Kristin Bauer : Chicagonow

As Pam the vampire on HBO's "True Blood," Kristin Bauer van Straten sinks her teeth into every caustic quip and sardonic bon mot the fashion-forward Fangtasia boss utters.

From the minute she first appeared at the side of Eric, her business and sparring partner, Pam became a fan favorite and one of the most memorable sources of comic relief on the show.

And although everyone's making a big hairy deal of the werewolves roaming throughout the upcoming Season 3, personally I'm more thrilled that van Straten has been upgraded to a series regular. She makes an eye-popping entrance in Sunday's 8 p.m. premiere--tossing some sexually suggestive looks at Sookie (Anna Paquin) and battling, as usual, with Eric (Alexander Skarsgard).

Van Straten doesn't have to stretch far to create Pam's nasty attitude, she said.

"Sadly, that was just in me," the actress, who grew up in Racine, Wis., told me recently. "I don't know why that is, but to play a bitch is just so much fun.

"Maybe it's because of my good Midwestern upbringing, there are so many things I'd like to say so many times to so many people. And I don't. Ninety-nine percent of the time I'm very good. And all of a sudden, they're just paying you to be awful. It's just such a great relief."

Van Straten, who was incredibly pleasant and funny during our phone chat, said Pam and Eric definitely mix it up this season, but fans also will see Pam's "incredibly sensitive side--for one person." And that, of course, is her maker, Eric. She likened their relationship to that of a father and daughter--but also to a "100-year marriage."

"I think Pam and Eric get to do the most fun stuff," Van Straten said. "They're not nice too each other, but ... they're really closer to each other than anybody else. And that was really fun to see and to act."

Van Straten didn't want to give much away, but she teased that Pam starts a relationship with someone other than Eric this season, mentors Deborah Ann Woll's baby vamp Jessica and bullies Nelsan Ellis' Lafayette. But it's the scenes with sexy Skarsgard that van Straten enjoys the most.

"He's big, beautiful. He's funny, he's smart, he's kind," she said. "I feel extremely lucky that he is the one I'm glued to."

Van Straten told some Skarsgard stories, talked about saving the whales and how she, like her character Pam, knows how to pursue a man. That's why the newlywed--she and South African musician Abri van Straten will celebrate their one-year anniversary Aug. 1--is now going by Kristin Bauer van Straten.

I was so happy to see Pam right away in the first episode. 
I know. Isn't it great?

It's great. 
It's really great for me too. It's so nice.

And you and Alexander did that minisode, which was a riot. 
Wasn't that fun?

Yeah, definitely. They have such a great relationship. It must be fun to play? 
Yeah, and this season we find out how deep that relationship goes and how close they are ... It's just a fascinating relationship because it's sort of like the relationship that you have with your dad. But yet, it's more than that, it's also the relationship you would have in a 100-year marriage. An odd marriage, not a conventional Midwestern marriage. And also I'm like his child. So, it's really interesting. I don't think in human terms we have this kind of depth.

That might explain why they're not very nice to each other. I always notice that sometimes we're the meanest we can be to the people closest to us, like relatives. 
Isn't that true? Isn't that astounding?

It's like you can get away with it or something because you're that close. 
Yeah. I don't know, you just take them for granted. They're just there. And then when they go or when they die, you feel like you're gonna die. But you were mean to them half the time they were in existence. I think of how much I tortured my father when I was in my teen years.

Sometimes that's just being a teenager. 
Right, that's what I tell myself because I feel terrible about it. Oh my gosh, I was just a teenager, you can't help it.

Right. There's a difference between that and actually trying to sabotage them or doing really awful things to them. 
I don't know, I was pretty close to sabotage.

Were you? 
Oh, I was terrible.

Hmm, OK, I won't pry. Did you draw on any of your own growing up for inspiration for Pam? 
Oh, easily. Easily. You draw on whatever you have. When you're playing someone who's immortal and who feeds off of other humans--these things that are hard to find within your own life--you try to take some kernel from somewhere. So, your own life is really all you have when they say, "action."

Are there any specific people you imagine or draw on? 
Sadly, that was just in me.

So if you have a bad day, you spill your coffee or you get in a fender bender, you can just take it all out at work? 
Yeah, you get cut off in traffic; someone's rude to you at the local Save On [in a very Pam voice], um-hmm.

And you just do that much better in the scene? 
That's it. Because all those sarcastic things--my mind does think in terms of sarcasm. And my friends and family know that about me. But I had a very good upbringing. I think the thought, but I'm able to edit it. And it just all goes in a big file and I get this part and they say, "Wow, you're so good at being sarcastic."

