There’s a really super interview over at Collider with Denis O’Hare about his new TV series, “American Horror Story” on FX. Denis also chats about his character, Russell Edgington, returning in season 5 of True Blood…
As much as you must have been asked, over the last season, whether or not Russell Edgington would return on True Blood, was exciting to finally have that door opened for this coming season?
O’HARE: Hell, yes! I had been hearing rumors and things, but until I actually heard that there was a script, in which they went to the parking lot and found a hole in the ground and chains, I wasn’t sure. I’ve been in contact with people from True Blood, and I’m friends with a lot of them, and Joe Manganiello, who plays Alcide, actually told me first. He was like, “Dude, there’s this scene where I go to the parking lot and you’re not there anymore,” and I went, “Yes!” I’m really thrilled. I love that family. Alan Ball is such a spectacular person to be around and to work for. I’m really excited to get to go back and join them, and I love the character. I can’t wait to pick up where he left off.
Have you thought about how he could be now, with the time that’s passed?
O’HARE: He could change. His experience has, maybe, redefined him and shaped him differently.
Are you surprised with how much everyone truly loved the character?
O’HARE: I was. I didn’t expect it, and I was a little shocked, but ultimately, I’m really pleased. It’s a very nice thing to have happen. I was really thrilled.
Adina Porter and Jim Parrack talk about the most shocking moment for them during True Blood’s Season 4, Denis O’hare discusses his return to the series and the finale’s bloodbath and Janina Gavankar explains what she wants to see happen next season on True Blood with the shifters.
Is Tara dead? "How can she be NOT dead?" asks creator Alan Ball
Writer Raelle Tucker and Executive producer Alan Ball talk to TV Guide about True Blood’s Season 4 finale and some hints about what will be happening in Bon Temps in Season 5.
Will Tara (Rutina Wesley) Survive? “I can’t say whether she will be back in her present form, but we’ll continue to tell Tara’s story,” says Tucker.
Are Bill (Stephen Moyer) and Eric (Alexander Skarsgård) marked men after killing Nan and her guards? “They’ve been fighting witches all season, and now they will have to fight the power elite of their own kind,” says Ball. Adds Tucker: “For once in their lives they need to rely on and trust each other. They team up to face a common enemy.”
Is Russell Edgington (Denis O’Hare) really back? Yes confirms Ball–and with “an interesting new alliance,” teases Tucker.
Will Werewolf Alcide (Joe Manganiello) finally win Sookie’s (Anna Paquin) heart? “They have a deep friendship and chemistry that we’ll continue to explore,” Tucker says. “But Sookie will be trying to stand on her own two feet next season.”
Will ghosts from Terry’s (Todd Lowe) past threaten his wife, Arlene (Carrie Preston)? “The ghosts will come back, and he and Arlene are going to be challenged by that,” Tucker confirms. “Terry’s PTSD comes from a particular incident we’ll learn more about. Scott Foley’s Patrick Devins has a huge part to play.”
What kind of vampire will former fang-hater Steve Newlin (Michael McMillian) be? “He will do what he believes is the righteous thing that God wants him to do, although it will be altered by his new condition,” Tucker says.
Any exciting new characters coming up? “There are a couple of new roles that will be very sexy,” says Ball. One in particular is “a strong, mysterious female at the center of one of our main stories,” Tucker says. “She’s fierce, one of the strongest women we will have seen on the show, a force to be reckoned with.”
Source: TV Guide Magazine, issue dated September 26-October 2, 2011
Nelsan Ellis talked to Access Hollywood about the demise of his boyfriend in the season 4 finale:
“I wasn’t surprised, because I heard [creator] Alan [Ball] say a couple of times that, you know, happy times in relationships don’t last, but I was shocked that they killed him and I was shocked that they had me kill him,” Nelsan told Access Hollywood. “I was like, ‘Why would you?’… And then I found out Kevin requested [it]. He was like, ‘I want Nelsan to kill me.’ And I was like, ‘Why did you request that, dude?’”
