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Behind the Scenes of “Blood Ties”

It’s a dark world, full of vampires and death. It’s populated with supernatural killers and reluctant heroes. It stars a female bisexual private investigator with failing vision and her 450-year-old male bisexual vampire sidekick. And it’s coming to television screens in the United States on March 11, when Lifetime debuts Blood Ties, a Canadian-made series based on the novels by out lesbian fantasy writer Tanya Huff.

But in the television series, the bisexuality of the two main characters may be as invisible as a vampire’s reflection in a mirror. AfterEllen.com spoke with Huff at her home in rural Ontario, Canada, and she was blunt about how the show addresses the bisexuality of two of the characters: “It isn’t addressed. It’s there, but it’s more behind the scenes; it’s more implied than actually out. … But everyone’s hopeful they can slide things past network.”

Last year, before Huff appeared at Gaylaxicon, an LGBT science fiction and fantasy convention, she asked the series’ producers about how they planned to handle the characters’ bisexuality. “I’d asked [series creator] Peter [Mohan] before I went, ‘You know, do we have an official line on the bisexuality?’ And he said, ‘Well, the official line in the writers’ room is that it exists; we’re just not telling network yet.'”

How does she feel about the de-queering of Blood Ties? “I think it’s unfortunate,” she said, “but I also think that, you know, that’s the way the cookie crumbles. It’s kind of what happens now. It’s a compromise you have to make when you get onto television at all. The fact that they’re doing adult heterosexuality is actually fairly amazing, given the general consensus that adult heterosexuality is defined as Desperate Housewives.”

Making the de-queering of Blood Ties harder – or perhaps easier – to swallow for lesbian fans is the casting of Christina Cox in the lead role of detective Vicki Nelson. Cox, who played the iconic lesbian role of Kim in Better Than Chocolate, was the hands-down choice for the role for both Huff and her wife, fantasy author Fiona Patton.

“Oh, I was thrilled,” said Huff. “They were showing me the audition tapes, and I was practically incoherent when they showed Christina’s. In fact, I used to watch [her when she was on the series] F/X. … and back then I used to say, ‘You know, in a few years she’d be a terrific Vicki.’ And so when I saw her audition tape. … she looked great with every single actor they put her up against. It was just incredible. And now I’ve seen her do it? I honestly cannot imagine anyone else in the part.”

Cox plays Vicki Nelson, an ex-cop who left the force when she started to lose her eyesight. She becomes a private investigator and is hired to solve a murder by the victim’s girlfriend, Coreen Fennel (Gina Holden). During her investigation, Vicki hooks up with a 450-year-old vampire named Henry Fitzroy (Kyle Schmid), the illegitimate son of Henry VIII.

“One of the things I love about Christina is how incredibly strong she is, and yet how incredibly sexy she is,” Huff said. “I’m a little crushed out here. She just totally brings a real female part to the role. She’s just so female. She reminds me a lot of my girl cat, actually, who totally rules the roost with a velvet paw, and I think Vicki is very much the same way.”

Ironically, Huff once told Challenging Destiny magazine that, while she’d like the money she could get from having one of her books made into a movie, “I think I could pass on seeing something I’d created, something that was a part of me, vivisected from the viewing public.”

“You grow, you change,” Huff said with a laugh when the quote was read back to her. “Actually, I have been totally thrilled with it. The guys from Kaleidoscope have been very open to having me be a part of it right from the beginning. And also, the other great thing about it is, right from the very beginning, everyone had said, ‘Oh, I read these books and I loved them,’ and I went from there. So it wasn’t a case of we saw a property we could make some money out of, it was, ‘We read these books and we loved them.’ So you gotta love that.”

Huff has been on the set a number of times, appeared in one episode as a hooker and, to her great joy, wrote one episode. “It’s called ‘Stone Cold,’ and … they’re hunting Medusa,” Huff said. “It’s very cool. And Lisa Rae plays Medusa. Man, she’s amazing.”

Although Lifetime has currently only announced plans to air 13 episodes of the series, 22 episodes of Blood Ties are being made by Canadian-based Kaleidoscope. Canadian viewers will get to see the full 22-episode series this fall; the entire series has also been sold to an undisclosed U.K. network.

“Lifetime has been wonderful,” Huff said. “They’re putting a lot of money into promotion. They’re taking a two-hour chunk of programming to air the pilot in one piece.”

Fans of the Blood books will find the series both familiar and unfamiliar. Huff said the pilot more or less follows the plot of Blood Price, but the rest of the season is made up of mostly original story lines. “By the end of the 22 episodes, they’re in the space in between books one and two. Now, if we get picked up for a second season … they’re thinking they might do the werewolf book, but it’s hard to say.”

Whether the series goes beyond the first season or not, Huff said it’s been the experience of a lifetime. “It has just been so much fun,” she said, “and a lot of that has come from the belief of the guys, right from the executive producers down to the gaffers, who believe in this world, who believe in this mythos I’ve created, and are really excited about putting it on-screen. I’ve had a couple of crew guys say they never watch shows they work on, because all they can think is, ‘Man, that light was in the wrong spot.’ This is the first show they’ve worked on in ages that they actually want to watch.”

Are any of Huff’s other books likely to find their way to the screen anytime soon? The answer is yes. “We’re having discussions about some of the other books,” she said. “It hasn’t gotten to the point where I feel I can actually say more than that, but there are discussions about that. And we will actually maintain the gay characters. In fact, we’ll probably gay them up a bit!”

Whether Blood Ties gets queered up later or stays de-gayed for the length of the run, its stellar cast and slick look guarantee a good time. And that’s just what Huff likes in a TV show. “I’m in there to be entertained,” she said, “and all I really require is witty repartee and a kick-ass woman. So I will guarantee you that in all of my books, there is witty repartee and at least one kick-ass woman.” She added, laughing, “And possibly a cool cat.”

 

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