Pics of the Moment
Karl Urban is Black Hat in Priest, Bones in Star Trek, will be portraying Judge Dredd and is in the movie RED.
We'll have a new poll up after the podcast.
Click on the image to see the video…
EW also has a series of portraits of the cast:
This last pic of Joe Manganiello, reminds me of Harry Potter. Just sayin’.
And here’s one more of Kristin and Joe…
Yesterday we posted a video titled, Eric Northman So Far which aired Sunday during the True Blood Preshow.
HBO has now released similar videos for the rest of the cast.
Enjoy! 
Kelly
With True Blood’s huge season-three premiere headed our way Sunday on HBO, we talked with three of the show’s stars: Rutina Wesley (who returns as Tara) plus new regulars Denis O’Hare (Russell Edgington) and Lindsay Pulsipher (Crystal Norris).
While creator Alan Ball recently gave us some sizzling spoilers, the actors shared some spoilers of their own regarding their characters and their storylines. Wesley chatted about Tara’s sexy/scary entanglement with bad boy vamp Franklin Mott (James Frain), O’Hare dished about becoming the Vampire King of Mississippi, and Pulsipher talked about NOT getting naked for the series … yet.
“There’s so much blood and sex! It’s so gory sometimes, and it’s like, ‘Oh, my gosh, what am I watching?’ But it’s so engaging because you just see this small community affected by all these different things,” said Wesley. “We all get mixed up in a bunch more stuff coming up in season three—like it doesn’t stop. We keep getting ourselves into these places, like between a rock and a hard place.”
For O’Hare, who plays one of the new bad guys on True Blood this season, he feels that “the story lines and the episodes are a mixture of great plot and great physiological exploration. You have whole storylines where nothing is happening plot-wise but the characters are developing, learning about themselves. Jessica, the vampire from last season, I feel like you are watching a young woman awaken, and I feel like vampire Bill’s trajectory has been a trajectory of discovery.”
Well, Bill’s trajectory is actually one of being kidnapped, at least as of the end of last season’s cliffhanger. “When did that happen? Oh yeah. I wonder where he went?” he said casually, sounding a lot like he knows exactly where Bill Compton went.
It looks like Tara has more challenges ahead than just grieving for her dead boyfriend Eggs when a mysterious vampire named Franklin Mott comes into her life. “I can’t say whether or not this relationship is by choice, but it’s definitely a very interesting storyline that you’re about to see. I mean, I think he sort of comes in and saves the day, and then she gets wrapped up in this thing with him,” said Wesley.
“I think she’s trying to find herself. I mean, after everything with Eggs, she’s gotten knocked off her feet a bit, and I think she’s just trying to find her feet again. And yet she gets mixed up with this vampire, and he knocks her back off her feet, and I think you see her really kind of want to have the will to live life and enjoy life and just realize how valuable life is to her. And she’s going to really come into her womanhood and find herself, hopefully. It’s a huge struggle, because she does have this relationship with Franklin Mott, and, like I said, it’s either by choice or not by choice.”
“She’s a pretty colorful character,” said Pulsipher. “She comes from a sad background. She was raised in the sticks in Louisiana, with lots of meth … she cooks meth. She happens to run into Jason Stackhouse in Bon Temps, and she’s like immediately taken by him.”
The girl from Hotshot, the other side of the tracks, is smitten with Sookie’s brother, said Pulsipher. “Crystal sees Jason as a way out of her lifestyle. She’s been kind of trapped in this horrible lifestyle. So they have an amazing kind of a magical connection, and it’s really a struggle for her to see if she can escape the life that she’s always known.”
Those familiar with the Charlaine Harris novel series know, at least when it comes to the books, where this is all going to lead. Crystal has a secret, and in the books challenges abound for her character when it comes to her attempts to leave the past behind. How close her story is to that of the books, “I am not able to say,” said Pulsipher. She’ll only reveal, “She’s kind of a slow reveal. She unfolds slowly throughout, and then she really starts to pick up towards the end.”
“Russell is older than Godric. So he’s actually the oldest vampire,” said O’Hare. “I’m a research freak. I love to research and the ability to go ahead and delve into the past. What Alan [Ball] and I finally realized is that this guy is probably an ancient Celt and the Celts actually came from somewhere east of Italy, probably across the Carpathian mountains, so present-day Romania.”
Russell lives in a mansion in Jackson, Miss., when we meet him, with his boyfriend of 700 years, said O’Hare. “Russell’s very charming. He’s incredibly instinctual. He survived millennia of different vampire fads, and he is ruthless without being rude. He’s never rude.”
With over a dozen new characters this season, the world of True Blood is growing. “What they’ve done really well is they’ve managed to keep all the original characters completely in play, and those characters also continue to develop,” said O’Hare. “It’s not like marking time. They’re still upfront and center, and they are still vitally important. The new characters aren’t taking over in any way. They’re integrating with the old characters and intersecting with them. It’s a really deft marriage, I think.”
