Hey Gang. Welcome to Saturday’s (July 20) second live-blog.
I’ve already done “Bates Motel” today. Here comes “True Blood” and then “The Vampire Diaries” and Arrow” will be back-to-back.
Whee! Follow along!
3:33 p.m. We’re starting with a preview trailer. Lots of Warlow. Lots of Vampires in Prison. And a lot of Anna Camp. I endorse the heck out of that part.
3:36 p.m. Our panel includes Rob Kazinsky, Michael McMillian, Anna Camp, Joe Manganiello, Deborah Ann Woll, Kristin Bauer van Straten, Rutina Wesley, Ryan Kwanten, Anna Paquin, Sam Trammel and Brian Buckner.
3:36 p.m. The first question is from producer Gregg Fienberg,who wants to know how her relationship with her husband has changed now that he’s a God. “Well, I’m agnostic, so I haven’t decided whether or not I’m going to acknowledge his Godliness,” Paquin says.
3:37 p.m. “It was like being in a car crash,” Brian Buckner says of taking over as showrunner. It’s weird that the show is pretending that Mark Hudis never happened. Buckner says he never realized how hard Alan worked and he’s never had more respect for him.
3:38 p.m. Ryan Kwanten says that Jason’s quests this season include getting the truth about his parents and protecting Jason. “With Jason, I think he started so low on the evolutionary totem pole that he can only really grow,” Kwanten says. “He gets real crazy, real soon,” Kwanten teases. “He likes to think he’s Rambo, but he fails,” Kwanten adds.
3:39 p.m. “I’m kinda a dangerous person to get involved with,” Trammell says of his string of dead girlfriends on the show. And regarding the rest of this season, he warns, “I kinda screwed with the wrong people.”
3:39 p.m. “I think Tara’s sorta becoming a protector or a big sister of sorts to certain other characters and it’s been real fun for me to get to play with new people,” Wesley says. Asked if Tara and Jessica will form a stronger alliance, she pauses and says, “Maybe. Maybe not.”
3:42 p.m. Oh right. Nelsan Ellis is here also. He suggests that it may be time for Lafayette to get out of the “medium” business. Is it hard for him to play his character channeling other characters? “It wasn’t. They sent me all the episodes with him in it, I studied them, picked up a few of his mannerisms and that’s it,” Ellis says of being possessed by Sookie’s dad.
3:43 p.m. Where is Jessica after the fairy-killing thing? “It’s gonna take a long time for her to forgive herself, as well as we have Andy Bellflower out there who’s probably very upset with her,” Woll says. “I think she’s one of the vampires who’s still closer to her humanity,” Woll says of Jessica’s self-hate.
3:44 p.m. Speaking of feeling human, how does the fight with Pam and Eric end? “Pam is scrappy and the great thing about these writers is they find so many layers of conflict and putting us against each other fighting for our lives with the person who’s most dear, it was a great scene to shoot,” Bauer van Staten says.
3:46 p.m. Much squealing for Manganiello. Which side of Alcide will win out? “Don’t punch big ugly werewolf dude in the face,” Manganiello says simply. “I think it’s those crazy werewolf people that are driving him nuts,” he says, blaming being packmaster for his current problem. “Being packmaster is a pretty thankless job. Except for the three-ways,” he says. “You laugh, but it was like 18 degrees that night and I was barefoot and naked out in the cold,” he says, as the audience squeals more. So much squealing.
3:48 p.m. “What is it about camp she loves so much?” the moderator asks Anna Camp. She likes keeping thing under control. “She’s had really bad luck with guys. She’s been with a gay guy, an old guy, her love life’s not too good. She’s more focused on her one mission, which is to rid the world of vampires,” Camp says. Ryan Kwanten promises that Jason and Sarah have unfinished business and that they will “interact.”
Much more on Page 2…
3:50 p.m. Does Steve Newlin have any pride? “He may have too much pride. Sometimes it blinds him in his decision-making,” McMillian says.
3:51 p.m. “How trippy is this, Comic-Con?” says Kazinsky, who claims to be very impressed with us. Should we be Team Warlow? Kazinsky doesn’t really have an answer. “It depends on the time of day and the body’s needs for blood,” Kazinsky says of the warring natures within him. He promises that Warlow will do “some gnarly stuff.
