Everything You Need to Know About ‘True Blood’ in One Dragon*Con Panel

The more I work on FanStuff, the more curious I become about how people interact with TV shows, movies and other media, whether they’re the creators or the fans. This morning, the 10 a.m. “True Blood” panel at Dragon*Con drove the point home. On the panel were Kristin Bauer (Pam De Beaufort), Nelsan Ellis (Lafayette Reynolds) and Sam Trammell (Sam Merlotte).

I wouldn’t classify myself as a die-hard fan of “True Blood,” but I do watch it. And the longer the panel went on, the more I could see the audience’s questions and the panelist’s responses reflecting core aspects of the show. I can easily imagine someone who has never seen an episode and watched the panel just to keep a friend company coming away with a real sense of what the show is like.

Key example: One audience member asked Ellis to call her a hooker. He did, in Lafayette’s very distinctive drawl, which we learned comes straight from Ellis’ Alabama roots. The audience roared.

Even more telling was a question to all the panelists about their favorite scenes to film. If Trammell answered, I missed it, but Bauer’s response was “[distinctively sexy vampire] Eric naked.” Ellis’ was “Every time I get to hit somebody.”

It probably helped that two of the panelists are among the show’s actual born-and-bred Southerners, but somehow the three actors, all of whom are fan favorites, managed to give a relatively standard (and crowded) ballroom a sultry, irreverent flavor, much like what comes across in the show. It was, however, a lot safer for work.

(Side note: I don’t know whether it was intentional, but from my vantage point both Ellis and Trammell appeared to be in flannel shirts.)

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