What follows is
Sam's great Q & A session from
Eyecon. Unfortunately I was so busy clapping and taking pics that I didn't get the recorder turned on until he'd already started but we have most of it transcribed thanks to
Cyrenna's hard work!
From Eyecon '09:
Q: The scene with you and
Arlene's kids, it's one of my favorite scenes. What were the kids like to work with? I love those kids I think they're real talented.
Sam: They're really cool, those kids are really cool. And you know what's funny? At the scene at the bar when I'm talking to them…The way they put the camera, I couldn't look at their faces, they put X's on the mat box which is this thing right around the lenses so I had to act to the X's. I was so bummed because they're kids and you always get such good stuff from kids. They had really cute accents, too. They put on Southern accents. They were so cute.
Q: What was the hardest scene to do?
Sam: A really tough one was the one was in the last episode where I had to go and see my adoptive mom who gave me up. That was a tough one. I don't know why it was tough, maybe because I didn't want to be too "I don't like you, I'm mad at you." I didn't want to play the obvious thing. But at the same time it was written that I was angry at them and my character didn't want to be angry he just wanted to get information on how to find his biological parents. So that was a tough one. One of the toughest things, honestly, and this is a technical thing, is wearing short sleeves or being naked when its cold and then having to be pretend that you're not cold. That's always really hard. Seriously! Because you're thinking "Oh my God, I'm really cold!" and they say "ACTION" and you have to act like "Yo, what's up!? I'm chilling out in Louisiana and it's hot!" ~laughs~
Q: Do you think we've seen the last of
Maryann?
Sam: That's a good question… I know she's bad…really bad. I don't know though because she's a weird energy and even though she died I wouldn't be surprised if Alan brought her back in some weird way, like her energy through someone else. I think for now we have [seen the last of
Maryann] but I wouldn't count her out because she's like the devil.
Q: Is it difficult for you to get into character and do have a favorite line?
Sam: The character is not too difficult. It's not as easy because I have to do a Southern accent but I'm actually from the South so that comes back fairly easily. But whenever your putting on an accent or a limp that adds a little bit of a, ya know, it's an extra thing to do. I'm not that far away from the character. I mean I am not quite as much of a loner as he is but I'm kind of a private person and I did move around a lot as a kid. I wasn't abandoned by my adoptive parents but it's not too terribly much of a stretch.
Q: When you're not filming and you have down time what type of hobbies do you have and what do you like to do?
Sam: I like to surf and I took that up when I moved to the West Coast. My brother lives in St. Augustine and he surfs on the East Coast and he always said you're an idiot if you don't surf in California because there's great waves there and he was always jealous. So I started doing that and that's a weird hobby because you get up really early in the morning and the waters always really cold and you're always like "Why am I doing this?" And then, it's really fun once you start doing it.
Q: Do you have a favorite book?
Sam: I'm reading a book right now that's pretty good called "A Shadow of the Wind". It's a Spanish writer. It's kind of a mystery-thriller. It's really well written. But you know one of my favorite books, this is kind of random and I don't know why this came into my head, is "Beloved" by Tony Morrison. ~applause~ Anybody read that? Yeah, because I'm from the south and it's really well written and it's heavy, it's so intense. And I'm going to sound so pretentious now, I like Dostafski a lot but it takes a little work to read him and I haven't read him for a while. I've been lazy.
Q: Who's your favorite supporting actor?
Sam: Well one of my favorite people for sure is
Chris Bauer who plays Andy
Bellefleur ~applause~ You guys like him??? Yeah he's good. But I knew him because I used to live in New York so I knew him before and actually we go surfing together. Whenever I work with him I just try not to laugh because his character is so funny. Like... there was a scene in the first season where I'm telling him, "I'm a naturist," remember that??? and I swear we would do that scene and I would walk up to the table and say "Well, you know Andy, I'm a naturist" and he would just look at me and we would literally just try not to laugh and they would say cut and we would totally laugh. And then this season when we were in the refrigerator and he's telling me about his nanny named Annie and I was like, you've got to be kidding me, you've got to be kidding me. I was SO trying not to laugh. I love working with him. He's a lot of fun
Q: First of all I just want to say thanks for being here.
Sam: Oh! You're welcome it's great to be here.
Q: Did you have any second thoughts about playing the role of
Sam?