“It was painful because we’ve become good friends. That’s my dude. He’s one of the best people that I’ve come to know — and his wife… I just love his family… and his energy,” Nelsan said. “I’m not gonna have that any more, so it was painful and we have such a good rapport, the best rapport I’ve ever had with another actor.”
Nelsan said he expects that Lafayette and Jesus will be reunited in season 5:
“He definitely will be coming back. Next season, as Lafayette learns how to use his power, then we certainly will see Jesus,” Nelsan said.
What about the return of Russell Edgington?
“I would love Denis O’Hare to come back,” Nelsan said. “And he should could come back to be my boyfriend.”
“The king of Louisiana and the new medium of Bon Temps? I think that would be a good combination, certainly a powerful combination,” he added.
Denis O’Hare reveals what it was like recording the audiobook Willpower by Roy Baumeister & John Teirney in this video by Simon & Schuster. The King also talks a bit about being a vampire and how rough and disciplined they have to be.
Poor anchorman, he was just trying to inform the public.
As if any Truebie could ever forget Russell Edgington’s on air monologue right after he rips out the spine of a news anchor on live television, John Burke, the actor who was de-spineulated, wrote for The Awl, what’s it like to prepare and film one of the most memorable deaths of the series:
I think we did the scene about seven times, and it was just filled with blood. The whole camera crew, everybody was covered with plastic, and the thing would explode and they would descend on me with shaving cream, because apparently shaving cream gets the fake blood out of your skin, and then we’d reload and do it again. The blood itself is pretty much what you get on Halloween in any typical shop, and the consistency is kind of thin, but there’s a lot of it.
The hardest part was when [Denis/Russell] swept me off the desk. It was weird, I had to be dead and move, which was a somewhat complicated maneuver. The first time or two I didn’t get it right, and they came over and said ‘Listen, you’re dead now; you can’t lift your head; you can’t look up.’ So I kept my head down and tried to draw the least amount of attention to myself.
Read the rest of the actor’s perspective at The Awl
Alan Ball has said he’d like to bring Russell Edgington back to Bon Temps in Season 5, but Denis O’Hare expects a different sort of former Mississippi vampire king when his ancient character returns.
“The trick is — and these guys are better at it than I am — but the trick is to reinvent [Russell], because he can’t come back and be the same guy,” Denis told Access Hollywood on Saturday. “He’s gotta come back transformed in some way and in a surprising way and I look forward to whatever they’re choosing to do with him.”
Denis, who stars in Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuk’s “American Horror Story” on FX, which premieres on Oct. 5, said it’s all in the “True Blood” writers’ hands regarding his return to the HBO show. But, when asked if he, personally, expects Russell to come back from his cased-in-concrete Season 3 ending, bent on avenging the staking death of his longtime love Talbot, Denis said he thinks his character would return with a much more surprising set of motives.
“The thing I love about him is his dreams aren’t petty. He’s never motivated by anything petty, so I can’t imagine if he came back he’d be motivated by simple revenge,” Denis said. “I think he’s always out for something bigger. “
While Talbot’s true death occurred after he was staked by Eric Northman (Alexander Skarsgard), Denis said Russell’s experience across the centuries is likely to make his return more complex.
“There are dreams that are bigger than that, there are ambitions bigger than that. And he’s been alive 2,800 years, he was with Talbot for 700 years. Not to say that it was only a short period of time, but he’ll do his grieving and he’ll move on,” Denis noted.
There’s a really super interview over at Collider with Denis O’Hare about his new TV series, “American Horror Story” on FX. Denis also chats about his character, Russell Edgington, returning in season 5 of True Blood…
Nelsan Ellis talked to 
Denis O’Hare reveals what it was like recording the audiobook Willpower by Roy Baumeister & John Teirney in this video by Simon & Schuster. The King also talks a bit about being a vampire and how rough and disciplined they have to be. 
Alan Ball has said he’d like to bring Russell Edgington back to Bon Temps in Season 5, but Denis O’Hare expects a different sort of former Mississippi vampire king when his ancient character returns.
