Marshall Allman : Hollywoodcrush

Earlier this week, we introduced you to Marshall Allman, the latest actor to find himself in the swamps of Bon Temps on HBO's "True Blood." Now, it's time to meet his character — Tommy Mickens, the estranged and aggressive shape-shifting brother of Sam Merlotte (Sam Trammell).

"He's a kid who basically has never known love, family or anything — he really only knows how to survive," Marshall told Hollywood Crush of his character in an exclusive interview. "He's a fighter. He knows what he wants in life and he goes after it. There's nothing to stop him from acting on any of his impulses."

Viewers first met Tommy during the "True Blood" season premiere last Sunday, though the character didn't admit his relationship to Sam in that episode. This week, we'll see a lot more of Tommy's connection to Sam, including a first glimpse at his deadbeat family.

"He definitely has a very codependent relationship with his family," said Marshall. "He loves them, but he feels like they can't survive without him, so he feels stuck. It fuels a lot of his aggression. From an outside perspective, he wants love but he doesn't know how to get it. When he gets frustrated, he just likes to cause conflict for everybody else. He's very alpha male, very spontaneous and very exciting."

Marshall said that whenever Tommy meets a new person in his life, he goes through one of three initial thoughts: "Can I impress you, can I sleep with you or can I beat the crap out of you? Then the last thing he would think is, can I trust you? That's the thing he wants the most."

So when Tommy meets Sam, it's a classic case of that alpha male insecurity. "Sam is the perfect embodiment of that [thought process] — 'are you better than me, or am I better than you? Can I beat the crap out of you? Now I have to think about whether or not I can trust you,'" said the actor. "I love playing that brotherly relationship where you can beat the crap out of each other and get into a fight, but underneath, both of you love each other so much that you're almost inseparable. What's been fun for me is just knowing that he's my brother, bringing that brotherly dysfunction to the part."

But will Tommy's relationship with his estranged shape-shifting brother and the rest of their familyalways remain dysfunctional? "We're going to ride that question this whole season — is a happy family possible," answered Marshall. "I think, honestly, that's one of the best American and human questions you can ask. Is a happy family possible? We're going to explore that throughout the rest of the season. When people evaluate my character, they'll evaluate him through the question of whether or not happiness is possible for this character. And they're going to want that. I feel that they're going to want that really bad. We'll see if [series creator Alan Ball] and the rest of the team ever give it to him, but we're going to want it real bad!"