Sam: Oh did I ever have any second thoughts like, "Oh, was this a bad choice?" or something??? No ~laughs~ No, No Way!
Q: The naked scenes did you have any problem with that?
Sam: No, not so much. I kind of knew, whenever you work for
HBO they're like, "If you're going to work for us you're going to have to sign a thing that says you're going to show your butt." and I said "Yeah, fine." That was totally fine. So, not really. It is kind of tough doing the naked scenes, kind of, it's not too bad, but just when it's cold. But I was always psyched and when I got the script and it said
Alan Ball and
HBO, I said "I want to do that!" I hadn't even read it because
Alan Ball is such a good writer and
HBO is the best place to work. So I've been pretty psyched about it.
Q: I know
Charlaine has already decided who
Sookie will end up with in the end. What are your feelings on that because I would love to see
Sookie and
Sam end up together.
Sam: Aww that's nice. So are you saying that
Charlaine's already decided that in the books? Oh, she has, but she hasn't written it yet? Well, I think that would be good because, you know, I'm not a
vampire ….I'm alive! I turn into a dog, but I'm alive, so that's a good thing! You know like a live man right? I mean
vampires are sexy, I guess. They bite you and everything….I can bite! Just because you're a
vampire does not mean you can't bite! Alright…you should know that! You should know that! Dogs bite…exactly! So I think it would be good. I think that I'm good for her.
Team Sam!!! [Spotted a woman with a
Team Sam T-shirt on in the audience] Oh my god I've never seen that! I've never seen that! Got one member! Two members! Ya gotta start somewhere!
Q: What season did you like better?
Season one or
season two?
Sam: I kind of liked
season 2, I mean I loved
season 1 but
season 1 felt a lot to me like me pining after
Sookie and saying "Don't go to the
Vampires. Stay with me. Don't do this, don't do that" like "Mr. Rules guy". Like, "Oh that's bad, that's bad." Then
season 2, I kind of stood up to her a little bit and I felt like I was a little bit more of a man. And then I got to squeeze the heart and save the town! So I kind of like
season 2 a little bit more in that sense.
Q: How were you inspired to pursue a career in acting? Were you influenced by anyone?
Sam: You know it's interesting I never ever thought about acting. I went to college and I'd never acted and I went to be a physics major of all boring things. But I wanted to be an astrophysicist and ended up being a philosophy major. I was a musician. I was always in bands since I was like 13. I played guitar in bands and this friend of mine who is now a musician was an actor then, and my last semester of school he said, "You should audition for the new plays festival. They need a bunch of actors because they do like 8 new plays by graduate students." It just took somebody saying to do it because I always thought it looked kind of fun, like playing house but like really taking it seriously. Like really pretending whatever you are. So that's all it took was somebody saying, "You should do that." and I was like, "Yeah, yes I should." And then I auditioned and got a part and that was my last semester of college and I just did a couple more plays and I had already applied to graduate schools and I said, "Forget that, I'm going to move to New York." And I literally moved to NY on a bus with some sort of suit case I could hold in my hand. A classic story. And that was it. I got a late start.
Q: Is there another character on the show that would be interesting to play for you?
Sam: Yes I think there are so many good characters.
Jason has a great part,
Bill has a great part. I mean,
Bill's part is tough because he's playing a
vampire. There's so many good ones like
Alexander, you know ~applause~ Love it ~laughs~ I think
Rutina's part is great,
Tara's part its so good. A really good part isn't it? ~applause~
Q:
Lafayette?
Sam:
Lafayette! Yes! You know,
Nelson, he brings so much to that part. It's not just on paper, he brings like a whole new level to that part.
Q: Could you do it? Could you do a part like that?
Sam: Probably not ~laughs~
Q: Do you think you've got it in you?
Sam: I don't know if I've got it in me, you know? ~laughs~
Q: Since you're a shifter and you can only turn into something you have come in contact with, do you think in
season 3 in at least one scene can you shift into an alien or a predator from your past movie?
Sam: Wow, that's a good question, that's a good question. Maybe a predator!
Q: Do you watch the show every Sunday when it airs and where do you watch it?
Sam: Oh yes, I have to. I mean it's really hard for me to watch myself, it's very hard and I'm very overly critical. I usually like to watch it alone first, because the first time you watch it... If there are other people you are just so embarrassed and you want to get used to it. I usually watch it at home, sometimes we have people over.
