True Blood: Food, Sex, Booze, Drugs – Michelle Forbes’ Maenad Maryann Brings Them All (HQ Screen Caps) ‘Maryann Transforms’ – S2x04 E16 – ‘Shake’

True Blood Maryann Transforms – E16 – ‘Shake’ Screen Caps

Images owned by HBO Caps done by True-Blood.net.

The second part of the excellent interview TV Guide.com did with everyone’s favourite maenad, Maryann, on the HBO series True Blood was released on Monday.

After watching True Blood’s Episode 4 “Shake and Fingerpop,” it became clear why they had to delay the article until after the show had aired. Michelle answered candidly when asked of the nature of her character–that she’s indeed a maenad though perhaps not one straight from Wikipedia. A maenad (pronounced mee-nad) is as Michelle explains, a a mythical creature that revels in chaos and “all those things that people hold themselves back from — food, sex, booze, drugs — she wants to push people into their vices, their purity, their ecstasy. That’s what she considers happiness. It’s not a nefarious or villainous thing in her mind. She wants everyone to feel the same glory and joy that she feels. She wants everyone to join the party.”

Michelle goes on to explain that in her opinion, Maryann is not evil–just very different–that she does not even have evil intentions (it’s been disclosed by True Blood that the bull-headed thing with the claws killed Miss Jeanette). I find this fascinating because if Maryann were judged in the real world she would be a murderess and probably lots of other bad things, too. But Michelle does not judge her character and I’ve heard the same from other veteran actors when they take on a role. Since they inhabit the character–almost become it, they can’t exactly go around hating that character in order to portray him or her effectively. So the actor finds a way to justify the character’s intentions and I believe the articulate Ms. Forbes does a wonderful job of explaining Maryann. Here’s a bit more: TV Guide.com asked Michelle, who had stated that Maryann’s goal is pleasure with ecstasy a preferred state, why then is Maryann violent?

Michelle answered, “Maryann lives in a different moral construct than the rest of us. Tenderness, violence — they’re the same to her. The more that somebody is feeling alive and in their adrenaline and feeding that appetite for what we’re not supposed to do, the more that they’re in what she considers purity. That is her life blood; that is her excitement.

All those things that people hold themselves back from — food, sex, booze, drugs — she wants to push people into their vices, their purity, their ecstasy. That’s what she considers happiness. It’s not a nefarious or villainous thing in her mind. She wants everyone to feel the same glory and joy that she feels. She wants everyone to join the party.”

This interview is a must-read if you want to get a bead on the character of Maryann, learn about who is actually in the bull-headed creature’s costume and much more. Click through to TV Guide.com for the whole story.

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