Reports from the TCA’s

MeeVee was at the TCA’s yesterday, and they sat in on the True Blood panel. Here’s their report:

Next up:”True Blood,” which I just saw last night and loved…

Alan Ball, Stephen Moyer and Anna Paquin – looking fabulously adult and sophisticated, unlike her character – are here to talk about this crazy wild Louisiana vampire drama. In fact, Ball, with his devilish goatee and his totally calm, seen-it-all demeanor, seems more vampish than anyone.

Ball: “I found the first book totally by accident. I was early for a dentist appointment, I was wasting time at Barnes & Noble and saw the first book with the tagline, Maybe having a boyfriend for a vampire wasn’t such a good idea. … It was the kind of book you say I’m going to read one chapter before I go to bed and you read seven.”

And how much is this really a gay rights allegory? Ball: “That was certianly in the books, all of that is in the books. I don’t really look at the vampires as a metaphor for gays in a direct way. Part of the joy of the whole thing for me is they’re vampires, so you don’t have to be too serious…but they totally work as a metaphor for gays, anyone who is feared and hated for being different.”

Hilariously, someone asks Paquin if there’s anything she brings from her personal life to the role. Paquin: “I stopped dating vampires when I was 15, so…” Rimshot please!

Ball is quizzed about his vampire mythology and outlines a few changes from the norm, including the idea that many of the standard rules are misinformation spread by the vampires themselves. He says he’s seen a few vampire movies – “Near Dark,” he said, is “the best vampire movie ever made” – but never TV’s “Buffy” or “Angel.” And he had this to say about CBS’ short-lived “Moonlight”: “I think it’s pretty lame when you let your vampire go out in the day just because you don’t want to shoot at night.”

So, Alan Ball was hooked like I was with the first book.