Q: We had a contest and asked our readers what they would most like to know from you and what they answered was, they want to know "Has
True Blood changed you and if so how?"
Sam: I don't know if it's changed me but it's changed my life a little bit because I just get recognized a little bit more, especially after the second season and especially in places where there's a lot more people like New York City. And it's definitely fun. There's no question it's great. People come up and say they love the show or they like my part and it feels good and I'm not going to pretend like "Oh, I'm over that", it's pretty great. I don't know that it's changed me at all. It hasn't changed me but it's definitely changed my life a bit.
Q: Do you like people coming up and asking me for autographs or just coming up to you?
Sam: I really don't mind it but there's definitely every once in a while you're just like not in a good mood as you can all imagine and you just kind of just want to be alone or you're just not feeling confident or not feeling like you have it in you to be friendly. But those times aren't that much; I just don't usually mind it that much. No. I don't mind it at all.
Q: If you could be stranded on a desert island with anyone from the cast who would it be and why?
Sam: Wow, did I really hear that question? Sorry, trying to buy some time... buy some time. Wow, like stranded on an island forever? Forever…wow. Well if was going to be forever it would have to be a woman. Wow. I don't know who do you think?
Daphne?
Q: She would probably hit you.
Sam: Hit me? No you know who hits me all the time is
Anna. You know, she hits me all the time because she knows I won't hit her back. It would be a woman from the show. I don't know who.
Q: How did you land the roll on TB and how do you do the CGI scenes?
Sam: Okay so I landed the roll pretty normally. I just got the script and I read it. And then I went in and auditioned and they put it on tape. And
Alan saw it and liked it. And then you have to go to a final audition in front of the President of
HBO and all the big executives. And that's so nerve racking because you have to sign contracts before you go in and it's just very nerve racking. And then I found out the same day that I got it! Which was great! Oh yeah, and the CGI...it's kind of complicated. What they usually do, for instance in that scene in the shower where the dog stood up and then I stood up and you see my butt? They shot the dog first, I think, and they had that somehow on film and they had to line me up exactly with the dog. I'm not exactly sure how they do it. I had to be in an exact spot and stand up in a certain way.
Q: When you have naked scenes do you wear something in the front?
Sam: Do I wear something in the front….yes! We call it 'the sock'. It's not an actual sock but it's this thing that you tie and it goes over your whole situation. And it's beige.
Q: How much does it cover?
Sam: How much does it cover? Just the tip. No! It covers up pretty much the whole situation. Oh God, I'm embarrassed now…wow!
Ryan has to wear that a lot and I have to wear it…but different ones! I have a larger size ~laughs~ I am so embarrassed now! Wow!
Q: How much is
Alan Ball involved with the series from
season 1 to
season 2 and how much do you work with him on set?
Sam: That's a good question. He's really involved. He's not on set as much as you might think. One of the many things that he's really talented at and great at is he hires really good people, like department heads. So he really trusts the directors and the director of photography and the actors. He trusts everybody. And he sees everything in editing. So he's not on the set a lot but he's always in editing. And of course he's writing all the time and he's casting so his day is totally full. He kind of puts his energies where he needs to and he's very involved. I think he re-writes almost every script and like I said he's in the editing room.
Q: Does he pull like a 24 where you have no idea what happening until the next script and you read it that morning?
Sam: No, not all actually. He likes to shoot everything before the season comes out. Now that didn't happen last year but it happened the first year. So he likes to have everything done ahead of time. And he's really cool because he'll give us scripts when they're done. Most TV shows they'll just give you the script that week. I don't know why, either they're behind or they just don't want you to have the information and they play weird power games. But he's so cool. When they have it done they give it to you. It's really helpful because it helps you prepare when you know what you're going to be doing in the 5th episode when you're working on the first.
Q: How does the feeling or the adrenalin rush you get from filming a television series vary from when you're on stage?
