True Blood News at The Nest

Thanks to Jody K. for passing along another great video interview with King Russell himself, Denis O’Hare. It’s longer than usual and I promise it’s worth every minute, especially when you check out Denis’ outfit. It’s kinda awesome.

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Denis O’Hare gives a fun interview and this one for Fancast is no exception.

Is it good to be the king?
It’s good to be the king. I can do whatever I want to. I have a great house. I get to order people around. I eat who I want to. It’s fantastic.

Can you give me a couple hints about where the king and his vampire-werewolf alliance are headed?
Everybody’s got plans. They think they’re headed in a certain direction and then events take over. Around episodes seven and eight it all starts to go sideways. I’m no exception. All of my plans have to be revised because things start to go really crazy.

Is Russell going to have any more shocking scenes, like the stripper-drinking orgy?
I am in bed with someone in episode 10, and things happen in bed.

Is that someone male, female or wolf?
I think it should be a surprise.

What’s been the most fun part of your ‘True Blood’ experience?
I get to work with wolves. I love dogs, so to work with actual wolves [is incredible]. I got to meet one young wolf and actually sit down and pet him before he knocked me over on my ass. They’re fantastic animals. I got to do a lot of horseback riding. I love that.

Do you think the show should move to Jackson and forget about Bon Temps?
Absolutely. It’s a bigger place. We have better restaurants. We have more interesting stuff to do. We have plantation houses. Come on. [Russell's mansion] is a real house. It’s called Longwood. It’s in Natchez [Mississippi]. They base it on that real house. It’s in a studio. It has no upstairs, but that’s a piddling issue.

As far as Sookie is concerned, are you on Team Bill or Team Alcide?
I’m on Team Russell. My team.

Popsugar made a nice video of Rutina Wesley, Nelsan Ellis, and Denis O’Hare talking about how much they love their jobs and how they react to scripts.

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Broadway.com posted a fun story about some of True Blood’s talented cast and their stage careers. The 10 cast members featured are Anna Paquin, Sam Trammell, Rutina Wesley, Carrie Preston, Nelsan Ellis, Chris Bauer, Denis O’Hare, J. Smith-Cameron, Zeljko Ivanek, and James Frain. Before you ask why there’s no mention of Stephen Moyer’s stage career it’s because he’s never performed on the ol’ Broadway.

Here’s a sample of what’s in store when you visit Broadway.com:

Anna Paquin
You know that True Blood’s fearless heroine Sookie Stackhouse was one of the youngest Oscar winners ever in real life (for 1993’s The Piano). But Anna Paquin is also a skilled stage actress, as she proved in a Drama Desk Award-nominated off-Broadway debut as a baby-faced serial killer in 2001’s “The Glory of Living” (pictured above, with Jeffrey Donovan). She went on to co-star in Neil LaBute’s “The Distance from Here” and was terrific opposite former flame Kieran Culkin in “After Ashley.”

Denis O’Hare
O’Hare takes on a syrupy southern accent as Russell Edgington, the wily vampire King of Mississippi, but theatergoers have seen this versatile star play everything from baseball fan Mason Marzac in “Take Me Out” (a Tony-winning performance, pictured above), Christina Applegate’s shy lover Oscar Lindquist in “Sweet Charity,” President Garfield’s killer Charles Guiteau in a Tony-nominated turn in “Assassins,” Nazi sympathizer Ernst Ludwig in “Cabaret” and the title role in off-Broadway’s “Uncle Vanya.”

I LOVE Denis O’Hare! He’s the best new thing about True Blood this season, yes?

Here’s an interview by CBS filmed at Comic-Con over the weekend.

True Blood’s new actors are featured in this week’s Entertainment Weekly. Denis O’Hare (as Russell Edgington), Theo Alexander (as Talbot), Lindsay Pulsipher (as Crystal), James Frain (as Franklin Mott), and Joe Manganiello (as the werewolf Aclide) talked to EW about working on the show.

Denis O’Hare discussed feeding time – the show’s fake blood is made of a sugary syrup, and for O’Hare, getting the unappetizing goo down is just a matter of commitment. “If you’re in the moment, it’s actually really fun,” he says. “It’s only after, when you’re thinking about it, that you get the shakes.”

Manganiello opens up about being nude on camera. “You have three options,” says the actor of the show’s penis-covering protocol. “A sock, a thong, and the ‘manty’ or man panty. You can go sans sock, [but] I come from a good Pittsburgh up-bringing that raised me to wear a sock.”

Frain, who has also starred on Showtime’s The Tudors, says that wearing the regal period clothing during that show was much more of an occupational hazard than the costumes on True Blood. “You’ve got on a fur coat, jacket, shirt, and we’re indoors in the summer shooting and they couldn’t use the AC because it makes too much noise,” he says.

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scans courtesy of sookiestackhouse.com and Anna.

Thanks to our friend Anju over at True-Blood.org here’s an exclusive interview with King Russell’s alter ego, Denis O’Hare. I’d have a drink with either of these men!

We’ve heard from other cast members that it is very difficult to speak with fangs in your mouth. Have you had the same experience?

Holy Communion, Russell style

Yes, the fangs are a challenge. Especially if you have a lot of “S” words. For instance, “Sookie Stackhouse” is a killer. We usually have to re-record some of the lines we say with fangs.

Were you already familiar with True Blood and/or the books of Charlaine Harris when you were cast for the role as Russell Edgington?

Yes, I had read around three or four of the books after I got the job and enjoyed them very much. I’m also a big fan of Alan Ball’s and so had watched True Blood from the beginning and was a big fan of the show and like everyone else, looked forward to the third season and then, lo and behold, I was on it.

