Media Blvd Posts Transcript Of Discussion With True Blood's Alan Ball
November/03/08 15:46 Filed in: Off-Site
Media Blvd has posted the transcript of a teleconference with Alan Ball that took place in September. I had the luck to take part in this event and it includes some of my own questions, including:
"When you came back from the strike, did you look at anything differently?
Alan> I don’t remember there being a fresh look. We immediately jumped back into breaking stories because of how far we would have been, had their not been a strike. I’m a person who feels that I really need to be organized, and I really need to make sure that the director and the actors and all the department heads get a script, 10 days before we start shooting. I just think it’s really disrespectful not to do that. Also, I can’t deal with the stress of everything being at the last moment. I remember that we had to hit the ground running and jump right back into it, and we had to do some re-shoots because the production had gone on and continued to shoot episodes for which scripts had existed, while the writers who serve as the on-set producers were not on the set to make sure that everything was going the way it should be. It’s been such a crazy year. There may have been a moment where we were like, “Hey, during the strike, I thought of this. Maybe we should do that.” But, I don’t really remember.
Do you have a favorite character that you personally enjoy writing for?
Alan> I really enjoy writing for all of them, but I definitely enjoy Jason and Lafayette (Nelsan Ellis). I think they’re really funny, and I just find them so entertaining, for completely different reasons. Jason is such a little boy, trapped in a man’s body, and he does the stupidest things. And, Lafayette has created this reality for himself that is 100% his own. He’s part performance artist, part shaman. Words fail me with him. And, that has a lot to do with Nelsan and the way he approaches the role. Having said that, I really enjoy writing for all the characters."
Full Article:
http://www.mediablvd.com/magazine/the_news/celebrity/alan_ball_on_making_true_blood_200811021391.html
"When you came back from the strike, did you look at anything differently?
Alan> I don’t remember there being a fresh look. We immediately jumped back into breaking stories because of how far we would have been, had their not been a strike. I’m a person who feels that I really need to be organized, and I really need to make sure that the director and the actors and all the department heads get a script, 10 days before we start shooting. I just think it’s really disrespectful not to do that. Also, I can’t deal with the stress of everything being at the last moment. I remember that we had to hit the ground running and jump right back into it, and we had to do some re-shoots because the production had gone on and continued to shoot episodes for which scripts had existed, while the writers who serve as the on-set producers were not on the set to make sure that everything was going the way it should be. It’s been such a crazy year. There may have been a moment where we were like, “Hey, during the strike, I thought of this. Maybe we should do that.” But, I don’t really remember.
Do you have a favorite character that you personally enjoy writing for?
Alan> I really enjoy writing for all of them, but I definitely enjoy Jason and Lafayette (Nelsan Ellis). I think they’re really funny, and I just find them so entertaining, for completely different reasons. Jason is such a little boy, trapped in a man’s body, and he does the stupidest things. And, Lafayette has created this reality for himself that is 100% his own. He’s part performance artist, part shaman. Words fail me with him. And, that has a lot to do with Nelsan and the way he approaches the role. Having said that, I really enjoy writing for all the characters."
Full Article:
http://www.mediablvd.com/magazine/the_news/celebrity/alan_ball_on_making_true_blood_200811021391.html
