If Kristin Bauer van Straten isn’t currently a household name, it should be. You might remember her from her memorable turn as Jerry’s girlfriend with the “man hands” on Seinfeld. But most of you probably know her from HBO’s hit show True Blood as Pam, the sarcastic, sexy, no-holds-barred, bisexual vampire with some of the best one-liners on television. Kristin lives in Los Angeles with her husband, musician Abri van Straten, and their “furry children,” Asher, Oz, Abigail, and Sam. Hampton Sheet caught up with Kristin to dish on everything from playing a bad girl, to her commitment to art, activism, and her favorite charities—we even got the inside scoop on the upcoming fifth season of True Blood!

HAMPTON SHEET: True Blood’s Pam is probably the most delicious character on television today.

KRISTIN BAUER van STRATEN: Thank you! I am having so much fun—really it’s the writing, the costuming, the set dressing. It’s all a big synchronicity that I feel very lucky to be a part of.

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You went to private school in Wisconsin. How did that experience prepare you to play a straight-shooting bisexual vampire?

The only thing would be the natural rebellion that wearing a uniform creates. It may be my nature, and nothing that I can blame on the school, but I was always fairly rebellious. I guess that’s the nature of someone who is going to pick a career that no one would really recommend. In general, I just went towards the unconventional—which is definitely HBO, and definitely Pam.

The vampires on True Blood have been called “the hottest southern vamps since Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt [in Interview with the Vampire].” Vampire portrayals have changed immensely in the past few years. From Bela Lugosi’s Dracula to Lily Munster to Tom Cruise’s Lestat, did any of those performances inspire your portrayal of Pam?

All of these things go into our psyche and imagination. When you are auditioning, you want to get the job, so you are trying to figure out what is in the writer’s vision, and I just went with my gut.

Stephen Moyer—vampire Bill Compton—directed an episode this season. What’s it like having a co-star direct you? Do you have any desire to direct?

He’s directing me right now, and it’s so great. It’s a seamless transition from acting with him to being directed by him, partly because he has become, over the years, someone that I would discuss scenes with. When I’m in a scene with him, I go over and say, “All right—listen to my delivery. Here are the choices. Which one’s better?” And he’d say, “The second.” What’s unusual about asking another actor for advice is that it’s just not done. It’s the golden unspoken rule that you do not comment on someone else’s acting. But for some reason, with Stephen, it has just become part of our relationship because he has a director’s spirit—and he’s really good at it. I feel like I have my hands full with Pam. For me, the direction I would like to go in is writing.

There’s a rumor that there’s a season 5 episode dedicated to how Eric, played by Alexander Skarsgard, made Pam a vampire. Can you give an inside scoop?

I am allowed to say that we are going to see it and that’s about it.

Is there anything else that you can reveal about that episode, or are you bound by confidentiality?

(Laughs) It really was a joy to film, and it explains how she became the vampire she is today.

I heard that NYC is one of your favorite places— what’s your favorite spot?

I know it’s a big tourist attraction, but I just love Washington Square Park. I went to Parsons for art, and that’s where we’d go as students to hang out. Coming from Wisconsin, it was just the most magical, iconic vision of New York. My husband Abri and I were in the city last September for True Blood’s finale week. We went to the park, sat there, and looked at the art.

There’s a man who rolls his baby grand piano into the park every day.

See? Isn’t that incredible? We don’t have central meeting places like that here in Los Angeles.

In L.A., it seems that they don’t want people hanging around outdoor spaces.

(Laughs) L.A. is not at all designed for, nor does it lend itself to, central meeting places. What we have here are little restaurants and music clubs. Recently my husband found, within a mile of our house, amazing little hole-in-the-wall restaurants, like behind the dentist’s office, where they play incredible music. Before I married him, I would just drive by every day and not know about them. It’s like a rabbit warren with these little nooks.

It’s refreshing to hear someone tell it like it is.

That may come from Wisconsin or New York. In L.A., people tend to gloss over a couple of things.

You always hear that people in New York will stab you in the front. People in L.A. will stab you in the back.

I prefer the frontal attack. At least you have a chance. [Being blunt] works really well with Pam, but in my marriage that seems like something I need to curb. And I think I have been pretty good because Abri doesn’t know how blunt I can be. But my family, if they described me, it would be fairly harsh.

You are also a very talented artist. The Hamptons are full of art lovers. Have you thought about curating a show here or in NYC?

I would love to! The only reason it hasn’t happened is that I just haven’t called a gallery or had a connection. I would absolutely love to do that. Getting in touch with galleries and having my work shown is on my list of things to do. Literally, my life entails shooting the show, walking the dogs, and getting groceries.

New Yorkers are also some of the most philanthropic people around. What are some of your own favorite causes and charities?

One is the International Fund for Animal Welfare. We are going to Kenya with them to bring awareness to, among other things, how wonderful the safaris are and the fact that it’s safe to go there. My husband’s family is from Kenya. We are doing this because elephant-ivory and rhino-horn poaching is at an all-time high. I usually try to educate people by telling them that any ivory is from a dead elephant. I’m working with the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine to help pass the Great Ape Cost Protection and Savings Act of 2011. And I work with No-Kill LA, an initiative of the Best Friends Animal Society, to make Los Angeles a no-kill city [for animals in shelters].

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You already enlighten your fans about your causes on Twitter and Facebook. Any desire to take it up a notch and do a documentary on one of them? HBO is almost synonymous with the word documentary.

HBO docs are amazing. I would love to do one on my upcoming trip to Kenya. I just put together a package to send out to filmmakers to see if they were interested in filming it. Documentaries are actually one of my favorite forms of entertainment. With almost any one I watch, I am hooked within the first 30 seconds. Like, I could turn on the history of the war beetles on Netflix and think to myself, “How can that be interesting?”—but then all of a sudden, I’m riveted.

You’re an animal lover, activist, artist, philanthropist, loving wife—yet you keep getting cast in bad-girl roles: a mean girl in Romy and Michele’s High School Reunion, Queen Maleficent in ABC’s Once Upon a Time, and of course Pam. Do you ever channel the bad girl in your day-to-day life?

When I get to play Pam, she is so direct and honest and not worrying about being liked. Those are three things that, in my own life, are hard to accomplish. And it’s so nice to not have those concerns. Pam is harsh, but she is correct. When Pam talks, she is saying it like it is and she is very practical. So I have that side to me but, having a Wisconsin upbringing, I have learned to “edit.” In the last month, I realized that I could be a little bit “more rude” to people and get away with it. A fan recently asked me if he could take a picture with me and if I could bite him. Usually I say, “Oh, I am so sorry—I don’t bite people,” and I sort of try to make it OK that they asked me. So instead of saying that, this time I just gave him one of my Pam dirty looks and said, “No.” And everyone standing around laughed. They thought it was so great because they just had a “Pam” interaction, and I thought, “Wow, this could be a new lease on life.”

Season 5 of True Blood premieres on HBO on Sunday, June 10th. You can catch up with everything that you might have missed in Season 4 when it is released on DVD and Blu-ray on May 29th.

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