'True Blood' season 2 film crew takes over Clinton, La., then heads for New Orleans
HBO'True Blood' stars Stephen Moyer and Anna Paquin took a break from season 2 location shooting in Clinton, La., to visit New Orleans.
Clinton, La. --
Standing in for fictional downtown Bon Temps, La., the blocks surrounding the East Feliciana Parish Courthouse looked like they'd been hit by a lusty tornado over the weekend.
The steamy HBO drama "True Blood" came to Clinton for several days of location shooting, and the town's streets (and trees) were strategically strewn with trash but mostly clothing, for a saucy storyline to play out in a few weeks on the show's 10th episode of the current season.
Saturday, shooting started at about noon and concluded after 2 a.m. Sunday. Wilting heat and humidity prevailed, broken occasionally by light rain.
Series leads Stephen Moyer (who portrays vampire/heartthrob/173-year-old Confederate Army veteran Bill Compton), Academy Award winner Anna Paquin (who plays Sookie Stackhouse and is Moyer's love interest on and off screen) and Ryan Kwanten (Sookie's brother Jason) were on hand for scenes as several dozen curious locals watched on from an out-of-frame.
The Louisiana-set drama, based on a series of popular vampire novels by Charlaine Harris, is mostly shot on back lots and soundstages in the Los Angeles area. Some location work for its first season was done around the Shreveport area. Scenes for three upcoming season-two episodes were shot over the weekend.
And -- incredibly, amazingly, appropriately - an ailing Clinton bat owes its life to "True Blood's" visit.
The tiny animal fell from a tree near the courthouse as the production was preparing to shoot a scene.
Crew medic Holly O'Quin, whose day job is nurse at Ochsner Health Center, leapt into action.
O'Quin called her brother, Jeff Galpin, a New Orleans stunt coordinator and animal wrangler for film-and-TV productions, who recommended that the baby bat be nursed back to health by feeding it regular doses of evaporated milk and egg whites, which O'Quin administered by needle-less syringe. Paquin, among many others on set, took great interest in the bat's recovery. (O'Quin reported Monday that the bat had recovered enough to fly away at the end of the production day.)
Dave Walker/The Times-Picayune'True Blood' crew medic Holly O'Quin tends to an ailing bat on-set in Clinton.
Sunday, on a day off from shooting, Moyer, Paquin and several production officials made a tourist trip to New Orleans. The visit culminated with a large dinner party at Galatoire's. (Deborah Ann Woll, who plays vampire conscript Jessica Hamby on the show, joined the group there.)
A couple of days earlier, Moyer made the drive into the city from the production's Baton Rouge base to wander the streets of the French Quarter - by himself - shooting pictures.
Yes, Bill Compton walked among us, only occasionally recognized.
"I saw a coffeehouse in a courtyard, and I wandered in there," said Moyer, a native of England, about his first-ever trip to New Orleans. "The coffee looked great. And sitting at the table were two New Orleans mimes, dressed in silver, having a coffee break.
"They were talking (but) went into mime (poses) as I walked past."
Moyer got his coffee and came back to the table and offered a gratuity in exchange for photographing the scene.
"This is the only thing she said," said Moyer of one of the mimes, approximating her thick "True Blood"-homage accent. " 'Anything for you, Bill Compton.'"
Article by: Dave Walker - The Times Picayune
Don't you just love it!! I sure wish I was at that coffee house.....Darn!
Dawn Chartier
www.dawnchartier.com
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