Lauren Bowles Brings Holly To True Blood

A pivotal character arrives on True Blood this week when Holly Cleary makes her first appearance. (Read our speculation about the character here.) Fancast talked with Lauren Bowles, the actress who plays Holly, to get a little scoop about what she’ll bring to the show.

Tell me about your character, Holly Cleary.
What I can tell you, because it’s shrouded in secrecy on this show, [is that] I am the new waitress at Merlotte’s – a single working Mom.  I might have some interesting abilities that will develop as the show goes on.

There are some hints, at least judging by the books, that she might be a witch.
This is what I have been told.  This is what the word on the street is.  I’m not even joking.  They make you sign a confidentiality agreement, ‘You can tell nothing. Don’t say a word.’  But she does have some interesting abilities that will develop.

Is Holly new in town?
She’s been skipping around the South.

What sort of relationship is Holly going to have with the rest of the Merlotte’s staff?
She and Arlene hit it off right away, both being single, working class moms.  They develop a friendship pretty quickly.

What about Jessica? She’s been a bit territorial about Merlotte’s this year.
She certainly has been.  You don’t want to stiff her.  But I don’t deal too much with her.

In the books,  Holly ends up dating Jessica’s ex, Hoyt.   Is the series going to follow that story?
[Alan Ball’s] funny with the books. He sort of follows them and then he doesn’t.  So I really have no idea what his plans for that are.

Can you give me any hints about the season finale?
Everybody’s going to be satisfied.

How did you get cast?  I imagine becoming a regular on ‘True Blood’ is an arduous process.
You would think, but it was one audition.  It was so funny too because I read heavy recurring, possible series regular.  Normally for jobs like that they’ll be at least three or four auditions but because Alan is Alan and HBO implicitly trusts him, he pretty much gets to make up his mind.  So it didn’t really – I have to be honest with you – occur to me that I was going to book it.  I just thought, ‘I want to do well so they’ll bring me in on something else in the future.’  That was my goal.  The next thing I knew, I had gotten it.  It was truly a dream come true because I am a huge Alan Ball fan.

(Read the rest of the interview here…)