True Blood's Joe Manganiello Talks about Alcide

Trust Michael Ausiello from EW.com to have the latest scoop on all our favorite show! Today, Michael posted his interview with Joe Manganiello, True Blood's newest hunk for Season 3, werewolf Alcide Herveaux on Alan Ball's hit HBO TV vampire drama.  From the responses that Joe provided it seems he is the perfect Alcide! The first question Michael asked Joe was regarding how he found out that he got the role of  Alcide.

I had three meetings with Alan Ball. [After the last one], I got a call from my agent and manager. And whenever you get a call from your agent and manager, you have a pretty good idea that something good is about to happen.

Joe's reaction to learning that he was Alcide was quite emotional as he was not shy to reveal in his answers that he actually cried upon learning that he got the role.

I'm not afraid to admit that I started crying. I was just so excited. It's a dream come true. When I was a little kid, the nun at my elementary school said if you pray for something hard enough, it'll happen. And I would pray every day with all of my heart that God would turn me into a werewolf. And when it didn't happen, I kind of thought, "You know what? Maybe this stuff doesn't work. Maybe I'm getting gypped." So here it is 25 years later and my prayers got answered and I'm going to be a werewolf.

As to Joe's appeal to being a werewolf, it seems it stem from his childhood as he always had an inkling towards monsters according to his response.

I just loved Halloween. When I was 4, my mother dressed me up as a vampire and brought me to a haunted house. When I think about it now, bringing a 4-year-old kid to a haunted house is pretty intense. There was a vampire in the haunted house that jumped out of a coffin and I went up and tried to climb into the coffin with him. He wound up picking me up and putting me in the coffin with him and closing the lid. I [just] always liked monsters. There was something interesting about having this thing inside of you that you can't control that comes out when you get angry. There's something cathartic about the idea of having a beast inside you.

The response about the "beast within that you can't control" is quite interesting since after all, isn't that kind of what The Hulk is, along with so many other beloved characters from the last several decades? The description allows us to really feel for the character, which makes them become an integral part of our lives. Joe mentioned that he is a big fan of the show and has seen every episode of the show and when asked if he had the opportunity to meet Anna Paquin (Sookie Stackhouse) to which he stated "not yet". The next question that all True Blood fans are probably interested in is when will he start filming? His stated:

Late January, so I've got some time. Every day right now is all about the Werewolf Workout. It consists of Krav Maga, which is an Israeli fighting technique, and Cross Fit, which is kind of a gnarly crazy high-intensity workout. And I'm doing a little bit of weights in between.

Krav Maga is "a practical and tactical system which teaches how to prevent, deal and overcome all kinds of violence and attacks." This type of martial arts is also used in by many military and government groups including the FBI and Israel's Mossad. (If you want to learn more about it, just check out the link here.) The final question, was in response to Joe's previous answer, and asked whether or not Alan Ball had asked him to do such intense workouts.

No. This is something I wanted to do on my own. I'm a big guy to begin with; I work out a lot anyway. In my mind, I see the character as having a big chest, big arms — ripped the way an animal would be. Vampires have a supernatural strength to them, so you can have a vampire that is a little slighter. But a werewolf is this big, powerful, half man, half animal. I want to get as close to that as I possibly can.

Sounds like Joe is mentally prepped to become Alcide, and is working on the physical preparation as well! True Blood fans will be anxiously waiting to see how Alcide will shape up in the coming season of True Blood! Stay tuned for Part 2 of the interview where Joe will discuss Alan Ball's approach to Alcide and if it will differ from Charlaine Harris' Alcide? His time commitment to True Blood? And perhaps one of the biggest question that many True Blood fans are wondering is should they be worried about Alcide getting in between Sookie and the two vampires vying for her attention.  Part 2 of the interview will be very enlightening or maybe it will be a tease.  We will have to wait and see. SOURCES: EW.com International Krav Maga Federation (Photo credit: IMDb.com)

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