“I’ve called her a ‘hard flower,’ meaning she’s got this kind of rock on the outside, but as the seasons have gone along we’ve sort of been chipping away at the rock, and you can see these beautiful petals starting to show through. She’s got incredible vulnerability. She’s incredibly fierce. She’s also incredibly defensive and annoying to some people, but I also think those defenses are earned,” said Wesley.
“I always say Tara is the truth, … Whatever comes out of her mouth is the truth. She’s very observative. She tells it like it is,” she said. This season the actress believes “I can really trust myself with Tara, that I finally have found my feet as an actor with her and I really know her. I really feel like she’s in my heart, she’s in my body, my mind, my soul. … I really feel like I’m hitting the ground running this season.”
If you’ve read the books, you may think you know Crystal’s story. But don’t count on anything when it comes to True Blood. “It’s always hard to tell what Alan is going to do, because he sticks pretty closely with the books, but he definitely gives it his own take and makes it his own,” said Pulsipher. “Which I think is partly for creative reasons and also to kind of comply with the timing” of the series.
Of all the characters, Tara on True Blood is a very different and more important character than Tara in the novels. “I wasn’t familiar with the books until I was cast in the show, and then I did read the first book or two, and then when I knew they were going to change Tara drastically, I decided to stop reading so that I could just create her on my own along with the rest of the writing team,” said Wesley. “I mean I’m actually excited about that, because it just gives me much more to do in the show, and I was just like, ‘Thank you for writing me … you know, writing more for me.’ I lucked out with that.”
Pulsipher admits she enjoys working with Ryan Kwanten, who plays the oh-so-hot Jason Stackhouse. “It is so funny, because he is this kind of a sex symbol for a lot of women, and he really doesn’t have that personality. He’s one of the most humble guys I’ve ever met. He’s really, really sweet, and it doesn’t even faze him.”
However, Ball hasn’t been shy about graphic sex scenes, and working with Kwanten may just lead to some sexy moments of her own. “I haven’t done nudity before, and it hasn’t come up yet, but the people that run the show … I guess I’ll cross that bridge when I get to it. I’m not too worried about it,” she said.
“I think it’s like every actor’s dream get to work with Alan Ball and play such a colorful character,” said Pulsipher with a laugh. “Kind of being the nerd that I am, like getting a script, I read it as a fan as well as my character study, and every time I get a script I’m just like … I can’t wait to read it.”
“Alan Ball … Alan Ball is, I think he’s one of our great creative minds in TV and film, and I think Six Feet Under is one of those watershed TV series that pushed the form with the credits alone,” said O’Hare. “The opening credits alone of Six Feet Under, I thought, changed credit sequences. I thought that then True Blood did the same thing again, changed credit sequences again … Just wanting for me to be around the mind of somebody who does that.”
“I’m a fan of the show,” he said. “I never intended to be on it. I never sought the job out. I was a fan; I’d been watching True Blood since it came out and I was in Budapest doing a movie. I was doing a Roman movie last fall with Channing Tatum and Donald Sutherland, and I got a call from my agent, and he basically said, ‘How would you like to be the king of the vampires on HBO’s True Blood?’” O’Hare said with a laugh. “I was like, ‘Oh, my God!’ I said, ‘My boyfriend Hugo loves, loves, loves the show,’ so I knew he would flip.”
So are you ready for some Sookie Stackhouse action in season three?
Remember, right click on image and view and then enlarge the image.
NYP – “True Blood” Week on PopWrap continues with Rutina Wesley, who plays Tara Thornton — potentially Bon Temps most unlucky resident. Admittedly a lot of that misfortune is at her own hands, but if Lettie Mae was your mother, whose to say if you’d do any better,
When we last saw Tara she’d been rocked by the realization that the love of her life, Eggs, had his brains scrambled by a bullet. What she didn’t know was that Jason Stackhouse owned the itchy trigger finger.
In addition to theorizing on what might happen if Tara ever learns about that, I chatted with Rutina about how much worse things could get for Tara (spoiler alert: a lot!),. why she keeps welcoming strangers with open arms and if she’s going to rekindle things with Sam Merlotte!
PopWrap: When we last saw Tara she’d just lost the love of her life and she’s still very much in that mindset at the start of season three, right?
Rutina Wesley: Yea, she’s definitely broken. She’s lost, she doesn’t know where to go from here because the second she thought she had something figured out, the rug gets pulled out from under her.
PW: What do you think Tara would do if she ever found out Jason killed Eggs?
