by Tbfansource @tbfansource

The past few weeks on True Blood have left many fans wondering whether Eric (Alexander Skarsgård) and Pam’s relationship will ever be good again. Celebuzz asked Kristin Bauer van Straten, Pam’s portrayer this and many other questions regarding her character in a recent interview.

Since the new season premiered, Kristin says that things feel different than they did last year particularly since the first four episodes were released to the press. There’s an energy that feels really good to her. And it should! Pam has stolen nearly every scene she’s been in since season 1. But with season 5, the actress who plays her has been given the opportunity to show the depth of Pam’s emotions which up until now have been illustrated in all too brief scenes on screen. Add that to the fact that Pam is now a maker to someone she hates, Tara (Rutina Wesley), and it is little wonder why the press has had nothing but kind words for Kristin since season 5 began.

Speaking of Pam as a maker, Kristin says that the vampire felt like it was a one shot deal. But as we will see tonight, she’ll have to deal with Tara and it’ll be with some tough love:

“Pam is going to have to do some tough love… Pam and Tara are actually similar creatures in a lot of ways, so they’re going to butt heads a lot. And I love that Pam always wins. I’m not even sure how it’s going to wrap up yet. We haven’t filmed [Episode] 12 yet, but it’s been a fascinating year to play the estrangement from my maker and then being a maker… We’re going to find out if Pam has a heart for anyone besides Eric — very deep, deep down inside.”

Her relationship with Eric is still not in good condition. Maker and progeny will be reunited tonight but not all will be well. And while Kristin wouldn’t say whether or not the relationship would get better, she did say that she couldn’t imagine Pam and Eric’s relationship coming to an end. It would be too difficult to take if it did.

Last week audiences were treated to seeing Pam’s back story. When asked what she liked most about playing those scenes, Kristin said she liked finding the vulnerability in Pam:

“What I’ve been playing for years is that Pam loves being the top of the food chain and how comfortable and how fun it is to actually step into that mindset of no fear of offending anyone, no worry about being liked, no fear of death or illness. All the things that we have and deal with as a human she doesn’t have to deal with at all. And I’ve been wondering what could possibly have been her genesis and who the hell could this person have been before she was a vampire. And when I read it, it was very fun as an actor to try to find the vulnerability and the humanity that she had just because she in that time had to worry about being killed, had to worry about illness. It’s an incredibly frail time to be a woman in that profession. It’s a vulnerability that I don’t even understand as a modern woman. But I try to find as an actor that character before she was a vampire, but also so that you can see the through line. To try to connect them, but have them be different was a challenge.”

There’s also the fashion aspect of Pam’s turning that intregued Bauer van Straten. A resident fashionista, Pam has always had the best wardrobe of any character in the series thus far. But being able to see the kind of clothes she wore back then was a special treat. Kristin also revealed that we’ll be seeing new looks from more recent decades making an appearance:

“…We always put Pam in corsets and now we go, “Oh yeah, she was alive then. She’s borrowing from that time period, that’s when she grew up.” And the hairstyles we do in modern day, we have a couple of outfits that are almost period pieces. We have an 80s look that’s coming up. The costume designers got a great outfit from eBay – it’s vintage 80s and we thought, “Right she’d probably thoroughly embrace the 80s and live through it.” So, it’s fun to tie in all the pieces in hindsight. We had to film all this stuff not knowing what Pam’s exact story was. And the writers are so brilliant that they find the storyline that fits all that we’ve seen and we know.”

Are you excited to see Pam finally embrace her maker status? Sound off in the comments below!

Source: Celebuzz.com- “‘True Blood’s’ Kristin Bauer Talks Turning Tara, Missing Eric and Pam’s Flashback Fashion (Q&A)”

Image Credits: Jason Merritt and Kevin Winter, Getty Images, and HBO, Inc.