Kristin Bauer van Straten at the Los Angeles World Premiere of THE LEGEND OF TARZAN, June 27, 2016 at the Dolby Theater, Hollywood, California. Photo Credit Sue Schneider_MGP Agency
The second season of Blumhouse Television and Facebook Watch’s SACRED LIES, SACRED LIES: THE SINGING BONES, is now streaming in its entirety on Facebook Watch’s platform. The series, created by Raelle Tucker, tells a new folklore-inspired modern story in each season.
In SACRED LIES: THE SINGING BONES, Kristin Bauer van Straten’s character Shannon is foster mother to musically gifted Elsie (Jordan Alexander), who is drawn into a murder investigation that concerns her biological father, played by Ryan Kwanten.
Originally from Wisconsin, Bauer van Straten had previously worked with both Kwanten and Tucker on TRUE BLOOD. Bauer van Straten played the magnificently deadpan vampire Pam for all seven seasons, Kwanten was human deputy sheriff Jason Stackhouse, and Tucker was a writer/producer on the series.
Bauer van Straten takes some time to talk about playing Shannon in SACRED LIES.
ASSIGNMENT X: Had you gotten to work with either Raelle Tucker or SACRED LIES director/executive producer Scott Winant between TRUE BLOOD and now?
KRISTIN BAUER VAN STRATEN: No. I’m not even sure I’d seen them.
AX: TRUE BLOOD ended in 2014, right?
BAUER VAN STRATEN: Yeah. So it was a while since I’d seen them. I’d seen Ryan a few times, but it was really nice. I think we only had dialogue once in seven years [on TRUE BLOOD, but were frequently together on set and at conventions]. It was like no time had gone by.
AX: Between TRUE BLOOD and SACRED LIES, had you consciously been choosing roles where you were avoiding playing another vampire-like character, or were you just going with whatever came up that was appealing?
BAUER VAN STRATEN: You do kind of hope for some variety, and I was trying to remember – I saw someone today, I was like, “Where do I know you from?”, and she goes, “LORE.” She worked with Amazon, and I’m like, “Oh, right, I did LORE.” Honestly, it’s a little bit of a blur. But ONCE UPON A TIME, playing Maleficent, was a character that was dangerously close to Pam in certain ways, so I tried to make them different. I did a few indie movies, and I’m kind of in this zone of the complex character, bordering on sometimes a psychotic killer, and I love this typecasting. I’m totally fine with it [laughs]. So I wouldn’t play a vampire again, I have turned those down, unless maybe it was a comedy.
AX: You weren’t on it, sadly, but the vampire comedy WHAT WE DO IN THE SHADOWS had a big episode last season where they got Tilda Swinton and Danny Trejo and a bunch of people who’d played vampires before come in to play the vampire council …
Jordan Alexander and Kristin Bauer van Straten in SACRED LIES: THE SINGING BONES | ©2020 Facebook Watch/Blumhouse
BAUER VAN STRATEN: Yes, yes, that’s fun! That’s hysterical. That is nice, when you get to come in, and do something fun [for one episode], and you’re still free.
AX: What can you say about your SACRED LIES character, Shannon? We’ve seen you play the ultimate deadpan as Pam, and then we’ve seen you play much more emotional people in other films and TV, so where is Shannon on the scale?
BAUER VAN STRATEN: That’s a good question, because when we start at the beginning, we think that she is genuine, and then we start to wonder if she’s just running a slave force under the foster system. I think she’s somewhere on a scale of 1 to 10, maybe a 6 as far as, we’re not sure of what a good person she is. So she’s a lot more gray than Pam or Maleficent, or some other characters I’ve played.
SACRED LIES: THE SINGING BONES – Season 2 – Key Art | ©2020 Facebook Watch/Blumhouse
AX: Can you talk about Shannon’s wardrobe in comparison to the others? Maleficent had those extensive Disney villain outfits. And Pam, even though it wasn’t fantastical, had a very particular style.
BAUER VAN STRATEN: Yeah. None of those are comfortable, and I really like to be comfortable. The one season [of TRUE BLOOD] where I was in scrubs because we were in Vamp Camp was awesome [laughs]. I gained five pounds because it was so awesome, I was so comfortable. I don’t go to the gym unless I’m in latex the next week, apparently. But comfort [as on SACRED LIES] is nice. Being the right temperature is also nice. Like TRUE BLOOD, we were shooting a show that was supposed to be in Louisiana, [but really] in L.A. in the winter, in Malibu, and it was nineteen degrees. And I was dressed like it was – yeah.
AX: And what would you most like people to know about SACRED LIES: THE SINGING BONES?
BAUER: I think it’s a really well-done show. I think it’s entertaining. I think it’s what we look for in a TV show. It’s an escape, it’s a fairytale, it’s a mystery, it’s layered.
This interview was conducted during Blumhouse Television/Facebook Watch’s portion of the Winter 2020 Television Critics Association (TCA) press tour.
Related: Exclusive Interview with SACRED LIES: THE SINGING BONES actors Juliette Lewis and Ryan Kwanten
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Article: Exclusive Interview with SACRED LIES: THE SINGING BONES actress Kristin Bauer van Straten
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