There Will Be Blood

This month, when the second season of True Blood begins, there will be a new, Bible-thumping vampire fighter in town. He’s played by 27-year-old actor and Baton Rouge native Wes Brown. The Parkview Baptist and LSU alum signed on to the series earlier this year for a six-episode arc.

With its Deep South setting and Creole patois, True Blood might have been considered a surprise hit if it had not been written and conceived by Alan Ball, the man behind every episode of another dark HBO hit, the funeral home-set Six Feet Under, and Oscar-winner American Beauty. Ball is openly gay and a veteran TV writer. Often his work examines issues of gender, sexuality and prejudice.

He has set True Blood in a fictional, Southern Gothic version of Louisiana just a few years after vampires have gone public and “come out of the coffin.” Oscar winner Anna Paquin stars as an outspoken waitress at a roadhouse in Bon Temps, La. Paquin’s character can read the minds of all of her customers, until the small town’s first vampire breezes through the door. Turns out Paquin cannot glean thoughts from the brains of bloodsuckers, making her all the more attracted to Stephen Moyers’ hunky Dracula on the bayou.

While filmed mostly in Los Angeles, the production did relocate to the Baton Rouge and New Orleans areas for several weeks of location shooting back in February. True Blood is clever, but not too much so for its own good. It is campy, but with a depth and style that lets the show’s imagination run constantly at a dead sprint.

“I tried to come up with a non-cliché answer, but the cliché is correct: Alan [Ball] is a TV and film genius,” Brown says. “Everything in our scripts is simple and to the point, but intriguing. There’s backstory. He’s just the best at what he does.”

While the concept certainly is supernatural, True Blood places more emphasis on the natural than the super. And that’s where Brown’s new character steps in for Season 2. Brown plays Luke McDonald, an ex-football player from Texas A&M who has devoted his post-gridiron career to serving God.

“He becomes obsessed with this vampire community,” Brown says. “He’s like the anti-vampire, and his church becomes totally focused on it.”

It’s a juicy part on one of TV’s most talked-about new shows, and for Brown, it’s a big break. He didn’t grow up starring in all the school plays or making short movies with his dad’s camcorder. Brown was more into sports. Then at LSU he was required to take a theater class and inadvertently had his first taste of acting. He calls it a “complete accident.” Brown had done some print modeling for extra cash—driving to Houston and Dallas for photo shoots—but had never been on a film set before he began appearing in local commercials and independent films.

“There is just something about Wes that is very charismatic,” says local filmmaker Travis Hedges Williams, who directed Brown in 2004’s The Lady Is a Doll. “His presence added a lot to our film.”

Brown spent the summer between his junior and senior years in Los Angeles looking for work in national commercials. His local agent set him up with an agency in L.A., and he landed a spot for Reebok. It was Brown’s first taste of the Hollywood machine, and he says he feels blessed to have signed with an agent he can trust.

“I really found out that signing with an agent isn’t about experience; it’s the agent deciding to invest in you,” Brown says. “Bottom line is they think you’re a good investment. Brad Pitt had nothing on his resume at one point, right?”

But Brown’s resume was about to double. He returned to LSU for his last two semesters, then in 2005 moved back to L.A. permanently. That year he appeared opposite Rob Lowe in the Lifetime series Beach Girls, then took small roles in two true-life sports dramas: We Are Marshall and Glory Road. The latter brought him back to Louisiana for his portrayal of a Kentucky Wildcat basketball star by the name of Pat Riley. Playing the future NBA coach put him on set with Jon Voight, who played famed Kentucky coach Adolf Rupp.

“No acting school or class can teach what I learned on Glory Road listening to [producer] Jerry Bruckheimer and Jon Voight have conversations about a scene,” Brown says. “Just seeing the elite of the industry at work and being a part of it was invaluable. Once, Voight asked me what I thought about a scene, and I thought, ‘What does it matter what I think? You’re Jon Voight!’”

An appearance on CSI: Miami and a few independent films followed, but True Blood is Brown’s first shot at extended and widespread exposure. Brown admits he hadn’t seen the show before auditioning with Alan Ball, whom he did know by reputation. Brown has never had HBO and rarely watches TV, but that didn’t mean he was nervous.

“I really just tried to go in, shake his hand and focus on the material,” Brown says. “Just walk in and do the best I could.”

That casual approach has spilled over on set, where Brown says he and his castmates have bonded and share a comfort level that makes performing easier. Brown was originally scheduled to appear in six episodes, but says he has no idea what Ball has planned. “That could change for the better,” Brown says. “Season 2 is going to be great. It has a lot more layers. It’s more colorful. But, see, it ends on kind of a cliffhanger.”

While Brown is looking for good material, he also writes his own. He has written and will star in a new film Now and at the Hour that he hopes will shoot in Baton Rouge and New Orleans this fall. It is one of three scripts he has in the can.

“If the geography works out, I’d like to shoot everything I write back in my home state,” Brown says. “I want to create as much film infiltration in Louisiana as I can and keep this ball rolling.”

Season 2 of True Blood debuts June 14. ?hbo.com/trueblood