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News, Reviews & Commentary on Lesbian and Bisexual women in Entertainment and the Media

Evan Rachel Wood says her "True Blood" character isn't necessarily a lesbian

As a True Blood devotee and Evan Rachel Wood fan, I've been anxiously waiting this Sunday's episode in which she debuts as the lesbian vampire queen of Louisiana. However, it seems that the character, Sophie Ann, might not be as gay as we'd hoped.

Wood told E! Online "she's not necessarily a lesbian."

"Her human partner is a girl, but I'm pretty sure she goes both ways [laughs]," Wood said. "I think vampires are like that in general."

While vampires do have a history of being quite omnisexual, there has been quite a bit of hype surrounding Wood's character, and based on her own comments as well as those of others involved with the show, it's been reported that Sophie Ann was going to be a lesbian. But with only two episodes left of season two, it doesn't leave much development for Sophie Ann, and this could be why it is possible, as Wood says, that she could end up involved with another character on the show — including a male.

"Who do I have sex with? Well, I don't know if I am having sex with anyone yet, but I certainly have a steamy scene with someone that I don't think you'd really expect," Wood told E! "So it will be a little fun."

So even though it was assumed she would be hooking up with Hadley, Sookie's cousin played by Lindsey Haun, fans do not know what to expect from the show, which is pretty typical and yet, somehow a little confusing.

Psychopractor's picture

I'm stoaked, regardless.

Huge True Blood fan here. Does she get it on with a guy? Does she get it on with a girl? Frankly makes no difference to me (although the latter would be a plus). This show is so freaking addicting. I just can't wait to see what happens with the end of the season!

 

 

http://psychopractor.blogspot.com/

Jei's picture

evan looks fab!

Some more promo photos (click for HQ size):

 

 

 

 

Pheme's picture

ooh - let's speculate:  is

ooh - let's speculate:  is that Hadley in the cowgirl outfit, or some stranger we don't know yet?
Paraphase's picture

In the second picture the

In the second picture the lady with her feet in the pool has a bite on her inner right thigh, which might explain the leg dripping blood at the end of the last episode.
catekat's picture

I wanna do bad things with you

  I've just started watching True Blood on FX over here in the UK. I am totally in love with it. I get so excited before i watch it, more so than any other show since Buffy i think.

Loved Anna Paquin anyway, but i think shes awesome in this. Also, i love the accents, they make melt. So far i've not looked ahead online, but i dont know how long i'm going to be able to keep that up!

The theme song by Jace Everett has me hooked too, just love everything about this show! 

God have mercy on the man who doubts what he's sure of  -  Springsteen

Penny Winterr's picture

Lesbian Vampire Queen

I'm bummed that ERW is making such a late debut in the season.  

As an aside, we don't really have titles here in the US, and I would like to have LVQ after my name, just like those knighted in the UK do.  It's only fair.

"Hi, I'm Penny, Lesbian Vampire Queen.  And you are?"

That would rock socks.

 

Aya's picture

Wouldn't surprise me If they made her Bi

Lesbian just seemed too good to be true.  But Evan herself doesn't know what's going on, so I'll just wait until the dust settles.
barietta's picture

No surprise to me

As I watch the show and am a major vampire freak, I am not surprised that they are making her bi because in vampire lore, sex is intertwined and it mostly a bisexual vibe. I don't mind much because I love this show a lot. 
Natalie's picture

The books

In the novels that the show is based on, the Queen has a preference for women (i.e. Hadley). However, she has had relationships with men in the past and she has a complicated/sexual/passionate/weird relationship with Andre, a vampire that she made who has served the Queen for hundreds of years.

So, this does not surprise me that much but I do hope that they focus on her "gay" side more! 

Babyjune's picture

By the book...

Yep, from the books we do have an idea that Sophie plays both ways, although she prefers women.

I'm just glad ERW is giving the character life. I can't wait for the next episode... =)

**

http://wickedtwins.wordpress.com/

kallisti's picture

Vampire history

vampires do have a history of being quite omnisexual

Actually, they have a history of being repulsive creatures of evil, but Hollywood ignored that. Sexy vampires are a pretty recent phenomenon.

(I suppose John Polidori began the Cult of the Sexy Vampire with his 1819 short story The Vampyre, but film played the larger part in popularising such characters.)

As may be obvious, I don't watch True Blood. :)

falderol's picture

Good point. Though, I would

Good point.

Though, I would also annex Baudelaire's The Flowers of Evil and Le Fanu's Carmilla(especially Carmilla) as popularly romanticizing the sexy female vampire. Do you know of any eariler works that did so?
Mesocyclone's picture

I don't know of any earlier...

sexy vampire stories, but Dracula (1897) was also a pretty sexy dude.  That story is often credited with being the birthplace of the modern concept of vampires.  I, for one, prefer vampires of the Anne Rice and True Blood variety, to that of Nosferatu.   

