EXCLUSIVE: Natasha Alam on True Blood, Skarsgard, & Her Anti-Bullying Message

Actress Natasha Alam (Yvetta on True Blood) has led an incredible life that took her from the challenges of post-Cold War Uzbekistan to the excesses of the modeling scene in Italy to the luxury of Iranian royalty to a more settled life in Los Angeles. Next month the model-turned-actress hosts a fundraiser benefitting the anti-bullying organization My Life My Power at the Playboy mansion. True-Blood.net sat down with Natasha to talk about her path to acting, working with Alexander Skarsgard and Kristin Bauer on True Blood, and why the anti-bullying message is important to her.

True-Blood.net: Tell us a little about where you’re from and your path to acting.

Natasha Alam: I was born and raised in Uzbekistan, the former USSR. I went to school to be a clothing designer and through that I got into modeling at school and from that it grew into modeling at bigger events. Some other girls and I went to Moscow and got jobs at the most famous modeling agency back then. It was a rough time, the early ‘90s in Russia. There were tanks in the streets, new money, mafia guys – I dated a guy who seemed very educated and nice, but he turned up at my house one night drunk and locked us in the house and played Russian roulette with me and my housemates.

T-B.net: Oh my goodness!

NA: It was terrible. We eventually got out and ran away and hid out for a while. Russia was really dangerous at that time, so when an Italian modeling agency came and scouted, I was very excited when they chose me to go to Italy. They treated me like a queen. They put me in a huge apartment, with a car and driver, and treated me really well. It was really great until the agency went bankrupt, so then I had to go work for another agency, but it wasn’t the same. They didn’t treat me as well or support my career. Eventually I started putting myself out there and got jobs and started being successful, and then I met my prince. [Literally, Prince Amir Ebrahim Pahlavi Alam.]

He convinced me to move to New York, but [modeling there] didn’t really work out. We broke up, then got back together and decided to get married. It was a small, very romantic wedding. He’s from the Iranian royal family, we were madly in love, and I was very happy. I moved to London to live with him. My husband was a very talented musician and composer, but he started partying too much and I couldn’t deal with it. I got fed up with that life because I couldn’t work, I couldn’t continue modeling because of the royal lifestyle. Your whole life is about socializing, and that got really boring really fast for me. I really like doing things, creating things, working – so I ran away to Los Angeles because I wanted to act.

I started taking acting lessons in London, so by the time I got to Los Angeles I had some training. I started taking more classes, got a house, got an agent and a manager, and after a struggle I finally started booking jobs. My husband joined me, but he started partying again. That wasn’t how I envisioned our life, so we decided to get a divorce. It was really painful because when I got married, I thought it was for life. I was depressed for a couple of years, going to shrinks and trying to fix my head, but eventually I got out of it. I started working on my career again, and then I met Joe [her current partner] and we had a baby, Valentina, together two years ago.

T-B.net: Once you finally arrived in L.A., did you continue modeling?

NA: I kept modeling a little bit, but I was frustrated because the more I modeled, the less acting jobs I got offered. A self-help book I read said that “If you want to do something else, you have to completely drop what you’re doing now.” I thought that made sense. Modeling was making me depressed, and I realized that I had to stop modeling so I could stop being unhappy.

It was really scary because there was no money coming in and for a month nothing happened, then suddenly I started booking job after job after job. Then after I had my baby, I booked True Blood and that really took me to the next level.

T-B.net: What was the audition process for True Blood like?

NA: I’ve been auditioning for that show from the pilot. I’d get callbacks, but not get the job. This time I thought, “Ah, what’s the point.” I was pretty sure it would be the same thing – go, read, and not get the job. So I decided to treat it like an acting exercise and I had no anxiety, I just had fun. I guess that helped, because I booked the role, I think because I felt confident and Yvetta is confident. As soon as I booked the part, my publicist called me and said that Playboy wanted to put me on the cover.

T-B.net: Had you been watching the show?

NA: I hadn’t been able to watch a lot of it because I was busy with my baby, but what I did see I really loved. The writing is just so witty and thrilling and ballsy and amazing!

T-B.net: What was your experience like working with Alexander Skarsgard and Kristin Bauer?

NA: The people on the show are so great, and nice, and supportive. It was really a pleasure to work on that show. Kristin is this loving, very maternal creature. She’s so sweet. When you meet her the first time, she gives you so much great, comfortable energy that you feel like you’ve known her most of your life. She helped me with my mom’s immigration papers, giving me advice and tips from when her husband went through the process.

Alexander was very helpful, especially the first day. The first day on the show, we were supposed to shoot a sex scene. We were both naked and I was tied up to the ceiling, and I was really nervous because I’d never done anything graphic like that. I wasn’t sure what protocol was. Did we rehearse like that? Was I supposed to keep my hands in the ropes the whole time? It was stressful, but then Alexander walks in and he was just really cool about it. He drops his robe and he’s totally naked there, not even wearing the modesty underwear, and that really helped me for him to be so nonchalant about it. His confidence gave me confidence.

T-B.net: That was quite an intense scene they started you with!

NA: Uh, yeah! [laughs] I compare it to when you teach kids to swim by just throwing them in the water. After that scene, everything was easy!

T-B.net: Yvetta wasn’t killed off, so will we see you again?

NA: I don’t know; it’s still up in the air. In my last scene I’d run away from Fangtasia after robbing it, but Eric isn’t in Fangtasia this season, he doesn’t remember anything, so he isn’t coming after me. Yet. The writers told me that I’m coming back, but that might be next year.

T-B.net: Tell us about this event you have coming up, Rock the Mansion.

NA: It’s August 27 at the Playboy mansion. It’s a fashion show for an anti-bullying campaign. I shot an anti-bullying film with Joe Reitman and I had to go back into my memory to remember how I got through things like that when I was in school. I grew up in a country that I felt like a foreigner in because I wasn’t the same as the other kids. I was bullied because of that, and I learned that if I didn’t react, they’d leave me alone. I know we feel like we need to defend ourselves, but if you know who you are then you don’t need to explain yourself, you don’t have to get down on their level. I want to help kids learn how to deal with bullying and know that they can survive it.

If you’re in Los Angeles, check out the Rock the Mansion event with Natasha Alam on August 27, benefitting My Life My Power. Tickets are on sale now.