True Blood’s season 4 villain knows a thing or two about magic. Fiona Shaw, who plays the possessed Marnie, has played a magical character before (Aunt Petunia in Harry Potter), but True Blood has definitely allowed her to spread her wings, er, broomstick a bit. Shaw sat down with New York Magazine to talk about this season’s plot twists and who her favorites are on-set.
Shaw admits that she didn’t read the books before joining the cast of season 4, mostly at creator Alan Ball’s urging:
“Alan Ball discouraged me from reading the books, which I don’t regret; I don’t want to hanker for material I don’t have. But when I started reading the scripts, and the first lot of Latin came my way, I knew there were challenges ahead! [Laughs.] And when we had the first read-through, and suddenly seeing all these vampires in person, that was very stunning. I had to adjust and remind myself that they’re all just actors. Nan and Pam, they’re my favorites. Both vampires, both very sour.”
And being offered to play a witch role was something Shaw was exceptionally excited about:
“It puts the vocabulary of witches back on the imaginative scale, and it gives you a new eye for them. I’ve been playing at casting them when I’m looking at people at bus stops, on the subway: Who’s a vampire, and who’s a witch? That’s one of the delightful things about the series. Everyone looks normal in Sam’s bar, and then you look again, and you find they have more gifts, and more drawbacks. True Blood celebrates the fact that we should never underestimate anyone.”
Shaw dove into preparing for her role, too. She didn’t make light of the fact that real-life witches and wiccans live among us on a daily basis, and she joined several covens to get to the heart of figuring out what her role as Marnie would be like, or more accurately, what she and Ball wanted Marnie to be like:
“I actually spent weeks going to meetings and visiting witches. I liked the idea that with some covens, if it gets too big, the members can move on and form a new coven and be like bees, swarm elsewhere. Rituals can be self made. You can make up a ritual. I watched them conjure the dead, and it’s very moving. It’s all to do with their beliefs, and how they call upon a family member, and you see the comfort they give to people.”
So, the big question seems to be whether Shaw is Team Bill or Team Eric? Considering Eric was the one to try and banish her coven from practicing in Bon Temps, what exactly does she think of Mr. Northman, who’s played by Alexander Skarsgård?
“I’ll take him any day! [Laughs.] He’s a very nice young man. How is Sookie supposed to choose between her two vampires? It’s fantastically complicated.”
Source: New York Magazine - True Blood’s Fiona Shaw on Playing the Witch, Rehearsing With Vampires, and Conjuring the Dead in Real Life
Photo Credit: ScreenCrave
