EXCLUSIVE: We Talk With Joe Manganiello

“I’m on my way back from visiting my wolf counterpart today. I drove up to go visit him and take him for a walk.”

Joe and Thunder take a walk

This is how Joe Manganiello opened our conversation with him last week. Stunned silence on our part met this revelation, followed by all kinds of questions about how, exactly, one takes a wolf for a walk. (A chain for a leash is vital.)

The fact that True Blood is using live wolves for the werewolf counterparts is almost unheard of in the industry. Joe was enthusiastic about getting to work with wolves, in particular “his” wolf, Thunder, on the show, but we soon discovered that he’s enthusiastic about everything True Blood. Joe is a fanboy, someone who was already watching the show when fan comments drew his attention to the role of Alcide.

“People were blogging on True-Blood.net about me getting this role [of Alcide] over a year ago. That’s actually how I found about the books and started reading the books,” he told us. “I was excited. I always wanted to play a werewolf. I was a kid who grew up as a big fan of the old black and white horror movies. That was kind of my thing when I was a kid. I’d play and pretend that I was a werewolf. And then I grew up and as an adult, I get to play that!”

After reading the books, Joe realized that he looked a lot like how Alcide was described, so he started bugging his managers to watch for the casting call and put him up for the role.

“True Blood is by far the most exciting part that’s come my way, and it was really the one part that I really went after. It was something that, if I didn’t try my hardest, I knew I’d have to live the rest of my life knowing that I didn’t try my hardest to get this part. I just hunted it down, and I got it. It’s been the most unbelievable acting experience I’ve had. That and playing Stanley in Street Car Named Desire have been the high points of my career. So far.”

Joe is a big fan of the books, and when he found out that we’d read Dead in the Family, he wanted the scoop. Don’t worry, we didn’t spoil it for him. He also revealed that he’s dying to meet Charlaine Harris and hopes to meet her at Comic Con in July. That’s right, Joe Manganiello is planning to join the rest of the True Blood cast at Comic Con this year!

Joe: "I always wanted to play a werewolf."

“I’m hoping there’s gonna be some fans out there with little red-hooded sweatshirts that say ‘Team Alcide’ on them.” There’s your assignment, Truebies!

Joe talked about his training regimen for playing Alcide, which involve twice-a-day workouts, six days a week and a lot of eating. A little bit of the werewolf vs. vampire tension came out as he mused about how he wanted Alcide to look.

“I wanted you to question who would win a fight between a vampire and Alcide,” he chuckled. “I wanted him to look scary. I wanted him to look like an animal. I wanted him very lean, very muscular like a wild animal would be.”

Of course when shifters change shape, clothes are irrelevant, so the required nudity was a challenge for Joe. “I was initiated into the Brotherhood of the Sock,” he recalled. “So I’m in the sock, standing ten feet away from my wolf, who’s not on a chain at that point. They yell action, and you just go.”

That’s just a taste of what Joe Manganiello had to say about joining the cast of True Blood this season. Hear our full interview with Joe on True-Blood.net Radio Friday, May 21, at 11AM Eastern. An archived version will be available later in the day.