Stephen Moyer in The Caller
True Blood’s Stephen Moyer spoke with Collider about being struck by the old filmmaking traditions in The Caller. However, he also spoke about his True Blood character, Bill Compton, as well as, that he is about to do a low-budget thriller with Radha Mitchell, called Evidence, before starting Season 5 of True Blood in December.
Below is part of his interview:
Question: How did this film come about for you? Did you just read the script and respond to it, or did they approach you about doing it?
STEPHEN MOYER: I was approached, asking if I would be interested in being a part of it. So, they came to me and I read the script, and I felt like it was just such a tight little story that really is in the tradition of old filmmaking, making stuff happen in the camera. I was just really taken with it. Before I decided whether I was going to do it or not, I spoke to Matthew Parkhill, the director, and I was so taken with his vision and what he wanted to do. I’d literally had a nine-day window in my schedule that November, so they managed to fit all my stuff into nine days. I flew into Puerto Rico, and we crammed it all in, in nine days.
Do you find it scarier to do a thriller that forgoes the explanation of why this is happening, in favor of posing a what if?
MOYER: That’s a good question. Wow, I don’t know. I tend to look at the material as new, every time I do it. It’s one of those things where, as an actor, you have to approach it as if it’s the most normal thing in the world. I happen to work on a show (True Blood) that’s quite surreal and has a lot of odd shit in it. My character in The Caller is very normal. He’s an ordinary dude, in extraordinary circumstances, so he’s seeing it for the first time. I don’t think there’s a method or a way to do it. You have to approach it as if it’s new, every time.
I really like the idea that you come to the end of the film and you’re still not sure whether it’s in Mary’s head, whether it happened, whether it’s something she experienced when she was a child that she blocked out, whether it’s a metaphor, whether George (Luis Guzman) and John were real in her life, whether she imagined them, whether they’re imaginary friends that she needed around her to feel better, whether John was a friend of hers at school who died or went missing. You can just go on and on and on.
What I loved about it is that you’re going to be able to leave the cinema and just go, “Holy shit!,” and spend more time talking about it. We’ve all debated what it’s about, but that doesn’t mean that it’s bad. I think that’s an amazing thing because every single person has a different view. I want to leave the theater and be thinking about what just happened and be talking about it. I don’t to just go, “Oh, that was good. Now, let’s eat shrimp.” I want to think about what I’m putting my mind through. I think True Blood does that. Everyone dissects it afterwards, don’t they? They said, “Fuck, did you see that?!” That’s the kind of stuff that I want to be a part of.
With all the things that Bill Compton has had to go through, in Season 4 of True Blood, what do you think has affected him the most?
MOYER: I think he’s had to learn very quickly from being in this position. It’s not necessarily a position that he would have put himself in voluntarily. I’m sure people have different views of this, but I don’t think Bill wanted to be king. I think he had nothing left. He lost Sookie (Anna Paquin) last year, and the only thing that he had left was really Jessica (Deborah Ann Woll). For me, what’s been really great to play this year is the relationship with Jessica, and that father-son type of stuff. We always love working together. Me and her have a real bond, and I love that.
And, this position of power and having to make decisions that you don’t necessarily want to make is always good conflict and good drama. He has to do things that he doesn’t want to do, but knows are going to be for the best, even though they might not necessarily have the best fall-out. That’s been one of the interesting things for me to do. Ultimately, being a politician ain’t fun.
Is one of the great things about True Blood, for you as an actor, the fact that the show always keeps you guessing and never having to play the same thing, from season to season?
MOYER: One of the great things about Alan [Ball] is that he’s never going to have me repeat something. I am always, constantly in a position where I get to do new things, and that’s just amazing. How many people can say that? There are lots of procedural shows that I love, but I never really wanted to be a doctor on E.R. – which I’m just picking as an example – or be on a crime procedural. Getting to do True Blood, you literally don’t know what you’re going to be doing, from one week to the next – fucking your great-granddaughter, or breaking somebody’s neck while you’re fucking them. It all tends to do with sex, somehow.
Do you have anything lined up for this hiatus, or are you looking to just take some time off?
MOYER: I actually wanted to take a break. I had a couple of things, but I decided that I was going to go on vacation with my kids. So, that’s what I did for the first month of my hiatus. I’ve been doing press for the last couple of weeks. I’m going back to London now, to do more press. And then, I come back in the beginning of September – I think on September 5th – and I’m doing a small film, called Evidence, with Radha Mitchell. It’s another little thriller that’s pretty low budget, and I think it’s going to be a lot of fun. It’s a very, very well written, beautifully constructed little thriller, which I’m not going to tell you anything about, even if you force me. I’m excited about that.
When do you start Season 5 of True Blood?
MOYER: We usually start around December 1st.
Read the rest of this interview here: collider.com
