True Blood

The cat’s finally out of the bag, Truebies! We’ve been scratching our fangs over who was going to come out of the closet this season on True Blood, and last night we found out that Bon Temps resident bad girl, Tara Thornton, has switched teams!

Rutina Wesley tells The Hollywood Reporter that she was initially surprised by Tara’s new sexual preferences, but then she realized it was nothing to get worked up about: “After I thought about it, I was like, I can see that. She’s got some new skin so to speak and she’s living life to its fullest and I think that’s a beautiful thing honestly to see a person go through that sort of change. Without putting any labels to it, she sort of fallen in love and that’s OK, you know. I just think that’s amazing.”

Wait, wasn’t Tara also in love with Eggs, who was a dude? Is she really gay, or is she just “experimenting”? True Blood’s executive producer, Alexander Woo, says, “Yes, we did talk about what that meant. Was she always curious? Did she always have sexual interest in men and women? I think we figured that we certainly were careful not to suggest that her life and the course of her life drew her into a relationship with another woman.

“But I think what Tara does at the beginning of this year is that she sees an opportunity to start completely fresh, start completely new and not being tied down with all these patterns that created so much suffering.”

Rutina emphasizes that Tara’s lust for ladies has nothing to do with her bad luck with men: “I hope that people can understand that, because I know people, of course, are just going to go to the ‘Oh, they’re just doing that, because she had that relationship and all of a sudden she’s gay.’ No, no, no, it’s not that. It’s just something that happened and she ended up being open to it, which I think is really cool. It’s nice to see Tara a little more Zen and open to things. And she just seems more carefree about life. It feels good to see her smile for a change.”

Showrunner Alan Ball adds, “We felt like it was time for Tara to stop being the victim. It was time for Tara to really take charge of her life in a way that would be surprising and would give us some fun places to go story wise. We thought, ‘If somebody has been through something like that, maybe they would be prompted to create a whole new life and identity.’ And why not?”

Gay or straight, we’re just happy Tara is in love! Rutina tells Entertainment Weekly, “When I first got the script, I thought it was great. They’ve always given me stuff that challenged me as an actor and that was fun. I think Tara — if she is going to have a love interest this season — she’s finally ready for it. She’s had time to find herself and think a little bit. I think she’s finally going to love herself in a way that is beautiful. Her self-esteem is back up and that’s opened her up to love someone else. I think she also needed a new lease on life. She totally comes back more zen, and she’s a feisty season one Tara who we all loved.”

True Blood’s been criticized in the past for being “too gay,” but Rutina has a positive message for all the doubters, “I think people are who they are,” she says. “You love who you love and it doesn’t matter.”

You said it, girl!

Source: The Hollywood Reporter, Entertainment Weekly