True Blood News at The Nest

Jason Stackhouse & Andy Bellefleur

In the latest MegaBuzz from TV Guide, there’s a short tidbit about that Stackhouse boy and how he’s going to get over his crime against Eggs. Not really a spoiler. Well, OK, sort of…

Is Jason going to get away with shooting Eggs on True Blood?

For now, yes. Andy has a pretty hilarious way for the dunderheaded Jason to remember how to avoid suspicion — a mantra, if you will. Wait until you hear it.

Team Bellefleur is proud to bring you another interview with the fabulous Chris Bauer. EruditeChick over at allthingsfangirl recently did an interview with our favorite metheleptic-dancing lawman and has given permission for us to reprint the article, in full. In exchange for this, we ask all of you to please go over to allthingsfangirl and leave some comments as they are completely brilliant and after all, in a perfect world, all  fangirls (and boys!) of all genres would unite and rule the world (or something equally important)!

True Blood is awesome. We all know this. It’s why we watch! With HBO airing season 2 again starting Sunday night, we wanted to celebrate with some fun True Blood related things. Wait til the liquor post. If you win the TruBlood we’re giving away, you will find yourself equipped with a list of recipes to make your season 3 premier party positively debauched. Like Pam-approved levels of debauched. So, along with the chance to win a TruBlood party pack from our awesome friends at HBO and the video of that amazing kid incorporating the True Blood theme song into a medley next to the Simpsons and Firefly, we would like to offer you our exclusive sit-down with the man who portrays Bon Temps’ favorite rough ‘n tumble lawman, Andy Bellefleur: Chris Bauer.

Erudite Chick: So you of course have had experience with cop dramas before, and now you’re playing a police officer on True Blood, but it’s a slightly different take on it. Going into the first season’s scripts, had you read the novels in preparation?

Chris Bauer: I read the first novel, and I read the second novel, and I read some of the third. I read enough to get a sense of the atmosphere and to be responsible to the vision of the writer Charlaine Harris, so. But episodic television ends up plotting at a different tempo, developing character in a much more idiosyncratic way than a novel does, so, having shot the two seasons I kinda now feel like the world of True Blood on HBO is informed by a fifty fifty inspiration of the books and our show.

This past season had a lot of fans divided, particularly over Sookie and Bill’s relationship, and the sudden fervor for Eric- but Andy Bellefleur also developed a stronger fan base. Personally, he became my favorite character on the show. And when I say favorite, I mean I favor him above all others and am kind of obsessed with him. I explained as much to Chris.

EC: Before you started filming, did you know where he was going to end up, as a character?

CB: No- First of all, thank you very much, because one of the dilemmas for me, as an actor, is that I really play the part that they write. Which means, if they write somebody who’s socially awkward, if they write somebody who’s alienating, if they write somebody who’s full of faults, that’s the character I’m going to play. Frequently, that has the effect on the audience that it has on the other characters, so in the same way that people are calling Andy crazy and they want him out of the bar? Sometimes I feel like fans have sort of a lot of critical feelings about Andy. So for you to say that you liked him is really, really meaningful for me. Because I think he’s a good guy! And I think that he’s a human being, and I think he’s evolving, and I think one of the great validations of the theme of True Blood is that it’s the circumstances of the world of Bon Temps that are sort of pushing him into more and more sympathetic and human territory.

Chris Bauer as Andy Bellefleur

OK, I’m so tired of year end polls given by publications I’ve never heard of, but finally, somebody honors Andy Bellefleur. And because I’m part owner of this here place, I’m posting it. You rock Chris Bauer!

He’s not a vampire, has no special powers (beyond downing a fifth of vodka in the blink of an eye) but in Season 2 of “True Blood,” he became an unlikely hero, and the first to warn the townfolk about the “devil zombies.” Chris Bauer is a master of the one-liner, and his Andy went from being an on-the-sidelines, butt-of-the-joke to the only guy who really noticed things weren’t quite right in Bon Temps. Just the way he said “pig” was good enough.

Chris Bauer

Chris Bauer, who plays our favorite Bon Temps detective, Andy Bellefleur, will be guest starring in “The Good Wife” this evening at 10:00 p.m. ET (CBS). The episode is titled Fixed and Chris will be portraying defense attorney James McLoon.

But wait, there’s even more! Tomorrow, Chris can be seen in “Law and Order: Special Victim’s Unit” at 9:00 p.m. ET (NBC). The episode is entitled Hammered and Chris will be doing a couple cameo scenes with Dalton Rindell (played by Scott Foley).

I don’t know about you, but anytime there’s a Bellefleur on TV, I am so there.

As I’m generally a Team Bellefleur girl, I was very excited to get the chance to ask Chris Bauer, who plays Detective Andy Bellefleur on True Blood, a bunch of questions that us webmistresses came up with over the span of season 2. Chris was a great sport and answered our interrogatories about some of his favorite True Blood scenes, Andy Bellefleur’s antagonistic relationship with Jason Stackhouse (was is really all about the pussy?), the PIG and why we shouldn’t get to know him too well. I was particularly pleased that Chris has such a fondness for my hometown, Chicago.

TB-N: You spent some time with the Steppenwolf Theatre in Chicago and also the Goodman Theatre. Can you tell us how long you were in Chicago, which productions were your favorites and if you have any plans to return to the stage?

Chris Bauer & Emily Mortimer in Atlantic Theater's Parlour Song

CB: I always have plans to return to the stage, and I always do. I never thought I’d appear on camera until I was 45. I figured I’d be lucky to be in plays. In fact I was cast in my first movie (Snow White: A Tale of Terror) after a casting director saw me in a show at Steppenwolf in Chicago. I consider Chicago audiences the best in America. They don’t discern by way of status. They will see a show at a storefront by a no-name theater group as avidly as they will whatever’s playing at the Goodman theater or Steppenwolf. Chicago is where I really learned how to act, how to live a creative life. All my ethics came from that place. And I moved there after I attended the Yale School of Drama. Thank God for Chicago, it was a place I could go to forget everything I’d learned at Yale. I’m grateful for my education but I didn’t form any good creative habits until I worked in Chicago. The aesthetic there is all about making your work as real and as human as possible. And I love that. During ‘A Clockwork Orange’ at Steppenwolf, the stage had a dirt floor and we used to pee on it! Maybe that was too real. But this isn’t a vain job for me; as is obvious to anyone who has seen my work. But I never go more than two years without doing a play. I’m a member of the Atlantic Theater in New York. It’s my favorite stage in the city. I work there whenever I can. And I got to do ‘A Streetcar Named Desire’ on Broadway with Natasha Richardson (may God bless her forever), Amy Ryan, and John C. Reilly – insane talent in an immaculate play. I’m so lucky. I’ll never leave the theater behind. I’m that kind of geek.

Detective Andy Bellefleur

TB-N: Throughout your career, you have often portrayed police officers or detectives. Have you worked with anybody in law enforcement to prepare for any of these roles?

CB: I have a close friend who is a United States Marshal. I admire him very much. He has helped a lot of people and is a really devoted dad. He’s a lot like many people I know in law enforcement. There’s a former cop in my hometown who I spend a lot of time with. He’s always got a story or two. And I was on ‘Third Watch’ on NBC for five years. We were up to our ears in cops, fire fighters, first responders, etc. 99.99999 percent of each of those people have been compulsively generous and brave. I’ve taken bits and pieces from each of them like a thief and filed them away in my imagination. It all comes into play when a character is born. It’s always been an honor to play those types, but man, I could never live that life… too chickenshit.