The long awaited Tru Blood 2: A Second Bite convention run by Hub Productions hit Australian shores recently. Originally this event was to be held last September, but due to work commitments, injuries and newborns, it was rescheduled. Here’s a run-down of the Melbourne event.
Lindsey Haun
Lindsey (who plays Hadley Hale, cousin of Sookie Stackhouse in HBO’s True Blood) was a newcomer to the convention scene. She opened the first session with a special treat – a song. I had no idea that Haun was musically inclined, but her voice is definitely worth checking out. While I was unable to record any of her original song (she also played the guitar), it is worth checking out her website HaunSolo.com where some video of her singing can be found.
Lindsey went on to discuss such diverse topics as as her childhood acting career (her most famous role being Mara Chaffee in Village of the Damned), her famous family (father Jimmy Haun is best known as the left-handed guitarist in Air Supply and her grandfather is is singer Rouvaun, better known as ‘The Vocal Veruvius’) and her new hair color (she is now brunette). Haun was both entertaining and completely comfortable in front of the audience, even taking off her killer red heels and curling up in her chair while chatting to her fans.
Michael Raymond-James
His stories were hilarious and while he demonstrated his famous Cajun accent and how it evolved with the help of a dialect coach through the audition process, he also regaled the audience with funny onset stories, including one where he received a photo of naked crew members as his parting gift from the show. He also offered his regret at the tragic (on-screen) death of Sookie’s grandmother.
The poor man was suffering terribly from a hangover that resulted from too much partying after the Sydney Tru Blood 2 event, but he soldiered on gracefully after receiving a strong cup of coffee. He was happy to discuss his past acting credits, both on screen and stage. His future acting roles were also discussed, so make sure you keep your eye out for the movie entitled Road To Paloma, it sure sounds good. His short but definitely sweet role in The Walking Dead was also bought up as well as his penchant for bad-boy roles.
Charlaine Harris
There we many questions about her books (the Sookie Stackhouse novels, as well as her other series), her feelings towards Alan Ball’s version of the Sookieverse and her writing career in general. It was lovely to hear how much she appreciates Alan Ball’s vision as well as how much she enjoys seeing the actors on True Blood bring her characters to life. She loved how close Chris Bauer is to her version of Andy Bellefleur and hinted at the fact that if she were to be able to pick any actor to play Niall (a character from her books, but not yet confirmed as a character to be included in True Blood), she would chose David Bowie (can anyone remember his role of the Goblin King in the movie The Labyrinth?)
After the Q & A sessions, all three actors were bought back onto the stage and a combined session then commenced. It was great fun to see the three of them interacting with each other! Apparently Michael Raymond-James had pinched Charlaine Harris’s socks the previous day to keep as a memento of the Sydney event.
The event was concluded with the drawing of a raffle and an autograph session. I was lucky enough to get book number four, Dead To The World (my fave in the series), signed by Charlaine Harris. The very next day after this event, a surprise signing was announced by Dymocks bookstore, and I was able to get a second book signed by the author, so I was very happy indeed!
Did anyone else here attend either of these events. Or did you go to one of the events Charlaine Harris attended in other states? Let me know in the comments below. And for a bit of fun – who wants to caption the photo below taken at the combined Q & A session in Melbourne?
Sources: Hub Productions
(Photo Credits: Lenore Mills)
