Wesley sinks her teeth into new role
It’s been more than two years since HBO’s sexy vampire drama, “True Blood,” went off the air. But some devotees still approach Rutina Wesley, one of its featured stars, with bizarre requests.
“They want to look into my eyes to see if they’re all black, and sometimes they want me to bite them,” said Wesley, who played the sharp-tongued waitressturned-vampire Tara Thornton.
The 37-year-old actress doesn’t mind. The series, which premiered in 2007 and lasted seven seasons, launched her career and established her as an actress. Her performance as Tara was praised by critics and fans alike.
But these days, Wesley is focused on a new role with a whole different kind of bite. She stars in “Queen Sugar,” the drama on Oprah Winfrey’s OWN network about an African-American family struggling against myriad obstacles in the Deep South.
Wesley plays Nova Bordelon, a journalist and an activist with an agenda and harboring a taste for mysticism. Nova’s life is turned upside down when she is forced to reconcile with her estranged siblings to save their dying father’s ailing sugar cane farm.
The Juilliard-trained actress raved about her character: “Nova’s a beautiful mess, and I love juggling all her complexities.”
Based on the novel of the same name by Natalie Baszile and set in the fictional Louisiana town of St. Josephine, the series, created by acclaimed “Selma” filmmaker Ava DuVernay, represents Wesley’s first major leading role. Winfrey is an executive producer on the series.
Wesley detailed her new role and life post-“True Blood.” This is an edited transcript.
Q: What intrigued you most about this project?
A: The best thing is that this character, Nova, is not in the book. Ava gave me an outline of where she got the character from and where she came from in her mind. I felt I could really get to the essence of the role she created and chose me to play. It’s my most challenging role.
Q: How does working on this differ from “True Blood”?
A: With “True Blood,” I would go home after shooting all night, and it was like, “OK, we just spent 12 hours in an orgy, and everybody was outside.” That was not reality. That’s never going to happen. It was fantastical.
Here, it’s different. I’m asked just to be in the normal. When I stepped onto the sugar cane field for the first time, there was this sense of weight and energy that I felt immediately. I felt the history of New Orleans, the mystique of what it was and what it is, my ancestors, and the people who worked there.
Q: How did the cast develop the chemistry that makes you convincing as siblings?
A: (Co-star) Dawn-Lyen Gardner and I have a sisterly connection. We went to Juilliard together, so we can really go there. We can get raw. There are times when we really have to hug it out. But I hope that people are moved and inspired by the connections we have, because it’s real. Sept. 18 birthdays: Actor Robert Blake is 83. Actor Fred Willard is 77. Singer-actor Frankie Avalon is 76. Actress Anna Deavere Smith is 66. Actress Jada Pinkett Smith is 45. Actor James Marsden is 43. Actor-comedian Jason Sudeikis is 41.