(Ausiello/Entertainment Weekly) Question: Any new spoilers for season 3 of True Blood? —Heather

Ausiello: Carrie Preston hints that “something very unexpected is going to happen with her character Arlene… [She] might just be nervous enough about the supernatural characters around her that she will try to do something about it. I think she is going to try to figure out a way to protect herself. She gets very upset. She doesn’t think vampires should be around children.”

Question: What’s Jason going to be up to on True Blood this season (aside from taking his short off, of course)? —Nick

Ausiello: “He finally discovers the long lost art of love,” reveals his portrayer, Ryan Kwanten. “Well, at least his version of. It gets him into more trouble that he expected. He’s also dealing with the fact that he committed a small crime in that he killed [Eggs].” What’s been his biggest acting challenge so far this season? “I start the season in bed with two girls,” he says. “Not that I couldn’t do it, but a challenge? Sure.”

by Marc Malkin and Dahvi Shira- eonline.com

Kyle Rover/startraksphoto.com

Good news for True Blood fans!

We’re told we can expect much more nudity during season three of the hit HBO vampire series, which began filming again last month.

“A lot of people will be getting naked this season,” T.B.’s Todd Lowe (aka Terry Bellefleur) told us at the 16th Annual SAG Awards Saturday night.

In fact, according to castmate Carrie Preston, baring it all is especially a cinch for hunky 33-year-old Swede Alexander Skarsgård…

“Alex is not shy about getting naked at all!” said Preston, who plays Arlene Fowler. “And there will be lots of those kinds of scenes with Alex this season.”

Lowe said, “He’s already been naked a time or two so far since we’ve gotten back to filming.”

Nelsan Ellis, who plays same-sex-lovin’ Lafayette, said, “There are a lot of hunky dudes and beautiful women who have been added to the cast, so it doesn’t surprise me that more clothes are coming off.”

At the recent BAFTA/L.A. tea party, Sam Trammell, who’s already gone practically full frontal as Sam Merlotte, said that he’d like to have a bigger share of the fangelicious hanky-panky.

“I’m not having any sex yet,” Trammell told us. “They really should provide Sam with more sex.”

But then he added, “There is a surprising—well, shocking—scene in the first episode. Some people will be happy and some people will not.”

(E!) Here is an interview with Carrie Preston and her husband Emmy Award Winning Michael Emerson on the Red Carpet. Kelly

(by Joseph McCabe) A new episode of True Blood is on this Sunday night. And to whet your appetite we’ve got an exclusive interview with Carrie Preston, who plays Bon Temps’ pie-slinging skeptic Arlene. I chatted with Carrie at this year’s Saturn Awards, at which her husband Michael Emerson was nominated for Best Supporting Actor in Television for his role as Ben Linus on Lost. Preston told me what to expect this season from True Blood, what direction she’d like Arlene’s love life to take, and what differences she sees between Lost and True Blood fans. Hit the jump to read what she had to say.

True Blood has become quite a phenomenon in just a short time.

Yeah! I’m so excited.

What can you say about this season?

You’ve probably seen the first two already and you can tell the show is definitely a departure from the books already.  The second book was completely different than the series.  I mean, Lafayette was supposed to be dead and the second book was about finding his killers, so already we’re kind of departing from that.  But the show really established itself in the first season and I think now it feels very free and able to kind of go to new places.  There are new supernatural characters introduced; we’re going to be going places that you don’t expect, that certainly our characters don’t expect.   Alan Ball even sat us down in our table read for the very first episode and said, “You guys are going to be doing things that you aren’t going to believe and if you have any problems just come and talk to us.”  It’s true.  We’ve done some crazy things this season.

Alan even seems shocked by what he’s seen on screen. For example, when we spoke with him he seemed surprised by how extreme the first episode’s love scene appeared on screen.

Yeah, I know, I know. I think there’s an amazing team around him, cause it’s not just him. We’ve got all these great writers and producers and stuff that are helping make it happen.  I don’t know…  I hope Alan sticks around for the whole series.  He might just want to, you know, sort of turn it over to everybody else and move on.  But he likes to have his hands on things, so hopefully we’re going to have Daddy around for a little while longer.

Speaking of being around for a while, where would you like to see your character go? Given the choice, is there a direction that you think she should take?

Well, what I think is kind of great about Arlene – and what I hope they explore more – is that she sort of bridges the gap between the two polarities: that vampires are great and vampires are the most horrible things in the world.  She is sort of someone who actually voices something that no one else on the show really voices.  Which, “Hey, wait a minute… maybe they aren’t all good or all bad.  Maybe we should just be wary of them around our children.  I mean, they’re killers.  And because I’m saying that doesn’t mean I’m a racist.  It just means, let’s take a look at this kind of potentially dangerous thing.” 

