What's in store for Jessica this year -- and for Woll herself? Movieline talked to the 25-year-old actress about the third season's arc and her upcoming projects.
Jessica is my favorite character on the show, but I have to confess that when she was introduced, I worried that she might be really annoying. How do you keep her endearing when she could so easily tip over the other way?
Gosh, first of all, thank you! I'm glad she's your favorite. The only thing I think you could do wrong with the character is not commit to it, maybe. You know, people do things that are wrong or annoying or inconsiderate. We are not a perfect race -- and neither are vampires. [Laughs] I don't particularly believe that acting is about winning people over or having them like your character.
Is that commitment harder when you're having to portray something really emotional or when you have to indulge some of the fantasy aspects of the show? Do you just have to say, "I may look stupid in front of the crew, but I just have to go for this"?
Many times. Not only is it stupid to run and jump and pretend that the things that aren't happening are actually happening, but even the emotional stuff could sometimes come across as silly. I had to be 'devirginized' in front of a lot of people -- that's maybe not the most flattering or easy thing to portray! I had to kind of come up with my idea of what it would be like to go through that experience, and they could all judge me on whether I've gone in the right direction or not.
You came on board near the end of season one and had to join this cast already in progress. Does that inform how you treat new actors who are going through the same thing in seasons two or three?
Oh, for sure. Luckily, my experience in coming on was extremely positive. Nobody tried to pull any sort of power play against me -- everyone was absolutely welcoming and happy to have me and encouraged me to do the best job I could do. One hundred percent, I try to provide the same thing for any cast member who comes along with us. Really, you're only as good as the sum of your parts, and if you intimidate someone so much that they can't do their job to the best of your abilities, that detracts from the experience. We all want it to be as good as it can be in every aspect, so as soon as a new actor comes on, I'm so excited to meet them and make them feel as absolutely at home as I can.
When you first came in, did you know at that point that you would become a regular, or was it still just a guest star part?
It was still a guest star -- it was a recurring, two-episode guest star. The way it was written, it looked like there was a possibility of coming back here and there over the next season, but I had no idea what their plans for their character were. After I filmed the first two episodes, the day before I came in to film the finale for the first season, I got the call that they were offering me a regular position for the second season, which was extremely exciting. I was really surprised, but of course I was so grateful, because it's meant a lot to me.
What is Jessica's relationship with Hoyt going to be like this season?
Oh boy. Tumultuous, for sure. Both of them have been really hurt by the people in their lives and by each other, and there are other issues. Jessica has things she is ashamed of, and I think she doesn't find herself as deserving of someone as good as Hoyt is. There's a lot that has to change for them before they can really forgive each other. Maybe their relationship shouldn't reconnect -- it could be stronger that way.
Did you know there are dozens of fan videos and romantic montages dedicated to them on YouTube?
[Laughs] Romantic montages?
Oh yeah. They'll compile scenes between you and Hoyt and set it to, like, a Miley Cyrus song or something.
Aww! Oh, that's really sweet. I'll have to check that out. My mother is the one who's on the Twitter and the Facebook, and she gets all the updates on what the fans are doing. She's usually my middleman for the internet stuff, but I don't think she does YouTube. I'll have to look for that -- that's great.
So you guys have actually shot the season finale already, haven't you?
We'll finish it in the next week or so.
What do you feel like Jessica gets to do this year that she hasn't before?
Oh, I've been very lucky with the writing and what they've allowed me to do with this role. Each season, I feel like I start and end in a different place, and that's what you want as an actor. You like those arcs and those changes and the feeling that the events that happen to you as a character fundamentally change who you are in some way. This season, there's a lot of growth and a cool arc that happens. There's even a cool moment -- I think it's in episode eight -- where I found myself reacting the way that Jessica from the second season might have responded, a bit more impulsively. Then, within the scene, I felt myself going, "No, I'm past that. I can respond to this in a different way." It became kind of a cool moment, and we ended up keeping it; here was Jessica right in the middle of a transition.
I think my favorite moment in the premiere was when Jessica was freaking out about a dead body but as soon as she heard that Sookie might be getting engaged, she immediately became a giddy teenager about it.
If there was a buzzword for Jessica, it would probably be "impulsive." It's very moment-to-moment living for her, and it's fun to play that. It's fun to go, "Oh my gosh, I killed somebody," and then jump straight into, "But oh my gosh, you're gonna get married!" It's a nice playground.
Are you going to Comic-Con again this year for the show?
I am going to Comic-Con, definitely.
I heard the cast was unprepared for how big the True Blood panel would be last year. Do you feel like you guys kind of shoot it in a bubble?
It's funny, I guess when I thought of these TV shows of old, I always imagined them filming on these maximum-security sets and nobody could get in and it's very highly guarded, but we go into work and it's just like anybody else's office building. We have a card, we show up, we get let in and we shoot right in the middle of Hollywood -- it really doesn't feel like we're really that hidden at all! I guess because it's such a short season and we do films on the off-season and we don't shoot it at the same time as it's airing, we don't hear any of the hype while we're shooting it. The hype comes after it's done. If people get really excited about a scene, we go, "Oh great, I shot that six months ago!" We do feel very removed from it all.
I've heard that you might be in talks for the new Paul Thomas Anderson movie, The Master, to play the daughter of Philip Seymour Hoffman's character.
There's nothing official. I will say that I have talked with him, and he's very nice. I don't think we or he is anywhere near making a decision -- I think he's still working on the script, so he's got that job to do. There's really nothing official there, it's just some interest that he and I both have.
But you're definitely in the upcoming remake of the horror film Mother's Day. What can you tell me about it?
I think it has a lot of unique qualities to it that you wouldn't normally find in that kind of home invasion drama. I do like that women are playing both the villain and heroine -- I think that's an unusual thing to see in this genre. I also like that nobody dies with their top off. [Laughs] That's a positive.
[Photo Credit: Michael Caulfield/Wire Image]