True Blood's Kristin Bauer on Playing Pam, Getting Nude, and Being the 'Bizarro Carrie Bradshaw'

Do you get more scenes with Deborah Ann Woll this year? I felt like I saw some sparks between Pam and Jessica earlier in the season.

For the rest of the season with Pam, she's got her hands full. That shift we saw in the vampire world in the last episode, things go crazy. She's pretty distracted. Unfortunately, she doesn't get much more time with Jessica this season.

I think that's what fun about Pam, is that if you imagine her with any other character, it just seems like the best relationship ever. Like, I know she probably wouldn't be into Hoyt, but if she was, I would so sign up for that.

I know! Those are the doors I would love to see opened, like what we're going to see in this arc. it is really fun to have a one-on-one scene with the other characters, especially outside of the vampire world. It's fun to see what Pam is like with other people in a new environment, but those huge scenes that take place over a few episode where I'm in Fangtasia in the same outfit and things just get worse and worse, those are fun to be part of in completely the opposite way. The days are longer, the scenes are split up into tiny segments, but they're fun to see when they finally air. It might not feel as organic on set, but I love being around Anna [Paquin], Stephen [Moyer], Alex, or Joe. It's really fun to be part of a group.

How has the evolution been from recurring to regular? When you and Alexander first came on, neither of you were regulars at that point.

Right. I got the feeling they knew from the start where they were going to go with Eric, but I guess from the books, Pam doesn't really start showing up more regularly until book four. In the second season, Pam didn't do that much; she kind of just had her snarky lines in Fangtasia. So for me, to become a regular in season three and start seeing all these different sides of her was a huge gift. I didn't expect it, but what a wonderful year. Alex and I get to be friends more and more every year and it just gets easier and more fun to work together, and the same with Anna and Stephen. Being a regular, you just feel like you're more part of the group, and that's nice.

And yet I think there are several actors on the show you've never even shared a scene with, and you've been on the air for three seasons.

It's so funny because we have one scene where we enter Merlotte's in the first season, but when I see Sam [Trammell] or Ryan [Kwanten], I just have to sort of yell to them across the parking lot, "Hey! What are you guys doing?" The table reads are parties, they have to constantly stop us and say, "OK guys, we have to get going," because it's the only time we see each other. Rutina [Wesley] is such an amazing, lovely lady, and every time we see each other we run and hug and tell each other how great the other person is, and that's it! The cast is that huge, which also makes it exciting. Watching the show is fun because I wasn't even there for a lot of what got filmed.

You yourself once played a stripper in Dancing at the Blue Iguana, so can you sympathize with these actors who come in to play dancers at Fangtasia?

I sympathize with anyone taking their clothes off. On that film I think I had three months to work out [beforehand], but once you know that you're going to be taking your clothes off in lighting that you're not controlling and dancing in front of extras, to me, that was just the most frightening experience! So I have complete sympathy. Oh my God. On paper, it sounds like, "Yeah, sure, I'm 25 and I look great, let's get this on camera before no one wants to see me like this," but when the day arrives, it's quite a day. Unless you're Swedish.

Like Alexander Skarsgard.

Exactly. Alex could care less. [Laughs]

But he still has to work out all the time, like everyone on the show. Have they banned carbs from the True Blood craft services table?

They haven't, which is cruel. All the women walk by craft services and keep going. I don't even know why we walk by, we're just torturing ourselves. Alex and Joe, they're trying to add size, but we're all working out like crazy and have diets. Skarsgard seems to be the only one that works out a lot and eats a lot and does fine.

You have a resume full of guest appearances on some very big shows over the last several years. Did that teach you something about how to go in on True Blood and make the most of what, initially, were very short appearances?

It does. It trains you to have your thing down, to walk in, and to deliver no matter what's going on around you. If the other actors are friendly, not friendly, they don't know their lines...it doesn't matter. You just have to deliver and go home. That's the training I got, to hit the ground running.

So I'm sure you're very nice to the guest stars on True Blood.

I'm especially nice to guest stars. Whenever I'm a regular, I go out of my way to make sure they're comfortable. It's so hard to go onto a new set. it always feels like your first day at a new school. It is so uncomfortable, I find, so I definitely go out of my way.

[Photo Credit: Chelsea Lauren/Wire Image]

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