Rutina: I think it’d hit her hard. Jason has always been a hero to her so it’ll be like a punch in the gut. I don’t know if we’re going to find that out this season, but it’ll be a kick ass scene if we do. I also think when she finds out will also play into it, but no matter what it will be devastating because she adores Jason and for him to have killed the love of her life, that’s the ultimate.
PW: Doesn’t sound like as an actor you’re getting a lighter arc this year.
Rutina: [laughs] No, it’s definitely still challenging as an actor, but that’s what I love to do. I love the drama. It keeps my acting muscles going, my juices flowing. It’s really, really cool – it’s definitely a fulfilling job. It’s truly a blessing.
PW: This season Tara gets involved with a vampire, Franklin Mott. I was a little surprised that she’d be so trusting of new, mysterious people after the whole Maryann debacle.
Rutina: You know, I was thinking that too but because she’s so broken, she’s so vulnerable. When you’re at your worst, you usually don’t make the right choices [laughs]. And that’s what we’re seeing here – a girl who is dying for some sort of love or attention and she’s trying to get it wherever she can. Eventually you’ll see her go “wait a minute” but with Franklin, she won’t always have a choice.
PW: Do you find it interesting that such a strong character could continue to be put in such impressionable situations?
Rutina: I do. As Rutina the actor I’m like, come on – get it together! You saw that coming a mile away! But Tara has blinders on. She’s so defensive and gets caught up quickly. That’s when she’s like “oh shoot!” But by then it’s too late. She’s too far down the rabbit hole. I could imagine it’s frustrating as an audience member to see someone go through that because you’re rooting for her to open her eyes and wake up.
PW: Was there a plot line that particularly made you feel that way?
Rutina: The perfect example is her relationship with Sam. I always feel like she was so blinded she couldn’t see how he was kinda of perfect for her. She just couldn’t quite understand it at the time.
PW: Do you think Tara and Sam should get another chance?
Rutina: There’s a lot of “Tam” fans as we call then. Personally speaking, I’d love to see her get another chance with him – they make sense to me. They both need validation and are both lonely souls. They sort of need eachother. I think they could work if Tara lets down her guard, like she did with Eggs. I think there are a lot of people rooting for Tara & Sam.
PW: What else would you like to see with Tara?
Rutina: I would love for her to find some happiness, some stillness – calm and stability,. And I think she might eventually find that.
PW: Yea, maybe in season 11!
Rutina: Yea exactly. Her trying to find that is what makes for the drama. Her turmoil is sort of what’s so great to watch because as human beings we go through that. We go through life trying to figure out who we are and how we fit into this world. I see Tara as a survivor and now she’s trying to figure out how she fits into her own life. This year you see her struggle with that and I think it’s amazing to watch her go through that.
PW: How else would you describe Tara’s journey this year?
Rutina: I think it’s about her climbing out of the hole. She’s a survivor and you’re going to see those survival instincts kick in. Tara will become incredibly strong and grounded in who she is this year. And we haven’t seen that from her because she’s so self-destructive and such a self-sabotager. I think we’ll finally see her go “wait a minute, I actually choose myself. I love myself and I deserve to be in this world and be loved and have a stable life.” I think that’s a beautiful journey.
PW: And in some roundabout way being under Franklin’s spell helps her with that?
Rutina: It’s a very psychotic relationship – he’s tall, dark and handsome with an emphasis on the dark. He takes a liking to Tara but he definitely has ulterior motive. I think Tara is intrigued by him because he kinda comes in and saves the day. But we’ll see the two of them really fight it out because he’s going to take a hold over her and she’ll be caught up in him. Not necessarily by choice, but she’s with him and you’ll see her struggle. It’s a very hard, brutal struggle.
PW: Sounds amazing.
Rutina: I think it’s going to be the best season yet. There is so much going on and I think everyone is doing such great work. I am really excited about it.
“True Blood” Week on PopWrap cont
Videos courtesy of E!
Enjoy!
~M.
Images from True Blood Fans, Getty and Wire Image
At the event Alan Ball stated, “My job is so much fun it doesn’t feel like work.”
We’re jealous.
~M.
(OTRC.COM)Rutina Wesley and Sam Trammell recently shared some season 3 spoilers with OnTheRedCarpet.com while at the Victoria’s Secret’s “What is Sexy” list party.
Rutina tells us a little about Tara’s new love interest on the show, Franklin Mott, who is portrayed by James Frain (The Tudors).
“You know I have a new love interest, supposedly, and some of it’s by choice, some of it’s not.”
Sam Trammell alluded to an unexpected supernatural/sci-fi element, which certainly has me wondering.
“There’s going to be some really interesting … kind of supernatural, sci-fi element to it this year that’s going to be completely unexpected and it’s going to be really cool.”
So, tell us what y’all think! Kelly
Remember, right click on images, click on view image and then increase size.
Btw, Ryan Kwanten looks very cute in his picture.
Enjoy!!!
~M.
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