Stephen Moyer curls back his upper lip, revealing one of his — surprise — natural fangs. The star of HBO's True Blood (Sundays at 9 pm/ET) explains that, in his other bloodsucker role, for the 1998 British television series Ultraviolet, "they just whitened these so the camera would pick them up." He runs his index finger down the unusually sharp canine and prods the pointed tip. Playing a vampire, it seems, comes naturally.
These days, a lot of women wouldn't mind baring their necks for Moyer. But while his character, 173-year-old reformed vamp Bill Compton, has the power to "glamour" mortals (control them through a hypnotic stare), Moyer's off-screen magnetism comes from a down-to-earth friendliness. Not to mention intense blue eyes, a cut physique and the habitual use of words like "luv" and "dahling" delivered in a British accent.
If Bill's sexiness is restrained and brooding, Moyer's is more lively ...
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Feels like old times, having a Sunday HBO lineup to get excited about again. But excited I am, having seen the first five episodes of the wildly entertaining new vampire mystery/romance/comedy/thriller hybrid True Blood, and the first four episodes of Entourage’s much-improved fifth season.I posted my initial thoughts on True Blood in a Dispatch filed shortly after HBO’s presentation during TCA press tour this summer, at which time I had screened the first two episodes. Since then, I’ve watched more and have also devoured the first two books in Charlaine Harris’ Sookie Stackhouse series, which are also great fun. (Season one of True Blood roughly tracks the plot of Harris’s first volume, Dead Until Dark.) All I can say is: I’m hooked.Alan Ball’s colorful adaptation goes way over the top as only pay cable can do, both in terms of sexuality (especially where Sookie’s horndog brother is concerned) and in terms of broadly played Southern caricatur...
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I dont usually look like this Anna Paquin says with a laugh ushering a visitor into her modest dressing room on the set of True Blood HBOs eagerly awaited vampire series Shes referring to the giant shiner an impressive black-and-blue masterpiece courtesy of the makeup department that covers her left eye But theres an even more striking change Paquin 26 a familiar big-screen face since her Oscar win at age 11 for The Piano is no longer her well-known wan brunette self but a spray-tanned bleached-blonde bombshellJust as the X-Men star doesnt look quite like herself True Blood which marks the return to TV for Six Feet Under creator Alan Ball doesnt resemble a typical blood-sucker saga On the show set in the near future vamps have come out of the coffin so to speak and are even campaigning for a Vampire Rights Amendment Theyve made their presence known to mankind Ball says Theyre struggling for equal rights and assimilation A new sy
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Vamp fans—and you know who you are (I hear from you often enough)—I know you’ve had a tough year, still mourning Moonlight and Blood Ties and all. Time to cheer up, and get ready for a wild ride this fall with HBO’s frightfully funky Southern Gothic ghoulash True Blood (premiering Sept. 7). With equal parts humor, horror and a sexuality that goes beyond the usual supernatural swooniness to graphic raunchiness, Alan Ball’s 12-episode adaptation of Charlaine Harris’s cheeky novels—the first season roughly follows her first book, “Dead Until Dark”—is one of the few buzzworthy shows to emerge in the new season.Still, you’d never accuse Ball of (pardon the pun) sucking up to the die-hard cultists. Asked if he’d taken any lessons from the cancellation of CBS’s Moonlight, for example, he quips: “I think it’s pretty lame when you let your vampire out in the day just because you don’t want to shoot at night.”...
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Question: First, thanks for your insight on all things TV. I have you to thank for many of my favorites (FNL, VM, BSG), and I was curious about the new HBO series True Blood. When I heard that Alan Ball was picking up the reins of this show, I bought the first book in the Charlaine Harris Southern Vampire series and was immediately smitten. She creates a very fun alternate world full of fascinating characters that could make for really great TV. I was further interested when it was announced that Anna Paquin was cast in the lead, though less so about Stephen Moyer (who was far from intriguing in The Starter Wife). Do you have any thoughts on True Blood?
Answer: I'm curious about this show, too, but I won't have any real thoughts to share until I actually see it. I haven't done my homework yet, but I'd like to read at least one of these books (reading, what a thought) before sinking my teeth — sorry — into the adaptation. I love the idea that HBO is getting back into the genre of the
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