True Blood's Mariana Klaveno on That Sex Scene and How J.J. Abrams Made it Possible

There wasn't a new episode of True Blood last Sunday, but then again, you probably needed that downtime to decompress from the previous episode's insane final scene. On a show that commingles sex and violence as a general rule, that last encounter between Bill (Stephen Moyer) and Lorena (Mariana Klaveno) may have shredded the envelope: testing the limits of vampire-on-vampire hate-sex, Bill twisted Lorena's head completely around between thrusts -- and true to Lorena's malevolent nature, she loved it.

Did Klaveno feel the same way about having to shoot it, though? With True Blood resuming its run this weekend, she called up Movieline to discuss exactly how they made it work, why Lorena just can't get over Bill, and how J.J. Abrams is inadvertently responsible.

So you had a very, shall we say, "head-turning" scene in episode three?

You could say that. You could say "twisted."

I'm sure you're going to hear all of those jokes.

We were making them on the day of filming, trust me.

Please tell me what your reaction was when you read that.

I think my jaw dropped to the floor, and my initial thought was, "Oh, my poor parents." [Laughs] There was sort of an anxiety about it, but upon reflection, I realized it was going to very much be a water-cooler scene for the season, and given the choice, I'd rather be in the water-cooler scene than not. I made my peace with it, although I'm nervous to actually see it! I've seen it in pieces because I had to go back and do sound for it, but I have not seen the finished product yet.

It's insane.

It was kind of insane, wasn't it? Unfortunately, so many great scenes happen in episode three, and I don't know that anyone will remember them when the last moment of the episode occurs.

Well, how the hell did you film that? I want to know everything.

I think it's CGI magic, but they actually built a puppet -- a Mariana puppet, or a Lorena puppet, I should say. I did a lifecast of my torso and my face, and it came out perfect. It looked exactly like me, and her head could twist around. We kind of did it in stops and starts all day long. [Laughs] We did it with Stephen and I facing up, Stephen and I face-down, Stephen with the puppet...there were many different versions that we filmed, and they sort of pieced them all together with post-production magic to make it all look, I'm hoping, horrific.

On a show like True Blood, it's kind of an honor to have the most talked-about sex scene, isn't it?

Yes, yes. I mean, I had a pretty gruesome sex scene last season when we were rolling around in blood, but this one pushed the envelope for sure, as far as incorporating violence and sex. It's actually one of the things I love about the show: it knows what it is, and it does what it does very well. Alan Ball just knows how to keep upping the ante and how to keep viewers on the edge of their seats. Once you think you have the show figured out, they pull something like this, and it's like, "Wow, I'm speechless."

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