Carrie Preston talks about playing against Todd Lowe this Season and her directorial debut for "That's what she said".
"I love playing with Todd Lowe. He's so great and he's so present and he and I have the same work ethic," she gushed. "This is a great season for him and so it was really great to see the evolution of his character, to go a little bit into his past. I really enjoyed playing in those scenes with him that were more emotional and more realistic."
With all the not-so-realistic things happening in Bon Temps and a large ensemble of characters, there's a lot to keep track of in the True Blood world, which can be daunting for an actor given the fast pace of television. How does she keep it all straight?
Carrie explains that while she reads all the scripts, she focuses primarily on what's happening with Arlene, so the show as a whole is actually easier for her to follow when it airs. "It's more confusing on the page," she said. "It really is helpful to see the finished product."
Arlene may be Carrie's most notable role, but she's a versatile and experienced actress, who developed her interest in the craft at a young age. "I grew up in Macon, Georgia and my older brother John was doing plays in community theater when we were kids," she explained. "I was watching him do these plays and I thought, 'I'll have to try that too.' I started doing plays when I was eight or nine years old, and I just became what they call a lifer. I wanted to do it all the time, and so I did."
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Carrie Preston who plays Arlene Fowler talks about ghosts and whether Arlene was forgiving LaFayette in last weeks episode when the spirit inhabited his body and stole her baby.
Has your story line this season changed your opinion of ghosts? Do you believe in them?
I do think there’s a spiritual element in the world, yes. Have I experienced a ghost firsthand, per se? No. I guess I’ve experienced feelings or some kind of a presence. But I certainly haven’t seen any kind of transparent entity running around. And they certainly don’t fly in my mouth the way they do to Lafayette.
At the end of last episode, it seemed like Arlene had already forgiven Lafayette. Is that going to last?
I think for Arlene, she’s just relieved to have the child back; any ambivalent feeling she had about the child went away once that fire happened and she realized just how much she loved him and was going to do whatever she could to protect him. What I think has been interesting about my character this season is it also kind of taps into every parent’s fear that they might be raising some kind of demon child. Not a literal one — but, What if I don’t know how to raise this child? Or what if this child winds up having problems that I can’t handle?
Right. Somebody has to be the parent of a serial killer.
[Laughs.] No doubt.
As a redheaded source of comic relief on TV, to what extent are you influenced by Lucille Ball?
Obviously Lucy is amazing and brilliant, but the redhead who inspires me more is Carol Burnett. When I was a kid and watched her show, I thought she was the most tremendous character actor ever. I kinda wanted to be her. But it obviously wasn’t because of the red hair.
Having been raised in Georgia, can you confirm your co-star Nelsan Ellis’s claim that women down South call each other “hooker”?
Right! Yeah! We don’t have the “hooker” so much in Georgia [laughs]. That’s more of an Alabama thing.
Can you tell us about meeting your husband, Michael Emerson?
We met at the very end of 1994. I had just gotten out of Juilliard to do the Alabama Shakespeare Festival. I saw him in a play — they were doing, of all things, A Christmas Carol. And there he was, playing like four or five different characters. Every time he came onstage, he had a different accent. I just was taken with this guy putting so much effort and talent into A Christmas Carol, and making it so watchable. I turned to my mom and said, “You see that guy? That guy is brilliant.”
And since you were in Alabama, he called you “hooker.”
[Laughs.] Maybe behind my back!
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According to E! online Alan Ball is definitely trying to find a place for Carrie Preston's (Arlene Fowler) husband Michael Emerson, formally known as Ben Linus on True Blood. Hmmm i think he would definitely make a good creepy Vampire or maybe one of the cult members of Fellowship of the sun?"Ben Linus in Bon Temps—can you imagine?!
As a matter of fact, Lost's Michael Emersoncan imagine such things. And so can True Blood sire Alan Ball, so there.
"When I see Alan, he always says 'We have to find something for you,'" Michael tells us, fresh off his much-deserved Emmy nomination last week. "I'm delighted to hear him say it."
And here's where the fun starts. More precisely, here's where we mapped out the perfect game plan for Michael's (fingers crossed!) gig on the show—alongside his lovely wife, Carrie Preston, of course...
Since each season of True Blood has brought us a new big baddie—maenad, serial killer, etc.—we pegged Michael as season four's badass.
"Yes, some new kind of supernatural creature," he tells us. "Or [I could play] just an everyday humanoid. I could be a pizza delivery man who's torn apart by werewolves."
Um, yeah, or not. Maybe we can just get him to be a Merlotte's regular so he and Arlene can share some screen time.
Needless to say, "I would be more than happy to do something on that show if they have the right part and I'm available. It would be a treat."
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Carrie Preston who plays the fiery red head Arlene, talked to pastemagazine.com to talk about her acting career and how its been such a good year for her. Hollywood is littered with young starlets who come out of nowhere, land a big role and suddenly get their images splayed across gossip pages and men’s magazines. But Carrie Preston’s ascent has been slow and steady. The 42-year-old has made the most of every role—first bit parts in films like Transamerica and The Stepford Wives, then guest spots on TV shows like Arrested Development and Sex and the City and, more recently, as Arlene Fowler on HBO’s vampire drama True Blood.
In her latest film, That Evening Sun, she steals scene after scene as Ludie Choat, a long-suffering farmwife trying to survive on the former homestead of an aging Tennessee farmer (Hal Holbrook) who’s having trouble letting go. The film adapts one of Southern author William Gay’s short stories, and gives Georgia native Preston a chance to return to her roots.
“When I became a classically trained actor, I lost the accent,” she says. “And then my first major Hollywood movie was My Best Friend’s Wedding where I was playing a Southerner. So you can take the girl out of Georgia, but you can’t take the Georgia out of the girl. I’m glad because I like being able to call it up when I need it. I think it’s nice to have the luxury to distinguish between different types of accents, different types of class, you know, different characters, whereas a lot of actors in Hollywood just sort of put on this Tennessee Williams thing.”Read more here...
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