Anna Paquin Recalls Husband Stephen Moyer Directing Her ‘Explicit’ ‘True Blood’ Sex Scenes: ‘The Bar for Awkward Is Set Terribly High’
Anna Paquin is telling the truth about those scenes in “True Blood.”
The sultry HBO series, which debuted in 2008 and concluded in 2014, marked when Paquin met now-husband and co-star Stephen Moyer, who later began directing episodes. The duo told The Post that things in fact did not get “awkward” despite Moyer having to oversee intimate sequences involving wife Paquin and fellow actors Joe Manganiello and Alexander Skarsgard.
“Stephen cut his teeth directing [on ‘True Blood’] and by Season 3 or 4, it would be like, ‘Hi honey, who are you fucking on camera today?'” Paquin said. “Steve started directing me when we were on ‘True Blood,’ and in Season 7, our final season, he directed the season opener, which had [my character] Sookie in love with the giant beautiful werewolf, Joe Manganiello. Steve directed us in a rather explicit sex scene, so when you ask if it is awkward to shoot a movie with your husband, the bar for awkward is set terribly high in our household, not to mention on that show in general.”
Moyer, who is directing Paquin in upcoming indie drama feature “A Bit of Light,” recalled even encouraging his “True Blood” co-stars to not hold back when acting opposite Paquin despite the “explicit” content.
“There was actually a day where we were walking from our trailers, Alex Skarsgard and Anna and another actor, and we were all working in dressing gowns going toward our stages. It got to a point where I was about to go to one stage and Anna and Alex to another and I was just like, ‘Go for it, guys, good luck, have a good time, make it look good,'” Moyer said. “[And] in that Season 7 sequence with Big Joe, there was just a funny moment where I’m going, ‘Joe, you can do it, mate. It’s OK, grab it, you can do it.'”
Both Paquin and Moyer are planning on lending their voices to an upcoming animated series, while rumors of a “True Blood” reboot were in the works at HBO back in 2020.
Paquin and Moyer aren’t the only married co-stars who met on set and are speaking out about filming intimate scenes. “A Gentleman in Moscow” actors Ewan McGregor and Mary Elizabeth Winstead shared that they preferred to work with intimacy coordinators during production despite being married in real-life.
McGregor told the Radio Times that an intimacy coordinator was “necessary” on set.
“It’s still necessary, because it’s also about the crew, and it’s odd to be naked in front of people, it’s odd to be intimate in front of the camera,” McGregor said. “If you were doing a dance scene, you’d have a choreographer. It’s an important part of the work now, because it’s somebody that the director and actors meet in the middle.”
