Playing the smoking hot vampire Eric Northman is humbling, to say the least, for Swedish actor Alexander Skarsgard. So to say that he’s used to the adoration from female fans of True Blood, the subject of this week’s Entertainment Weekly cover story, would be a bit of an understatement. (For proof, consider this little detail that EW dug up from Charlaine Harris, the author of the extremely popular Sookie Stackhouse novels that serve as the inspiration for True Blood: She says that fans often ask her to autograph the tomes to “Mrs. Alexander Skarsgard.”)“I’ll never get used to that,” Skarsgard said of his googly-eyed fanbase. “It’s just very, very humbling and flattering. The character Eric means so much to me and I’m having so much fun playing him. Of course it means a lot when you meet fans and you can actually tell there are people out there who really do care about the character. It means something to you, then. That’s kind of why you do this whole thing.”
Eric fans could have plenty to salivate over this season, which begins June 26 on HBO. This year, True Blood is inspired by book four of the Stackhouse series, Dead to the World, which features a steamy shower scene between Sookie and the tall, light and handsome vamp. Unfortunately, Skargard isn’t in the mood to kiss and tell. He will say, however, that sex this year is, um, a little more down to earth. “I did some crazy stuff last year. I almost had sex with a Greek man and I was covered in his goo. Everything from here on is pretty childish. Everything’s quite innocent.”
