True Blood’s Valentina Cervi, who plays Salome in season 5, was recently interviewed by TV Guide magazine. This is a very interesting interview, but it might be upsetting to some of you too.
WARNING: If you don’t want to know – don’t read below!
Credit: TV Guide
You’re brave…here’s some highlights from the interview.
With the news that the most psychotic vampire is once again free to wreak havoc on the world, The Authority decides to enlist Bill (Stephen Moyer) and Eric (Alexander Skarsgard) to hunt Russell (Denis O’Hare) down. First, however, Roman (Christopher Meloni) needs to see if the dynamic duo from Bon Temps can be trusted, which is why he’ll turn to his own trusted right-hand vampire, Salome (Valentina Cervi), to get the dirt.
But whose side is Salome really on? TVGuide.com turned to the Italian actress who portrays her to discuss her new relationship with both Bill and Eric — which is almost as dirty as Season 4′s dream-sequence threesome — her role in the impending civil war against the Sanguinistas and what Nora’s (Lucy Griffiths) betrayal of The Authority really means in the long run. Plus: Get the scoop on original vampire Lilith below:
We briefly met Salome last week. What can you tell us of how she fits into the Vampire Authority?
Valentina Cervi: She is the right hand of Roman at the beginning. She shares a very special intimacy with him, so they have a layered relationship. Every vampire has a different agenda in The Authority, and of course, we’re all next to Roman, but the interesting thing is that everybody has his or her own way of thinking, and when the season goes on, you will find out where everybody stands, and who everybody stands next to. Of course there’s a lot of Biblical and historical references because they have inspired Salome from the biblical Salome. She’s been a victim since she was a kid. She was sold by her mother when she was a kid, so she has a lot of hate in her, and she brings that hate and that need of love with her in the season.
Inspired…oh, she must mean the writers’ interpretation of the woman from the Bible.
How is this Salome different from what we know of the Bible?
Cervi: Talking with the writers, we all agree on the fact that she has been betrayed as a kid. So today, she has this very complicated and sexual relationship with human beings. She can’t trust them. That’s why when she became a vampire, she could, in some way, stand up for her rights, and that’s where all her anger, her fear and also her pain comes from, from the betrayal that she received when she was a kid.What do Salome and The Authority want from Bill and Eric?
Cervi: There’s an apparent reason and it is to bring them on her side. She wants people to be on her side, and she understands who people are. At the beginning, she can’t really trust Eric. She knows Eric, she knows everything from his past, and she knows about Godric and Nora. With Bill, she feels that he is someone she can, in some way, manipulate more. At the same time, she respects Bill more because she sees his heart and she knows that he has a good heart. She’s really intrigued by him. She will have feelings for both of them during the season. It’s not that she wants something; she’s a loving character, even if it doesn’t seem like it. She’s full of love and needs to be loved. It’s complicated.
Say what? Did she say she can’t trust Eric? WTF? I think she’s trusting the wrong vampire. I sense the writers think they haven’t attempted to prop Bill up enough in past seasons. They have to keep trying. I guess the writers forgot that we have long memories and can remember one season from the next…something they can’t seem to be able to grasp themselves.
Have your barf bags handy, then we can throw them back at the writers, m’kay?
Does she actually have feelings for them or is she just using them?
Cervi: Things will develop and will change in the course of the season. At the beginning she is just cool. She is just testing the ground with both of them. In [this Sunday's episode], she is real. What she says is real. Of course she has her agenda, but I think that deep inside, she really feels for Bill, and for Eric in a different way, because she can’t trust him. Being a control freak as she is, she wants to know where everybody stands and she doesn’t know if he could stand next to her.
A part of me thinks she can’t trust Eric, because she knows he’s smart and will see her motivations coming from a mile away, while Bill is too stupid and can be easily manipulated. Another part of me thinks this just smells like more Beehlshit being thrown at us to make us bitch and complain. I don’t get it…do they WANT us to quit watching?
Salome was close with Nora. Is there a chance Salome may decide to switch sides to the Sanguinista movement?
Cervi: We don’t know what Nora’s plan really is right now, but the thing is, she is like my sister. I sponsored her Chancellorship at the beginning, and so her betrayal really hurts me. We will see who stands on whose side. Not everything is what it seems. I think she loves Nora as a sister and she feels incredibly bad, but I also think that everybody has to do what they have to do, so they’re going to have an explanation afterwards of why Nora did what she did. Who knows that what you see is what it seems? Maybe there’s another backup plan.I hear we’ll actually meet Lilith this season. How does Salome feel about this person coming in and saying she’s the original vampire?
Cervi: Salome really believes that Lilith is The Goddess, that Lilith is the God that we have to trust, and follow, and believe everything that is written in the Bible is true.
If you would like to read the entire interview, please click here.
I can tell that Alan Ball’s fanfiction is going from bad to worse. My head is becoming as twisted as Lorena’s in Season 3.
What do you think? Share your thoughts below!