Sam: That's a good question. It's definitely different when you're on stage. Obviously you get the immediate, "Oh my!" people who are out in the audience and you can feel it and then you do the whole thing and you're done and you're like "Yes! It was brilliant." and you bow and everybody claps for you. But there is sort of an excitement when you're filming for the show. Sometimes it's really mellow though. You're shooting a lot of scenes that day and there may be only a few people in the room where you're shooting. And maybe you shot a really intense scene and it kind of goes without any fan fare. But then obviously TV reaches out to so many more people so there's this delayed gratification where you shoot that episode like 5 months ago and you've forgotten it. You're trying to remember that scene and then it comes on and you see it and everybody else sees it and then people are saying they like the scene that many months later, so it is really different.
Q: I know they have "The
Vampire Musical" the Series; what about a '
True Blood Musical' with your background?
Sam: Wait a minute, you want to see a
True Blood Musical?
Q: Would you be interested in doing it if they ever came up with it? What would
Sam sing about?
Sam: If there were a musical, what would I have be singing about? I don't know. I would have a song about turning into a dog and getting to sleep with
Sookie or something. I don't know. That's pretty funny. That would be a weird musical wouldn't it?
Q: As we see in
Season 2 Eric's been messing with
Sookie and
Lafayette. I've heard rumors from a couple people in
Alan's camp that they're planning to have
Bill mess with you.
Sam: Are you serious? What does that mean????
Q: The same way he's messed with
Lafayette and the same way he's messed with
Sookie.
Sam: Am I going to be dreaming about
Bill now?
Q: Something like that.
Sam: Man you never know. You never know what they're going to do on the show. Oh boy. Well I have to go back to that question whether I ever regretted doing this part!~laughs~ No, I'm totally kidding.
Q: What projects did you do while on break from
True Blood?
Sam: I did a movie called "
The Details" over the break. It's a really cool script. It's this independent kind of dark comedy that Toby McGuire and Laura Linny star in and Elizabeth Banks, too. It's a really good script, it's really good. I have a part in that so check that out. It will come out next year some time.
Q: God bless the man who made those jeans because I'd wear him like a scrunchy…
Sam: I forget who I was talking to last night. The woman who gave that line, that was an improvised line. And she's kind of a comedian and they were just totally ripping and they were so funny. They were saying the funniest stuff.
Q: I still laugh at that
Sam: I know you're laughing now ~laughs~ I know! And she said a lot of other pretty racy stuff that didn't make it. I wish I could remember what it was.
Q: You could have been stranded on the island with
Eric…he could have flown you off the island.
Sam: He could have flown me off the island; I knew there was a better answer, like someone who could cook.
Q: I was wondering is there any chance that you'll do another play on Broadway?
Sam: Oh, yeah, I would do another play on Broadway for sure. The last play I did I think was 3 years ago. Yeah, I would love to do another play.
Sam: Do I go to New York City? Yes in fact I flew in from New York. I was their visiting friends and seeing some plays. I love New York and I love the theatre and for sure I am definitely going to do another play.
Q: What's your favorite line?
Sam: What's my favorite line? That I have said in the show? Oh gosh that's a tough question, geez I can't even remember. Like I forget all of my lines once I do them. What are some good lines that I've had?
Q: "Smite me, Motherfucker!!!!"
Sam: Oh…."Smite me, Mother Fucker!" So that's my answer, you gave me my answer. Yeah "Smite me, motherfucker!" that was a crazy scene. That scene, I swear when we saw that written we were like this is ridiculous…totally ridiculous! But it turned out pretty good I think. People are definitely into it.
Q:
HBO has disappointed us with Carnival and Deadwood. I know you can't predict but how long do you think
True Blood is going to go?
Sam: First of all I can't even tell you how grateful and psyched we all are that we didn't end as quickly as Deadwood and Carnival and the surf show. But anyway, to answer your question, how long? I know that
Alan Ball is having the best time of his life doing this show, he's said. He loves doing it. He wants to keep doing it. We all want to keep doing it.
Charlaine keeps writing books so hopefully we're going to go on and on. And I know
HBO's psyched so hopefully we're going to go on. It just depends on whether people are watching it. But if you all keep watching it and telling your friends to watch it, it could go for a while. I think there's a lot of stuff to explore. There's so many, it just kind of seems endless, like the different relationships and supernatural creatures and that world is so rich. I think we can explore that world for a while.
Q: I know you mentioned something about how you landed the show and so forth. I know sometimes the actors they audition for different parts in the show. Did you only audition for
Sam's part or different parts?
Sam: I did. I just auditioned for
Sam. Yes that was the one.