The whole babysitting thing started in the first season when Bill was babysitting for her kid.  I think it would be fun to see something like that develop more, to see Arlene in situations where she has to deal with her kind of uncomfortableness with the unknown.  So I would love to see that down the line.  Who knows?  It would be cool to see her get in a relationship with a vampire or something like that.  Just to see how she would handle that, like an interracial thing.  You know what I mean?  It could be interesting.

How long do you think the show should continue?  Have you talked about this with Alan?  How long would you like to see your character continue on the show?

As long as they find a good story for me, I’m so happy to be on a show.  I mean, I’ve always wanted to be on a TV show, to have that kind of consistency, to play a role for a long time, which you don’t get to do very much.  So I never thought it would be a character like Arlene, because I’m obviously so different from her.  But it’s great.  I mean that’s where I’ve ended up, and it’s cool.  And Charlaine [Harris] has written like nine books now, so there’s a potential for nine years.  I mean, who knows what could happen in that time.  Charlaine came on the set actually, and she did a little cameo last week on the show.  We were talking to her and she said she was really excited about the show because it is so different from her books.  And that she feels like she gets to experience the world that she created in an entirely different way and she gets to experience it with the audience, which is kind of cool.

In real life, what’s your greatest fear?

My greatest fear in real life?  I guess losing my passion.

Your husband stars on Lost.  So you both have quite a few fans now.

Most people are not sure that I’m on True Blood, so I don’t get the benefit of talking about the show so much because you wouldn’t recognize me.

So you don’t have an opportunity to compare your fans with his?

Yeah, I don’t see that at all.

But having witnessed some of the True Blood fandom, how do you feel it compares to that of Lost?

I had never really experienced it until the Paley Fest.  Because, like I said, I’m not recognized.  But I was there, and I was identified as the woman who plays Arlene and so I did get to experience that for the first time.  And I was able to see.  Because you know I’ve been watching that with him, and I thought, “Wow, it exists for our show too.” – and the show has only been on for a season, so it’s kind of neat that there’s a cross-pollination there: my fans, his fans, the show’s fans.  You know, a lot of the same people watch the shows.

So you’re spreading the love?

Spreading the love, sharing it.  But there are differences too.  I mean, I don’t know… I would love to see a chart.

A Venn diagram perhaps?

Yeah, I would like to see that.  There are a lot of like middle-aged women who are really into True Blood.  I wonder [about] the numbers of True Blood in relation to Lost.  There’s such a romance element to True Blood, you know? – that Harlequin thing.  It sort of feeds the Housewives sort of thing.  More than Lost, I think.

Recently Carrie Preston attended the 35th Annual Saturn Awards where she was interviewed by both Fearnet.com and scifiwire.com. Here’s the videos. In the second video they talk to her about a minute into the video.
Kelly

~Maria

scifiwire.com
Think True Blood is getting weird with that teenage vampire “intern” or the underground cells? It’s only going to get weirder, according to Carrie Preston, who plays Arlene Fowler on the show. Explicit violence and nudity are nothing compared to what’s in store for season two.

“It gets more bizarre,” Preston said in an exclusive interview last week in Burbank, Calif., where she represented the show for its Saturn Award nomination (it didn’t win). “Like, truly dark and bizarre. It was pretty explicit last year, but I guess they have to go somewhere from last season.”

So far in the first two episodes of the season, Sookie Stackhouse (Anna Paquin) is trying to make peace with Bill’s (Stephen Moyer) commitment to the new vamplette, and Jason (Ryan Kwanten) is trying religious abstinence camp. Preston told fans to expect even bigger surprises.

“Oh, my gosh, you’re going to see characters do things that you would never expect them to do,” she said. “You’re going to see them do things they would never expect themselves to do. It goes to a pretty crazy place.”

As for Arlene’s crazy character shifts, “You’ll just have to wait and see. Let’s just say there are some things that are beyond her control.”

True Blood debuted last year and became HBO’s newest hit. Based on the novels by Charlaine Harris, the series began with the conflict of a telepathic girl trying to date a vampire in a world where synthetic blood permits “safe” interactions between vampires and humans. After developing all its supporting characters and story arcs, Preston said that work on season two has felt as though it is on a surer footing.

“It’s just much more exciting,” Preston said. “There’s a relaxed feeling. We all know that we’re kind of in it now, and people are liking what we’re doing, so we can feel free to keep doing what we’re doing, because apparently it’s working.”

Evan Rachel Wood joins the cast at the end of the season as the lesbian vampire queen of Louisiana. Arlene will not get to encounter Wood just yet. “Mm-mm, I don’t have any scenes with her, so I haven’t met her, but she’s shooting right now. We’re shooting the final episode right now.”

