Taking a bite out of Australia

Sydney Star Observer caught up with True Blood star Kristin Bauer during trip to Australia and heard about her passion for the environment, playing a bisexual vampire, and Ryan Kwanten’s practical jokes.

In town to raise awareness about whaling for the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW), Bauer took journalists on a whale watching cruise out past the Sydney Harbour heads .

She said she’d been pleasantly surprised to learn Australia was at the forefront of effort to end whaling.

“I’m meeting up with Sam Trammell, Todd Lowe and John Billingsly from the show, but I came a little early to see Sydney and Melbourne and to do a day with IFAW to bring attention to the whaling issue down here — which is something

I’ve learned Australians are leading the way on and setting quite a high bar in the world.”

Bauer said as someone with a passion for the environment it was great to be working on a show where social issues were the subtext.

“Everything about [True Blood] show pushes the boundaries, which is really fun to be part of,” said Bauer.

“The King of Mississippi — played by Denis O’Hare, a phenomenal actor — says the human race is going to become extinct and the vampires are going to lose their food supply.

“So there’s the issue of how we deal with having seven billion people on the planet.”

“It’s really great to be part of a show that not only looks amazing but is also so intelligent.”

Bauer, who brought South African husband Abri van Staten with her on the trip, said it was a great challenge to play the bisexual vampire Pam De Beufort on the show.

“I’m beyond thrilled to play such a wonderful unapologetic character — she doesn’t have an ounce of political correctness or apology anywhere in her and I just love that.”

And the show’s vampires “coming out of the coffin”, was another part of that subtext she enjoyed.

“[True Blood creator] Alan Ball has said that this is the era we live in. If the show had been made 50 years ago we’d have been talking about race relations and the civil rights movement.”

A challenge for Bauer has been her character speaking Swedish with Swedish co-star Alexander Skarsgard, who she said has been her dialect coach on the show.

“In the script it will say ‘will be in Swedish’ and my heart stops. I call Alex and in this wonderful world of Apple he records my lines in Swedish on his iPhone and emails them to me. That goes onto my iPod and I listen to Alex speaking my lines for two or three weeks and I repeat them hundreds of times.

“In those scenes instead of looking to the director I look at Alex after every take to see if I’ve gotten it right. For me its memorising gibberish so it’s slightly nerve wracking.”

Bauer said watching co-star Nelsan Ellis change into flamboyant gay drug dealer Lafayette Reynolds on set was a standout experience from the show — in real life Ellis is heterosexual and a father of young children.

“He’s just an incredible actor and he transforms so much when he becomes Lafayette, I’d met Nelsan before we’d started filming, but the first time I saw him do a scene I had to introduced myself again. He’s that seamless and believable as Lafayette.”

And Bauer said Aussie heart throb Ryan Kwanten was nothing like his character either.

“He’s so lovely. I’d hate to use the word underrated because so many people love him, but I used to play that dumb blonde character, and I’m just so impressed with the job he’s doing — especially as he’s nothing like Jason Stackhouse.

“He’s such a gentleman and so softly spoken- and also quite a romantic. He and my husband bonded one night over Aubri telling our love story which I thought was so sweet.

“He’s also a massive prankster. Some of the cast took a trip to Vegas because Ryan and my birthdays are two days apart and we each brought a few friends.

He went to a joke shop and put fart powder in our drinks — so he’s notorious on the set now.”

info: True Blood is available in DVD in Australia.