Have the writers started watching you now, as yourself, and gone "We know Kristin would do this?" 
I wonder, because it feels to me like these writers just write brilliance and they hand it to me and I try to do it justice. I said that to one of the executive producers the other day, and he said, "Well we feel like we're being informed on who Pam is from you as well." But it is a symbiotic relationship.

Still the writing is done before it is handed to the actors. So it may have just been him being kind. They watched Eric and Goddrick's relationship and thought, "Well yeah, Pam and Eric would have that relationship." And so they started writing more in that direction this year, too. It really all is the Petri dish; it all helps and benefits each other and could also harm each other. But hopefully it doesn't do that. But it's almost impossible for me to imagine that I'm informing them.

I hear there are a bunch of Pam-centric extras on the Season 2 DVD. 
There are. And there are 34 pages of Pam's sarcasm. It's awesome. It's in the Blu-Ray DVD. It's pretty great because she pops up picture-in-picture and comments on everything that's happening in the vampire world through the whole season.

So she's doing commentary on the episodes, not you? 
Yep, in character, Pam doing commentary. And it's really amazing writing. It's hysterical because she is constantly making fun of Bill. So it's really super fun. It's written by this writing pair on the show, Kate [Barnow] and Elisabeth [Finch], and they're really great.

Did you learn a lot about Pam doing it? 
I did. That was at the end of Season 2 and Pam just came in and was sarcastic and would leave. And so I had no idea who she was, and this told me she's 100 years old and it just informed me so much about who Pam is. And in there we started to see the clues of how some evil people have one person and Pam has Eric. That's her one person. And she would die for this person. So it was great. And we see that in this season.

Great, altough you'd never know it about those two. 
Although you would never know it. And that's that thing of the people closest to you.

Will these facts from the DVD extras end up in the season like the dancer from the minisode does? 
Yes. She's a player this year as well.

Nice, and in fewer clothes. 
Uh-huh, she doesn't often wear a lot of clothing, which Pam is fine with.

Speaking of that, you wear something I the premiere that looks like you might have a hard time breathing in. 
Oh, yes. I didn't do a lot of breathing the whole season.

Do the have a paramedic on hand? 
They actually do. There's a medic on set.

In case you pass out. 
Just in case I need oxygen. Yeah, Pam's clothing is not always comfortable. But it's so worth it.

So you like it? 
I do, I really, really love it. I have a wardrobe fitting in an hour-and-a-half for Script 11. And I've got some really fun stuff in there and I can't wait to see what I'm going to be wearing.

Is that one of the best parts of the daily routine? 
It is. That's why I love working for HBO and for Alan Ball, because you just have an astounding team. The wardrobe is an enormous part of Pam and the costumer works very closely with Alan and the directors and the writers. Then it goes to hair and makeup. I go from being in my sweats to becoming Pam. And then I get handed this dialogue. It's just incredible. It's hard to explain how little, in a way, I feel the actors contribute, because the actor comes in last on that chain. It all just makes my job so easy.

But the actors get all the glory. 
The actors get all the credit, really I think, disproportionately. You just see us on screen. I mean, if the makeup and lighting is bad, you're going to think we're ugly, too, so it goes both ways. But still it's an incredible team. It's over 200 people that put this show on every week.

Have you snatched or borrowed any costumes? 
I borrowed the most painful thing--this leather corset that I wore in the first season. I borrowed it for a photo shoot. I was doing a photo shoot for the International Fund for Animal Welfare, this group I work with to help whales and elephants and the whole planet. And so I borrowed the teeth and the corset--the two must uncomfortable things. And then I broke the teeth on the photo shoot. I have never had such a panic I my life, but it was an easy repair, apparently.

Oh, that's good. So you're not going to keep the corset? You'd rather continue to be able to eat? 
No, I was happy to return it. You don't eat a lot those days. You don't even want to.

You just smell the food. 
Yeah, and it takes three people to help you get out of the thing. So you also just don't want to drink water. I spend 12 to 16 hours [in it]. You can't sit down; you don't want to eat or drink. It's a day. The days a long and uncomfortable, but we don't care. We just have so much fun.

People on Twitter who heard I was doing this interview wanted me to ask for a fun story from set. Someone even said you are a good storyteller. 
No pressure. [Laughs.] Yeah, 'cause my mind is going through different scenarios of what I can tell and what I can't tell.