Am I the only sour cherry on the fruitstand?

kallisti's picture

Victorian vampires

Er, no. As far as I know, The Vampyre is the earliest. Count Dracula was a bit sexy, but the sexual element was very much subtextual, perhaps even unintentional. He could have been sexier, frankly. ("His face was a strong -- a very strong -- aquiline, with high bridge of the thin nose and peculiarly arched nostrils; with lofty domed forehead, and hair growing scantily round the temples, but profusely elsewhere. His eyebrows were very massive, almost meeting over the nose, and with bushy hair that seemed to curl in its own profusion. The mouth, so far as I could see it under the heavy moustache, was fixed and rather cruel looking, with peculiarly sharp white teeth; these protruded over the lips, whose remarkable ruddiness showed astonishing vitality in a man of his years. For the rest, his ears were pale and at the tops extremely pointed; the chin was broad and strong, and the cheeks firm though thin. The general effect was one of extraordinary pallor.")

The Flowers of Evil was published in 1857, Carmilla in 1872.

Personally, Count Orlok (Nosferatu) is by far my favourite vampire. I find ridiculously pretty characters a little boring. *coughTwilightcough* I found Anne Rice's a little boring after reading a few of her books... outstayed their welcome slightly, I think.

thewritersparadox's picture

The sexuality of vampires

Polidori's "The Vampyre," comes out of a tradition of vampire stories, and vampire-like tales, such as Coleridge's 1797 work, "Christabel," where a vampire-like woman tries to seduce another woman.  There are some major sexual undertones and an anxiety about same-sex relationships in that tale and Gertrude is generally considered to be a vampiric figure.  And Polidori's vampire was in some part based on Lord Byron, who was also a very transgressive sexual figure. 

 

True, Dracula's appearance doesn't seem all that sexy to us, but that's likely because he was written to resemble the actual historical Romanian figure Vlad the Impaler whom he was partially based on.   Even so, I would argue there IS a lot of sexuality in "Dracula."  Vampires are rooted in the idea of sexual transgression-- they are all about penetration.  Dracula seems interested in biting (i.e. penetrating) both Jonathan Harker as well as women, which adds to a certain queerness of his character. And there is definitely something sexual about the exchange of blood required to "turn" someone, as in the scene with Mina Harker.   I think part of the allure and terror of the vampire has always been rooted in this idea of sexual transgression.  Even the slow way in which Dracula operated-- he didn't just kill his victim, it was more like a slow seduction until he turned you.  And there was certainly something sexual about his vampire brides.  Vampires' allure also rests in what they can give: immortality, and the freedom to act and behave without morals, restrictions, or repression, which in addition to the violence includes complete sexual freedom to sleep with who you want, man or woman, without guilt or consequence. 

 I agree that the way vampires are portrayed these days is often too romanticized and ridiculous.  That bothers me, too.  But I would still argue they have been sexualized for a very very long time.  

Shazam's picture

Aw shucks.

I was really excited for a complete lesbian vampire on True Blood, but I'll still be on the look-out regardless.
Loren the Strange's picture

Even Rachel Wood...

Would probably add to the awesomeness that already is True Blood. The show is addictive as it is, adding her would just be the cherry on top of the wonderful sundae. 

Whether she'd play a Lesbian or not, just the fact that she is on the show makes me go a little ga-ga. However, the lesbian part is a slight plus... well it's a major plus.

Ediana's picture

She's a lesbian but it is complicated.

Trish, if the show sticks close to the book the character is, for all intents and purposes, a lesbian.  There is a complexity to the Queen's position which is why Wood is probably being careful how she explains.  It has a lot to do with power and treaties.  It's one of the more compelling segments in books 6 to 8.  The love between Hadley and the Queen is amongst the most powerful and moving parts in the books. 
dilo's picture

Can't wait!!!

Finally this sunday, i can't wait!!! I love ERW and i'm addicted to Tru blood...just the perfect combination!
lscole2425's picture

This is the best vampire

This is the best vampire show since buffy.  I just bought the books 1-7 so at least I have something to hold me over after this season ends.
Candice's picture

Shady. 

Shady. 
turkish's picture

This Isn't Really News to Anybody who has Read the Books

Do a Google search on Sophie Ann next time. In the books, she does have a relationship with Hadley but as said earlier she also has a complicated relationship with Andre and her other "children" who she sometimes had sex with. And marries Peter, the King of Arkansas for political reasons. When getting your hopes up it's always good to fact check your information. I have a feeling Alan Ball will stick with a good portion of the Queen's original story and FYI Sophie Ann will be back next season.
SapphicDay's picture

Woods revelation shouldn't be a surprise because.....

