Sam Trammell was recently interviewed by Vulture where he talked about True Blood, the Emmys, his education, and more.

Here’s an excerpt from the interview:

Congratulations on completing season four. What was that wrap party like?
This year a lot of the cast had already gone off to their respective countries. But last year was crazier. There are definitely people on the show that like to have a good time. [Laughs.] Me, one of the writers, [Alexander] Skarsgard, and [Ryan] Kwanten — we’re not shy of doing shots, let’s put it that way. You know Kwanten … both those guys … I don’t wanna speak out of turn, but they probably wouldn’t mind.

They drink like champions?
Oh yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Kwanten, yeah — for sure.

You grew up for a bit in Louisiana. Do you think the accents on the show are, you know, overblown?
I think everyone does a really good job. When you talk about the Louisiana accent, the people in the north have different accents than the people in Lafayette, which are a little more Cajun. Everyone sounds a little bit different, but everyone sounds a little bit different in the south.

This season, we’re getting the feeling Sam just can’t trust his brother, Tommy. True?
[There’s] a huge deception and a huge violation of trust. Tommy is definitely in deep water. He’s got Maxine [Hoyt’s overbearing mom], but Tommy’s running out of friends in town. And Tommy’s trying to cheat Maxine out of her land, so he’s really burning a lot of bridges right now.

Will he outright turn evil?
I don’t know if I can really answer that specifically. We’re going to find out what price you pay when you shape-shift. That’s going to be a big issue. There’s a lot of mess that Tommy has already created that I have to clean up, and there’s potentially a lot more mess. He’s kind of a loose cannon.

And what of Sam’s new relationship with Luna?
Luna has a very scary ex-husband and father to her child [and a werewolf]. Sam is going to have a major conflict with the werewolves.

What if Sam just shape-shifted into a werewolf?
[Long pause.] I wonder if I could. Probably so. I like that.

Why don’t Sam and Sookie really share scenes together anymore?
Just because of our story lines, there’s so much to resolve in hers and mine. Though we do come together. There is some — I won’t say “resolution,” because I don’t wanna imply how well it goes or how not well it goes — but we do get together to talk. I feel like if we end up doing a few more seasons, the writers may run out of story with that and come back to me. Sam will always have a real connection with Sookie, and he’ll always love her.

How bummed were you that the show didn’t get any Emmy nominations this year?
Well, you know, it would’ve been really nice to get an Emmy. I think it’s tough because it’s a genre show. I mean, our show is much more than a genre show, because it deals with social issues and it’s really well written — it’s Alan Ball. And production wise it’s really, really rich; we shoot about four pages a day. But I think the fact that we have supernatural beings on it, maybe that’s not popular with Emmy voters.

Then how do you figure Game of Thrones’ Peter Dinklage got a nomination?
Peter Dinklage is one of my oldest friends from New York!

Is it true you went to Brown after high school to be an astrophysicist?
When I was in high school, I was really into string theory and superstring theory and read Scientific American. It’s fascinating … but it doesn’t really get into the math of it. It’s all math. I was good at math, math was my thing — but I was not nearly good enough to be an astrophysicist. I was way outta my league. I realized this very quickly.

So you went to the Sorbonne to study.
It was crazy because it was assumed that I was fluent in French. And I was not. Everything was in French! I was studying semiotics and, like, a lot of French twentieth-century philosophy, deconstructionism: Jacques Derrida, Foucault. Psychoanalysis. Film theory. A lot of pretentious theory. The opposite of what I do now — completely not preparing myself for life.

If you’d like to read the entire interview, click here.

AMC has announced the title of the first episode of the second season of their hit series, The Walking Dead.

The first episode will be called, Miles Behind Us.

TV Guide – As True Blood starts charging towards the Season 4 finale, executive producer Alan Ball was on hand at HBO’s summer TV session to dish out a few spoilers — and when we say few, we mean very few. Here is the transcript of our rapid-fire lightning round with the very cagey Ball:

What will we see in the war between witches and vampires?
Ball: It will go places that surprise you. It’s not linear.

What can you say of the Bill-Sookie-Eric triangle?
Ball: It’s complicated.