True Blood airs Sundays at 9 p.m. on HBO.

Some exciting news for those of you planning to attend Comic-Con.

You can read the original article here.

…In an interview with Mania.com, Alan Ball has confirmed that HBO’s True Blood cast will return to Comic-Con for a panel discussion about Season 2.  In attendance will be Anna Paquin, Stephen Moyer, Ryan Kwanten, Alexander Skarsgård, Deborah Ann Woll and Rutina Wesley, along with Alan Ball and Charlaine Harris.

xo Deborah

(About.com)….  There  is more to the interview. But, I only pulled the info regarding True Blood. Click on the link for more….

But do you ever sleep?

Carrie Preston: [Laughing] “That’s so funny – my husband would ask that. Yes, of course. Like right now I’m working on True Blood but I don’t work that much, so I have a lot of downtime. I mean, I work maybe a couple of days per episode. But I’m still every day at the computer, on the phone, like trying to get things going. But no, I do take a lot of time down too.”

And with True Blood, because your character’s not in every scene, it should allow you all that extra time.

Carrie Preston: “Yes, it works out well, especially since Michael shoots [Lost] in Hawaii most of the time.”

Do you get to go with him?

Carrie Preston: “I do. I go and visit him as much as I can. He’s on hiatus now and we still have some more to shoot. So, you know, he’s going to hang out with me while I’m shooting. It’s working out pretty well.”

Does that mean we’ll see him as a vampire or something in an episode of True Blood?

Carrie Preston: “I hope so.”

That would be very cool.

Carrie Preston: “Yes, exactly. I know that they’ve been talking about it because Alan’s a big fan of Michael’s – Alan Ball – so I know that they were sort of talking about trying to find something for Michael. But I don’t know if it’ll be this season or what.”

Well I hope there’s going to be lots of seasons of that show.

Carrie Preston: “I hope so, I hope so. I hope it doesn’t get too expensive for HBO to keep it going.”

Don’t they have the money?

Carrie Preston: [Laughing] “You would think so. I mean Deadwood got to be too expensive and they let that go and Carnivale. You know, it’s sort of like we’re all kind of nervous that the show’s going to get too expensive and they’re just going to go, ‘We’d rather just stick with In Treatment because it’s cheaper.’”

I was addicted to Carnivale. I was so mad when they took that off.

Carrie Preston: “Me too, I loved it. And Deadwood I loved.”

They always do that though. They take off the ones that I fall in love with and I vowing I’m never watching anything on TV again, and then you get hooked.

Carrie Preston: “And then you get hooked. But True Blood seems to have a pretty big fan base.”

We wouldn’t want to give away any spoilers from the second season of True Blood, but you are not done filming that yet, right?

Carrie Preston: “No, we’re just up to number seven. We’re shooting number seven right now of twelve.”

When I was talking to Alexander Skarsgard at the Independent Spirit Awards he said they changed some of the sets this year. Did they change anything about Merlotte’s?

Carrie Preston: “No, Merlotte’s is good, old Merlotte’s. I love it in there. It’s an amazing set. You really do feel like you’re in a bar.”

Did you read Charlaine Harris’ books before you got the role of Arlene?

Carrie Preston: “When I got the part I read them, yes.”

Are you interested to see if they’re going to keep the same type of storyline for Arlene or do you know if they’re going to veer away from Harris’ books?

Carrie Preston: “You know what? It’s so interesting because they are really departing from the books right now. I mean they’re sort of keeping the main kind of theme of the second book, but they’ve already just taken a lot of liberties. They spent the first season really establishing the characters and now they’ve added all these new characters, and it’s getting really wild in there.”

If they stick with any part of the second book, then we know Merlotte’s is not going to be in it very much, right?

Carrie Preston: “It’s not in it as much as it was the first season.”

Which makes sense with the Living Dead in Dallas storyline.

Carrie Preston: “Yes, but Sam still works there.”

They did a great job of casting these characters, but it cracks me up that so many of these actors are from outside the United States. The accents must be crazy when everyone drops character on that set.

Carrie Preston: “Oh yes, it’s like the United Colors of Benetton. It’s just insane. Everybody’s from all over the place, yes, so it’s funny. And then Anna [Paquin], she’s from New Zealand but she kind of sounds like she’s from the valley. I mean she’s kind of got this like real California accent. But then when she’s been with Stephen [Moyer], she kind of gets a little British accent in there sometimes too. It’s so funny.”

What do you think about how they handle the Louisiana accent because you actually know the accent?

