True Blood S04E12

While Anna Paquin is larking through the season being a cheerfully aggressive Sookie sex toy, and the superb Irish actress Fiona Shaw is having a ball channeling a possessed palm-reader-turned-witch(es), the True Blood performance that just gets better — deeper, richer, wittier — belongs to Deborah Ann Woll as the ginger-haired, heart-on-her-bloody-sleeve Jessica Hamby. At the tender age of 17, True Blood's quasi-innocent vampire has studied up on carnal knowledge, killed a horny trucker, and attacked her boyfriend's mom. But this works out just fine for Deborah Ann Woll, the actress who plays her, who gets to live out all her unfulfilled adolescent angst.

Talk a little bit about your character in Season Four, what's happening to her?

Oh God, everything! Jess's story has been kind of a coming-of-age story… this sort of transformation of a girl to woman and human to vampire, and finding your first love. She's been struggling with who she is personally. So that's sort of the direction that this takes, she actually really embraces the vampire side of herself.

She seems to have a lot of bad conscience… she seems to feel bad about what she's doing and…

Yeah, most of my scenes end with Jessica hating herself. Yes, Jessica is closer to her humanity than some of the other vampires, so I think some of that human guilt still lives with her. She hasn't completely given in to the vampire side, but she's also in a tricky situation this season. She's deeply in love with Hoyt, but what he needs from her, is something she can't give. He wants a wife, he wants a very conventional, beautiful household where he gets to be a man, and she's not capable of that. Nor does she want that. She's stuck in it, and I think acting out against it. So the journey here is really, can they find a compromise? Or is she compromising too much of herself right now to be with him?


Did you ever dream of playing a vampire?

No, not before it came along really. I'm a fan of genre fiction and all that, and I've seen many, many different portrayals of vampires, but I've never really thought about it before I got this. It was fun though, I'd do it again!

What about the sexual element and the nudity and all that stuff, are you comfortable with all of that?

I'm pretty much game. I think the internet has ruined nudity a little bit for actors. I love nudity, I love seeing naked people. The interesting thing to me about nudity in acting versus say pornography is the context. If you are having nudity, it's for a reason and hopefully it says something. I am wearier of doing all that nudity on film though, because anyone can take it out of context and use it in a way I never intended. So while I love sexuality, and I love nudity and I certainly don't have any judgment about people who choose to do it, I'm a lot more careful about how and when I choose to be nude on film, than I would if I were doing a stage production.

Are you so comfortable with nudity because of a certain upbringing? Most American's are not that comfortable…

(Laughs) It's funny, I feel a lot of guilt and strange feelings about a lot of things, but sex is the only one I don't feel any guilt about. I think it's beautiful and natural, and kind of amazing. I know my mother was always more concerned about us seeing violence than she was with sex. And I agree with her. When I think about PG-13 films, where they show 50 people dead and you don't see any blood, I go "Well that's not real." Why is that better for a kid to see? It takes an adult mind to look at that and say, "Those people are dead, even though I don't see any consequence of it." It's the young mind really that needs to be shown that this is a consequence. And so that's why I sort of think we are more off track with the violence than we are with nudity.

It seems as though all the people on nude beaches generally don't have the most attractive bodies, well compared to actors…Do you still not have a problem with nudity here?

These are our bodies and I think we all have things that we like and don't like. I admire the people on a beach who you might not consider to have a classically great body, but who say "You know what? It's me, and I love me so deal with it." I don't really like my legs, I think I have kind of meaty, not so great legs and I don't show them very often. But sometimes the costume requires it, so you just kind of go "Great, I'd love the world to see my meaty legs". (Laughter) And then all the girls with meaty legs go "That's okay."



Television Series: True Blood (S04E012- And When I Die)
Release Date: September 2011
Actress: Deborah Ann Woll
Video Clip Credit: Zither









Rapid

or

Mega
Read more on this article...

The Lady Is A Vamp

As True Blood's resident redhead teenage vampire, Jessica Hamby sure has packed a lot into her short afterlife, writes Michele Manelis. But Deborah Ann Woll says her character is just getting started. "Oh, God, everything happens to Jess in this season," the 26-year-old Woll, says, enthusiastically. "Her story is a coming-of-age transformation from girl to woman/human to vampire. She's struggling with who she is personally and starting to embrace the vampire side of herself."

