EXCLUSIVE: Todd Lowe & Carrie Preston Talk Romance, Orgies, & Black Contacts on True Blood

In their first ever joint interview, True Blood‘s Todd Lowe and Carrie Preston talk about their characters’ non-traditional road to romance, meat trees, orgies, black contacts, and more.

Terry and Arlene get close on True Blood / HBO

It’s been nearly five months since True Blood wrapped production on their second season, and on-screen couple Todd Lowe and Carrie Preston are eager to get back to Bon Temps for season three.

“We get to all get together and read through the script on the first [of December]. It’ll be fun. Although we run into each other periodically socially, but it’ll be nice to get back to Bon Temps,” said Carrie.

Carrie said she’s looking forward to donning Arlene’s wig again, and revealed that Todd likes to put it on in the makeup trailer and goof around. “It makes me feel closer to her,” he joked. To get into character as veteran Terry Bellefleur, Todd gets a temporary tattoo which he admitted is less of an ordeal than getting the real deal.

While specifics about True Blood‘s third season are being closely guarded, Todd and Carrie were happy to talk about the previous seasons. We asked them about their unconventional romance, which Todd remarked began with “flirting and clavicles” in season one, and whether they can make it work without possession and orgies.

“It’s kinda cool because we can re-court all over again because we don’t remember what we were doing when we had the black eyes and were all posessed,” said Carrie. “It could be kind of fun to go back and see their courtship in a different way.”

Terry provides some words of wisdom to Sam / HBO

Todd doesn’t think we should discount what happened under Maryann’s influence, though. “I think once we became posessed, you hold on to certain essential parts of your personality, under Maryann’s spell,” he mused. “It’s almost like an intoxication, having a drink to loosen things up, but your real feelings come out.”

Speaking of orgies, they constituted both the most and least favorite filming stories from season two. Both Todd and Carrie chose the day when they filmed Jason’s rescue attempt at Merlotte’s as their favorite from season 2. The background actors were committed, and Ryan Kwanten “is very game, he’ll try anything,” Carrie chuckled. By nature, those scenes allowed for improvisation and bordered on frenzy, which was a lot of fun to be a part of, they recalled. Although they don’t get to vary from the script very often, the chaotic scenes under Maryann’s influence lent themselves to going with the flow and improvising lines.

The black contact lenses they had to wear for the “black eye effect” were a source of major discomfort for the actors. Todd remembered getting a sty from wearing his! Their least favorite scene differs…sort of. Carrie recalled that their sex scene was filmed on a chilly night, but Todd jokingly called that his favorite scene. “I didn’t want to answer that [was my favorite scene] and sound sleazy,” Todd laughed.

Fiery Arlene serves up plenty of sass at Merlottes / HBO

Who would they like to have scenes with in the future? Carrie would like to have scenes with Jessica while Todd votes for Ginger, the screaming Fangtasia employee. How would Terry, suffering from PTSD, handle that screeching mess? “It would be all non-verbals,” posited Carrie. “All screaming and grunting.”

Although there aren’t any real pranksters on set, Todd and Carrie said the cast and crew are often joking on set. Todd recounted that someone named the meat tree (part of Maryann’s final ceremony) “Demeatree”, and revealed that writers Brian Buckner and Alexander Woo do pretty good impressions of all of the characters.

Todd is a musician in addition to an actor, so we asked him if any of his music would show up in True Blood. “I’d love it. I don’t think I have anything that I’ve written and recorded yet that quite suits the show, but if I write something that they love, then I’d love to have it on the show.” Perhaps Terry could serenade Arlene, or work in some karaoke.

While on hiatus Todd had a chance to work on NCIS, which he really enjoyed because it’s so different from anything he’d done before. Carrie was impressed that he played a special agent, while Todd revealed that he had to grow out his beard so he could play someone “who talked to beareded, Middle Eastern-types.”

Carrie spent her hiatus filming a pair of movies where she plays Southern women who are very different from Arlene. In A Bag of Hammers, she plays a “down, depressed, desperate mother” in a dramatic role. After that she played a woman who is trying to sleep with her 15-year-old neighbor in the dark comedy What’s Wrong With Virginia. Watch for those films in 2010.

For more from Todd and Carrie, including their holiday plans and Todd’s suggestion for how to get Carrie’s husband (Emmy-winning Lost star Michael Emerson) on True Blood, listen to the full interview on True-Blood.net Radio.