Right, so just tell. 
Telling stories about other people is also bad form, not Midwestern. But speaking both for Alexander and I, because Alex has had to speak Russian, it's a challenge. And those scenes we end up crying with laughter. And I've told this story before, but you never know how many people saw it or read it and I Iike giving Alex a hard time 'cause all the girls go crazy for Alex, so he needs a hard time.

Not just the girls. 
[Laughs.] Not--just, yes. I should be hip to that by now. [Laughs.] But you know, after every take I would ask him, "Was that Swedish, does that sound anything like Swedish?" And he goes, "No, it sounded more like a Russian prostitute." And six months later, somebody told me my comeback line should have been, "How would you know?" So, when he was speaking Russian again this season, I was reminded of that.

Almost every single scene we shoot, there is some moment that is so completely preposterous and hysterical and ridiculous. It's three in the morning, my heels are sinking into the mud. I'm falling over, we just start laughing. There are moments we really feel immortal and cool and there are always moments where we just feel ridiculous. Alex is extremely funny, so the laughter just makes the day go by.

You do most of your scenes with him. Sounds like it's fun? 
Yeah, I'm really lucky ... It's really fun, too, when we have Bill and Sookie, I get to do scenes with them and I've gotten to do scenes with LaFayette. So, and all those people are a complete joy to work with.

Let's talk about your work with the International Fund for Animal Welfare. 
We had a farm [in Wisconsin] and my dad is a horseman, and we always had chickens and dogs and cats. I think it's just part of me to love nature. When I'm really tired, my thing is to just go be in the middle of a field with some trees. And I don't get revived as much from going to a resort in the Bahamas.

So I really feel when I find out about sad things that are happening to animals, especially that don't need to happen. Having 8 billion people on the planet is not going to be good for the environment, no matter how you slice it. But there are some things that are so unnecessary ... I realized talking to IFAW that they get stuff done... They told me about what was happening with whales dying from ship strikes, is a big cause of death for whales. It seems really silly because it's very preventable.

... The Obama administration was releasing a proposal to end the ban on commercial whaling. And we all went, "Huh? What?" ... Whales are having a super duper hard time--there's a Wisconsin expression, super duper--and so it's a really, really bizarre, weird thing to let other countries--Japan, Iceland and Norway--kill openly and in whale sanctuaries when he's an American president and we don't eat whale.

The IFAW has the phone number and the address. It took me like 20 seconds to call the White House and go, "I'm calling about the whales, uh-huh, yeah, I want the ban. I don't want killing whales." That's all we have to do.

Do you have time for a few more fun questions from your fans on Twitter? 
Oh, sure.

Great. Do Pam and Eric ever "enjoy each other"? That's a very nice way of putting it. 
Yeah, that's so nice. Well, Alex and I and the writers suspect that the first 50 years of their relationship was fairly passionate, but you know, things have cooled off. Because in the Blu-ray, Pam does say that at the beginning they were lovers. But now what I'm seeing is that the relationship has gotten more--you know, when you're around for hundreds of years, you're relationship is bound to morph into something else ... They've been around a long time, now they're more like, it's familial in other ways.

But they were once lovers after her made her into a vampire? 
Yeah. In the Blu-ray she says that she sought him out and wanted to be a vampire and made it happen.

So I guess that means when she wants somebody she goes for it. 
Yeah she does.

What does Kristin do? 
[Laughs.] Well that's what I did with my husband. I heard his CD and tracked him down online and asked him out. So yeah, a girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do.

The only reason it wasn't a stalker thing was because he said yes? 
Let's be honest, I'm on a TV show. So I tried to work that into the email, you know? It took me weeks to write the email because you want to be subtle. You don't want to be obvious but yet you want to have them say yes.

Have you been surprised by the reaction to the show? 
I am, but the quality of the show really does merit it. But as an actor, I've been a part of so many things where [everyone] says this is going to be huge and then it isn't. So for me, it feels very hard to gauge.

And did you think Pam would become so popular even with so little screen time early on? 
No, I really didn't. I've had so many highs and so many lows in acting over 15 years that I really think that I almost just try so hard to not think about it because the disappointments in acting are huge. I try to just do the scene, which I've never done a scene and walked out of there thinking, "Now that was brilliant. They're definitely going to write more for me." I never have that cockiness.

But when you and Alex started doing scenes, did you feel, "Oh this is really cool. This is working?" 
I thought it was just a complete joy, just a complete joy to be there. Whether or not they'd want me around they didn't know, or the fans would want me around. But I knew I wanted to be around.