As the vicious vampire Lorena on HBO's "True Blood," actress Mariana Klaveno shares a good portion of her screen time with Stephen Moyer, better known to fans of the show as southern gentle-vamp Bill Compton.
Although Lorena and Bill have quite the tumultuous relationship with one another on the blood-soaked vampire series — unsurprising, given the fact that Lorena turned Bill into a vampire back during the Civil War era — the dynamic between Mariana and Stephen off-screen couldn't possibly be any more different.
"We have such a good time, especially now going through three seasons together," Mariana told Hollywood Crush of her co-star. "He's a really great guy, aside from being a brilliant actor."
Mariana said that she's constantly learning new acting techniques from Stephen, who she described as "the most technically efficient actor that I've ever worked with."
"He knows more about camera angles and lenses and light than anyone I've ever experienced, and it's incredible," she said. "He claims it's because he's a photographer, so he picks up a script and that's how he sees it — through a camera lens. I pick up a script and I only see it as an actress. I have my blinders on. But in that sense, it's wonderful. It's like going to school every day, working with him."
Mariana remembered one particularly gruesome flashback scene she shot with Stephen during the show's second season. In the scene, she and Stephen are passionately kissing on a bed while one of their victims bleeds to death right beside them. According to Mariana, they only had one take to get the scene right because "it would take a long time to clean up the set and redo everything."
"I don't always worry about cracking up — I'm always more nervous about the technical aspects," the actress recalled. "But Stephen is a very funny individual, so the the thought of cracking up was there in the back of my head somewhere!"
Based on Mariana's description, Stephen is similar to his typically good-mannered "True Blood" character in the sense that "he's always looking out for the other actors, whether it's me or a co-star who's just coming on for that day. He's very, very generous and always thoughtful about the other actors, and that's just a wonderful quality. It's been a real pleasure."
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