Stephen Moyer at the HBO premiere of The Pacific

PLAYBOY: We’re about to see you in your third season of playing Bill Compton, the hot-blooded, brooding, reformed 174-year-old Southern vampire on True Blood. Having shared many of the show’s steamiest sex scenes with Anna Paquin, who plays Sookie Stackhouse, a vampire-loving telepathic waitress, what can you tell us about human-on-undead sex?
MOYER: Unlike werewolves, who are very hot, vampires are steely cold, so sex with the undead isn’t going to get hot and crispy. There’s no heartbeat, no adrenaline rush as you get close to the moment. But in terms of speed and timing, you may be able to have sex that lasts for days. Vampire sex is muscular and physical, so it could be tiring for a human guy to have sex with a female vampire. I often think a lot of women’s attraction to vampires is based on the fact that vampires come from centuries ago, from eras of chivalry and courtly virtues. So it’s about being treated like a lady but being physically overtaken in the sack.

PLAYBOY: Is the sexual dynamic you just described anything like the one you have in real life with Paquin, whom you met, fell in love with and became engaged to since the two of you started doing True Blood in 2008?
MOYER: She doesn’t pull punches. I’ll take 74,000 words to express an emotion because I fear hurting someone’s feelings. Anna will do it in three words. But we trust each other so implicitly that there’s never anything hurtful; it always comes from a loving place. It’s not as though people I’ve been with before haven’t been loving, but with Anna it’s just about pure trust, on camera and off. I have never trusted anybody like I trust Anna.

PLAYBOY: Before you two went public with your relationship, many critics, bloggers and online fans commented on your on-screen chemistry. When did you realize the chemistry wasn’t merely on camera?
MOYER: During the show’s first season I had to go back to London and she went back to New York. I wish I had bought shares in Skype, because we Skyped every night for three or four hours. It felt as though part of me had been removed when Anna and I were apart.

PLAYBOY: Anna recently declared her bisexuality in a public service announcement for gay rights. Were you taken by surprise?
MOYER: I’ve never been in a relationship before in which, literally within the first three days, all the cards were laid out. I knew who she was when I met her; she knows everything about me as well. It wasn’t something that was kept from me. I condone what she has done 100 percent, and it’s her business to talk about it, not mine. We talked about it in quite a lot of detail. It doesn’t change anything. I’m proud of who she is.

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True Blood News and Alexskarsgard.net have teamed up for a fun and exiting contest!

Join us as we battle the Viking lovers in a Looziana Grudge Match charity throw down! We have some items coming up for the fundraiser that you’ll love, but that’s not the best part: Stephen Moyer and Alexander Skarsgård have both agreed to wear a T-shirt designed by the winning actor and their team – and be photographed wearing it! Therefore, if you don’t want to see your beloved Bill Compton (Stephen Moyer) walking around in a Mrs. Skarsgård T-shirt then join in the fun! Let’s put Alex in a Moyer’s Muffin T-shirt!

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Zap2it spoke to the British-born Moyer about the threats to Bill Compton in Season 3, the challenges of playing the character and what he sees for the future of both his character and himself.

“Everybody wants a piece of Sookie and you know Bill is super protective. And, with all love he is a bit paranoid as well. I think Bill feels that the world is closing in and trying to take away the one thing that he loves.”

Stephen Moyer as Bill Compton /HBO

We hear Lorena [Mariana Klaveno] is coming back. Could she have kidnapped you?
I think if I was looking from the outside and I wondered who would be a good candidate, she would certainly be up there. She’s a conniving b****. [Laughs]

And she can’t take a message very well, can she?
Oh my God, how many times do you have to tell her! [Laughs]

Will we know who kidnapped Bill in the premiere episode?
What’s extraordinary about the first episode is that before the title sequence we see seven different storylines, I believe, and it’s amazing. It is amazing how well constructed it is. And I’ve only seen the first couple, but you will find out in the first episode what has happened. And it is all interwoven into the fabric of the episode. It’s beautifully done.

It seems that Bon Temps is going to be filled with supernaturals this season.
It’s nuts. I keep saying we’ve got a cast bigger than “Ben Hur,” that it is now like “Ben Hur” and “Gladiator” put together. It’s unbelievable. We’ve got some wonderful new faces, not least Joe Manganiello who plays Alcide, who’s wonderful, great bloke, we got him fresh after James Frain [who plays new vamp Franklin Mott] comes in, who’s a fantastic actor who I knew before. And what’s extraordinary about our show is the strengths and depths. And the story builds as well between Terry [Todd Lowe] and Arlene [Carrie Preston], who are, like I’ve said many times, my favorite characters. And also Chris Bauer, who plays Andy Bellefleure. Everybody’s story lines ramp up and ah, it’s really wonderful. Also Sam’s [Sam Trammell] shapeshifter side gets revealed in a sort of interesting way as well, so it’s all sorts of madness.

