(Digital Spy) Michelle Forbes has claimed that True Blood could last for nine seasons. The actress, who plays Maryann Forrester in the show, explained that the drama has “enormous staying power”.

“There’s a possibility it will last nine years because Charlaine Harris has written nine books which the show is based on,” she told The Sun.

“But ultimately it’s up to the audience to decide how long it’s relevant. It has an enormous following in the US. There are a lot of stories to tell so I hope it’s around for a long time.”

Forbes added that True Blood is so successful because people can relate to the characters.

“The great thing about True Blood is it’s not just about vampires,” she explained. “It’s about love, intimacy and family. Vampires happen to be a part of it but it’s not just about them. The appeal for a lot of people is that it’s more the town with different creatures living together.

“There’s broader appeal for True Blood because it’s not just focusing on the vampire mythology. There’s such a plethora of different characters that there’s always someone for people to identify with.”

and

From the latest issue of Entertainment Weekly via Lori W.

Yes, I know a lot of you miss Michelle and a lot of you are looking forward to Joe Manganiello’s portrayal of Alcide Herveaux. So, I want to thank Lori for sending these to us. Btw, doesn’t Joe look good with long hair.

From Allison C…. who loves Brits!

My husband said, “WOW,” when I showed him Rutina’s picture from January’s Allure. The pictures were supplied by the Fans of the Rutina Wesley page on FB.

Nighty night my lovelies….

~M.

P.S. Did you read the whole Alan Ball article???? They are signed through season 4. We may actually see Quinn and all the drama that weretiger brings.

(TV Guide, 12.21.09) Michelle Forbes as one of the best of 2009, by TV Guide, for her portrayal of Maryann the insane maenad that tormented Bon Temps and our poor Sam during the second season of True Blood.

Congratulations Ms. Forbes!

Thanks to Rachel for this info.

~M.

Thanks to my wonderful husband Kevin for telling me about this video from CNN.com.
Kelly

Here is the transcript from a video interview by Rebecca Murray at  about.com with Michelle Forbes.  The interview is on video, but unfortunately there was no link to embed.  To view the video you can click the link above.

Kelly

Michelle Forbes played a maenad who got the town of Bon Temps all riled up in season two of ‘True Blood.’ On the red carpet at the BAFTA/LA TV Tea Party, Forbes talked about taking on the role and life on the set of ‘True Blood.’

I’m a huge True Blood freak but I don’t want to give away spoilers because there are some people who still haven’t seen the finale. Can you believe that?

Michelle Forbes: “Shockingly, no. I don’t know believe it.”

This reporter next to me [from the press association] has not seen the finale yet.

Michelle Forbes: “I was so glad when it aired because I could finally start talking about it. It was so much fun to do, as you can imagine.”

You looked you were having a good time doing it.

Michelle Forbes: “We were all having such a great time doing it. And what a co-star I had at the end there…”

You had a lot of co-stars at the end.

Michelle Forbes: “I did, but I had a special one at the very end. The big white…”

That was then Sam naked.

Michelle Forbes: “That was then naked, yes.”

Was that fun to be on a show where it doesn’t care that there’s nudity, it doesn’t care that there’s sex, it just goes for it?

Michelle Forbes: “Yeah, well I do think this country tends to be [repressed] about that. It’s a part of all of our lives and I think we need to sort of lighten up a little bit. And it’s all in the name of good fun and fun sex, and sexy sex, orgies everywhere. And also I just think it’s the most beautiful cast around.”

Was there any part of that storyline that surprised you or did you expect it to go exactly how it went?

Michelle Forbes: “Everything in that storyline, yes. Whether it was cutting open a human heart or having these orgies, or just punching people in the face on a dime. Yes, marrying a bull – you don’t do that everyday. So just about everything surprised me on that show.”

When you get one of those scripts, like the one that said you’re building a meat tree, I’m sure that’s not something you ever expected to be doing as an actress, right?

Michelle Forbes: “There was hardly anything on this show that I ever expected to do as actress. Building the meat sculpture was an enormous amount of fun. Suzuki Ingerslev, our production designer, did a phenomenal job with that. It was just fun from beginning to end. Dancing, we have all that dancing too which was so much fun.”

And now we won’t see Maryann again.

Michelle Forbes: “No. I believe Maryann has gone to maenad heaven.”

We don’t know that much about maenads so maybe she’s reincarnated as something.

Michelle Forbes: “I think after that goring, I think it’s safe to say – unless she’s running around with a big hole running straight through her body, I can’t imagine… In Charlaine [Harris] and Alan [Ball's] world you never know.”

Did you know this world at all? Were you familiar with the Sookie Stackhouse books?

Michelle Forbes: “No, I wasn’t familiar. I wasn’t familiar, but I am now.”

So you get a script and it says you’re a maenad, and you’re like what the hell?

Michelle Forbes: “Yes. And then you do some research and then you try and figure out how it’s lining up to the page. You have some knowledge of Greek mythology and yet you’re dancing to the B-52s and you think, ‘Hmmm…’ But that’s fun of it. That was the fun and the duality of it.”

What are we going to see you in next?

Michelle Forbes: “I have a show that I did last year called Durham County that’s airing on mid October. It’s a very dark and mysterious and sort of broody series. It’s a deep character study. It’s lovely.”

Sounds interesting.

Michelle Forbes: “Yes.”

No movies in the future?

