True Blood News at The Nest

Have you ever wondered why Stephen changed his last name to Moyer? Well, the answer is in this interview along with some other interesting tidbits, including one that may cause certain readers of the books to hold their heads and scream Nooooo!

Stephen Emery became Stephen Moyer because he didn’t want to be known as a horse’s ass.

The Brit got his first Equity card for a role in the pantomime Oliver in the same week as another actor by the same name. The other Stephen was literally “playing the back end of a horse, I swear to God, it’s true,” said Moyer from a hotel in Soho, London. The other actor kept the name, but Moyer’s now not only more well-known, he also got the girl.

The 40-year-old plays 143-year-old vampire Bill Compton in the critically acclaimed HBO TV show, True Blood, the second series of which starts on M-Net tomorrow (Tuesday). The US premiere of the first episode of the second series was the most watched HBO show since the series finale of The Sopranos.

Moyer’s engaged to co-star Anna Paquin, who plays his love interest, the telepathic waitress Sookie Stackhouse, a role that netted her a Golden Globe as best actress for the first series.

The show also won an Emmy for outstanding cast of a drama series, drawing on an international cast, with Moyer splitting his time between England and the US, Paquin from Canada, Alexander Skarsgard from Sweden and cast members from across the US.

“Allan (Ball) is brilliant at casting. One of the things he did was create a  central core consisting of people who have almost all worked in the theatre.  So we’re all much more open to playing, creating and throwing things into  the mix,” said Moyer.

He wasn’t initially familiar with the books (The Southern Vampire  Mysteries by Charlaine Harris), but read them after getting the part. ”When I began playing the role Allan wrote, he (Bill) warms up throughout  the season in a way the character in the books doesn’t.

“Sookie in the books also flits from one romance to another and if you did  that with a lead female character, she would not be as virtuous as they wanted her to be. So Allan made the decision to let her have the attachment to Bill”.

He described Bill as desperately trying to be a decent individual. “But he’s still a vampire who kills. “It was a very conscious decision on the part of Ball to make the Bill character just as brutal as the serial killer of the first series.

Born in Essex, England, Moyer speaks with a decidedly British accent, but vampire Bill has a convincing Southern drawl, initially helped along by a voice coach, now by spending time in Louisiana.

“Just to feel the heat, see how people move. There’s a Merlotte’s in every town in Louisiana.”

In True Blood Merlotte’s is the bar providing the setting of many a meeting between Bill and the rest of the denizens of the fictitious Louisiana town of Bon Temps.

His favourite thing about the series is how episodes end on cliffhangers. ”I think Allan is a very clever film-maker because he puts in undercurrents of information in the show. It can also be a rollicking funny thriller, great fast television.”

Some of the undercurrents he is referring to include raising issues such as homophobia and interrogating religious fanaticism.

When asked for pointers on what to look out for in the second series, Moyer mentions Jessica, the vampire he created at the end of the first season, describing her as a “bastard, neurotic child, sort of a teenage nightmare”. Seeing Jessica “rushed through vampiric puberty” turned into a season highlight for him.

“Also, Bill and Sookie meet the vampires of Dallas. Eric becomes more intrigued by Sookie and that he can’t have her and he tries to change that.”

So exactly what is Moyer’s take on the existence of paranormal phenomena? Is there another world out there we know nothing about, or should it simply be chalked up to some author’s overactive imagination?

“If you’d asked me that question five years ago, I would have said the latter. But now I think there’s something deeper and it’s up to every individual to find out more.” ”My Facebook page says ‘lapsed atheist’ and that’s really all you need to know.”

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Posted in Bill Compton, Season 2, Stephen Moyer