Sunday night during the second episode of Season 6 of HBO‘s True Blood, we got our first look at Ben Flynn (Rob Kazinsky) who will be Sookie‘s (Anna Paquin) new love interest, and the sparks were flying! Although the show has strayed from the Southern Vampire Mystery books by Charlaine Harris quite a bit, giving Sookie a love interest that isn’t even in the books is completely new territory and Kazinsky thinks this will be a good thing for Sookie. He spoke with EW.com recently about the lack of nudity clause in his contract, not measuring up to Joe Manganiello (Alcide Herveaux), and how he thinks Ben will be good for Sookie.
Now any True Blood fan knows that there is plenty of nudity and sex in the show, but what if you haven’t actually seen the show before? That was the situation Kazinsky found himself in when he got the call for the audition for the role of Ben Flynn. He sat down and watched every single episode before he went in and he says he quickly realized that he better get to the gym! Now most television or movie stars know that you can be very specific in your contract about how much nudity you are comfortable with. Having never done nudity before, Kazinsky didn’t put ANY nudity clause in his contract and the result…well we will be seeing A LOT of him this season:
“I’ve never done nudity in my [career] ever, in any way shape or form. When they draw up your contracts… you can specify, like, ’45 degrees of the right cheek’ [laughs] and get really specific with it. I didn’t give them any demands whatsoever, which means that I’m pretty much naked the entire season. I don’t think there’s an episode that goes by where I’m not naked. And that was incredibly intimidating.”
Nudity can be particularly intimidating when you are filming alongside the likes of Joe Manganiello and Ryan Kwanten (Jason Stackhouse), but Rob is used to being the big man on set. He got up to 215 lbs for his role in the upcoming blockbuster ‘Pacific Rim’, so he was feeling pretty confident when he showed up:
Then I meet Joe Manganiello, and it’s like, ‘Well, okay then.’ [He's a] different species of being. … His arms are the size of my legs. … That guy has more hair on his head than I’ve had anywhere on my body for the entirety of my life! He’s just a monolith. I said to Mark [Hudis, then True Blood's showrunner], ‘Do you want me to look like Joe? Because that’s not really going to happen.’
Luckily for Kazinsky he wasn’t being cast as a werewolf or even a vampire. He was joining the fae family but right from the start it was obvious he wasn’t exactly “fairy-like” as some of the previous fae characters that we have seen. Kazinsky jokes that he is the “hairy fairy”, but he does point out that he is more human like than we are used to seeing so perhaps the show is moving towards a less “fantastical fairy” element.
Since we know Ben is going to be a love interest for Sookie, many of the hardcore book fans might be upset with this huge departure in storyline but Kazinsky thinks that this romance is a good thing for Sookie. As we saw in Sunday’s episode Ben has the same mind reading capabilities that Sookie has, and we know one of the reasons she was so attracted to the vampires was because she couldn’t hear their thoughts. Finding a kindred spirit that knows what life has been like for her could be a good thing:
“One thing that Sookie has never had is a similar person to herself. She’s been with vampires, she’s been werewolves, she’s been with the darker side of the supernatural, but she’s never found somebody that is in the same shoes as she is. [Their relationship] should feel like this is almost the home where she belongs. … After she’s been struggling with the darkness in previous seasons, this is the first time she’s had some kind of a ‘light’ guy in her life. That’s the main attraction for her.”
That doesn’t mean Alcide, Eric or Bill are going to take too kindly to this new man in Sookie’s life, not to mention how Jason is going to react. Those guys have nothing on the hardcore “Team Eric” or “Team Bill” fans though, and Kazinsky says he is expecting some fans to hate Ben. But he does end the interview with a promising note saying:
I can promise, over the course of the season, Anna and I will earn our own little fan group — I hope!
So what do you think Truebies? Are you a Ben/Sookie fan? Personally I’m looking forward to seeing Sookie with someone new! Let us know what you think in the comment section.
Source: EW.com – ‘True Blood’: Sookie’s new love interest on Season 6 nudity, tension
Image Credit: HBO