Thanks to the wonders of modern technology and fangirl persistence, myself and Lividity had the awesome pleasure of hanging out with Kristin Bauer for a couple of hours recently via the interwebs. I was given the daunting task of leading the questions, but everything was cool because it turned out that Kristin is like my much hotter long lost cousin or something. We’re both mouthy, feisty, married to South Africans, are rather fond of whales and oh, the sexy ass men of True Blood. Because we yakked on for ages like two old ladies gossiping over the garden fence I am bringing you this interview in two parts. Please enjoy, leave a comment and tell Pam how much we love her fierceness as I am sure she will be checking on us!

Do you mind if we record this interview Kristin?

Not at all, hopefully then you know, you can quote me accurately or I guess I should say, in context. You see, I did an interview last week and I’d still like to try and set the record straight if you’ll oblige me. I don’t think anyone cares but me, but E! Online asked me if I was surprised that Anna and Steve were engaged and I said, “No.” She said, “Why not?” And I said that they were amazing together and they laugh a lot and he’s a real gentleman. And then she asked, “Would you be surprised if they had kids?” And I’m like, “No” She said why? -Well, because he has kids and she loves his kids and then they put out an article saying Kristin Bauer predicts children! I had a heart attack. I felt terrible. I have no idea of anyone’s plans, even my own!

I have a very low opinion of those types of media outlets and I don’t really read that stuff when it comes up on the True Blood fan sites. I thought, “I’m sure she didn’t say that.”

You did? I thought they were just calling to talk to me about me.

Yeah, you’d think so. I find it quite sexist whenever a famous couple get engaged, it’s like, “when are you going to get knocked up?” It’s not the single purpose for life for a woman to go out and breed, especially a successful actress, and she’s only 26 or 27. Why would you want to go ahead and have children?

I think so too and I’ve been asked as well. And we’re like we’ve been married for three weeks! Once I say, I haven’t even thought about it, the conversation just dies very quickly.

I get very touchy when they say you’d better hurry up if you’re going to have any. How bloody rude is that?

I’ve heard, hey you shouldn’t wait too long and I guess they’re implying that my womb will be barren? I mean, my god! It’s a very funny thing but I feel the same way and I felt horrible about Stephen and Anna and sent them a huge apology and posted something on the site saying I have no idea about their plans.

They’re probably well used to stupid people asking stupid questions and twisting it for their own use.

That’s it, I think they probably are used to it.

They’ve been getting a lot of press lately because they’re engaged. Even in my country because Anna is from New Zealand and so it was headline news. She’s like a national treasure; we don’t have many famous New Zealanders.

Right, yes, I don’t know of any others.

Oh, Peter Jackson, Bret and Jemaine from Flight of the Conchords. It could be worse, not a bad bunch. Anyways, I guess I’d better look at my sheet of questions.

Sarcastic, irreverent, sexy, funny, acerbic… Where does Kristin end and Pam start? Do you inject your own way of doing things and your way of life into the character that you play?

I think you use yourself whether you want to or not. First, of course I read Pam’s lines and thought ‘vampire loves to kill and eat people. Great!’ and you just jump in and put on this character. Then as time goes you can fill in more details. I just did the special features for the Blu-ray DVD for season 2 right? It was really cool because I got a lot more information on Pam. She comments on everybody in the show and everything that’s happening, especially in the vampire world, and as I’m filming this I start realizing that I kind of, parts of me, are Pam. I thought wow, that’s so interesting and possibly frightening.

I mean all the fans love Pam. I haven’t met any person who doesn’t think she’s super awesome.

Really? Oh good, because I just love playing her!

We can tell, and I think it’s a subconscious thing – you have to inject whoever you are into the character you are and you do it without thinking about it.

Yeah, that’s exactly how it is. You do it without thinking about it. I mean your imagination is all the characters got. And that includes the writers, casting, the costumers, the hair and makeup people…It’s all a create.

And so this Blu-ray commentary; is it like the Blu-ray for season one where Lafayette does all the bitchy comments?

Yep, exactly. It was so much fun. I was so honored and excited to do it.

That’s great – I wish I had a Blu-ray player now.

