Ryan Kwanten: Predatory Gay Vampires Helped His Character Grow

Ryan Kwanten says his True Blood character Jason Stackhouse's matter-of-fact attitude toward a predatory gay vampire illustrates how the character has evolved over the past four seasons of the HBO hit, in an interview with Parade.com.

Possible spoiler alert:

In the season 5 premiere, which first aired Sunday, Steve Newlin, a former reverend of the Fellowship of the Sun turned vampire, reveals he's secretly gay and infatuated with Stackhouse, a randy heterosexual deputy sheriff. Kwanten seems pleased with the way his character has grown.

"When you look at Jason in season 1 he had a very tunnel view of the world and some would say an ignorant view," Kwanten says. "And now, that speech he gave to Newlin was 'Look, I accept who you are, whether it's a vampire, whether it's a gay man, or both. But that's not the way this dog barks.' That's a huge step for Jason to change his spots... Towards the end of the season, which we are shooting now, he puts the things he has learned into practice and starts to show his true colors."

Read Kwanten's 2010 interview with The Advocate here.