The British website, Telegraph, recently talked with their own Stephen Moyer about his role as the sexy vampire, Bill Compton and working on Alan Ball's phenomenal HBO TV series True Blood. True Blood has become a massive hit in the North America amassing over five million viewers per episode and becoming the most watched HBO series since The Sopranos. The show has also made Stephen Moyer an instant star with True Blood fans who can't get enough of and a sex symbol with millions of female fans all over the world falling in love with him. But unfortunately for all of those adoring female fans Stephen's heart has been captured by the lovely Anna Paquin, who plays alongside Stephen in True Blood as the telepathic waitress, Sookie Stackhouse. Their relationship alongside with the show's tremendous success has made them a huge target for the paparazzi in Los Angeles recently. When the Telegraph interviewed Stephen one of the first things they noticed was how Stephen was so different from the vampire character he portrays. Stephen discussed Charlaine Harris' Sookie Stackhouse novels, which the True Blood series is based on and called them "a rollicking read". He explained it is from the books that we obtain many of the distinctive vocabulary we hear on the show. A few of our favorite words are "fangbangers" and the vampire's ability to hypnotize humans called "glamouring". Charlaine Harris' first book in the series, "Dead Until Dark" was published in 2001 but all nine of her novels in the series have shown up on the New York Times bestseller list simultaneously just last month. In other exciting news, fans were ecstatic to hear that True Blood had been picked up for a third season which further emphasizes the popularity of the show. Stephen explained the storyline and had this to say: "It starts off odd, and gets odder,' Stephen says. It is very sexy, very violent, very smart and easily transcends the cliche-ridden vampire genre. It can be very funny: Angelina adopts vampire baby reads a newspaper headline in the first episode; god hates fangs announces a sign in the title sequence."Another interesting point that Stephen made is the concept of who is evil and who is good on the show. Sometimes those lines can be become blurred. It is a well known fact that vampires drink human blood but the humans can be just as dangerous as we see in the show as they hunt down vampires to drain them of their blood to be sold as an illegal drug on the black market.
"The town sees Bill as the pariah, but Alan doesn't set him up that way. Yes, he's a vampire and, yes, he could tear your throat out, but he's old-fashioned and romantic, so the sexual tension between Bill and Sookie is something that's very romantic and courtly. Apart from the biting, their relationship is one of great love."Most fans of Stephen know that he hails from England and he told the Telegraph that he always loves to come back because England will always feel like home. Stephen has two children from previous relationships that live in England with their mothers who he spends his free time with when he is back and a furry friend, a dog named Splash, who stays with him in L.A.. He stated about his time when he is back in England:
"I still think of home as here, and the Heath is my place, my quiet place. On Saturday the first thing that we did, me and my boy, was jump in the men's pond. I loved it. [Splash] he's 10, so it didn't seem fair to bring him back. I do miss him. I went for a walk on the Heath without my dog and it was weird."Stephen went on to explain that although he has a house in nearby Highgate, he grew up in a village near Brentwood in Essex and it shaped his early taste in clothes and music. As Stephen says, "I was a Mod, a Paul Weller fanatic. We all were." Stephen discussed how he had dreamed of becoming an actor from an early age. He chose to attend drama school which most people who lived around him thought was quite odd. He performed in school and in some theater productions, and at seventeen he created his own company called, "The Reject Society". He went on to attended the London Academy for Music and the Dramatic Arts. His first professional job was a part in the production of "Oliver" with the National Theater of Wales and then he went on to work for the Royal Shakespeare Company for 18 months. After that Stephen toured with the Oxford Stage Company portraying "Romeo". Stephen then made the leap to television and was then cast in many sexy roles. Guess they were on to something. Stephen says that it doesn't bother him though, he has gotten used to having to play more provocative roles.
"Whenever people ask me if it feels weird doing all those sex scenes [in True Blood], well, look at my back catalogue, my little cantaloupe arse has been up and down in many, many things before."Stephen has since been seen in "Casuality", "Cold Feet", "Midsomer Murders", "Peak Practice", and "Waking the Dead". He had just finished his first American series "The Starter Wife" and had no intention of doing another series until his manager emailed him the script for True Blood and it blew him away.
"Vampires were never my genre – I'd read Anne Rice's Interview with the Vampire but that was about it – but I felt that what Alan had managed to put into a 55-minute pilot was so deep and dense, I loved it."The next morning Stephen made an audition tape and sent it off to Alan to which Alan admitted he noticed Stephen because he wasn't wearing all black which made him stand out.. After the audition Stephen came home to a huge surprise:
"Afterwards I picked my kids up from school, got home and found we had been burgled. My daughter went into her bedroom and said, "They haven't stolen my teddy bear," and Billy said, "They haven't stolen my pillow or my duvet!" Hearing them I broke down, then half an hour later HBO rang saying they wanted to fly me over. It was an interesting day."Interesting to say the least, wow! After being called back Stephen flew in to do a screen test and met his co-star and future fiance, Anna Paquin. There was instant chemistry. They both agreed to keep their relationship under wraps until the first season of True Blood had played out. Neither of them wanted their relationship to be the focus and to take away from the excellence of the show. These days this handsome couple can't go anywhere without being swarmed by the paparazzi. Stephen spoke about his first experience with the paparazzi:
"I was shocked the first time the paps got me in America – when a videocamera is put in your face and you're asked questions and 15 people are walking backwards taking your picture. I was coming out of a pizza shop and had my daughter with me. Your parental bond comes out at times like that, because they haven't chosen to be an actor's child – and I suddenly realized why actors have hit out before."Stephen is now engaged to Anna Paquin but the couple have not settled down on a date yet. Stephen explained how the cast and crew have watched them grow as a couple but that their lives are very different from those of the characters they portray. One of the startling differences is Stephen's voice. Stephen told the Telegraph how he gets stopped all the time and asked to do "the voice". Stephen was able to pull off a southern drawl on his American accent but admits he got a little help with a voice coach to make sure it was perfect. Stephen Moyer is incredibly good-looking in real life as well as on TV but admits to being as insecure as anyone else. He is not the first British actor to play a sexy vampire either. This brings us once again to the battle between the vamps. The British actor and sex symbol, Robert Pattinson, who plays a teen vampire in the hit Twilight Saga. Stephen says he does not see Rob as competition since he is old enough to be his father if he started early enough. Stephen has gotten into some controversy recently when he called Rob's character, Edward Cullen, the "SlimFast, Diet Coke of vampires". It has not hurt Stephen's fan base at all:
"Our show's very different, of course, and has its place. Although sometimes I'll get 10- or 11-year-olds coming up and asking for my autograph, and I say, "Have you seen that show?" and they go, "Yeah, love it." I couldn't sit in the same room as my mother and watch that show. I mean, it's seriously racy".We all love watching Stephen Moyer on True Blood and can understand exactly why fans adore him! SOURCE: telegraph.co.uk (Photo credit: Hugh Stewart via telegraph.co.uk)
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