Me too! I’m gonna have to invest in one. I’m think and hope we’ll all love it as much as I loved doing it. It answered a lot of questions about how she was made, her feelings about Bill and Eric and it was really fascinating and so well written.

I find your portrayal of Pam in the show different from Pam in the books.

Yeah, what was Pam like in the books?

Pam in the books is not as old, she is described by Sookie in the first book as milkmaid and a soccer mom. Quite conservative clothes, the kind of woman who drives the kids to school in an SUV, and all that. It’s quite interesting and to be honest I like the way they’ve decided to depict Pam on the show a lot better. But, have you done much delving into the books? Have you sat down and tried to read them?

No, I’ve thought about it of course, and during the first season I started reading the first book but it got a little confusing actually. I couldn’t remember where I got information from, was it the script or the book? So I decided for season two it was a little more fun to not know what was going to happen.

Also, it’s confusing a lot of people – they think they know what’s going to happen on the show then it doesn’t happen. I’ve read through them a couple of times. I think if you’re an actor on the show, it might confuse you because the writers have done something different and you’re reading an entirely different person on the page.

Right, that’s what I’m wondering. I have incredible curiosity about the books. So it’s very possible I’ll read them.

I dunno, I mean, during the break it might be fun beach reading.

I just had lunch with Charlaine Harris, she’s so much fun and such a sweet southern lady. It’s fascinating that this stuff comes out of her mind. My mom is reading all her books and she’ll be sending them to me. I had warned my mom that the show is going to be pretty intense but she told me she’s enjoying it and now is in to the books. My sweet little Wisconsin Mom.

I thought it was really funny that Charlaine said when the show first started coming out on TV that she was worried that she was going to have to move because she lives in such a conservative town. They might drive her out of town with pitchforks and flaming torches.

I thought my family would be rolling their eyes and embarrassed and not mention it at Christmas, like they have been doing about parts of my life for most of my life, but everyone loves True Blood.

Do you see your role expanding? Where would you like to see Pam’s character taken in the next season?

I would love it to expand of course! And you know, when I saw Alexander in the first episode of the season ripping apart the body? I was so jealous. Wouldn’t that be fun to just go on a killing spree? Charlaine said at lunch that in her last book Pam goes on a killing spree. And yes, I must admit I am in to filming that.

I think it would be great to see this glamorous chick rip this, hopefully deserving, guy apart.

I really did discover from the Blu-ray that she has very clear opinions and a sense of justice. She’s been around a long time, not as long as Eric or Godric, but over 100 years and she’s seen a lot of stuff. She just has a broader perspective let’s say. So I think she’d kill the right people.

In the show, Pam has a low opinion of humans. Why is that and what is it that annoys you the most about humanity in real life?

I just think she’s a tad disgusted. Personally, I really dislike meanness. And I have a real button on meanness cloaked by just not being aware or paying attention. When I see people just throwing trash out their window for example – this nonchalance looks like this sort of get out of Jail Free Card as if it’s ok because they’re just not paying attention or something. I suppose they just don’t care. Their caring only extends about 2 ft from their body. There’s no concern for somebody else, for animals or the woods. That’s mean. There’s this beauty that was created here on earth by this magical, this incredible circumstance or force. They’ll take their car to the carwash to make sure their rims are shiny but that ocean, you know? Ah, Who cares? I’m not responsible, I’m not aware; I’m not paying attention…that is not a get out of jail free card. We’ll all be here in it together, whether you pay attention or not. Mother nature doesn’t grade that way, on the curve.

I get really wound up about this kind of stuff. A couple of years ago we were driving back from a concert and I saw this Winnebago full of tourists and they were throwing all this stuff out the window into the road. And it’s my country so I got my husband to drive alongside them and I flipped them the bird.

I would do exactly the same thing. It’s your road, it’s your country, and it’s our planet. But it’s too easy to focus on that and get disgusted. When I went and looked at how commercial conventional beef is raised because I wanted to see what I was supporting, it amazed me how mean it is. It’s just simply mean. Littering is mean. Scientists are talking about global warming and some very technical aspects that are true and important but my viewpoint is simpler maybe because I am simpler but this is a beautiful place, created by we don’t know what and if it can even be repeated anywhere else and its ours and none of us will survive alone.

