The star of True Blood details his new projects, his love for Dungeons & Dragons, and a new flick about the night The Smiths broke up.
Joe Manganiello checked in for an extensive conversation with clown in the latest episode of the Knotfest series.
Discussing Manganiello’s role on the HBO Series True Blood, clown shared his love for role playing games like Werewolf: The Apocalypse and Vampire: The Masquerade. The actor would reveal that he grew up with Dungeons and Dragons and had wrote and designed an adventure module last year for the staple RPG. In fact, Manganiello still runs a D & D game weekly for friends.
Joe would go on to explain how his early childhood love for the tabletop game, the writing, the character development, the voiceovers, all of the aspects of the game were essentially grooming him for his professional career as an actor.
In further exploring the actor’s craft, clown started into the level of preparation that happens for a series like True Blood. Explaining the nuanced differences between werewolves, Joe detailed that his role was based on The Southern Vampire Mysteries from author Charlaine Harris. The reason that matters is, the rules and origins of werewolves are different depending on what story the characters are associated with.
For this particular role, his condition as a werewolf was genetic, not a result of a bite or infection. Manganiello explained that his headspace was to try and think about how he would act and grow as someone that would have to hide that kind of genetic difference from a very early age. In terms of his commitment to the role, Manganiello actually spent time with real wolves to understand behavior and movement specific to the species.
As for what is on the horizon for Manganiello, he tastefully hinted at (though never specified) his rumored role as Deatnstroke from the DC Universe. However, with the pandemic, production and project talks have halted, so naturally, the actor kept his cards close to his chest.
Manganiello discussed his role as a heavy metal DJ in 1987 for the forthcoming feature film, Shoplifters of the World. If the title sounds familiar, the revolves around night The Smiths broke up. He also detailed his film upcoming Archenemy, which will debut it’s first trailer at this year’s virtual Comic-Con.
Before closing out, clown got the lowdown on Manganiello’s streetwear line, Death Saves. Citing his love for Frank Frazetta, Boris Vallejo, and the greats of heavy metal and fantasy art, Manganiello created the line to marry the world of metal music and art though fashion.
Listen to the entire exchange between clown and Joe Manganiello in The Electric Theater below.
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