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Bill and Sookie / HBO

For two seasons we’ve watched Stephen Moyer literally and figuratively tear into the town of Bon Temps as, perhaps, the most well meaning vampire since Count on “Sesame Street.” But all that is about to change in a big way this season. Big as in day one at fat camp.

Bill stood front and center in “True Blood’s” big season ending cliffhanger as he was kidnapped immediately after proposing to a pause-prone Sookie. And even though we learn the identity of his vamp-napper in the first episode, their true intentions will remain shrouded in mystery for much of the third season.

But one thing we know for sure is that Bill is going on a character altering journey this year, that will see him struggling to find his way out of the darkness. An off choice given his aversion to sunlight, but I think you get the metaphor.

PopWrap had the pleasure of chatting with the very un-Bill-like Stephen (for starters, he smiles) about big season three changes, the lengths Bill will go to for Sookie and how that could actually be detrimental to his beloved.

PopWrap: How exciting was it for your show, which started with 1.4 million viewers to wrap up season two with over five million a week?
Stephen Moyer: It’s extraordinary. But without being disingenuous, we all thought it had the potential to do so well. I think there was also only one episode in the first season that didn’t go up. So they’ve all kind of done that and done that and done that. I think it helped that every episode last year was bigger than the last.

PW: What are your feelings going into Emmy season?
Stephen: I think awards expose the show to a wider audience, making them realize we’re not your run of the mill show. But typically The Emmys don’t seem to go for genre shows, so honestly, I’m not sure that any of us expect anything this year. Don’t get me wrong, it would be lovely if it happened, but I don’t think any of us are expecting anything.
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Stephen Moyer won't miss a match

If you’re a soccer-loving British actor working in Hollywood, this summer is going to be a tough one as some of the “True Blood” stars are finding out.

“I was invited to play for England last weekend in the big opening ceremony for the World Cup – for the celebrity England team,” “True Blood” star Stephen Moyer told Access Hollywood on Tuesday night on the red carpet of his show’s Los Angeles Season 3 premiere.

Sadly, the charity event, which was held in his native England, was one the actor was unable to attend.

“I couldn’t do it because I was working,” he sighed. “And my son — I’m disowned.”

The soccer match Stephen was asked to be a part of would have put him on the same team as some UK stars of sports and entertainment.

“Robbie Williams was playing and half the old England team,” Stephen said of the game he missed. “I was gutted!”

Still, Stephen said he will be cheering his country on from the California set of “True Blood,” which is currently filming their Season 3 finale, as the World Cup opens, beginning on Thursday.

“I will be watching every game,” he said. “We have a live stream next to the camera.”

This isn’t the first time Steve’s been asked to play in a charity soccer match. Back on July 21st, 2009 he played with the Hollywood United Football Club at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, CA. to benefit the LAFC and earlier in 2009 Steve played a match for the “Footies and Meat Pies” charity event to raise funds for the Australian Bushfire Relief Event on Feb. 28th.

The Emmy nominations come out in less than a month, on July 8th and Steve shares his choices for favoured shows to get the nod.

Steve may be considered biased when it comes to his show deserving some golden statues this year. He believes that the series is breaking new ground.

“I think that’s one of the things our show does,” Moyer tells Zap2it. “And it is amazing really because it does it constantly, brings you something that you have never seen on television. Firsts that you have never seen before.”

Moyer is not shy about expressing his admiration for other shows he believes deserve a nod, as well.

“I have made no secret of the fact that ‘Breaking Bad’ is my favorite show,” he says. “I think Bryan Cranston and Aaron Paul, it would be wonderful if they both could get best actor nominations. They are f***** brilliant. Love the show. Love the way it is written. Love the way it is shot.”

He continues, “Love ‘Mad Men.’ I thought Season 3 was fantastic. Big fan of Jon Hamm, love John Slattery.”

He also shares one favorite with his fiancée, Anna Paquin, who plays “True Blood’s” heroine, Sookie Stackhouse.

“We have just started watching ‘Glee,’ me and my missus,” Moyer tells us. “And it is so much more complex and interesting than I thought it would be, and I think in the world of television that we are living in now I should have expected it to be. I thought it was going to be one thing and it really isn’t. It’s absolutely brilliant, complex and dark and twisted and funny, as well as being a musical.”

Moyer believes that “True Blood” and other shows are helping to up the creative ante on television.

