GtPGKogPYT4p61R1biicqBXsUzo" /> Google+ Phoenix Comicon 2013: Kristin Bauer van Straten panel | I Smell Sheep

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Sunday, June 2, 2013

Phoenix Comicon 2013: Kristin Bauer van Straten panel


You know her and lover her as Pam from the hit HBO series True Blood. The undead goddess herself, Kristin Bauer, was at Phoenix Comicon 2013 and we made sure to park sheep tail for this lovely ladies Q&A. A portion of the panel is transcribed below. 

Question: Every year Pam's wit gets a little and a little quicker, do you have any role in this or is this all writers?
Kristin: That's 100% the writers. I have not changed one word. It's really a great position to be in where you're handed those lines. The wardrobe, the writing is really all those wonderful people. 

Question: In what way do you feel your character has developed the most of the series?
Kristin: I think that the big general arc has been to go from having no sentimentality or soft side at all to having deep venerability in moments. Manly with Eric, but that has been really amazing to have her underbelly exposed. 

Question: You work with a lot of attractive cast members, are there any funny cast moments you've had?
Kristin: We have endlessly funny moments, and then we are together again and we reminisce about them. Season 3, Bill and Pam had a fight, and then I silver him, and then I am on him. Sookie gets a chain around my neck and the stripper Yvetta gets ahold of me. And somehow, I am thrown across the room and somehow I am supposed to hit the stunt pole with my back. So the poor stunt girl had to run across the room, turn her back, fling herself through the air to hit the pole. We're watching on the monitor, and she kept missing the pole. 
*Audience laughs* 
So we'd see this person fly through the air and land "ugh!" She kept missing the pole. Take after take. To us, it became the- [laughing] just watching her fly. 

Question: What's your favorite color and is it the same as Pam?
Kristin: I really love pink as well and I don't even know if black is a color. I've gotten to like this black thing. Maybe it's easy or just goes with everything or looks cool on camera. 

Question: If you could have one change on the show, what difference would you change?
Kristin: First, it would have to be the name we could call it "The Pam Show". 
*Audience laughs* 
There's been things at times, I've loved everything but last year it was funny for me to not be in scenes with my buddies. So, I'm there in Fangtasia, getting to know Rutina (Tara) we actually had a lot of fun getting to know one another. But on my break I would go over to the Authority side. I would see them having a ball, laughing with each other. I would be like "Aww, do you guys miss me?" They would say [in dull voice] "Huh what, yeah yeah look you guys Kristin's here". 
So I would probably do every scene with people I know. Bill, Eric, Sookie, Pam and now Tara, I would throw in Jason and Jessica. So yeah, it would be the vampire show. With Sookie and Jason. 

Question: How do you feel about the show vs. the books?
Kristin: I haven't read all the books. When I got the role and realized after filming for a week or so I got the books, and I was reading as season one went I was reading the book. They were very similar with almost my dialog was the same, but subtly different and I thought "ya know, I am going to stop". I am just going to do the script because that's what I have to deliver. 
But when the show ends, in 14 years, I will sit down and read the books. I find that when I have a book I love, I am always disappointed with the tv show or movie. And vice-versa. Because you picture it a certain way. So I think it's nice that they are different. 

Question: Pam is now a vampire mommy, how do you think it has changed her and how do you think she feels?
Kristin: I think that Pam probably never wanted to be a mother and tried to just birth her and drop her off at the street corner. Put her in a basket and send her down the river "Good luck!" But, it really took holding Eric over her head to get her to do it. You repair my friendship with Eric and I'll save your friend. I think it was fun for Rutina (Tara) and I to find the subtlety of; I don't want you but now I am stuck with you but I can empathize with you. Because they are very similar characters actually. That was fun for us.
Then of course, it went from I hate you, I want to kill you to now I'm stuck with you to...your kind of hot. 

Question: What's the grossest scene you've had to film.
Kristin: It's always pretty fun too shoot that stuff. It's not as gross in person, it's funny actually. There's been a couple moments where it gets gross. In the first season when we had to stake Longshadow, he just vomited blood for minutes on Sookie. They put a hose up one side of his body and shot it from the other-side and Anna is such a trooper she just had to take it. The director said, that first shot I need you to take it with your eyes open. 
*Audience groans*
So, she knew what was coming and was like, OK. If you looked at it from your living room it looked gross. For us, you see a hose running over to a ladder, to the top of a ladder with two large men poring gallons of blood into a funnel. It's not gross. 



Question: Where do you draw from the complexity of the relationship between you and Eric? 

Kristin: I always approach things as; I read the scene and I get an initial feeling of what it should be and for me that's usually the one I go with. I find the more I think about it, it doesn't necessarily get better. I try to pay attention to that immediate impulse. What can I put in that Pam is feeling and what can I barrow that Kristin is feeling. What do I have to make up, and what exists. 
I got really lucky that Alex (Eric) and I really get along. If I have a scene where I am worried he might die, I think about Alex dying. Not Alex dying- 
*Audience laughs* 
But instantly I'm sad, I'm emotional about it. Then there are the areas where I have to make it up. Also, it feels like over the years the scenes we shot before are in there still. So if they are adding a layer, I'm good I've done it for a year. 

Question: Would you ever date Count Dracula? 
Kristin: There's been so many Count Dracula's, I feel like we need to discuss which Count Dracula. Like, is there a new one? 
[Audience shouts out Jonathan Meyers
What?! OMG. See what I mean, I'm out saving elephants I have no idea. Yesterday I found out there was a new Superman. 
*Audience laughs* 
He seems like he would be complicated. [Meyers] I like my men a little simpler. Wasn't Gary Oldman...right? Hmm, I wouldn't date him BUT if I was the love of his life and he proposed...sure. 
*Audience claps* 
And then, of course, I would totally date Count Chocula.

Question: What do you think of Twilight?
Kristin: I mean, I like...you know twilight's a nice time of day. Sometimes-
*Audience laughs and claps* 
The lights really pretty. Or when you're at the dentist and they give you that twilight, you feel kind of good. 


"Maybe I smile too much, maybe I wear too much pink. But please remember I can rip your throat out if I need to." 


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