Talk like a vampire

New Zealand-raised actress Anna Paquin and British husband Stephen Moyer worked with Los Angeles dialect coach Liz Himelstein to get their accents right for True Blood. Their speech is nothing like wide-eyed Southern waitress or the vampire of over 17 years from Louisiana. “We take the dialect and sing it, whisper it, make it part of the whole process,” says Himelstein, who has 2 years of experience in the film and theatre industry. Paquin found her voice for the show by listening to a lot of recordings of poetry from the South, which is appropriate because he character Sookie Stackhouse is “a poet in a funny way,” Himelstein said.