Q: You also mention traveling through different countries and stuff; I am originally from Brazil so I was wondering if you plan on doing travels throughout the world?
Sam: I hope so. I just went to Paris. I would hope so because I love to travel. It's funny because I was just tripping out the other day because I was in New York and I was in a restaurant and these two women from Brazil came and asked me for my autograph! They were really pretty, too. And that was one of the only times that people have come to me in a restaurant and asked for an autograph. But just the fact that they were from Brazil and knew me from watching the show in Brazil... just freaked me out.
Q: Everyone asks about your relationship with your human co-workers. I was wondering about your relationship with your little furry friend on the show? If you're a dog lover?
Sam: I'm a total dog lover. I'm definitely a dog lover. I grew up with dogs. I love dogs. The dogs on our show are great. They're not the smartest dogs. The one who I had to work with is actually a little bit brighter. They're sweet dogs, they're just not... Working with dogs is tough. Working with animals and kids is always very tough, like little kids. But they're sweet. There are two of them. It's like Dusty and Rusty or something like that. Because they get tired you work with one for a while, and then you have to work with the other. But they have all kinds of tricks. They'll hide treats in my hand when I'm trying to talk to them but inevitably you have to edit the scene and cut around it because they just don't get it. They don't get that they're on "
True Blood". It's like, "Come on, be serious!" ~laughs~
Q: I know that you have read all the books.
Sam: I've read four of the books.
Q: Do you plan on reading more or are you just going to stop because it's so different?
Sam: I think I'm going to stop for a while. I wanted to read them because I wanted to make sure that
Sam wasn't like a crazy transvestite. And thought "Oh well, there we go." But I kind of want to be surprised now. I'm always asking my friends who read the books if I'm still alive because still alive is good! But I'm probably going to take a break from them for a little bit. But I am sure I will ultimately read all of them, just for fun.
Q: Are there any practical jokers on the set and can you tell us about some of the jokes made behind the scenes?
Sam: Oh God, well I know
Ryan has this whole thing with our cameraman, and they're always doing stuff to each other. I think one of them filled the other's car with little Styrofoam snakes, like the whole car! Which is pretty crazy and they have a lot of that kind of stuff going on.
Q: If it were your preference, what would you prefer to turn into?
Sam: That's a good question. Well dogs are good; the bird is good because you can fly. The thing that I haven't done yet is water, under water. Like a deep-sea fish or something. I don't know. It would be good to be able to breath under water.
Q: Do you belong to any charities?
Sam: There's a group called
Oceania that I'm involved with that protects the ecological integrity of beaches and oceans and also
Surf Rider, which also does the same thing. So those two organizations I'm involved with. But I am very into preserving the environment. That's kind of my big thing
Sam: Next Question, yes,
Team Sam…
Q: Long board or short board?
Sam: Mostly short board right now but I always have a long board available for when the waves are smaller.
Q: I have two questions. Do you have a
MySpace or a
Facebook where you keep in contact with your fans?
Sam: I don't but I've been trying to get something like that going. So I'm not on
Facebook or
MySpace yet but we're working on that.
Q: What about
Twitter?
Sam:
Twitter I haven't done. Should I do
Twitter? Audience: Yes!
Sam: Because I don't know how to do that, I've thought about doing that. And you just type "I'm hanging out at the thing, I'm on stage right now", is that what you do? You just tell people where you are? Is it good, would you guys follow it if I did it??? Audience: Yeah!
Sam: Maybe I'll do
Twitter because it seems like the most available. Wait a minute, she has another question.
Q: You were talking about how two fans from Brazil came up and asked you for an autograph, is there a weird question that a fan has asked you?
Sam: Is there a weird question that a fan has asked me? You know, not so much. I mean there's always a question of what I want to turn into. I mean, that's not that weird. No, not so much. I need to make up an answer for that question because that's just a boring answer isn't it. No, not really ~laughs~
Q: In the last episode you turned into a bull and a lot of the sites in the blogs they wanted to know how did you turn into a bull because you had to imprint it, like, see it. Isn't that correct? So a lot of people were writing to us and said that they were like, "How did he turn into a bull?"