3:53 p.m. “It’s kinda a bummer, you know?” Paquin says of Sookie’s discovery that her parents tried to kill her. Paquin talks about Sookie’s increasingly distrustful nature, but her attraction to Warlow. “In their defense, they were doing what they thought was the best thing at the time,” Paquin says of the parents-trying-to-kill-her thing. “Sookie does like handsome strangers,” Paquin says. “Apparently she likes gingers,” Paquin adds.
3:55 p.m. The actors agree that power hasn’t gone to Brian Buckner’s head. He’s been with the show from the very beginning, though. “He’s always been a very strong voice in our show,” Paquin says.
3:56 p.m. How will this season end? “I think that you’re going to feel that the show is going to return back to its roots and it’s going to be about this gang of people living in Bon Temps,” Buckner says, promising that they’re going to condense the number of stories they’re telling.
3:56 p.m. Ryan Kwanten did his own pull-ups. Paquin jokes about how she was able to make him do more pull-ups by missing her cues. “The camera’s on me, but she’s got this wry little smile on her face like, ‘I’m gonna get you here,'” Kwanten says. “I kinda milked a little bit… Ladies? Is it not fun to watch him do pull-ups with his shirt off?” Paquin teases. “He just makes it harder for every other guy on the show,” Trammell sighs.
3:58 p.m. “Obviously I can’t say how it all ends, but it’s a lot of running around in the cold,” Trammell teases of the rest of his arc this season.
3:59 p.m. Wesley thinks Tara misses her mother. That’s not enlightening. Is she enjoying being a vampire? “Yes. I think she loves the strength, she loves the power, she loves the blood. Definitely,” Wesley says.
4:00 p.m. How does Ellis get in Lafayette’s mindset? “I listen to some Rihanna and once the makeup goes on, I sorta get into the mind of Lafayette. Rihanna and the makeup gets me into Lala land,” Ellis says. He does some voguing with his white scarf to show how Lafayette would work it.
4:01 p.m. Does Jessica think she can stop Bill’s vision about all of them dying? “I don’t think she wants her friends to die, but I think if it happened to her, she’s in a place right now where she’s pretty low?” Woll says. And how did the fairies taste? “Like honey,” Woll laughs.
4:02 p.m. Are we going to see sibling rivalry with Pam and Willa? “She doesn’t play well with others and she’s never had to share Eric before, so we’re gonna find out pretty soon how she feels about that,” Bauer van Straten says. “There’s a very very deep bond there between Pam and Eric and it’s going to be tested this year,” she teases. Does she miss Pam’s fun outfits? “I love those outfits, because they keep me going to the gym. They’ve added years to my life,” she says.
4:04 p.m. Woll leads us to cheer for Stephen Moyer and Alexander Skarsgard who are absent.
4:06 p.m. “Oh yeah,” McMillian says without pause when asked if Steve still has feelings for Jason. “That flame’s never gonna burn out,” he promises.
4:06 p.m. “Well, there was a lot of rehearsal. I actually thought it was hazing to begin with and nobody told me this was going to be happening and I thought Brian was just messing with me,” Kazinsky says of his intimate shaving scene. “Ryan made me feel like a lady that day. He couldn’t have been more gentle. Not too much tongue,” he adds. Does Kwanten agree? It sounds like Kazinsky was much more excited for the scene than Kwanten is, because Kwanten’s done a lot of random stuff on the show.
4:09 p.m. First question from the audience is what their favorite scene was. Ever. McMillian’s favorite scene was the BBQ scene in Season 2. Paquin’s favorite scene was “kicking Debbie Pelt’s ass.” Nobody else gets to answer.
4:09 p.m. How do Joe and Anna feel about the direction their characters are going? “I don’t like that everyone’s upset at him this season,” Manganiello says. “Being a packmaster’s a bit like being a Mafia boss,” he says. He laments getting in that fight with Sam. “She’s not being anyone’s doormat. She’s kinda sick of taking whatever from whoever and is more independent and strong and tough,” Paquin says, suggesting that Sookie may actually be learning from the unfortunate things that have happened to her.
4:12 p.m. Last question already. Only three audience questions. The last question is what kinds of creatures are coming next? “My honest answer to that is that I feel like this show is ultimately about the relationship between vampires and humans and it’s about this town,” Buckner says, vowing to bring things in a little bit. I’m LOVING this side of his approach. “My hope is to get all these people we love living under the umbrella of one story and one threat,” he says. The crowd cheers for that.
And that’s all, folks…