At the Four Seasons Hotel in Beverly Hills where she is among her fellow cast-members who are conducting interviews, Woll is personable and speaks candidly about the sexual nature of True Blood. "As far as the sexual element of the storyline, I'm pretty much game," she says. Her character, embroiled in love triangle with Hoyt (Jim Parrack) and Jason (Ryan Kwanten) finds her in some intimate situations. "I have no problem with those scenes. I love seeing naked people, but the interesting thing to me about nudity in acting versus pornography, is context. It's important that there is nudity for a reason. Hopefully, it says something even if it's just that these two people are comfortable with each other to be that naked and vulnerable with one another."


As to the circumstances of being naked, she's evidently given the subject a lot of thought. "I am more wary of doing nudity on film because anyone can take that out of context and use it in a way I never intended. So, while I love sexuality and I love nudity, and I certainly don't have any judgment about people who chose to do it, but for me, I'm careful about how and when I choose to be nude on film. It's different than I would [feel] if I were doing a stage production."

Woll is the first of her family to enter the entertainment business. Her father is an architect, her mother, a teacher. A natural blonde of Irish and German descent, she began dying her hair red at age 14, a decision that has served her well and has helped her stand apart from the blond Hollywood stereotypes. Woll can often be found on many "most beautiful" lists, though of course, like all actresses (especially vampires who don't succumb to the ageing process), she has to preserve her good looks.

"I don't like to work out much, although I do enough to stay healthy," she says. "But I would like to be able to play any kind of person, not just a person with a perfect physique. And also, I don't really have the patience to stay in a gym for six hours a day because looking attractive is not at the forefront of my mind. I've got other things I'd rather do. I got into acting for the art of it and if people decide that my body is not good enough to be on film, I'll go back to theatre."

Clearly, Woll was not brought up in an overtly conservative household, she says, "As far as movies go, my mother was always against violence, but not sex. "She is a huge fan of True Blood. She can't get enough of it and follows it on Twitter and Facebook. She only recently found out that my grandmother is a little more conservative than the rest of us. She showed it to her and found that it isn't quite for her," she laughs. "But even so, she's supportive of it for me."
Read more on this article...

True Blood S04E09

True Blood creator Alan Ball told us at the beginning of Season 4 that the theme would be identity and it seems that Jessica Hamby, played by Deborah Ann Woll, has really learned to embrace her identity this year. In previous seasons we watched her and Hoyt fall in love despite their obvious differences but sadly this season we have also watched them fall apart. Woll spoke recently with NZHerald.co.nz about Jessica’s transformation, nudity and her upcoming movies and she tells them that this is only the beginning for Jessica...

Woll describes Jessica’s story as a coming of age story saying she is transforming from a girl to a woman and also from human to vampire and says that Jessica is really struggling with her vampire side saying: “She’s closer to her humanity than a lot of the other vampires. I think some of that human guilt still lives within her and in that way, she hasn’t completely given in to the vampire nature,”


One of the biggest changes for Jessica is her new-found sexuality. Woll says that the nudity and sexual nature of the show do not bother her as long as it is for a reason and emphasizes that she sees a difference between nudity and pornography. However she is more comfortable with nudity on the small screen than the big screen because she feels people can take it out of context and use the scenes in a way she never intended them to be used.

With being on a show that features the stars without clothes a good portion of the time you would think that all of the stars would spend an insane amount of time at the gym but Woll does not enjoy working out: “I don’t like to work out much, although I do enough to stay healthy. But I would like to be able to play any kind of person, not just a person with a perfect physique. And also, I don’t really have the patience to stay in a gym for six hours a day because looking attractive is not at the forefront of my mind. I’ve got other things I’d rather do. I got into acting for the art of it and if people decide that my body is not good enough to be on film, I’ll go back to theatre.”

So what does Woll’s family think of her role on such a racy television show? She says her family is very supportive of her and reveals that her mother is a huge True Blood fan. Her grandmother does not have quite the same appreciation for the show, but overall her family is behind her.

Television Series: True Blood (S04E09- Let's Get Out of Here)
Release Date: August 2011
Actress: Deborah Ann Woll & Janina Gavankar
Video Clip Credit: Zither

Deborah Ann Woll










Rapid

or

Mega



Janina Gavankar










Rapid

or

Mega
Read more on this article...