Nelsan Ellis and Rutina Wesley Talk to Bay Windows

Nelsan Ellis (Lafayette Reynold) and Rutina Wesley (Tara Thornton) from Alan Ball's hit HBO TV vampire series True Blood recently made a guest appearance at Kings bowling alley and restaurant that had fans lining down the block for a chance to meet the stars. Nicole Mortimer from Bay Windows News had the opportunity to ask the stars some questions about the reasons behind the success of the show.  Ms. Mortimer asked them both the question that since Nelsan's character is gay, but he himself is not, how do they feel about the large gay following the show has? Rutina credits the gay community with keeping the show on air and are moved by "out" stories.  Both were asked to give their opinion on what it is like to work with the Golden Globe and Emmy award winning Alan Ball, the creator of the show.  Rutina states:

"Working with Alan Ball is an actor's dream. He knows how to communicate and not make you run into the corner crying. [He's] an actor's dream. I feel lucky to be part of the show."

To which Nelsan adds:

"A god among men. He's a terrific boss, terrific writer, terrific director, he's great."

When asked about the most challenging aspect of their characters, Rutina says it is the "range of emotions" that she has to work out of her system. After playing over and over again such very deep emotional scenes, after the season ends "it takes a couple of months to get Tara out of my body." For Nelsan the most challenging aspect for him is:

"[Lafayette] has no structure. No family issues...he's the only character who is independent of everyone. It's hard having nothing to go on. And kissing a man."

Rutina mentions that she loves that she does not portray the stereotypical black woman on television and it allows her to create Tara how she sees her, which is very different from the books.  Nelsan's states that his favorite characteristic of Lafayette is his strength and his willingness to be who he is despite what society says "and he does it with pizzazz. His defiance I love." As a final teaser question both Rutina and Nelsan were asked to give their impression of another well-known vampire franchise out there called Twilight ( I'm, sure you must have heard of this one).  Rutina states that 'Twilight' is for the teens and True Blood is for the adults. It's raw."  Nelsan concurs by stating that it is a " little PG for me but it opens it up to people like my kid who couldn't watch True Blood." SOURCE: baywindows.com Photo credit: (HBO Inc.)

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