How have you prepared for your role as the King of Mississippi?

I always do a lot of research for all my roles. In the case of Russell Edgington, because he is so ancient, there was a lot more history to cover. It was fun, though, and I indulged my inner history geek by doing tons of reading on ancient Rome, Greece, the early early medieval period, Charlemagne’s period, high middle ages, etc. I also did a lot of thinking and exploring about what it would be like to be immortal, to be a night creature, to be powerful.

Most of the cast members have been together since the first season of the show. How was you first day on the set working with all these people, who were already such a ensemble?

My first episode was their second episode so it was a little strange for me. We had a table read and we all gathered in a large trailer on location in Griffith Park in L.A. and I went around the table introducing myself. I was nervous but I found that I knew a lot of the cast members or knew people in common so it felt a lot more comfortable. A lot of us have lived in New York at one time or another and so have bumped into each other.

Do you yourself have any belief in the supernatural? Could there actually be vampires out there? Or at least ghosts, something paranormal?

I hate to disappoint but I’m hyper-rational. But I believe in the power of the imagination and in story-telling.

And now the question of all questions for your fans: Can you please give us a small preview of your role as Russell Edgington? And perhaps a glimpse of what will happen in Season 3?

Russell is a fascinating character who has many many levels. As the season progresses, you will get to see his compassion, his ruthlessness, his anger, his pain, his love for Talbot, his dreams for the vampire kingdom, his contempt for humanity, his affection for werewolves and his fascination of Sookie. Russell wants more power – he wants to rule more and more of America and he feels that he is the best person for the job and he will go about collecting power in many ways. He is not always predictable given that he is an “ancient” being who is governed by rules and morals that may be incomprehensible to modern people.

Do you share any traits with your character? Do you admire or dislike anything in particular about the character you are playing?

First off, I never judge my characters – that is not my job. I take them as they are and I try to understand why they behave the way they do. Everyone thinks they’re right at all times. Everyone is invested in their own agenda and their own point of view and in that respect, I am Russell’s champion. I think I am dogged and loyal like Russell. I’m a little out of step myself and I have a birds-eye perspective about humanity in the same way as Russell. I don’t drink blood in my day to day life however.

Is there any other role on True Blood that you would want to take on, even just for one day?

Nope. Very happy with Russell.

True Blood has a reputation for being upfront about sex and skin; if you were required for the reality of the character to reveal a little more for your role, would you have a problem with that?

I already have. In episode 10 I have a scene in bed. I reveal some – not all.

Is there anything else your fans should know about you? Or that you would like to share with them?

Hmm … Well, I live in Brooklyn, New York with my boyfriend of 10 years, Hugo, who is a designer. We have a 12 year-old-Shiba Inu named Cleopatra.

I’m working to update my Web site and make it more interactive and more user-friendly. You can find out more about me there.

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Denis O'Hare

iFMagazine released Part Two of their exclusive interview with Denis O’Hare, who plays Russell Edgington, King of Mississippi. (If you haven’t already, read Part One.)

iF: You’ve done a lot of theatre in New York …

O’HARE: Yeah. I went to school in Chicago and I did all my early theatre work in Chicago, kind of where I learned to act, and then I moved to New York in the early Nineties and that’s what I did. I’ve been a stage actor, I’ve done a lot of Broadway, I’ve done four Broadway musicals, a lot of Broadway straight plays. That’s kind of my thing, that’s what I did, was Broadway. And then I’ve always done TV here and there because of Law and Order in New York, but then this [True Blood, which films primarily in Los Angeles]came along last fall and I was thrilled, because I love it.

iF: Had you worked with Alan Ball before?

O’HARE: I hadn’t.

iF: Do you know if he was a fan of your stage work prior to casting you in True Blood?

O’HARE: I think he’d seen me in Take Me Out [O’Hare won a Featured Actor Tony for his work in the production in 2003] and all those years, it kind of percolated, and when this part came up, I think it was a good fit. A whole lot of us are from New York – Carrie Preston [Arlene] is from New York, Sam Trammell [Sam] is from New York, Rutina Wesley [Tara] is from Juilliard from New York, Kristin Bauer [Pam] is from New York – a lot of these actors, we all come from the same place. Michael Hall, who did Six Feet Under [with Ball], I knew him when we did Romeo and Juliet together in Baltimore years ago, when he first got out of Juilliard. So it all kind of comes full circle, which is really interesting.

iF: A lot of the actors in True Blood are called upon to disrobe at some point. Do you have that?

O’HARE: No. Not yet. [laughs] It hasn’t happened. I’ve gotten this far in my career without having to do that, it’d be nice to keep some things private, you know what I mean? If I’m called upon to, I will gladly, but Russell has dignity. I think he needs to keep his dignity.

iF: Well, most of the characters who disrobe have dignity …

O’HARE: Yeah. They’re 25 years old [laughs].

True Blood has released a fun and informative video that not only covers how to kill a vampire, but maker/child relationships, vampiric powers and the political hierarchy of vampires.

Well, now. Denis O’Hare gave an interview to TVGuide and spilled some beans. Tasty beans. Barbecued, even.

Up until now, the sum total of our knowledge of the True Blood vampire monarchy rested on the tiny, delicate shoulders of Evan Rachel Wood’s Queen Sophie-Anne. But there’s a new crown in town, and he rides horses! Russell Edgington, the gay vampire king of Mississippi (Denis O’Hare), kidnapped Bill with the help of his werewolf lackeys and has now made him a very suspicious job offer. O’Hare tells us what the ancient king really wants, why he loves Talbot and how he’s different from Sophie-Anne.