As you’re playing a character that’s been around 100 years or even 1000 years you really see how stupid people really are.

Yep, and how little some care, so why should I care? That is a self-defining question for each individual.

Because their time on earth is really short.

Human life is short, it’s only a blip, so I can see how from Pam’s viewpoint it’s well, they are pets, they are food, so I can understand that viewpoint from being dead, but from Kristin Bauer’s viewpoint I’m gonna be the last person bailing the Titanic as it’s going down. I see how much people do care if they find out like I am trying to do – To just look and see what I support. If we can know, if someone shows us – this is how this beef lived until it got on your plate, I’d say 8 out of 10 people go, “Oh, that’s awful.”

They may say it’s awful, but 5 minutes later they go and order a steak.

That’s exactly it. That’s the thing that I would like to figure out how to have us all realize that by doing very little we can actually change another being’s existence, for the worse or the better. It’s our choice. We are more powerful than we know. We pay every huge corporations mortgage.

And so Pam is cynical and she’s given up on humanity, but you still have a little a bit of hope.

Because I’m still part of the human race, but Pam said, “I’m out of here.” And I can’t honestly say that if I had the choice I wouldn’t do the same thing. It’s an exiting world that Alan has created that asks deeper questions than the exciting surface would at first glance imply.

I wonder if vampires are environmentalists because they have to live on this planet too. If all the humans are dying they’d be screwed as well.

That’s it, so it would be interesting to see that Pam in her home is an obsessive recycler.

We have heard you have no knowledge of the direction of the show while shooting. Is this to prevent spoilers leaking?

I wonder if they are just on to us. I was going to say don’t trust us. But honestly I really can’t be trusted. And I think everybody is excited for every script that comes out. I certainly only know what I am doing in the script and that’s it.

So it’s just a surprise like Christmas presents.

It’s suspenseful, like Christmas. You’re wondering what’s going to happen and what you’re going to get to do. It keeps us on the edge of our seats; it’s very unusual.

It’s probably very wise of them to make sure you don’t know what’s going on because you might get drunk at a bar one night and you’re like, “Oh, this is what’s going to happen next,” and someone hears you and it’s on TMZ.

And then you’ve got the egg on your face like I had with E! Although I was not drunk I swear.

You have to enlighten us fans of the male actors of True Blood. What is it like to work with Stephen

Moyer and Alexander Skarsgard? What can you tell us about them?

They’re incredibly fun, incredibly cool. I often laugh so hard that I cry. We’re shooting at night and there’s just hysterically funny silly stuff that happens with the fangs or the blood that is not at all cool, not at all intimidating or immortal, at least for me and I just cant help but laugh.

Fangs fall out?

No but they’re…shall we say, large.

There’s an incredible amount of enthusiasm for Alex’s character and his extremely good looks.

I’ve noticed that everywhere I go these days it seems. I’m working on this other show this week and all the women are asking me about him and I’ve been asked by Newsweek to comment for an article they’re doing on him. He’s definitely getting attention this year, which is great, because he’s so good.

Yeah, he’s had a long acting career in Sweden and but hasn’t had a lot of recognition in the States. This will probably be a massive springboard for him to do other stuff.

I am sure it will be.

So you enjoy working with the terrible two and we ladies particularly love scenes with Bill and Eric in them.

I mean they’re so cute, Ryan’s so cute and Sam? I mean come on, there’s a smorgasbord of cute! Whatever your type is and then you’ve got Eggs, that dude Eggs? Ridiculous.

I guess you mainly get to work with Alexander. I mean, we’re not sure if everyone’s going to come together in the finale and you’re probably not going to tell us if everyone’s going to end up in Bon Temps trying to get rid of Maryann.

That’s definitely going to come to a head. Yeah, there’s a great finale on that. It’s going to be very satisfying.

I’ve never seen a show that’s gripped everyone so much.

I know, I haven’t either, it’s a really incredible synchronicity between the books and Alan and his writers and producers and the casting and the costumes and the sets. Somehow this whole thing has come together to create something really magical.