“When you got Matthew Weiner ['Mad Men'] and Vince Gilligan ['Breaking Bad'] and Alan Ball ['True Blood'] helming shows and creating this extraordinary work,” he says, “it just inspires everybody else to do better and better stuff.”

Stephen Moyer at True Blood Season 3 Premiere

The season 3 premiere of “True Blood” was presented at the Arclight Cinerama Dome on June 8′th with the viewing of the first two episodes. Stephen Moyer celebrated with a red carpet walk followed by an after party with the rest of the cast at Hollywood’s Boulevard 3.

For pictures of the red carpet and after party enjoy the gallery.

"It’s an unbelievable season!"

TV Addict talked to Stephen Moyer recently about Bill Compton, the Emmy nominations, and what it’s like to work on “True Blood.”

As an actor, you’ve made a successful career of segueing between stage and screen. Do you ever find it daunting to be a part of a series that’s not only a phenomenon, but has also turned you into a household name?

Stephen Moyer: The show is so amazing, it’s so much more than any of us ever thought it was, including Alan (Ball). I think Alan had this amazing vision for what it could be. I think it has out-crazied anything that we thought could be. I have never wanted to do a television series for seven years, it was not my idea of what it meant to create a character. I always wanted to do the character and leave it behind. The amazing thing about this is that it just keeps growing. You keep being given stuff that you haven’t done before, and our writers and creators kind of try and make the characters more and more complex at every turn. The bigger it gets, the more extraordinary it becomes, that’s the truth of it, and the more fun it becomes.

Looking at your resume, this is the longest that you’ve stayed with one role. Do you find it challenging at all to keep things interesting while playing the same character?

We do 12 episodes and it’s a 6 or 7 month gig, and that helps, because you do get 5 months off. I’ve never worked on a show before that feels so much like a family. When we get back, there’s always this wonderful surge of excitement and adrenaline and re-kinship with best friends.
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Variety has just announced that Stephen Moyer will co-star in the indie feature version of “The Big Valley” opposite Jessica Lange.

Steve will play the role of the eldest son Jarrod Barkley in the period story of a wealthy ranching family. Lange’s portraying Victoria Barkley in the role originated by Barbara Stanwyck in the 1960’s series.

“The Big Valley” is written and directed by Daniel Adams with the screenplay inspired by the original pilot from the TV series. The film is exec produced by Kate Edelman Johnson, whose late father Louis F Edelman created the series, and produced by Straw Weisman and Steven Brandman.

Production starts July 26th in Baton Rouge, La.

And if that isn’t enough according to the Hollywood Reporter Steve has also been cast in the spy thriller “The Double”. He’ll play a Russian secret agent opposite Richard Gere and Topher Grace. Director Michael Brandt’s film revolves around a retired CIA operative who teams up with a rookie FBI agent to hunt down the killer of a senator.

Plot Concept: The espionage thriller story kicks off with the mysterious murder of a senator bearing the distinguished marks of a Soviet assassin, code-named Cassius, who was long thought to be dead. To hunt down the killer, a retired CIA operative (Gere), who spent his career going toe-to-toe with his Soviet nemeses, is teamed with a young FBI agent (Grace). Moyer plays a Russian spy.

Production starts in Detroit on June 21’st.

Stephen Moyer had a one on one with Zap2it about Season 3 and the flashbacks Bill Compton will be having.

“There’s a couple of great flashbacks this year, I love the flashbacks because what’s interesting is that you as an actor playing these characters don’t get a chance to really understand who your character is, because the writers are able to invent things from your past that you didn’t know about. So, it just keeps adding color to your characterization as you go.”

Some of the most achingly gorgeous (and telling) scenes of the series occur in flashback. Moyer gave us a couple hints of what we’ll be exploring in Bill’s past.

Bill Compton with his maker, Lorena / HBO

“We will see one of the reasons why Bill is so tortured,” he explains. “There will be something that explains how his relationship with Lorena evolved. There is some beautiful stuff in there.”

Moyer says that it can be a challenge to play a character whose past isn’t already laid out for the actor. But, he takes it as it comes.

“I think that you have to play your stuff in, I believe, in absolute truth in the moment for then and for that scene,” says Moyer “There are certain occasions when you have prior knowledge of what you did before that may inform that situation, but ultimately you might not know that something you are saying like in Episode Four has a direct correlation between something that you did in 1848, because it hasn’t been written yet.”

He adds, “I think there has to be a certain amount of dramatic license that has to be accepted with these kind of shows where to make the characters deeper and richer and to yield kind of more complex relationships we have to kind of suspend our disbelief slightly as far as what we learn about them as we go. Because the actor is learning at the same time, you know. But that for me is one of the things that’s most extraordinary about it.”