Drinking in the fame

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IT IS one of the hottest shows on television and at the end of season three, the vampire king Russell (Denis O’Hare) was buried alive in a pit of concrete and Sookie Stackhouse (Anna Paquin) has suddenly vanished in a flash of light.

With the fourth season of True Blood premiering on HBO tomorrow, many will be curious to see how the denizens of Bon Temps in Louisiana – made up of vampires, humans, shape-shifters, werewolves, witches and other strange critters – have moved on.

True Blood essentially follows the romance between waitress Sookie, who has the ability to read people’s minds, and 173-year-old vampire Bill Compton (Stephen Moyer).

Created by Alan Ball (the Emmy-winning creator of Six Feet Under), this series is based on the best-selling The Southern Vampire Mysteries (also known as The Sookie Stackhouse Novels) by Charlaine Harris.

From the very first season, viewers have grown fond of other characters in the series such as Sookie’s trouble-prone brother Jason (Ryan Kwanten), her shape-shifting boss Sam Merlotte (Sam Trammell), her best friend Tara (Rutina Wesley), Tara’s sharp-tongued cousin Lafayette (Nelsen Ellis), vampire sheriff Eric Northman (Alexander Skarsgard), Eric’s sarcastic side-kick Pam (Kristen Bauer), teen vampire Jessica (Deborah Ann Woll) and werewolf Alcide (Joe Manganiello).

Despite such a huge ensemble of characters, Ball and his writers have successfully managed to make them all stand out with their own individual personalities and quirks.

The series also features several break-out stars including Bauer who has been in films and television for over 20 years beginning with her small-screen debut in 1994 in the hit series LA Law.

Prior to True Blood, Bauer often played guest-starring roles in series such as Seinfeld, Everybody Loves Raymond, Dirty, Sexy, Money and CSI: Crime Scene Investigation.

She was one of those familiar faces on television but only became a known name when she started playing Pam, who is turned into a vampire by Eric in True Blood.

Fiercely loyal to her maker, she is also his confidant and partner of the vampire hangout bar, Fangtasia. It is Pam’s “biting” wit which makes her popular with fans of the series.

During a recent tele-conference interview from Los Angeles, Bauer said despite knowing that there were so many characters in the series, she signed on regardless.

“The concerns were a hindsight in a way. All I know when I got the role was it was HBO and she was a vampire and I thought, ‘Omigod, I’m in’. It’s a dream to work with HBO, Alan Ball and play a vampire. It’s all good.”

She said the good scripts and excellent set designs all contribute to helping her play an immortal killer.

“I give so much credit to the writing because Pam’s calling card is all about those one-liners. It gets delivered to my doorstep, I’ve nothing to do with that.”

While she admits that in real life she ‘edits’ herself better than Pam, saying those lines is somewhat liberating.

In season four, Pam gets cursed by a witch and ends up with her face rotting. She took that story angle as a challenge and looked forward to the make-up, which she believes, helps her with her role. However, the make-up takes five hours and she had to have a lens in one eye which meant she could not see with that eye.

“You are playing somebody immortal and powerful but you are falling over dizzy,” Bauer describes the experience.

“[But] it was fun for me to have my face rotting. It was challenging and memorable and I definitely wasn’t worried about making an impact.”

Bauer had actually read the first couple of books from the series. What Ball brought into the series is slightly different from the books but still retaining the charm of the original works.

True Blood still stands out despite the glut of vampire themed shows and movies out there. “It’s about how humans deal and get along with the other guys. There are all sorts of issues on the show.

“We talk about vampire rights but it’s a metaphor for civil rights and gay rights. I feel it’s a show you can watch over and over. It has so many layers and it’s so smart and so funny.”