In the show, it’s very clear that Bill and Pam don’t like each other very much. Who would win in a fight? We think Pam might have some awesome sneaky tricks up her sleeve.

Well, I’m extremely biased, but I can’t imagine that Bill could do much against Pam. It’s really funny in the Blu-ray because she’s just merciless; she just thinks Bill is a tad pathetic.

Why do you think that she thinks he is pathetic?

Because he is the remorseful vampire, which to her is incomprehensible.

He doesn’t like being a vampire and she loves it.

That’s it. It’s the greatest gift that anyone could have and anyone who sees it as anything less, to her is, you know, taking up space.

I guess it all depends on how made you a vampire. The person who made him was a crazy ass bitch.

That’s it, and the way that it happened, because I can see both viewpoints, tortured or it’s a great gift but Pam was over being a human and saw this small life playing out and met vampire Eric and never ever looked back.

Yeah, that’s really interesting, I mean it’s almost like you could say that some of the vampires on the show are quite one dimensional, gleeful bad guys, and so I find Bill particularly fascinating because he’s not like that at all. And he’s more like Godric.

Yes, and it really reminds me of life on earth too because everybody has a viewpoint and most viewpoints are actually fairly understandable if you can get in to that viewpoint. If you look at Godric, who’s just tired and done. I found that storyline so touching.

I did too.

Wasn’t that astounding? – it’s such a layered show.

Us fans are starting to wonder why all the women in True Blood are either crazy or in the process of turning crazy. Do you think Pam is one of the more sane and balanced females in the show? Because seriously, I can’t think of a woman who’d I’d like to have a beer with on that show. They’re all awful and all the villains are women.

I hadn’t thought of it but they are all entirely unstable; I hadn’t thought of that. And Pam is rock solid. She knows who she is. I mean, if you look at what life’s about; know who you are, and know what your purpose is and what you’re supposed to be doing here. She’s not conflicted at all. Dress. Take care of Eric and eat.

And not out randomly wreaking havoc and making people’s lives a misery. She’s just doing her thing.

Yeah, she’s just doing her thing.

What experiences/anecdotes can you share with us fans from Season 2? Are there any particularly stand out funny moments when things just went wrong that you could delight us with?

Well, hm. I just remember episode eleven for me, which, everything was probably going great for everybody else, but I had to speak a bit of Swedish. When I see the script come and it says, in parentheses, “in Swedish.” And I think, “Oh, sweet Jesus!” So Alexander puts it on tape and I play it over and over and over, because to me, it sounds like gibberish, it’s a fun challenge. And while the scene is happening, all I’m doing is saying the next Swedish line in my head over and over. Most of this season, for me, it’s just clothing, heels and Swedish. Not a bad job.

I always wondered if he helped you out with that stuff, since he is Swedish.

That’s all Alexander. And Swedes speak extremely fast.

I actually think I can understand him a wee bit when he’s speaking Swedish on the show.

Oh really?

Because the language is quite similar to Dutch Afrikaans or German. So if you know a little bit of that, you can follow.

Well that’s another way that I do it- Abri, because he is fluent in Afrikaans, and because half of his family is of Swedish descent and some of the Afrikaans words are the same. Right? So he learns it faster and then I just keep saying it to him and that helps me.

Has he taught you how to speak any Afrikaans?

I’ve learned a couple of phrases that I suspect I shouldn’t say to his Mother but I have no idea what I am saying.

Yeah, it’s so assertive. When I’m around people speaking Afrikaans, it sounds like they’re arguing all the time.

Yeah, doesn’t it? I actually love to listen to it. Sometimes I ask him to speak Afrikaans to me. And he goes on and on and he’s laughing and then he’ll always say, “Oh I hope you never learn Afrikaans!”

I think so, yeah and does he sing you some of those really cheesy Afrikaans songs?

He wrote one in Afrikaans but it’s Abri’s song so it’s beautiful but he did show me some other guys on YouTube. It’s pretty different huh?

As a fan yourself of the show, what would you like to see happening in the show? What is your dream plot line?

