Pam is such a huge fan favorite. Are you aware of how much people like her?
You know, I've been hearing that, but there's really no way for the actor to have a good feeling for that. Right now, I'm in my house doing my to-do list because we're leaving the country for a month, I'm answering emails, I went and got groceries today...somehow, there's no way for that [fan attention] to get into your cells! It's so nice to hear, and it's definitely a product of how amazing the show's creators are, and the wardrobe. It's a big collaboration to create such a great character, so it doesn't feel like I'm walking around like, "Aren't I wonderful?"
You've spent much of the last few episodes chained up. Some viewers might think, "what a relaxing day on set," but was it a pain in the ass to be all tied up for so long?
It was a pain in the bone in the back of my skull and the base of my butt! It was really funny, because through that [final scene in the last episode] where Denis O'Hare was so good and Zeljko [Ivanek] was unbelievable, I was lying there staring at the ceiling for seventeen hours, listening to it. [Laughs]
So I'm sure you were looking forward to actually watching the episode to really appreciate what was going on.
I was. It always feels to me like those really long days of shooting, you wait four months to see it, and then they go by in a minute and a half.
And so many of the water-cooler moments use special effects, so you have no idea what, say, someone's head getting cut off will look like until the episode actually airs.
That's exactly it. That move where the king moves his hand and suddenly I'm across the room and now the Magister is on the table? In person, here's what we did. Denis moves his hands, I tried to be agile and clumsily slid off the table, and then we cut. Twenty minutes later we got the Magister on the table and said, "Action." It's not as cool.
Which side of Pam do you like playing the most: her more vulnerable moments, or the scenes where she gets to come in and be brassy and have all the best lines?
Boy, those lines they write for me? I have to say I'm pretty in love with them. That dialogue is so much fun, and that's probably my favorite part. The paragraph that Brian Buckner wrote where I threaten Lafayette this year, it was just amazing. Also, I really enjoy those clothes.
Your clothes on this show are insane.
Every wardrobe fitting feels like Christmas morning where you're opening a package and you know it's gonna be good, but you don't know if it's gonna be awesome, and it's always amazing. You know, it's really wonderful for me to see these episodes because Pam gets more and more vulnerable and she gets put in some very dire emotional and physical circumstances. That was so rewarding and fun for me -- it felt like a new door had been opened and I got to find out a whole new layer about who she was.
I have a theory that Pam is kind of like the vampire version of Samantha Jones, Kim Cattrall's character from Sex and the City, in that they're both smart, lascivious, and prone to wicked line readings.
[Laughs] I think so, too! That's actually a good theory because I was a Sex and the City watcher, and when we were at Comic-Con, Joe [Manganiello]
was saying, "You should do a Pam's Blog where you're the anti-Carrie Bradshaw and you give bad advice." In these scenes we saw where she was with Jessica, that's where it started, that she's like the Bizarro Carrie Bradshaw, like in that Seinfeld episode where everything's the opposite.
You were on that episode of Seinfeld, as Jerry's date with man hands! What do you remember about that experience?
I don't remember being nervous, but it doesn't mean I wasn't. What I've retained from it is hanging out with Jerry -- we laughed so much. It was a really easy, lovely set. To be on a sitcom with that level of success in year seven, I think it was? It was a little bit what I imagine nirvana would be like. Everyone's relaxed and happy and having fun in the most harmonious environment you can imagine.
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]