Summary

• True Blood had an "overqualified" cast with extensive theater training, creating a unique chemistry on set.
• Cast like Manganiello, Paquin, and Skarsgård continued to enhance their careers after the series ended.
• Manganiello reprised his role in Magic Mike XXL, voiced a bounty hunter in Star Wars Resistance, and played Deathstroke in Justice League.

True Blood's numerous seasons, the star-studded cast also included Anna Paquin as telepathic waitress Sookie Stackhouse, Stephen Moyer as the vampire Bill Compton, and Alexander Skarsgård as the vampire Eric Northman.

While speaking on Penn Badgley's podcast Podcrushed, Manganiello discussed how "overqualified" True Blood's cast was for the often campy series. He detailed the extensive professional theater arts training and experiences that many of the cast had, along with many of them being from countries all around the world. This created a chemistry and engagement with the material that made True Blood a unique series behind the scenes. Check out Manganiello's comments below:

What's funny about True Blood was, you know, we were all really, really overqualified. Well, I should say the material was deceptively tricky because it was kind of written in like Tennessee Williams. It was very operatic at times.

But, you know, but it's all theater kids. It's like people with Tonys and Oscars and, you know, Mike McMillan and I were the Carnegie Mellon kids, then there was Rutina [Wesley] and Nelsan [Ellis] were the Juilliard kids, then Chris Bauer was the Yalie, then you get West End of London, then you get this international cast. You got [Alexander] Skarsgård from Sweden. You had, [Stephen] Moyer from England. And Anna [Paquin], obviously, from New Zealand by way of Canada. It was really, really intelligent, trained actors.

What Has The True Blood Cast Done Since The Series Ended?

They've Appeared In Projects From Magic Mike XXL To Big Little Lies.

The True Blood cast helped the show become a phenomenon with their rich talents and continue to enhance other films and television series.

Since True Blood ended in 2014, many of the cast have gone on to appear in various film and television projects. Manganiello reprised his Magic Mike role as Big Dick Richie in Magic Mike XXL and in Magic Mike's Last Dance, along with voicing a bounty hunter in two episodes of the animated series Star Wars Resistance, and playing himself in episodes of The Big Bang Theory and Mythic Quest. He also played Slade Wilson/Deathstroke in Justice League and Zack Snyder's Justice League, which teased him playing a major role before the DC Universe was revamped.

Paquin voiced the Tyrannosaurus rex Ramsey in Pixar's 2015 film The Good Dinosaur. In Martin Scorsese's Academy Award-nominated 2019 film The Irishman, she played Peggy Sheeran, the daughter of Robert De Niro's character Frank Sheeran. Paquin teamed up with her former True Blood co-star Moyer for the recent drama film A Bit of Light, which Moyer directed and produced, and Paquin starred in and served as a producer.

One of Moyer's main projects since True Blood was as Reed Strucker in Fox's The Gifted series connected to X-Men, with Reed as the father of two twins revealed to be mutants in a world where mutants are hunted and feared. As for Skarsgård, he played Perry Wright in HBO's critically acclaimed series Big Little Lies and Lukas Matsson in seasons 3 and 4 of Succession, along with starring in Godzilla vs. Kong and The Northman. The True Blood cast helped the show become a phenomenon with their rich talents and continue to enhance other films and television series.

Source: Podcrushed