Excess is a Maenad's Quest For Purity

TV Guide caught up with Michelle yesterday for a quick interview and had her reveal a little on the upcoming finale, the adventures of being onTrue Blood, the Maenad's weakness and what she is in a nutshell. TV Guide urges you to submit questions (as comments to the article below) after the finale since Michelle has kindly agreed to answer them.

Her time has come…we think. After months of cooking up trouble -- and a bloody heart soufflé, True Blood's Maryann Forrester may be going down on this Sunday’s second season finale. Before we lose her, actress Michelle Forbes took some time off from vibrating her body to speak with TV Guide Magazine.


So, what was it like shooting the finale with your cast?
We were all out in the woods having so much fun. I kept losing focus because I was watching them do these hilarious and insane things. Anna Paquin (Sookie) and I were in stitches through most of it because we had some pretty loony things to do together.

What’s up with that vibrating egg we saw in bed with Tara and Eggs in the last original episode? There’s gotta be a connection to Eggs’ name, right?
I’m going to pass on that one because I want people to be surprised as they go into it.

Speaking of eggs, you’ve been doing about as much cooking this season as Meryl Streep does in Julie and Julia. Have you learned a few culinary tricks?
My cooking skills are not to be discussed. That’s what God provided restaurants for. I did however
have a 5 a.m. flambé lesson to cook that heart. I thought I’d better have some coffee before I started. I was nervous I was going to burn the studio down, but it was pretty easy.

I assume you weren’t cutting into an actual human heart. Please tell me you weren’t.
No, no. I’m not sure what it was, but we all got creeped out when I cut into it because it made the worst squishing sound in the world. The irony is that I’m a 30-year vegetarian. I’ve been an animal activist my entire life, so the role of Maryann has been a bit challenging – especially with the lovely meat tree – Di-meat-tree, as he became known.

That tree is repulsive. Tell us about it.
It was filled with real meat and reeked as the weeks wore on. There are bobcats and coyotes roaming around that ranch where we shoot, so they had someone sit by the tree with a gun at night to protect it.

That’s the wors[t] job ever.
I know.

So, we learned from Vampire Queen Sophie-Anne that Maryann is actually a maenad. What the heck is that?
A maenad is also known as the raving one or the wild one. They’re mythic creatures in Greek mythology who followed Dionysius and Bacchus and revel in chaos and destruction. They drink wine, have sex and have no boundaries. That excess is their quest for purity. As they sing their praises to their god, they hope that he comes.

And how can she be destroyed?
Once she believes the god is finally coming, that will be her vulnerability. Or shall I say her Achilles’ Heel.

The whole town of Bon Temps is gunning for Maryann. Should we be worried for her?
Sure. The whole town does want her gone. She has the whole town in her clutches except for a few stray ones like Sam and Sookie. Her final goal is to grab everyone so that she can achieve her goal. But she should have cause for caution.
Source: TV Guide