Rutina Wesley's character on Alan Ball's hit HBO TV series "True Blood" doesn't mince her words and tells people straight in their face what she's thinking. Rutina Wesley portrays Tara Thornton, a foul-mouth, anger young woman raised by an abusive, alcoholic mother and best friend to the main character in "True Blood", Sookie Stackhouse (Anna Paquin). Rutina explains that people may have this image that she is tough like Tara but in reality she is the opposite of her. Rutina states that she can understand her character and the anger that is always simmering on the surface but can also convey a sense of vulnerability and sweetness lying deep inside of her. Rutina states that she herself may appear to people to have a very tough exterior but she is the opposite and is really very sweet inside. For her audition for Alan Ball to get the part of Tara, Rutina had to act out the scene from Episode One where she is working at the "Super Save-a-bunch" store and bad mouths to a customer and her boss before quitting. Alan Ball chose this scene to cast the character because he wanted someone to "establish her as the smartest citizen of the fictional backwater town of Bon Temps, La., but also as a hot-tempered, curse-happy person who doesn't suffer fools. "Other actresses played it for laughs, like something on the CW," Mr. Ball said. "But Rutina was the first person who showed her vulnerable side."Rutina's character is perhaps the one character in Charlaine Harris' books who has been changed the most by Alan Ball in his adaptation of "True Blood". In the books Tara is Caucasian and is not foul mouth and in your face as Alan Ball's version. In fact Tara doesn't really have a large role in the Charlaine Harris' novels however, Mr. Ball wanted to expand her character and change her around. Mr. Ball stated "It's in Louisiana — it couldn't be all about the Caucasians". On "True Blood" Tara may swear at people constantly and put them in their place but when it come to Sookie's brother, Jason Stackhouse (Ryan Kwanten) she has a soft spot for him. Rutina states that Tara believes that one day Jason will realize that she is the one for him and they will get married, have children and live happily ever after. Unfortunately Rutina states that Jason see and treats Tara like one of his buddies. Rutina's decision to follow an acting career may have been influenced by her parents who were both being entertainers. Rutina's mother, Cassandra Wesley, was a feather-headed showgirl and her father, Ivery Wheeler, is a professional tap dancer. Adding to the fact that she grew up 10 minutes away from the Las Vegas strip, the glistening lights may all have contributed to her decision to attend Las Vegas Academy of International Studies, Performing and Visual high school. Afterwards she received a full scholarship to the University of Evansville in Indiana and majored in theatre arts. She states that it was a quite a culture chock for her during her freshman year there because of two main factors: she was the only African-American female in the theatre performance department and her hometown setting set her apart. She recently graduated from Juilliard and appeared on Broadway in David Hare's "Vertical Hour" and a movie entitled "How She Move" (2007). "True Blood" is the first television series that she has worked on. Currently she is married to actor Jacob Fishel and divides her time between Los Angeles and Astoria, Queens. In closing Rutina states that the concept of vampires being seen as outsiders is something she can relate to and how sometimes people need to look beyond the surface.
"I get to create this girl and make her not the stereotypical — for lack of a better phrase — black woman with an attitude," Ms. Wesley said of moments like these. "We see a lot of that. But with Tara we're also going to see a woman who has been through a lot of things."SOURCE: Flesh and Blood in a Town of Vampires (Photo credit: HBO Inc.)
