A Little Chat with Ryan Kwanten

The Wall Street Journal recently grabbed a quick chat with Ryan about True Blood and his character, Jason Stackhouse.

Ryan Kwanten is the star of “True Blood,” the new vampire series from “Six Feet Under” creator Alan Ball. The HBO show, which debuts on September 7, is an adaptation of Charlaine Harris’s “Sookie Stackhouse” novels. Mr. Kwanten, 30, best known as the surf-shop guy in the WB television series “Summerland,” plays Jason, the older brother of Sookie (Anna Paquin), a waitress who falls in love with a gentlemanly vampire.

WSJ: Your character has a raging prejudice against vampires. Would you call Jason a bigot?

Mr. Kwanten: Yeah, it comes from his ignorance, as bigotry tends to. As the series progresses, we see that ignorance break down gradually.

Most critics read ‘True Blood’ as an allegory of political persecution. Do you see it the same way?

I’ve heard a whole host of different things that people think the vampires symbolize. Some people are even saying there are subliminal messages in the show. I think things like that make the show all the more mysterious.

You’re a writer too. Are your books at all like Charlaine Harris’s?

Not really. At the moment I’m writing a spoof on all the self-help books. I started writing it from a humorous point of view but in reading it out loud to my friends they say, ‘Wow, that could really help me, Ryan.’ So we’ll see what direction I end up taking it. –Lauren Mechling