Will Sookie (Anna Paquin) be able to forgive Bill (Stephen Moyer)?
Ball: I believe forgiveness is possible for everybody for everything, but I’m a Buddist, so…

Were you careful with the relationship between Eric (Alexander Skarsgard) and Sookie because of Team Bill?
Ball: I don’t worry about Team Bill or Team Eric. I love [the fourth book] because I thought it was a great story, but I’m Team Sookie.

Because Jason (Ryan Kwanten) drank Jessica’s (Deborah Ann Woll) blood, will his sex dreams continue?
Ball: He’s had her blood and he’s already a very sexual person, but he’s going to be attracted to her.

What is the season building up to?
Ball: The fate of vampires as a whole.

What’s the big, bad villain for next season?
Ball: We are just in the beginning of Season 5, so it’s too early to say, but we’re basing it on the books.

Do you feel pressure to top each villain?
Ball: I don’t think that way because that’s only a recipe for trouble. I love my job, I enjoy doing it. I’m not going to put pressure on myself to top. I just want to tell the best story and the most fun story.

Why did the show really jump one year in the future this year?
Ball: The root of that was how we get Jason to be a cop.

Bonus non-True Blood question: Having created ABC’s Oh, Grow Up and co-executive produced CBS’ Cybill, would you ever consider doing another sitcom?
Ball: No, no, no. I would rather drive rusty railroad spikes into my eyes.

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It’s nice to know that Alan Ball and the staff of this site are seeing eye to eye!

HBO has released the synopses for the final two episodes of True Blood.  Here they are …

Episode #47 – 4.11: Soul of Fire – As the Wiccan-vampire standoff reaches a critical juncture, Sookie summons her faerie powers to prevent Marnie from bewitching Bill, Eric and Pam into a suicide march, while Jesus casts a secret spell designed to un-bind Antonia and break the witch’s deadly defenses. Sam settles a score with Marcus; Alcide confronts Debbie about her allegiances; Andy finds unexpected passion in the forest; Lafayette is consumed by the past.

Episode #48 – 4.12: And When I Die — It’s Samhain, Wicca’s greatest holy day, and spirits of the dead surface in Bon Temps, giving Sookie some valuable allies to combat Marnie’s newest incarnation. Lafayette’s latest medium encounter imperils his relationship with Jesus; Jason finds confession good for the soul, but not the body; Alcide makes a heartfelt appeal to the woman he loves; Terry receives an unexpected visitor at Merlotte’s; Sam and Luna envision a storybook ending, for once; Nan wears out her welcome with Bill and Eric. As Season Four comes to a shattering conclusion, Debbie confronts Sookie and Tara with deadly consequences, and the denizens of Bon Temps brace for a new crisis with a familiar face.

All I can say is “WOW”!  I cannot wait to see how all of this actually plays out!

How about y’all?

Kelly

TV Line is reporting that The Vampire Diaries is currently casting for a character named Eric.

Michael Ausiello stated the following in his most recent Ask Ausiello blog:

The incoming character, named Eric (a nod to True Blood’s sexiest fanger?), is a middle-aged hottie who, from what I hear, is sorta like Indiana Jones with a stake instead of a whip. In possibly related news, check out what EP Julie Plec told us at Comic-Con when asked her if there were plans to introduce a baddie bigger than Klaus this season. “I would definitely say that Klaus isn’t the worst baddie that we’ve seen so far. It will be fun to see who’s going to steal his thunder eventually as we get deep into Season 3.” Hmm…

Spoiler TV is reporting that in addition to a vampire slayer, they are also looking for a witch …

This character’s name is Gloria, she’s someone Stefan knows from the past, and Klaus needs her help with something — which she promptly refuses.

She’s is in her 60′s, but despite her age she’s a sexy and beautiful singer and the owner of a classy bar.  Apparently, she has the ability to slow down aging, but her ability will be catching up with her.

It is said that Gloria may have something very interesting in motion but won’t tell what it is.

TV Guide confirmed that David Anders is joining Once Upon a Time.

The 30-year-old actor — who you may remember as Elena’s biological daddy on the Vampire Diaries – will play a devious doctor who goes on a date with Mary Margaret (Ginnifer Goodwin), aka Snow White.

Anders first tweeted the news, joking about the secrecy: “Can’t tell u anymore as it’s a secret so SHHH &/or tell the world.” He will first appear in Episode 3.

Here’s three more images from the upcoming Hunger Games movie …