Monday, January 30, 2012

A Chat with Fangtasia's Door Bitch



Believe it or not, Kristin Bauer has been in the business for over two decades. But it’s her role as Pamela Swynford de Beaufort on True Blood that has earned her the most recognition. Ms. Swynford de Beaufort, best known as Pam, is the offspring, aide de camp and girl Friday of Eric Northman played by Alexander Skarsgard.

Pam may rock the pencil skirt and sweater set or tight sexy gothic dress but the last thing you can expect her to be is nice (don’t even expect her to fake it), gracious and polite. Especially when she’s working the Fangtasia gate.

True Blood is currently on it’s fourth season and while it reveals more of Pam’s character, her feral nature, fighting spirit and loyalty to Eric Northman—not much is revealed yet of Pam’s back story. Kristin does have her own theory on Pam’s earlier life: I got a bit of an impression from (the DVD special features) and a little bit of the books that Pam and Eric were lovers but then that was a long time ago. Alex and I joke that the first 50 years may have been passionate but things have cooled off.” Of course, Kristin is the envy of women around the world for the simple reason she gets to be beside him for a living—on that count she says, “I think he’s totally deserving of that adoration.”

To channel Pam and bring out her bitchiest, bluntest most abrasively straightforward self, Kirstin doesn’t look to another person or character for inspiration but says, “We have a bit of Pam in all of us. We all think the thoughts that she says but we don’t say them because we want to keep our job or we want to stay married or we still want that friend to call us for lunch.” For her, Pam is a really “truthful” character. I feel that what she’s saying is actually accurate. In Season 2, she gives that speech to Lafayette where she says ‘I don’t know why people want to tell me their problems, maybe I smile too much maybe I wear too much pink, but please remember I can rip your throat out if I need to.’ So it’s just an accurate statement she’s really just telling the truth.”

I did get to see Kristin from a distance at this year’s San Diego Comic Con—the True Blood cast has been a regular fixture at Ballroom 20 for the past few years. Kristin loves getting feedback from the fans and audience about her character and apparently they really love the way she delivered the line from Season 3 “Bla bla vampire emergency bla.”

On a personal level, Kristin got married in 2009 to South African musician Abri Van Straten, she maintains a website www.kristinbauer.com, she is an animal rights advocate and she is also an artist and painter. She has been known to combine her passions: Last year I did a sketch of Alexander that we auctioned off for a charity and then I was selling prints to fund a local animal rescue for dogs and cats. There is some True Blood art work that I want to do and I want to do one of Stephen next…I’ve gotten on this kick of painting flowers. I do very realistic oils and it’s so much fun it’s the most zen meditative time for me. Time just stops, it just doesn’t exist, I’ll look up at the clock and hours have gone by and it feels like it was 30 minutes so that’s a really great, rejuvenating thing.”

I think beyond just having Mr. Skarsgard to work beside, it seems Kirstin’s life is full of fulfilling pursuits and passions. I’m not writing down her age because I think just like a vampire, she’s ageless.

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