Sam: So the question is, "How did I turn into a bull if the bull wasn't there and I couldn't map my genes off it?" Well the answer to that is that I think the way they wrote the story that there was a bull there. What happened was
Bill brought the bull. When he came and he said he had that idea for me in the bar, he had gotten a bull. So actually, maybe, they didn't make that clear enough in the episode. Did they not do that? Because that was the idea behind it.
Q: It just seemed like….
Sam: Because he said, "I have an idea." I said, "Well I'm not really interested in it." and he said, "You better!" and I'm like, "Alright! Don't bite me!" So, yes that's what happened. He brought a bull and then the idea was to let me die almost and then give me his blood. That would hurt. Like I really sacrificed myself. I feel like I really sacrificed. But that was the whole idea so that's a bummer that it didn't get across.
Q: How did you prepare to express that feeling of dying because you really looked scared and how do you prepare for something like that?
Sam: Well, you know, gosh. Because I did a Dexter where I got killed and that was such a horrifying situation. You know what I did, I got this video tape. Have you ever heard of "Faces of Death?" Terrible, terrible! I think some of it is fake but they show real people dying sometimes and that's always been like a taboo thing for me. I don't want to see that. It's horrible. I don't know why that exists. But I thought if I could watch some of that... for the Dexter role. So that's what I did. So I could have that kind of horror when seeing him. Now with "
True Blood," I kind of pulled on a little bit of that for the scene where they struck me through the heart and then a lot of it is just instinct. Like when you're a kid playing cowboys and Indians, just pretending. What would that take? Would it take the energy out of you? Or would it be really painful first. Then some of it's just pretend, just playing pretend.
Q: Will it always be so long between seasons and any chance for a movie?
Sam: Interesting. You know why it's so long between seasons? It's because we only do 12 episodes, so it's only three months of a great life of "
True Blood" and then a terrible life 9 months without. And it is it's always going to be 9 months because we have to have time to shoot it. I know it's a bummer, I wish we shot more. I kind of wish we shot more maybe. And then a movie... maybe if we do it forever then it would be kind of cool.
Q: Two words for you
Sam, "Nice balls"
Sam: ~Laughs Wow I'll take that, I'll take it. I don't know where you got that but I'll take it! Was that in the episode????
Q: Yes
Sam: Oh! I forgot that, "Nice rack" to you! That's right I totally forgot about that. That's a good answer for my favorite line, too.
Q: Congratulations on the Scream awards. Is it weird having the same name as your character?
Sam: Not really, it's kind of easier; in a way it kind of does make me feel closer to the character unconsciously. So it's kind of good and it's easy for everybody.
Q: Do you ever read a script for an episode where you're like, "Can we really do that?"
Sam: Yeah. Like every episode, every week. I'm thinking "Are people really going to be coming at us like "Dawn of the Dead"? You know, originally for that scene they had me burning down the bar - burning down half the bar to get all the people out. And then they would have to rebuild it but they were like, "We can't do that, that's too much work". So then they changed it.
Q: Beyond
True Blood is there any role you would like to play?
Sam: Gosh you know as far as plays go, I would love to do Checov or Gibson, those two Russian dudes, I would like to do that on stage. I would probably do any super hero.
Q: Aqua man?
Sam: Aqua man, yes….
Q: I was wondering if you could do a good
Bill Compton impression?
Sam: Do
Bill Compton? ~laughs~ "
Sookie…where have you been
Sookie…I want you
Sookie."
MC: As much as I worship you on Sunday nights I hate to tell you I have to cut it off .
Sam: Awwwww I hate being this person…you're the bad guy…
MC: I'm Mary Ann
Sam: You gonna rock us out later? [
MC was lead singer in the band]
MC: Yes. Give it up for
Sam!!!!!!
TrueBloodNet.com wants to thank
Sam for helping us fill in some blanks and
Cyrenna for the tedious work of transcription and
Kenny for making all this happen! Transcription credit: Cyrenna (Photo credit: Kasandra Rose)
http://truebloodnet.com http://truebloodnet.com/community http://truebloodnet.com/forums
Nelsan Ellis who portrays the flamboyant short-order cook, Lafayette Reynolds, on Alan Ball hit HBO TV series True Blood will be joining other celebrities including cast members from Twilight in the "Twilight FanTrips' Vampire Baseball Cajun-Style" game at the Zephyr Stadium in New Orleans, Louisiana on Saturday, March 20 , 2010. The event will feature: 