Carrie Preston: “I do, yes. I’m from Georgia so I’m not really doing my native accent. I’m really doing something…I chose to do something a little closer to, because Bon Temps is fictitious but it’s supposed to be sort of near Shreveport – closer to Texas – so I chose to kind of make her a little bit more along the Texan lines. Just because it seemed right for her to have super hard R’s and it just feels right in the mouth, you know, to have her be like that. And yes, some people have a little harder time with the accents of other people. And then, you know, like Ryan [Kwanten] I think, who’s from Australia, he does a beautiful accent. It’s amazing because when he speaks in real life, I mean he’s got a total Australian accent!”

What do you think about how far they took the graphic sex last season?

Carrie Preston: “Oh my goodness.”

Good thing it is on HBO.

Carrie Preston: “Yes, that’s more for grownups. This is not Twilight.”

Definitely, definitely not. You haven’t really done horror in the past, so why are you doing something that’s in that genre?

Carrie Preston: “Well, it was a role and it just happened to be a part of this thing, and also I was really wanting to do a series. And I’d done…that must have been my seventh pilot, so you just don’t know. I’d done like seven pilots and this was only the second one to get picked up, so you just don’t know. It’s kind of like a crapshoot, you know?”

Yes. Do you get a feeling when you’re working on that many pilots which ones might hit and which ones you know there’s no chance it’ll get picked up?

Carrie Preston: “You know what? I thought I had some kind of barometer on that kind of thing and I’ve been wrong every time. I can’t see any rhyme or reason but this one, because of Allan Ball’s history with HBO, I figured, ‘Okay, this is going to be good.’”

Alan Ball has a very impressive track record.

Carrie Preston: “Yes. I met him because I’m in Towelhead which is the movie that he wrote and directed. That’s how I met him and we hit it off. I really wanted to work with him again. So it just worked out even though like when I read the script I honestly did not know what character he was talking about for me. I mean you see what I look like in real life, right?”

Yes.

Carrie Preston: “I mean I’m not anything like Arlene. Nothing. It all has to be created, which is really fun. I go in the makeup trailer and an hour and a half later, I’m a completely different person and. You don’t ever get to do that on TV, you know? And then the costumes…they put this huge push-up bra on me and the fake tan and the fake nails and the drag queen makeup. My own mother didn’t even know who I was at first. She had no idea.”

Is she a fun character to kind of transition into, because she is so different than you?

Carrie Preston: “She is, but I oddly have no problem getting into her mindset.”

Really? She’s not the sharpest tool in the shed.

Carrie Preston: “She’s not, but you know what? She’s street smart. You know what I mean? Like she’s a single mother and she’s a survivor. She speaks her mind, and I don’t know… I grew up with women like that so I just wanted to honor those women. Also it’s a comedic role and I really always feel in my element when I’m doing comedy.”

What do you think it is that makes so many people just fall in love with vampire stories?

Carrie Preston: “Well I think there’s obviously a lot of romance involved. There’s that idea of, you know, I think women are really attracted to it because you get lost in a character like Sookie who has been chosen by this person who has been living for 500 years, and she’s the one he chooses. That’s really hot that you, of all the women in all the centuries, are the one that gets chosen. And then, he protects you. You’re protected. There’s that kind of thing. And then there are a lot of people who are drawn to that sort of erotic nature of the blood sharing. Like more than just talking about sharing your flesh. It’s like your whole insides, you know? I don’t know. I mean they’re very sexy, I guess.”

Did you feel that way before you started work on True Blood?

Carrie Preston: “You know, I was a big fan of the Anne Rice books. I read those back in the day. And I’ve always sort of been into sci-fi kind of stuff, so I like it. It’s a show I would have watched even if I wasn’t on it.”

Do you have any input whatsoever into where they’re going to take Arlene, since they are veering away from the books?

Carrie Preston: “No, I don’t.”

As a writer/director they should let you have some input.

Carrie Preston: [Laughing] “I know. We have good writers so you kind of trust what they’re doing, and they’re open to discussion. The writer, when you’re shooting, whoever wrote the episode is there the whole time, which is not the case on a lot of shows. So if something’s not working or if something doesn’t feel right in my mouth, like, ‘Oh, you know what? I think I would say it like this…’ You can go to the writer and talk about it.”

Do you think we’re going to see Arlene fall in love again?

Carrie Preston: “Arlene’s never that long without a man. She’s just that type of woman who just can’t deal with being single.”

That is true.

Carrie Preston: “There’s just a lot of women like that who they really just have their whole kind of ambition is to [be part of a couple] and they kind of don’t feel complete unless they have a man. I think she’s like that, you know? Even though she’s a total survivor. But she also knows how to get a man, so why not?”

___________________________

~M.