Michelle Forbes: “Not right now. I’ve been working, I’ve done three series back-to-back. I’ve been working for two years straight. I’m taking a little time off, a little well-needed time off to get back to my life. I want to make sure I still have one. When you’re at work for 8 to 20 hours a day… My garden is kind of a mess so I’m back to my garden. I’m tending to my garden both metaphorically and literally.”

by Tommy Garrett – canyon-news.com

HOLLYWOOD—Television has always had enduring villains. In the early days of television they were men who rode horses and wore black hats on westerns. In the ‘60s and ‘70s we had the robber on a television cop series like “Policewoman,” “Colombo” or “Quincy, M.E.” Then there is that enduring vampire Barnabas Collins who started out on “Dark Shadows” as a bad guy and ended up becoming a sex symbol to women of all ages from teenagers to the elderly on the soap genre.

Since that era, television has been trying to equate wicked and bad people to exciting and fun entertainment. The episode of “Dallas” that featured Bing Crosby’s daughter Mary as Kristin Shepherd, who shot her brother-in-law, J.R. Ewing was perhaps the most famous episode of any show on television to date. Then we had Aaron Spelling who decided to make Joan Collins his vixen and his villain on the hit series “Dynasty.” Fans remember the first cover of TV Guide that referred to Collins’s Alexis Morale Carrington Colby Dexter Rowan as a [bitch] was censored by some store managers who refused to put that issue out at the checkout stand. 

How times have changed. What hasn’t changed is that for today’s producers and writers women still make more exciting villains on television than their male counterparts. On ABC’s hit daytime drama “General Hospital,” we have Helena Cassadine, played brilliantly by award winning actress and former movie star from Columbia Studios Constance Towers. Though Constance is the classiest and most wonderful person on the planet her character Helena is far less so.

Helena has attacked, shot, stabbed and even murdered people on the show. Those crimes were committed just against her family. As for Helena’s deeds against Luke and Laura, they have become infamous. Freezing the earth, bringing dead son Stavros back to life, throwing good son Stefan off a yacht leaving him to drown are just some of the crimes which make Helena the all time top daytime villain of television. Robert Guza’s behind Helena’s powerful descent into darkness.

We have Bill Bell, Sr. and Bradley P. Bell of CBS’s “The Young and the Restless” and “The Bold and the Beautiful” to thank for bringing us the Queen of Darkness in Sheila Carter. Kimberlin Brown created one of the most lethal killers of daytime history. Sheila’s rap sheet reads like a Russian novel. Not even Rasputin could have survived her deadly clutches. Sheila Carter kidnapped a baby, killed a man with bees, shot Stephanie Forrester on “B&B” leaving her for dead, shooting Brooke Logan and Dr. Taylor Forrester on the same show and we will never forget Sheila’s poisoning of Stephanie with mercury or kidnapping her psychiatrist Dr. James Warwick and tying him up in her Bel Air, Calif. dungeon. All in the name of love. That’s one of the constant excuses for the dark haired psychopath. Love is what she does it all for.

Now to HBO’s hit show “True Blood” where there are any number of villains that include vampires and just mean old rednecks from Louisiana. Leave it to director Alan Ball who created the series to choose a former soap actress in Michelle Forbes who was on the long running drama “Guiding Light” to be tapped as the resident villain for Bon Temps.

Forbes plays Maryann, an ancient maenad that has possessed the souls of the innocent and stupid in Bon Temps. Forbes plays the role with a supernatural twist. The scene where she used her mind to emit a razor cutting pitch that scattered the evil minions she was livid with for screwing up her chances of having Sam Merlotte as the deadly sacrifice is one of the things Forbes gets to delve into and play.

Eating people’s hearts is a bit over the top, but that’s what makes “True Blood” and television’s villains so fun and exciting to watch. Seeing women, who historically have been the caregivers in society and rarely the warriors, become warriors of darkness is a sexy image on the small screen and these three ladies in Towers, Brown and Forbes have epitomized what beautiful young women in Hollywood can do as bad girls on TV.

Here is a lovely interview with the wonderful Michelle Forbes from Ausiello on Entertainment Weekly. And the title is a joke. Please follow the link to watch the video.  I couldn’t embed it.

–Debbie

From Ausiello…

Just kidding. She’s still dead. But her super-fabulous portrayer, Michelle Forbes, was alive, kicking, and answering all of my burning questions at Entertainment Weekly’s pre-Emmy party last night. Among her take-away quotes: “If you’re going to die on TV, you want Alan Ball to write your death scene.”

(US Weekly)

Remember to right-click on the pictures and click on view images.

~M

Today 10:00 AM PDT by Marc Malkin

PRASHANT GUPTA/HBO

Michelle Forbes doesn’t hold back when saying how she feels about True Blood being pretty much shut out of this year’s Emmys.

“Excuse me, but f—k awards!” says Forbes, who plays the very evil but deliciously sexy Maryann Forrester in the hit vampire series.

“That’s not where the glory is. The glory is in the audience,” she adds. ”That’s who we tell the stories for. It’s not for, with all due respect, the critics and not for the awards shows, but for the audience.”

And as we all know by now, True Blood not only has a loyal and dedicated audience (me included!), but…

The series’ following keeps growing with every episode. Sadly, season two’s finale is on Sunday.

Forbes, who you may already know from her Battlestar Galactica days playing Admiral Helena Cain or as Gabriel Byrne’s wife on HBO’s In Treatment, admits she never had an interest in vampires or the supernatural before joining True Blood.

“She doesn’t have a duality, she has a quadruple-ality,” Forbes says with a laugh. “They came up with this character that is running around in evening dresses and playing in the dirt and she has mad domestic skills and a butler and then there’s dancing and the food. It’s been so much fun.”

Also fun? Getting to watch the real-life romance blossom between Anna Paquin and Stephen Moyer.

“It really is a beautiful partnership to witness, and I don’t say that lightly,” Forbes says. “It’s not often that you meet two people so wholly suited for each other.”