Having already scored the cover of this months GQ, True Blood star Alexander Skarsgård now also graces the cover of Interview magazine as promotion for season 4 of his hit HBO show gears up. The marketing team at HBO for True Blood have perfected over the past few years, the ability to drip feed just enough marketing material in the weeks leading up to the shows premiere to make the fans of this show salivate with anticipation. This marketing material has made me almost forget the disappointment that I felt towards the season 3 finale and I am more than excited for the start of this fourth season. To have not just the promo videos and posters from HBO but also these magazine features with Alexander Skarsgård further amps up this excitement.
In both publications he discusses aspects of the show, including what it is like to film the graphic love scenes that have become a staple of True Blood. Regarding these scenes with co-star Anna Paquin (Sookie Stackhouse), Skarsgård tells GQ that "It's really clear to Steve [Moyer] and to everybody else what the deal is — which is that Anna is like a sister to me... Those love scenes take quite a bit of acting, actually. A lot of acting." Is he referring to past sequences that have involved the pair or could he be inferring that we will finally get to see Sookie and Eric together and not in a dream state in the new season? The love scenes are the ones that are often discussed when talking about the show, but one interesting thing that the interview reveals regarding his preparation is that he really tries hard not to get a tan as the make up that they use to cover this tends to make the skin look grey in HD, a factor that now has to be considered with the advent of high-def TV's and blu-ray.
In Interview magazine Skarsgård is interviewed by Arcade Fire front man Win Butler and he discusses the perils of playing such a strong supernatural character: “I do get a lot of scripts sent to me where they basically want me to play Eric from True Blood, but just a different name in a different movie. That’s not interesting to me. I don’t want to play a character that I’ve played for four years on a television show, change the name, and make him a zombie instead of a vampire.” These are the pitfalls of playing a character of this type but luckily for Skarsgård he has not one but three films coming out in the not so distant future that don't feature any vampires or zombies; they are the much anticipated 'end of the world' film from Lars von Trier Melancholia, the remake of Straw Dogs where he plays one of the villains and Peter Berg's special effects and action driven Battleship.
It's definitely an array of genres and characters for Skarsgård that we will be seeing on our screens in the not so distant future, but it is his role in this new season of True Blood that truly has me excited. Eric has gone from being the antagonist, to a somewhat sympathetic character after seeing his 1000 year old pain for his slaughtered family and what the loss of Godric also meant for him. Whether you are Team Bill or Team Eric there is no denying that there is a cracking amount of chemistry between Eric and Sookie and it will be interesting as to where this will lead this season, particularly after Sookie has experienced betrayal from both sides.
In this new promo that HBO released this weekend and is entitled 'Breaking Up Sucks' we get to see all three potential suitors for Sookie's affections and of the three Eric certainly seems the most menacing, watch the promo below to see what you think. Which of the three are you rooting for Sookie to choose?
Will you be picking up either GQ or Interview to get your True Blood fix before the new season starts on June 26th?