The popular HBO series True Blood takes a bite into the third season with a new cast member, Kevin Alejandro. Windy City Times found out why Alejandro doesn't suck.
Windy City Times: Hi, Kevin. You are currently filming the show True Blood. Are you shooting all the time now?
Kevin Alejandro: Yes, sir. It is crunch time. We are getting close to the season finale.
WCT: So tell me how it ends.
KA: Very, very well.
WCT: I know you can't tell me. I tried to call you last week; they said you were up all night.
KA: Sometimes the hours are tough. We wrapped at seven in the morning then I had to go do ADR work from that evening at seven until 11:00 a.m.
WCT: Wow, those are vampire hours. What's ADR mean?
KA: It is doing the audio, like looping.
WCT: Tell me how the experience working with the TB gang has been for you?
KA: It is so great, man. Everyone is really talented, as you probably already know. First of all, it is intimidating walking into a show that is already established and has such a fan base. There are all these great characters, I try to step in and go toe to toe with everybody. I am trying to have an equally intriguing character. Once I got over that initial hard part it has been awesome.
WCT: Did the writers give you some meat to work with?
KA: Yeah, it is a very good role. There is not a whole lot that I can tell you about it but he is the love interest for Lafayette. Working with Nelsan Ellis, who plays him, has been fun. There are some interesting things that the writers have created. I find out script by script what I am going to do and what direction that they are going. I know there is something cool going on with my character. I just don't know what it is yet.
WCT: You are Alfre Woodard's caregiver at the beginning of the new season.
KA: Yes, she plays Lafayette's mother. I do take care of her. She is a trip. She is so poised, intelligent and beautiful. The character she plays in the show is, I don't want to say opposite but she is a different woman. It is great to watch her work. She is so professional. She gets into her character and has to go someplace else to reach wherever she needs to be in the scene. When they call "action" she can't just go, she has to take her moment and go somewhere in her head.
WCT: Sounds interesting. Did you study acting?
KA: I did. I went to the University of Texas in Austin. I was part of the BFA program.
WCT: Then you started auditioning and got in all these shows?
KA: Yeah, I kind of stumbled into it really. I did high school theater and my teacher there encouraged me. It helped me get into college. I took the faculty's advice there and here I am.
WCT: Well, you have done pretty well. You have been on TNT's Southland for how long?
KA: I have been on it since the beginning, since the pilot. This is considered our third season. We had two mini seasons. The first consisted of seven episodes including the pilot. On the second season we were dropped by ABC. Now TNT has picked us up for 12 or 13 more.
WCT: What part did you play in the show Heroes?
KA: I was the shapeshifter. It was a guest-star role. I ended up decapitated. They pulled my head out of a box.
WCT: You are like a chameleon because it is hard to recognize you from role to role.
KA: I get that a lot. Just the other day I was outside talking to someone for a few hours and she said she didn't even realize that I was the guy from Ugly Betty. She said," I cried when you died!" The entire time were talking she had no idea that I was the same guy.
WCT: That's an actor's dream to have that quality. You even played a gay hustler in HBO's Big Love.
KA: That was my first introduction to playing a risqué kind of character. Usually before that I played the tough guy or the cholo, the guy who burns his wife and stabs his baby. That role actually helped to open up people's eyes to show a little bit of difference in me of what I can do.
WCT: You are straight, not gay. Correct?
KA: Yes, I am straight. I have a wife and a baby boy.
WCT: I think this show on True Blood will be a big move for you.
KA: You never really know going from project to project. I was always a fan of the show before I got the audition. I was so excited to even read for the role. Now to be with such classy people as Alan Ball; he is a ridiculously great man. I am so happy to be working with this show.
WCT: I look forward to seeing you in the part.
KA: Let me know what you think!
True Blood airs its new season June 13. Catch up on the second season of the bloodsuckers by ordering the second-season DVD or Blu-ray at HBO.com .
