Stephen Moyer Leaves Fangs Behind in "Priest"

Vampire actors from True Blood and Twilight will portray humans in director Scott Stewart's film "Priest," set for release in 2011. True Blood's own Stephen Moyer stars in the apocalyptic vampire drama as one of the few humans, alongside Cam Gigandet -- bad vamp James to you Twi-hard fans. In an interview by MTV, Scott, who also directed the recently-released film "Legion," joked that it was hard to find an actor who hadn't played a vampire during the casting process.

"There are so many people playing vampires these days. But I love genre movies and I love to take them very seriously, even when the tone is meant to be fun. That means trying to cast them with really great actors."

Producers joked about casting well-known vamp actors in a vampire movie, but eventually decided to give it a try, Scott said. True Blood/Twilight rivalry was kept to a minimum on set, and the actors' backgrounds actually worked to their favor in the casting process, he said. Scott had high praise for Cam, who portrayed his character's emotional struggle with ease, he said. Cam's effortless performance is also reminiscent of screen greats James Dean and Brad Pitt, Scott said.

"You've got some James Dean and Brad Pitt happening with him, and he's not even trying. It's pretty awesome to see. We really gave him a look and a character that allowed him to be that."

Scott said it was also a treat to work with Stephen, who plays vampire Bill Compton on True Blood, and embraced his role as the brother of the character played by Paul Bettany. Paul loved working with Stephen too, Scott said, and the scenes between the two actors are "just great."

"What a treat," said Stewart. "I had never met him before and we had dinner, talked about the part. He just embraced it and took it. ... There's a good reason why every girl I know, when they found out he was going to be in the movie, was like, 'Can I visit in the days he works?'" "It really makes sense that everyone is paying attention to him now," added Stewart. "You just see it when you're working with him. He and Paul [Bettany] play brothers in the movie. The scenes they have together are just great. Paul loved him and I loved him."

All the girls he knew were trying to work their way onto the set during shooting to see Stephen -- really, who can blame them? SOURCE: MTV.com (Photo credit: HBO Inc.)

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