Keeping the Wlof from the door

Premiering yesterday, the fourth flick in the Twilight Saga has the vampire marrying the girl and the broken-hearted werewolf running into the wilderness.

Joe Manganiello plays the reclusive werewolf, Alcide Herveaux, who is urged to join a new pack in True Blood , Season 4.

As popular as the movie series but on the small screen, True Blood has pumped up the passion between the telepathic Sookie Stackhouse and the reclusive werewolf, Alcide Herveaux, to the point that TV viewers want her to go steady with him rather than the 173-year old vampire, Bill Compton.

Initially signed for only six episodes of Season 3, the awesome Joe Manganiello plays Alcide, his impressive performance earning him an additional six-year contract in the HBO original series.

"I was amazed at how many people wanted to see Sookie and Alcide get together. They say that Alcide is the perfect guy for Sookie," he said, referring to the most surprising response from viewers during his visit to Hong Kong to launch True Blood Season 4.

Some fans of the TV series want to see the werewolf Alcide end up with his little bunny, Sookie.

Every Thursday night brings a new episode of the popular TV show, and one of them required the hunk to be stark naked in broad daylight for a fight scene between Alcide and the powerful Nordic vampire, Eric, with Sookie standing in the middle.

"The sound guy with a mic was crouching at about my butt level, and my wolf was also behind me with the animal trainer waving a piece of meat to get the wolf to pay attention. It was the craziest scene for me in True Blood," he said.

"I felt like being a competitive swimmer. Before getting into the water it's a little bit cold because you're wearing nothing. But once you j! ump into the water and someone yells 'Action!', I'm a werewolf."

His fans are waiting to see more of his sexy physique in Steven Soderbergh's Magic Mike, a movie about male strippers in which Manganiello plays a character called Big Dick Richie. He's also one of the male stars in What to Expect When You're Expecting, which has Cameron Diaz and Jennifer Lopez as its leading ladies.

Both movies are scheduled to be released next year, which should be another good year for the affable actor, who was born under the Dragon zodiac sign.

As for his famous TV role, how does a Dragon person play a werewolf?

He reckons that werewolves act first and think later. A part of his reseach on how to play a werewolf had him observing a Yorkshire Terrier to discover something endearing about canine behaviour.

"The dog was chewing on his bone and I tried to take it away from him, and he was growling at me even though I was much bigger than him. This loveable little dog defends his bone or his owner no matter how big the opponent," he said. "Alcide is like that, but he's a monster protecting Sookie and doesn't want anyone close to his little bunny."

Vampires, Eric (Alexander Skarsgard) and Bill (Stephen Moyer), have to watch out the charming werewolf, Alcide (Joe Manganiello) as he reconnects with Sookie (Anna Paquin) in Season 4.

The Italian-American actor views himself a perfect match with the character Alcide, and playing a vampire wouldn't work out for him since he likes having a tan and going to the beach.

''It's fascinating to play someone, who is so strong, so vicious, so animalistic but also so vulnerable and so sensitive. A character like this that's the home run,'' he said of his challenging role. ''Descending from hunters for thousands of year, Alcide now has to go to the grocery store to buy meat. There's an energy that has to go somewhere. His solutio! n is to lock himself in a house and not to become a part of a pack, not to fall in love. There's a side of him connected to great power and also a negative side that he's scared of. Sookie is a catalyst of all that, and he can emerge as a hero or a monster.''

The 196cm hunkster does compare to a monster, albeit a charming and huggable one when he's opposite the petite Anna Paquin, who plays Sookie.

Based on Charlaine Harris' bestselling Sookie Stackhouse novels, the True Blood series follow the on-and-off romance between the waitress and part-faerie Sookie and her vampire boyfriend, whose ancestral home is in Bon Temps. The modern-day vampires may not need to sharpen their fangs since the availability of mass-produced synthetic blood means that they no longer need humans as a nutritional source.

There are more werewolves walking around in season four. Alcide is urged to join a new pack in one of the episodes and viewers will see how that works out as well as how in the 12th and final episode, he makes a heartfelt appeal to the woman he loves.

Executive producer, Alan Ball, mixes romance, suspense, mystery and humour for this Emmy and Golden Globe winning TV series.

Born under the Dragon zodiac sign, Joe Manganiello expects next year to be another good year with the release of two movies, as well as more of him on True Blood .

A classically trained actor, Manganiello is a big fan of the show himself before becoming one of its magnets.

''What Alan does with the show has everyone guessing because it may not be exactly the same as in Charlaine's novels,'' he said. ''I read the novels but like wearing a loose jacket. I already have the script for season five and there are things different from the book. The writers play on audience's expectation and that makes it a great show.''

He noted that stories about vampires and werewolves become popular in! times o f economic recession, with the first Twilight film and True Blood coming out in 2008 and their sequels continuing to be blockbuster movies and hit TV shows during the last three years.

''True Blood differs from the other vampire stories,'' Manganiello pointed out. ''And it's not really about vampires and werewolves. Like in ancient mythology, the gods were very human, they try to kill each other, have sex with each other. That's very similar to True Blood, whose characters have serious handicaps that make it more difficult for them to be human. With the well-written script, we can go deeper than other productions in reflecting human qualities. It's truly about being humans.''

A new episode of True Blood, Season 4 airs every Thursday at 9pm on HBO (True Visions A12, D 43).

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