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Ryan Kwanten's popularity has steadily increased since starring in Alan Ball's hit HBO TV series "True Blood". His popularity may be the result of the character that he portrays, the over sex-driven brother of the lead protagonist Sookie Stackhouse, (Anna Paquin) Jason Stackhouse. Ryan states he is not bothered by the fact that the audience sees him more often without clothes then with clothes on. Ryan commented that Australia is a very open-minded society and tends to not be shocked by nudity. However, in terms of the various sexual positions that he finds himself in, he says some may be shocked regardless of where the person comes from. For Ryan he says it is all part of the fun. Alan Ball states that the Jason character in the Charlaine Harris' Sookie Stackhouse series, (which "True Blood" is adapted from) appealed to him and he wanted to incorporate him more in the show. He felt that Jason was a big character who had his own story to tell and wanted to explore the character's hesitation to grow up. He sees Ryan's character having similarities to Peter Pan or Nate in his show "Six Feet Under' or even Kevin Spacey's character in "American Beauty". Ryan states that doing nude scenes for Alan Ball is easy. "I've been in the business now for 15 years and I haven't had an experience that comes close to the one I've had with working with Alan and HBO," he says. "They're so embracing of the artist. You know anything you want to bring to the table, no matter how ridiculous it may seem, they're willing to listen. It really is an absolute rarity in this business to have that, and a lot of it comes from being associated with Alan. They trust his judgment and his choices." Jason lives for the moment and simply wants to have fun and that fun is sleeping around with whatever woman is around at the time. Ryan on the other hand, finds playing Jason interesting because Jason is so unlike him in real life. In closing Ryan explains that perhaps the intrigue of vampires and what draws people to the concept is that the vampires were once human who now have some special abilities and that makes them a possibility in the world. SOURCE: OUT Magazine - Dec.2008/Jan.2009 (Photo credit: AP Photo Isaac Brekken) 
The Motion Picture Sound Editors have announced their nominees for the 56th Golden Reel Awards and Alan Ball's hit HBO TV series "True Blood" has been nominated. The sound editing team on "True Blood" has been nominated in the category of Best Sound Editing: Short Form Dialogue and ADR in Television for their work on Episode 8 "The Fourth Man in the Fire". Other nominees in the category are Californication - "The Raw and the Cooked", CSI: Crime Scene Investigation - "Bull", CSI: NY - "Hostage #421", Fringe - "Safe", LOST - "Confirmed Dead #402", Mad Men - "The Jet Set", and The Tudors - "Episode 210". The Golden Reel Awards are presented each year to its members for recognition and acknowledgement of the year's best work in the various areas of sound editing: Dialogue & ADR, Effects & Foley, and Music in Motion Pictures and Television. The award ceremony will be held on February 21, 2009 at the Westin Bonaventure Hotel & Suites in Los Angeles where during the ceremony the 2009 MPSE Filmmaker's Award recipient will be announced and the 2009 MPSE Career Achievement Award will be presented to Ben Burtt. The Golden Reel Award is rewarded not to just one individual but to a whole team of sound editors working behind the scenes of a show to create the right mood and setting for the scenes. The "True Blood" sound team nominated consists of: 
Alan Ball's fantastic HBO TV Series has developed a huge fan base and as a result many fans are waiting in anticipation for season 2. So we here at truebloodnet.com would like to ask you our readers a new poll question. 
Just before the season finale of Alan Ball's hit HBO TV series "True Blood" aired, Ryan Kwanten had the opportunity to dropped by KTLA to discuss his portrayal of Jason Stackhouse. During the interview Ryan was asked about being seen as a heartthrob and his feelings regarding the explicit scenes that he has in the show. What was interesting was his explanation to the interviewers his wardrobe for the show and the definition of a "modesty patch". SOURCE: 
[/caption] Recently Charlaine Harris attended a book discussion and signing at the Houston Public Library on Tuesday, January 6, 2009 and I had the pleasure of meeting Ms. Harris and speaking with her. The following is an account of my evening and wonderful encounter with the charming Charlaine Harris. My friend Joy and I set out about 5:00 pm to go to the book signing at the Houston Public Library. We were so excited about getting to meet her and we were a little worried because we did not know how to get to the library and downtown Houston, TX is very tricky with all one way streets. We drove around and finally found it and I had to cut over three lanes just to get into the parking garage I had almost passed it up for the second time. By the time we got into the parking garage it was dark and we were the only ones in the parking garage. So we got out still so excited to be there and there was a little lady and a younger blonde girl that had gotten out of their car near us and I said "Oh good" there are some other people in the parking garage with us. We all went into the building were the elevator was and the blonde girl asked the Security Guard were the Library was and she told them the 4th floor. So I told the blonde girl that we were going to follow her because she knew where she was going. So it was me, my friend Joy the little lady and the blonde girl and very quiet man. I was wearing my "FANGTASIA" t-shirt that I had gotten from HBO.com and the little lady told me she like my t-shirt. I said thanks and I told her about this lady in Walgreens that wanted to know where the Fangtasia Bar was. I told her looked at the lady like she had lost her mind and I didn't have time to explain it all to her but I told her to write down the address on the back of the t-shirt and she did. The little lady laughed at me and said that she was just not as hip as we were. We talked some more and I noticed that my friend Joy got kind of quiet. But I was still so excited about being there and trying to find the library that I wasn't really paying attention to what was all being said until……. We got out of the elevator and walked down a short hallway and then I heard the blonde girl say "Hello I am Anna and this is the AUTHOR!!!!!!! I looked at my friend Joy and she looked at me and I wanted to break out in tears from embarrassment. It was Charlaine Harris on the elevator with us!!!! Before we got