True Blood’s Joe Manganiello was recently in Hong Kong to promote the latest season of True Blood as it premieres there. Part of his conversation with Prestige Magazine is below, specifically about how he got the part in True Blood:
For Manganiello, getting the role of Alcide was a lucky twist of fate. The story goes that fans of his who had read the Harris novels began blogging that he should play one of the werewolves when the story delved into that territory come season three. “I was a big fan of the show,” he says. “And I saw [the blogs], so I ordered the books and read them. These blog sites ended up finding their way back to someone who was friends with one of the casting directors, and she saw my picture as a result and wound up calling me in.” The first role he auditioned for wasn’t Alcide, but Cooter, a secondary werewolf. “After my first audition, I walked out of the room and Alan said to everybody, ‘I think that’s Alcide.’ ” And so Manganiello had the daunting task of joining the cast of a show that was already making massive waves. Ironic for a guy who, when he graduated from Carnegie Mellon University’s acclaimed drama school, turned down a TV contract “because I was going to do film.”
“At the time I got out of college, television wasn’t what it is today,” he notes. “HBO really revolutionised; it made TV more appealing to show-runners and really creative people like Alan Ball. There’s more freedom now in cable TV than there is in film; film is really conservative now – very safe and very boring. I’d rather watch HBO shows than go to the movies.” He did so on the plane ride over.
Read this entire article about Joe by going to: http://www.facebook.com/prestigehongkong?sk=wall
