HBO's new series True Blood imagines a world where vampires have stepped out of the closet and strive for integration within human society but there are very bad apples in both baskets. Within True Blood's rich mythology, humans get sexual highs from vampire blood, which is dealt like a drug by humans, and all manner of sexual orientations exist.
Nelsan Ellis and Anna Paquin, two stars of HBO's "True Blood". Ellis photo by John P. Johnson/HBO and Paquin photo by Jaimie Trueblood/HBO
Created by out Oscar/Emmy winner Alan Ball ( American Beauty, Six Feet Under ) and based on author Charlaine Harris's bestselling "Sookie Stackhouse" novels, True Blood stars Anna Paquin as Sookie, a small town Louisiana waitress blessed/cursed with the ability to read people's minds except for a vampire's. One of the show's standout regular characters is Lafayette Reynolds, played by Alabama-raised, L.A.-based actor Nelsan Ellis. A gay cook and escort"amongst other lurid entrepreneurial enterprises who falls somewhere between cocksure hyper-masculine thug and flaming makeup-wearing queen, Lafayette plays a huge role in the show, which the Julliard-trained Ellis took time out to discuss.
Lawrence Ferber: What are the biggest differences between the Lafayette of the novels and the HBO series?
Nelsan Ellis: In the book I don't like him. Alan's Lafayette has dimensions-the book's doesn't. He's flamboyant and wears makeup in the book. That was a huge challenge for me because I came in originally trying to do my idea of what a drag queen was. The description is: He's a masculine man with lipstick and makeup on. I was like, "Huh? How you gonna do that?" I had to work on making him a real person because Alan wants to see a real person and not a stereotype. But we mixed it up so he's masculine and feminine and those colors can come out whenever.
LF: And how does Lafayette's storyline differ from the one in the books?
NE: In the book he's part of this underground sex organization in the town; he's having sex with closeted men, a very down-low thing. And he got killed in the books so he wouldn't expose what's going on in the underground. Alan was true to that [ former part ] , he's sleeping with the senator in the series and nobody knows and there's a cliffhanger at the end of the 12th episode and we'll see what happens. Because his storyline is pretty much new and it deviates from the books in terms of making him more of a presence in the show, I never know what they're going to do next.
LF: When we first meet Lafayette he's a cook working in the restaurant where Sookie waitresses, and then we learn he's an escort involved in shady business. Is he a good guy or a bad guy?
NE: I think what makes him a dangerous character is he had to fight to be who he is. Because he has a great thirst for possessions and money he schemes to do all these different things for the lifestyle he has. I think he's damaged but a good-hearted dude. His friends can depend on him.
LF: Have you used any people you met or friends as an influence or inspiration for your performance?
NE: Absolutely. I live at the gay club and everything I have ad-libbed came straight from the horses' mouths. I literally wrote it down, and say it at some point and Alan keeps it. I heard a dude go, "Ooh, you gonna make me clutch my pearls." I was like, "That is marvelous!" And whenever Lafayette sees some dude he's ridiculously attracted to he goes, "Ooh, you gonna make me clutch my pearls." My mother is a strong inspiration. The base core of Lafayette is my mother. My mother is a sexual creature and I wanted to make him like sex and bleed sex. Not mannerisms, just the way she operated as a sexual creature.
LF: I love the first episodes"we haven't really seen someone like Lafayette on TV before.
NE: I do, too. I'm highly blessed. But I come from a very religious family and I didn't tell my mother about this at all. My mother lives in the woods and doesn't have cable. I told my father and he's not going to watch it. He says, "You're playing a sissy." But I tell him I feel blessed to be playing this character because I love it. I think Alan Ball is a genius; I am fortunate. And he goes, "Ah, OK." I think it's a wonderful show and Alan is.....so many words I can't think of. And the freedom he lets us have on set is unheard of.
LF: Without spoiling too much, what else can you tell me about what happens with Lafayette this season? Does he meet gay vampires?
NE: He has a main [ vampire ] squeeze"that a name actor will be playing"who supplies him with vampire blood in exchange for sexual favors.
LF: Do you wish Lafayette was or would become a vampire?
NE: I don't wish he was a vampire. What makes him Lafayette is he's human. If he becomes a vampire it'll be fun, but as a human he maneuvers so well between them, it puts him in a position of power"when he can find a vampire, who are the ones with the power of manipulation, and take advantage of him. That's power.
True Blood airs Sundays at 9 p.m. CT on HBO.