on the elevator I had told my friend Joy, "Hey she kind of looks like the little lady that wrote the books" but I just didn't put two and two together. Joy said that she had seen all the green tags with numbers on them in the blonde girl's hands and then she realized it was her. We waited in line to buy a book from "Murder By the Books" and we thought that Anna worked for them because that is who I bought my book from. I told her what had happened on the elevator but I told her that Charlaine didn't look like the picture on the back of her book. She laughed and said that is OK if it had been Stephen Moyer getting on the elevator you would of known who he was. I told her if Stephen Moyer would have been on the elevator I would of need some OXYGEN!!! Well Charlaine came out to talk with us and answer questions. She made us laugh from the time she got there until the time she started signing books. I bet she signed over 400 books. They had given us green slips with a number on them and that indicated our number in line to get our books signed. She told us a few details about "True Blood". There will not be a "Bubba" and I think it has to do with residuals and that all the cast members are really nice. She said the filming of Season 2 would begin in February. She told us that she has a contract for one more book after "Dead and Gone" and she feels very, very strongly that her publisher will write her another contract. When Joy and I finally made it up to get our books signed we had a man behind us take our picture with her. I said to her "hi again", we met on the elevator and Charlaine said "oh, hi girls." I told her my name was Connie Pepper and I mentioned that there is a character in her book named Maddy Pepper and she said yes there is. Charlaine said something to my friend Joy and I heard Joy say that we were trying to respect her space. Charlaine said well "I was sure you girls knew who I was." Charlaine stopped signing the book, took the time to pose and give us one of her big beautiful smiles. I thanked her again for coming and talking with us and she said "No thank you for coming." I was so excited about just being there that it is almost a blurrr!!! I had such a good time and Charlaine made us feel right at home. Charlaine took the time to answer everyone's questions and always had a smile on her face. I will never forget it. [caption id="attachment_1853" align="alignleft" width="246" caption="Connie Pepper"]
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Anna Paquin's win this week at the Golden Globe for Best Actress in a TV Drama was a crowning accomplishment not only for her but for bringing attention to "True Blood" to the media. A show with so many varying layers of metaphors that it was a surprise to me that it didn't win for Best TV Drama. However Anna Paquin's performance was acknowledged for her capacity to relay in so many ways the complexities that exist in human relationships. One of the most compelling aspect of this show is its ability to dwell into the intrinsic nature of the human need to feel a sense of belonging. Anna Paquin's character Sookie Stackhouse lives a life of being the outsider whether it is self-imposed or forced upon by others in her town who refuse to accept her for who she is. Her natural abilities to read other people's mind has been a prison for her throughout her life barring her from having a normal existence. Although she had almost come to terms with living a life of keeping her distance from people and not developing close relationships with anyone does not mean that she doesn't want to have them. Although she wishes to be normal and feel that she belongs, others come along and push her aside to remind her how different she is and perhaps unwelcome. The constant need to keep your guard up to avoid getting hurt creates an individual incapable of opening up which we can see in both Sookie and Bill's existence. This leads us to vampire Bill Compton who walks into the bar one day and changes Sookie's life forever. Bill is a creature of the night, forever forced to live out his "undead" life on the outskirt of society remaining distant to whom he comes into contact with. Until that night when he meets Sookie and finds another who too had "given up" in every living a normal life. Their mutual "differences" within themselves became the string that linked them to each other and with that found with acceptance with one another and the joy of feeling that one feels wanted, needed and belongs. The sense of belonging is one of the most nature and basic instincts in humans. Without it a person develops a wall around themselves and causes varying negative attributes. So here we have Sookie craving to belong and a vampire seeking acceptance for who he is. Both individuals who seemed disillusioned with their existence and the world around then and now allowing themselves to open up to possibilities. Sookie and Bill's encounter with each and discovery of a mutual connection emphasises to all of us not to give up hope when life seems to have closed the door on us from everyone. The despair and the loneliness that ends up consuming us is not etched on stone never to be eradicated but a temporary barrier wall that needs to be taken down. In today's society many feel disenfranchised by the world and live their lives as island on their own, seeking refuge in their isolation to avoid disappointment and hurt. However, the show explores through its metaphors that regardless of how hopeless and separated we may feel from others that the natural instinct to feel a sense of belonging is strong. To realize that by allowing yourself to open up a little of one's self imposed prison that possibilities may be just around the corner waiting for you to encounter. Therefore my admiration for the actors and for the show is its ability to touch on core human emotions in such subtle and entertaining ways without feeling someone is preaching to you. Sometimes blatant in-your-face tactics have the opposite reaction, however in this case, I believe that although it is presented in a fun, escape form of television it drives home a message to the audience that the human need for acceptance and a sense of belonging is not an impossibility even for people who seem "lost" to the world. Therefore Anna Paquin's win was an acknowledgment of her superb work but at the same time the judges missed out on recognizing the show and Stephen Moyer's performance as a masterpiece of entertainment. I truly hope that at this year that "True Blood" will receive an Emmy and be recognized for its contribution to the developed of thought provoking and entertaining television. We can only wait and see. To view my profile click 
