Ryan Kwanten : Movieline

True Blood is one of television’s most audacious shows, and it has Ryan Kwanten to thank for helping to set the tone. Sure, the 33-year-old Aussie’s role as Jason Stackhouse requires him to go nude a lot — and in the third season, premiering this Sunday, he’s back to his old tricks right away — but he can’t just be credited for the fact that he helped establish the show’s sexual daring. What the new episodes confirm more than ever is that Kwanten is the funniest person on the show, and he’s able to pull off his dimwitted character without ever once winking at the audience. There are times that True Blood veers close to knowing self-parody, but Kwanten’s smart enough to play those lines like Jason has no idea.

On the eve of the season premiere, Kwanten called Movieline to discuss working with series creator Alan Ball, True Blood’s habit of splitting its characters up, and the healthy state of Australian film.

Last season, you guys set a new ratings record almost every week — which is pretty unusual. I know the suits at HBO were happy, but is that something the actors keep track of every week, too?
Definitely! I mean, we finish shooting the whole season before it premieres. You’re almost looking for any hint of success — it doesn’t matter how good it felt on set, because if the audience doesn’t respond, it can’t help but chip away at the happiness of making it. Seeing the audience embrace it the way they did was a nice caveat to a fun shoot.

 

Does that make the shooting experience kind of like living in a bubble? Unlike a show on CBS or ABC, where the actors shoot at the same time as the show is airing and they get to hear that feedback from the audience, you guys basically have to wing it.
You put it very well: it’s very much like living in a bubble. You get a response from the people who are there at the time of shooting, but even so, they’re already so encapsulated in that world. The real test obviously comes when it gets released. HBO has given us less and less notes for the show — not that they ever had a lot, but they’ve definitely given us less and less as the series has progressed. I think that just means that they’re happier and happier, and the show almost runs itself, almost.

 

How much contact do you have with Alan Ball over the course of the season? Does he give you a general idea of what your story arc will be or do you basically find out from script to script?
It’s pretty much script by script. The writers will sort of break most of the stories during their hiatus period, and then go off on their own and come back together. We have a team of five or six writers and Alan, and really, in terms of my face-to-face time with Alan, it’s not that much. He’s on set for his two episodes, but other than that, he’s in the writers room breaking stories and editing current ones.

 

Has that ever bothered you, that you don’t quite know what’s coming?
I personally don’t mind it. I like to think very much on the spot. Also, without sounding too actor-y, it kind of suits Jason’s mentality to be spontaneous like that. He’s not much of a thinker, let alone someone who can forecast the future, so the fact that I don’t know it helps as well.

 

It’s a pretty ballsy show. How often do you get a script and think, “They’re not actually going to film this, right?”
Oh, every script. There’s at least one scene or moment in every script — it doesn’t even have to be for my character — where it blows my mind. It’s one thing to read it, but then to actually go and film it is crazy! The amount of “firsts” that the show has undertaken…this season, there’s a whole host of them.

 

So last time we saw Jason, he and Andy had killed Eggs. Can you give our readers a taste of what’s next for him?
When you kill someone, it’s no small act — you kind of have to go to the bowels of who you are to figure out something like that. Meanwhile, he has to deal with the fact that Andy is sort of stealing the glory for killing Eggs. Jason doesn’t take that too kindly. Also, there’s a mysterious woman who sweeps Jason off his feet, so there’s a lot going on.

 

There are a couple of big villains this year. Do you get involved with any of them?
I don’t get entangled with the main ones, no. Most of the time, Jason is getting into trouble on his own.

 

True Blood does that sort of thing a lot — last season, you spent a lot of time apart from the main cast in your own storyline, and this year, it seems like almost all of the characters are separated. Do you ever wish you could spend more time with any of the cast members?
You do! It’s really interesting, because the only times you see the whole cast are at the table reads, which we have about once every two weeks. That’s the only time I really get to catch up on the on-set antics or gossip. Other than that, the first time I see everything is along with the audience — I don’t see most of the episodes until they air, and even then, it’s hard to see all of them because I’m so busy. The way it works, though, I think it’s genius in a way. It’s very filmic to have so many storylines going on and then bring them together at the end, and I think that’s what separates HBO and our show from a lot of the network stuff. The audience really gets to invest in the characters because its not as though you only have an arc over the course of one episode. It can be an entire season, or sometimes, two or three seasons.

 

You’re one of the largely Australian voice cast for Legend of the Guardians, Zack Snyder’s first film since Watchmen. What is he like when he’s just directing you for a vocal performance?
There’s still that attention to detail there. That’s one of the things I noticed the most, that no stone is left unturned. Actually, what’s great about working with Zack — and Alan has this quality, too — is that he lets people do their jobs. He’s not totalitarian and telling you how to do things, he’s letting you bring what you will to the project. That encourages people to shoot a little higher. He’s a young filmmaker, and to accomplish what he has by this age shows real maturity.

 

During your last hiatus, you shot a few Australian films. Is it a priority for you to go back and work there during your off-season?
Not a priority. It just actually so happened that the films I connected with that came my way, they were all Australian. This season, there’s no Australian ones. It’s more about the story and the script and the people that I’m working with than the location. It was really nice, though. This was the first time in eight years that I got to do so much work back home.

 

One of those films was Griff the Invisible, which sounds like kind of an interesting spin on the superhero genre.
I’m glad you did your research! For me, it’s still one of the top ten scripts I’ve ever read. It’s kind of about, who’s to say that the way someone chooses to live their life is any better than the way you live yours? I play kind of a social outcast — he doesn’t have the gift of the gab, by any means. He works in an office by day, and then at night, he transforms into this sort of superhero. As the script progresses and you start getting out of his point of view and looking at things from other people’s eyes, you see that maybe his world isn’t what he thinks it is. You’re left thinking, “Is he crazy? Is he really a superhero?”

 

It seems to me that there’s been a real boom in Australian filmmaking, with The Square, Animal Kingdom, and the films you’ve been working on. Am I just a latecomer in noticing this, or do you feel it, too?
No, you’re actually very perceptive. I think so, too. There used to be a real shortage of good Australian content — there was some good stuff happening in television, but in the film world, I really can’t put my finger on why it wasn’t [that great]. Maybe the strength of the Australian dollar sort of stopped a lot of the overseas productions from going there, too. There have always been great filmmakers there, but now they’re given a chance to express their voices. I mean, one of the films I just made, Red Hill, that was literally financed by the filmmaker putting up his own house as collateral. It’s those sort of risks that, if a film succeeds, are applauded. I think he’s signing with Tarantino’s agent right now.

 

What do you have planned for this hiatus?
The first project I have is called Knights of Badassdom, and that’s with Steve Zahn and Peter Dinklage. It’s like Shawn of the Dead meets Role Models, a real black comedy. The other one is called Truck Stop, and it’s far darker and a more dramatic piece, where I play, like, a pimp. Well, not like a pimp…I am a pimp!