Well, I would just, I’m just thinking selfishly here, but everybody is always getting naked and getting to kill, so part of me, if they give me enough warning to go to the gym for a month, or two…or three would love to be naked and killing. On second thought it’s good I’m not writing this show.

True Blood is famous for its eye-popping sex scenes. Are you disappointed that Pam hasn’t hooked up with anyone yet? Who would be a good match with Pam?

Hm, don’t you wonder? Well, I’m thinking of the obvious choices but then, god, I mean what would a real vampire love scene be like? I mean would they rip each other apart to a certain extent in passion? And then I think that Pam, in the books I heard Pam doesn’t seem to discriminate between men or women.

No, in the books she’s definitely bi.

I think that would be fun, I mean we haven’t seen a bi love scene.

No, that would be pretty cool and I’m sure lots of male fans would be totally up for that.

Right? Wouldn’t that be something?

Yeah, so perhaps a female in the show or a female that we have not met yet might be fun, if the scene was done really aggressive and bitey kind of sex.

Wouldn’t it be? I don’t know, maybe I’m going to regret having said this. I think that would be great.

In the books Pam is described as a soccer mom, when she is not working (and then she wears the crazy vampire cliché clothes). But on the show I think of her as more Jackie O, old school glamorous. How would you describe Pam’s signature look?

You know, it’s constantly evolving because of the brilliance of Audrey Fischer. And ep. 11 I think she just topped herself. It’s the oddest, most interesting, astounding sort of Pat Benatar 80’s.

We’ve actually seen some spoiler pictures of you wearing that absolutely amazing sparkly red cat suit.

Is that not hysterical? Audrey is amazing.

Were you nervous about wearing it? Was it difficult to get into? Because it looks like PVC and you’d have to cover yourself in talcum powder to get in it.

I tried to not drink or eat most of the day, to have to get in and out of it. And it was just… I just started laughing when I put it on. Because I thought, I don’t understand it, but I love it. And I love that Pam has that old school idea of women dressing to just go to the grocery store. They used to dress for their day. They didn’t leave the house looking comfortable like we do now.

No, they didn’t. They used to glam it up.

They glammed it up, you know, and I absolutely love that Pam does that. The most casual we’ve seen her she had on like a pink sweater and khakis last season when Bill staked Longshadow. Which was so funny after seeing her in the leather corset.

That outfit was more like the way she dressed like in the books, sort of an homage to soccer mom Pam in the books.

Exactly.

Yeah, the red catsuit is gonna look awesome, I can’t wait to see it.

I can’t wait see it because between the outfit and the Swedish…to see if I pulled it off.

It’s a shame they didn’t give you a whip to go with it!

That seems like the perfect tool for Pam.

Pam’s glamorous world of fashion is not new to you. You had a t-shirt designing company with actress Liz Vassey called Neuroses to a T… Are you still in business? Did you enjoy the work?

I did enjoy it at first and then once it really took off I was in the clothing business, which I realized just isn’t my purpose. You know, I like to act, and I like to paint, and I also write. And so all of a sudden I’m in the clothing business? It wasn’t me.

You are not really a business minded person, you’re more of a creative person?

And it took my time away from being a creative person. I started to feel that I was slowly dying. So Liz and I sold it.

Yes, I love t-shirts with funny quotes on them.

Me too! And Liz and I have the same sense of humor. We would go out to dinner, have a martini and come up with these phrases and keep each other laughing. We did not expect it to take off. We did an interview on Extra and we came back from dinner and had 500 orders and we didn’t have boxes we didn’t have invoices, we didn’t have tape, we didn’t know what we were doing. So that was exciting, and a year later it was just a lot of work.

You need a gray man in a suit to do the boring stuff.

Yeah we did and we tried that but then I realized someone still had to be in charge and monitor and be the boss. And it just wasn’t in me. Hey, maybe it would be fun to have a Pam clothing line… if I could just do the fun part and someone else deals with all the minutia. Who wouldn’t like that?

Wait and see, as the show gets bigger and bigger as I imagine it will. There will be those who think that is a brilliant idea.

That might be fun.

Click here for part 2 of the interview.

Posted in Kristin Bauer, Kristin Bauer Interview