Here’s an excerpt from a recent interview with our favorite Shape-shifter, Sam Trammell:

Tell me about Sam Merlotte’s adventures in the new season. I understand you have a new love interest.

Yeah, I do. Last season, Sam sort of excommunicated his biological family, and he gains a new family in a sense because he meets this person who’s also a shape-shifter, named Luna [Janina Gavankar]. And she has a lot of mystery about her, and as the season goes on, he discovers more and more about her and is surprised. She’s an exciting, very intriguing, very alluring person for Sam.

Do you also explore the mythology of shape-shifters this season?

Yeah, we’re going to meet a group of shape-shifters. We’ve learned the rules of what vampires can and can’t do. With shape-shifting, we really haven’t seen that much. We met one shape-shifter, Daphne, in Season 2, but we really haven’t looked at that community and what it’s like to be a shape-shifter. We’re going to explore all of that, and that’s what I get excited about, when you look at the rules of the supernatural beings.

What’s the source of that mythology? Is it Native American?

The shape-shifter appears in many different cultures, but one is Native American. That’s one of the ones we’re going to take a look at this year. Every culture has a different view of what they are, and they play different roles in different cultures and different rules govern them. We’re going to have to pick and choose and create our own reality with shape-shifters. It’s really cool.

What do you think it is about the South that makes it such an appropriate backdrop for a mystical story like “True Blood”? There’s a Southern Gothic literary genre, but no Midwestern Gothic.

When you get into Louisiana, it really is like a different country in a lot of ways. The plants you see are a little different, like the weeping willows and the cypress trees that come up out of the bayou. And it’s steamy hot. There’s something about a humid, dusky evening that’s kind of sexy. In the country, it feels like you don’t have control over nature anymore — nature is in control of you. It’s like the naturalists at the turn of the century, that idea that nature is so much bigger than you and man is a small thing. You walk out to the bayou and you’re overshadowed by these strange plants and the heat and the mists, and I think that lends itself to supernatural creatures because there are things that can hide in the shadows.

If you’d like to read the full interview visit, The Baltimore Sun.

For those who’ve already seen the second episode, which is currently airing on HBO Go and HBO OnDemand, here’s the preview for episode 3:

Here’s an excerpt from an interview with Carrie Preston:

Does Arlene see the baby as just human evil, because of Rene, or is she afraid there’s something more supernatural going on, given all her experience?

Carrie Preston: Well given the way she looks at the world, she comes from a place where she believed in the sins of the father will be visited upon the child. It’s certainly not out of the realm of possibility in her mind that he is a sick individual who will do something horrible in the world, and she will feel responsible for that, for having brought that into the world. I think that’s really her main dilemma.

She dealt with a bit of witchcraft herself in trying to abort the baby last season. But now that the witches are sort of center stage for season four, will she find more involvement in that plot line as the season goes on?

Carrie Preston: You know, I think the witch thing really scared the pants off of her. I think Arlene is somebody who’s firmly planted in the human world, and is pretty, and we’ve seen this with the vampires, she’s pretty scared of anything that’s unknown to her. Though I think then you can make whatever conclusions you want from that. However, there will be something she’s going to come in contact with that we haven’t even seen yet on the show. So, that’s an exciting thing that happens in season four for Arlene.

What’s been one of your favorite things about shooting season four?

Carrie Preston: Seeing how the problem that Arlene was dealing with in season three, how it has continued to grow. Like I said, there is something new that is being introduced, that none of us really expected, so that’s been really fun to see how are we going to make this work? So that’s been really exciting.

How do you see your Arlene as different from the Arlene of the books?

Carrie Preston: She’s much more complicated. I think that can be said for all of the characters. The books are great and really fun and stuff, but I think what Alan and the writers have done with the storyline has just given…made them much more three dimensional. And certainly Arlene—she’s given a lot more emotional things to deal with as the series has gone on, which has been exciting for me as an actor, because at first it just seemed like she was going to be responsible for serving up the comedy of the show, but they started really giving her serious issues to deal with, and that’s always satisfying as an actor to have the opportunity to play that kind of stuff.

Have there been any rumblings on True Blood’s fifth season yet?

Carrie Preston: Yes, we all sort of talk about it and certainly the way the season ends, they better do another one. There would be some disappointed fans if they don’t.

A cliffhanger?

Carrie Preston: Yep!

If you’d like to read the interview in it’s entirety, visit UGO.

More good news for True Blood fans and music lovers everywhere: the third volume of True Blood: Music From the HBO Original Series is in the works, and it not only includes music from Season 3, but also some upcoming Season 4 songs, including the track “She’s Not There” from last night’s premiere. We gave you some advance info last month about that cover tune, recorded by Nick Cave and Neko Case… and if you dug it last night, you can hear it again right here. Read on for more details!

The first two True Blood soundtrack CDs were a huge hit with fans – many of whom got their first exposure to the up-and-coming artists chosen to contribute to seasons 1 and 2 – and each release also snagged a Grammy nomination. There’s little doubt the third installment will be a hit as well, and this first track hints they’re already headed in the right direction: dark-rock icon Cave teamed up with indie-rock queen Case to do their own moody, danceable take on the 1964 pop classic by The Zombies. The show’s music supervisor Gary Calamar (who also produced the soundtrack CD) recently revealed that the episode’s script originally called for Santana’s classic 1977 cover, but he decided to go with a brand-new version.

“I would have been thrilled to have either Neko Case or Nick Cave individually work with us this season,” Calamar said, “but to have a collaboration like this blows me away. Two of my favorite artists whose music is a perfect fit with the atmospheric and soulful Louisiana settings of True Blood. This is a fantastic way to musically kick off the new season!”

True Blood: Music from the HBO Original Series, Volume 3 is slated for release this fall from Water Tower Music. The exact drop date has not been announced, but more details (including a list of the artists involved) is coming this summer, so we’ll definitely keep watch for it. “She’s Not There” is now available from iTunes, Amazon and other digital vendors, but you can also listen to the song below…

Marshall Allman gave newbie, Janina Gavankar, a lesson in method shapeshifting in this Funny or Die video.

It’s definitely NOT SUITABLE FOR WORK, so watch at your own risk!