On the last season of True Blood, Pam finally became a maker, and while escaping the Authority headquarters, shared a steamy kiss with her progeny, Tara. This season, Pam’s got to make time for Tara on top of her other complicated relationships, as her own maker Eric finally reveals that the friend he had in the Authority was his sister. Plus, there’s the True Blood drink shortage, the Louisiana governor’s war on vampires, and disputed rights to Fangtasia. What’s a fashion-savvy bloodsucker to do? Kristin Bauer van Straten chatted with Vulture about shoplifting, modesty pouches, and the Pam-Tara sex scene we didn’t get to see.
So Pam and Tara are getting pretty close …
As we were filming that arc last year and continuing this year, we started to see that Pam and Tara are incredibly similar creatures. They have a lot in common, despite Pam only turning Tara so that Sookie would repair her relationship with Eric. They relate to each other in a similar way. Now they’re dressing similar, because it’s like dressing your kid, and Rutina [Wesley] really liked that, because she had been in dire clothing circumstances for a couple of seasons, and it was fun to join the world of sparkly glamour people. They’re both tough and not very cuddly people.
Although they got to cuddle on the beach. But I could swear they mentioned that they had had sex, and I was trying to figure out when did that happen?
Yeah! [Laughs.] I was, too. There have been many different revisions and different scripts, and there was a time where there was a version of a script where we did see more of that. But now, I’m not exactly sure when and where the writers are referring to. When would they have had time to do this? Before storming the Authority? I remember when I said, “We drank a bitch together, that doesn’t make us Oprah and Gayle,” so was it then? I don’t think so, because that first kiss felt like a first kiss, back in episode twelve of last season. So I’m imagining it was on the beach in the first episode of this season. That’s a possibility. What I’m imagining is that it was fairly tender and intimate, because that moment on the beach is a vulnerable moment that Pam allows to happen, and they’re really bonding. Pam can be like a turtle and pull back into her shell, so I think this was a real first for Pam, to be vulnerable and have another human being — well, another being, another entity, comfort her. She’s only had that with Eric.
And he released her. So if Eric is Pam’s daddy, he’s Tara’s grandfather.
I realized that with Godrick, “Wait, you’re my grandfather!” And that makes Nora my aunt. It’s even more complicated and incestuous than somewhere like Hollywood, because I have an attraction for Rutina, who is my daughter … [Laughs.]
It’s even more complicated with Eric and Nora, because Pam is experiencing a new level of jealousy.
She liked things the way they were, always the two of them. That was working for her, and she doesn’t want to share Eric with anyone. And it feels like a double betrayal, because she’s shared her entire life with him, while he’s kept secrets. When that happens, you start to wonder if the affection is equal. She didn’t know he had this sister. She hasn’t been quite as trusted as she wanted to be. She’s had to fall back on who she was as a human being when she was on her own during tough times, but there’s no way to completely erase the love she’s had for over a hundred years for one person. That love, and other alliances and relationships, will be really tested this year.
Last season, you finally got the Pam-Eric backstory. What have you lobbied the new showrunners to include this season?
What I think would be really funny is to see Pam shoplifting, given that she never purchases anything! I think that would be hysterical. I started wondering, because in vampire lore vampires always have cool clothing, and they always have money, and that’s part of the allure — they don’t age, they don’t die, they don’t have our worries. And I thought, Why do they have money? Are they smart business people, because they’ve been around so long? That doesn’t totally explain it. They probably just steal, because they can. If you can vamp speed, you can get in and out of a bank anywhere. And you’re already living outside the human construct of the world, so it’s not a stretch morally.
Will the story lines eventually converge? Do the vampires we know and love get pulled into this Warlow conspiracy?
A lot of story lines do start overlapping. Different people want to fight differently, and they don’t all necessarily include each other. It’s a very challenging year for relationships. And our guest cast is so exceptional that if I don’t have a scene with them, I make sure to hunt them down after the table read or in the parking lot. That’s what I did with Rutger Hauer after the first episode. I’m such a fan of his. I have such reverence for his work, and he’s such an awesome, interesting person. Blade Runner is one of my favorite movies. So I just said, “I’m Kristin, I play Pam. We’re so happy to have you. How are you doing? Are you enjoying your work?” I just gushed over him like a fan would.
I hear you still have pieces of Pam’s face from season four?
[Laughs.] I do! I have the mold of my head, and every time I would pull off a piece of my face, they’d put it in a bag for me. So I have a lot of my face from season four. Sometimes I come across it in my drawer. Last year, I hit up the cast really hard for charity auction donations, and I felt so guilty about it that I haven’t hit anyone up yet this year. But just in the last week, because we’re going into filming the last episode, I started to think about it, and there’s one particular prosthetic that I asked for, that I got signed, that I’ll probably be auctioning.
A prosthetic for … ?
Another character. Not necessarily a character I’ve been in a scene with. You’ll know it when you see it. I’ve made friends with the special effects guys, and they’ve been very generous. I’m also inspired by the fact that I sold Joe Manganiello’s modesty pouch. Actually, we call them a cock sock, but I thought, on eBay, I should call it a modesty pouch. You never know what parent might not appreciate cock sock.
