Exclusive: Getting to Know True Blood’s Theo Alexander

If you Google the name Theo Alexander you’ll find there isn’t much information out there about him. Mel and I set out to solve the puzzle that is this mysterious actor chosen for the part of Talbot, Russell Edgington’s significant other, on season 3 of True Blood. What we found was a charming, fun sort of everyday guy who loves his job.

Theo comes to us from Athens, Greece, and from as far back as he can remember, the acting bug has niggled away at him. He would grab every chance he could get to act, whether in camps, school or local theater productions.

“I was a chubby kid, you know, on the stage is where I found a place that felt like home and I could be myself. That’s what propelled me into acting, being a little bit chubby and making people laugh.”

Although Theo has always loved acting, he felt it would be best to find out for sure if that was his true calling. At 18 years old he went to study business and got his degree at Boston University. From there he moved to New York to achieve a masters in theater.

“I went to an acting school, Circle in the Square, and after that I went to Greece and did a movie. After that I came out here and I’ve been very fortunate, I’ve been working ever since.”  Indeed he has! We have caught Theo in a couple of our other favorite shows, Chuckand Pushing Daisies.

Theo on Chuck season 1

“Chuck was my first job in America. I played a Greek mafioso. I called my brother, he is younger than me, he said, ‘So what’s the part you’re going in to audition for?’ I said, ‘Well, he’s a Greek guy, he’s mafioso.’ He said, ‘Listen man, if you don’t book the job and he’s a Greek guy, just come back.’  And he hung up the phone on me!”

Initially, for the role of Talbot, True Blood wanted to land a British actor. But Theo’s agents read the sides and felt that he would fit the part. “My character is wearing a robe in the first scene. So I went in with my kimono in the audition, and I decided to speak as Greek as I could and bring my heritage into the room. It worked!”

Theo was a fan of True Blood before landing the role of Talbot, citing it’s many layers of truth as drawing him in.

“The genius of Alan Ball and his team, they’re masters of the subconscious and they know how to take you on this journey with everything. The vampires and other creatures are coming in, the shape-shifters, those are all inside of us. Like taking a journey inside of our psyche.”

Theo’s a fan of Alan’s too. He loves the honesty of Alan’s work. “American Beauty is one of the most honest movies I’ve ever seen. He goes for the truth no matter how ugly it is.”

Theo is very aware of the talent he is working with very day, and not just Alan. The level of professionalism that is present on the set is something we’ve heard of from others and Theo mentions it as well.

Theo on True Blood

“They’re some of the most talented group of people assembled in the world. They’re so good. I mean my husband’s a Tony Award winner, Denis O’Hare. And just dancing with them, like Alex, Stephen, Anna, it’s wonderful! It’s very challenging because you know that everyday on set you have to bring your A-game and nothing more. Even after fifteen hours of shooting you have to be on top of everything. That’s actually the most exciting thing, to be able to really play with the best.”

Theo talks affectionately about meeting with Denis every day before they started shooting, to work on building a feeling of a relationship and a history between their characters. He is hoping that transfers to the screen. Theo was pretty careful about not spilling any spoilers for season 3, although he does say this season is going to be “off the hook”. We did talk a bit about the one photo we have of Talbot, and his attitude. Theo spoke briefly about that.

“I’m in a marriage relationship and every marriage has its problems – even for vampires.”

He also joked that this season, “It’s only trees in Bon Temps. Very Waiting for Godot.”  Ah, existential theater meets True Blood!

Theo is currently working on a romantic thriller called Love and Let Die, which he wrote. Another project of his has just been picked up by a production company in France, and is distributing in Europe. It is a love story between a monk, played by Theo, and a nun. Other projects are keeping him busy as producer and writer.

“It’s been a very good year. I have to show my mother that the money that was spent on university was not a waste,” he chuckles.

After sharing stories and few laughs about Greek and Italian mothers, and solving the world’s problems with food,  Theo talked about some of his hobbies, which are martial arts and kick boxing, but his favorite comes back to acting. It’s his first love. Everything he does always brings him back to it.

We always like to help promote a favorite charity and we totally got behind Theo’s. “I want to bring back curves in women but nobody is supporting them.” We will, Theo!

He charmed our socks off and we had so much fun with him, and the fact that he mentioned True-Blood.net as his favorite site had absolutely nothing at all to do with it.

Listen to Theo Alexander talk about acting, True Blood, his “unGooglable” last name, and more in our exclusive audio interview.