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“True Blood” Promises a Lesbian Character — For Real This Time

True Blood, HBO’s hyper-sexualized, super-stylized vampire drama, returns this weekend with a promise to amp-up the lesbian content in its sophomore season – at least a little.

You might be wondering what, exactly, True Blood can build upon in terms of sapphic substance – after all, zero multiplied by anything equals zero. It’s a fair question.

First, let’s run down last season to bring everyone up to speed.

True Blood takes place in Bon Temps, a fictional town in Louisiana, where vampires, witches and shape-shifters mingle with humans. The creation of synthetic blood has allowed vampires to become regular citizens. Over the course of the season, Sookie Stackhouse (Anna Paquin), a telepathic waitress, meets and falls in love Bill Compton (Stephen Moyer), a rugged, handsome 175-year-old vampire. The main storylines concentrate on Bill and Sookie’s relationship, as well as the relationship between Sookie’s boss Sam (a shape-shifter) and Sookie’s best friend, Tara.

There’s a season-long murder investigation, centering around Sookie’s brother Jason; an explanation of a strict code of conduct for vampires; and a whole lot of blood-enhanced sex.

After the first two episodes aired last summer, True Blood executive producer Alan Ball told us we could definitely expect to see lesbians in the series, but after persistent viewing we began to wonder if, instead of lesbian, he actually meant “lesbian-ish.”

Or, as Kristen Bauer put it, characters who exude “a certain lesbian energy.” Bauer plays fan-favorite Pam, co-owner of the vampy bar Fangtasia. In the Southern Vampire Mysteries (the books True Blood is based on) Pam is labeled bisexual, with a leaning toward women. Late in the series she forms a relationship with Sookie’s roommate, a witch named Amelia Broadway. HBO, however, defines all vampires as “pansexual.” Maybe that’s why we never saw Pam’s lesbian energy take her further than the occasional lecherous stare at Sookie.

Sometimes screenwriters and networks choose not to use labels – or they prefer a catch-all label like “omnisexual” – so they won’t have to develop authentic lesbian or bisexual characters. If it doesn’t test well with the audience or focus groups, networks can just back the character out of her relationship with a woman, and hook her right back up with a man.

That’s probably not the case with True Blood. Alan Ball is openly gay, and has written several wonderful same-sex couples in his career. Plus, the show is on HBO. It certainly has the liberty to portray sex any way it pleases.

In fact, it looks like the second season plans to be a lot clearer about some of its characters’ sexual orientation.

Evan Rachel Wood has joined the cast to play Sophie-Anne Leclerq, the Lesbian Vampire Queen of Louisiana. How’s that for a label?

Wood played a lesbian/bisexual teen in the ABC drama Once and Again (1999-2002); quasi-bisexual teens in Thirteen (2003) and Pretty Persuasion (2005); and a lesbian in The Wrestler (2008).

Movieline caught up with Wood at the Young Hollywood Awards, where she was receiving the Young Hollywood Superstar award, earlier this week. They asked her to finally open up about her role on True Blood, and her passion for the project did not disappoint. She said:

Oh! I love being able to talk about that now. I’ve had to be so secretive about it. She’s 400-years-old. Her name’s Sophie-Anne, and she’s the Vampire Queen of Louisiana. There’s a queen for every state, and that’s hers. And she’s kind of a cross between Patrick Bateman and Paris Hilton. She’s crazy. She’s just crazy. And she’s a lesbian.

After living for a half-millennium, I guess Sophie-Anne knows what she wants!

Movieline followed up, asking Wood: “So who’s your lesbian love interest?”

Wood answered, “I haven’t really met the woman yet, but, well, she’s not really a love interest. I’m just fff… um, fffu… I just feed from her.”

You’ll have to fill in those first two “F”s yourself; I’ve watched the video a dozen times and I can’t quite make out whether Wood is stumbling or self-censoring.

We were able to get the casting side for the role of Sophie-Anne’s not-really-love-interest, Hadley (h/t to indie!) and it reads:

Sookie’s (Anna Paquin) cousin, this fresh-faced 20 something year old country girl is locked in a steamy clinch with the vampire queen (Evan Rachel Wood). The dazed Hadley has been seduced into a whole other world – but she still feels the pull of her human roots…3 speeches & 1 line, 3 scenes.

Wood confirmed that she’s only filmed two episodes thus far, but that the producers plan to make her a recurring character. At least three of those scenes will be filmed with fresh-faced, twenty-something Hadley (who has yet to be cast).

Because True Blood is based only loosely on the Sookie Stackhouse Series, there’s no way to tell whether or not Sophie-Anne’s story will follow the books. If so, the Vampire Queen will eventually fall for Hadley, but break it off because of a political marriage to the Vampire King of Arkansas.

While I’d hate to see Sophie-Anne forced into marrying a man, I do like the idea that she’s more than just a lesbian predator. That portrayal is almost as hackneyed as trying to pass off a lesbian character by having her wink at another woman.

True Blood‘s second season premieres this Sunday, June 14th on HBO. Evan Rachel Wood’s episodes will air toward the end of the season. We’ll keep you updated!

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