I posted sereral times already that vampires adhere to no particular sexual orientation, I posted in my comment on AfterEllen concerning a review of Lesbian Vampire Killers and in my personal review of Lesbian Vampire Killers: So Bad It's Umm BAD on my blog (http://hypervision.blogspot.com May 23, 2009) that there is no such thing as a lesbian vampire.  I wrote that vampires are the (un)dead and as a result have no sexuality.  I also wrote that vampire mythoilogy has vampires doing who and whatever necessary to secure blood.  Therefore for me Woods revelation is moot and Bendix's commentary on a subject that many of you already have knowledge of is nothing more than redundant.

Technology Will Lead To The Demise Of Civilization As We Know It. 

Neisha's picture

In true blood vampires enjoy

In true blood vampires enjoy having sex, so they have sexuality (and in book, sexual preferences). You know, in the real world there's no such thing like vampires, so ideas of one author will be true only in his or her story.
Pheme's picture

This is a site for all queer

This is a site for all queer women, not just gay women, right?  So why does this article give off the vibe that it's a huge disappointment that she's going to be more on the bisexual side of things than 100% gay? 

 

I really hope it's only because that usually means that we'll probably only get to see her with men, rather than implying that bisexual representation isn't just as valuable or legitimate...

Janis Bing's picture

Bi and sort of disappointed too

As a bisexual girl I can only agree that it shouldn't be such a huge disappointment for people to receive this kind of news, after all we still are "lgbt" people. I however can understand some of the frustration expressed in this thread, for lesbians get very little to no representation at all in the media, whereas there's been kind of a recrudescence of bisexual / pansexual women on TV lately. It's gotta be annoying at some point that under no circumstances will writers and producers show women who do not like men :/

________________________

"I know it hurts. But it's life, and it's real. And sometimes it fucking hurts, but it's life, and it's sorta all we have." Garden State

ljr's picture

I'm bi and still disappointed by this news.

I don't think the item is saying because she'll be bi it's less interesting now. But we all know what being bi on tv generally means, it means they are basically bi in name only and date men except when it sweeps week.

I would like more bi characters to act like real bisexual woman, which means they will date women as much as men. It would be nice to be represented right on tv for once.

Oh well she is bi in the books so I can't really complain. I just hope she is allowed to really be involved with Hadley and not just male vampires.

Melissa Hsu's picture

boohoo! obviously they

boohoo!

obviously they couldnt make her gay!

even though vampires usually dont stick to one sexual preference. still!

and since she said we will probably be surprised, that tells me its probably some dude! booo.....TYPICAL!

Pheme's picture

Minor spoiler

minor spoiler below

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I saw a preview of the entire season, and I know that the first time we see the queen is while Bill walks in on her while she's with (well, feeding) on a woman.  Couldn't see the woman's face so I have no idea who it is, but she had some suggestive bite marks on her upper things, which bodes well for us at least at the beggining of things.  :)

LL Cool A's picture

NO BILL

I know one thing... She better not be doin Bill!!!! I'm gonna need some lez action thank you.  I don't even care who with!.... Wow i sound like a perv...who cares!
jgotmilk's picture

Hell yeah!

I'm right there with you!

I don't care what her label is. She better be having sex with women on the show! That's the only reason I started watching the show in the first place is because I thought there's was going to be some lesbian/bi action.

 Yes, the show is good, but I want to see some gayness damn it!!! 

Morgan S.M.'s picture

The books.

Well in the books she has a few male "bodyguards" that are her lovers as well. But in the books shes also about 1100 years old, so its more than likely she doesnt really care anymore and will sleep with anything she finds sexy.
aksala's picture

would have been cool but...

I'm a real True Blood addict.  I could care less whether Evan's character is a lezzie or not.  I'll be watching either way.  I'm tuning in to see what Lafayette's doin' anyway.

I love him!!

 

"Be who you are and say what you feel,
because those who mind don't matter
and those who matter don't mind.
" ~Dr. Seuss

Lauren's picture

  i'm sure people will be

  i'm sure people will be quite happy with happens with her character cause hadley and sophie-anne play a big part in the books and the queen is already gonna be in season 3.

 

Lauren

 

 

 

Angela's picture

lesbian or not

It will be one hell of a show to watch now that evan is involved!
Hotsprings's picture

Read in the paper

She is going to have the same capabilities to read others minds like Sookie. I can't quote verbatim from the paper but Evan said something like...

"There maybe a connection with me and Sookie because of that in the future"

maybe she'll seduce Sookie...

Melissa Hsu's picture

that would an early christmas gift

:) well, good seduction is a *mind* game anyway...
Pheme's picture

Do you know what would be

Do you know what would be even better?  The Queen with Tara.