This is the second part of a round-table interview with Oscar-winning writer Alan Ball, who is writer and director on the new HBO vampire series, True Blood.

GAY CHICAGO: In the last ten years, there are many shows that have not featured gay and lesbian characters, or have barely featured them.

ALAN BALL: Star Trek is famous for never featuring them, over four series in 30 years. Even modern shows such as Terminator, Heroes, Smallville, Supernatural and Charmed, and last year’s Moonlight, did not feature gay characters. Or if they did, it was once over the course of the series. Now were getting shows like Pushing Daisies (by Brian Fuller), or Torchwood and Doctor Who (by Russell Davies) by openly gay creators.

Did you want to direct [True Blood] from a perspective as a gay creator? How might that bring things into the fantasy world that you are portraying?

Well, certainly, I am gay so I have definitely more of an organic affinity with characters who might be gay or lesbian than a straight person might. But I didn’t create a gay character just to have a gay character. He was in Charlene’s book. Anybody, who came of age sexually in a way that they felt like they should keep a secret, could probably read it as a metaphor for them personally.

I tend to not feel I live in a dream world, and that dream world is where being gay is about as interesting and important as having brown hair. Once it becomes overtly political and consciously political in terms of that, it because less interesting for me.

I know that answer will probably piss a lot of people off, but I am just being honest. Obviously there’s a lot of gay characters in my work. I have two screen plays I have written, one of which has a big gay character and one of which doesn’t.

Towelhead made me incredibly uncomfortable. I can’t imagine anybody watching it not being made uncomfortable.

I think that if the movie doesn’t make you uncomfortable, there might be something wrong with you.

I am interested by your comment that there were no gay characters in [Towelhead], because the Arab-American girl, Jasira, is very sexually confused. Was it obviously very metaphorical for anyone who feels like an outsider?

That’s very true, and I forgot about that. [Jasira] is wildly heterosexual, so I just assume in my mind that that is how she is going to end up, but now that you mention it, I think that is kind of an assumption. She is drawn to the images of the Playboy centerfolds, but I don’t think she really connects it to sex. But you know there is something so great about these women, who were so incredible beautiful and obviously being sort of photographed and adored and nobody’s slapping them for showing up at the breakfast table without wearing a bra, which is what happens in Jasira’s life. And there is that moment where she says, “Do women ever look at these pictures and feel good.” So yes there is a little bit of that in there and that is all straight from the book

Your work from American Beauty and Towelhead to Six Feet Under and True Blood share themes of discontent in suburbia. What’s really going on in suburbia?

It’s not what’s going on in suburbia, per se, because the same thing is going on in cities and in rural areas. For me it’s more about what’s going on beneath the surface of what’s accepted. What is the mythology we’ve all agreed upon that is the proper way to behave. That mythology is supported through the media, our various religions, our government institutions. And that mythology doesn’t have room for a lot of deviation, or at least it hasn’t up until recently, and even when there is deviation, you’ve got to fight to not feel shitty about yourself.

And it certainly plays more in Towelhead. How does [Jasira] incorporate any sort of healthy sense of self into her life because of all these different messages. In that way, it’s really something that can be appreciated by LGBT community.

What attracted you to the idea of adapting True Blood to a television series, as opposed to say a movie?

It’s a whole series of books. The world was big enough and there were enough characters to support it. To distill it into one movie would be to simplify it in a way that I think would have done it a disservice. It could support the larger campus of a TV series. I am a big fan of Lost and Dexter and shows that are a little more genre, and it just felt sort of more challenging to me in that I haven’t really done this. I didn’t feel the need to do another TV series about the complexities of relationships and existential stuff but - and when I started reading the books and there were vampires and this and that, you know I sort of felt well that seems fun.

How would you say that vampire sex compares to homo Sapien sex?

Well, we’ve tried to approach the idea of the supernatural as being something that instead of existing outside of nature, it is a deeper more primal manifestation of nature. Also, when you’ve been around hundreds of years, you’ve kind of learned a thing or two. I think it’s different, and I wouldn’t say its better, but it is something that is an experience.

What’s your own relationship with horror as a genre, as it’s your first foray into it? Also did you look to any other filmmakers or writers or painters for inspiration?

I am embarrassingly unversed in the canon of horror and science fiction movies. I’ve seen the big movies that everybody’s seen. I’ve seen some little movies. At the same time, I haven’t seen a lot of classic television series; I haven’t read a lot of classic books. So I’m not really conscious of what my influences are, but I do know that once I decided to do this and I was going to direct a pilot, I rented a lot of vampire movies just because I wanted to get a sense of how people shoot things and what’s the overall feeling.

I did come up with very quickly a list of things I never wanted to do. I didn’t want to give people crazy contact lenses when their fangs came out. I didn’t want there to be any opera music. I didn’t want to use that cold, icy blue light. So those are my big three to avoid.

As is the case with anything I do, I really, really, really focus on what’s going on between the characters and try to make the plot integrated with that. In a lot of ways it’s very different, with all the special effects people, and we’d have to stop shooting so people can put their fangs in and that kind of thing. But, at the same time, it’s very much the same as anything else I’ve ever done.

These vampires only can come out at night, as opposed to some other shows.

They can only come out at night. If they come out in the day, bad things happen to them.

True Blood airs on Sundays on HBO.

All questions for Mark can be sent to marktnagel@aol.com.

Berresford is appearing in the independent film, The Way I See Things which will have its Midwest premiere at Reeling 2008: The 27th Chicago Lesbian and Gay International Film Festival on Sunday November 9 at the Landmark Theater at 7 p.m.

GAY CHICAGO: Where did you grow up?

JOSH BERRESFORD: I grew up in Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania.

I don't think of Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania as a place that produces many actors.

No, not really. I think the most famous person from there is Joe Namath [football player]. His brother was my insurance guy.

How did you first get into acting?

I graduated from Robert Morris University in Pittsburgh and I was going for interview after interview for jobs for editing, television production. I kept getting rejected because I didn’t have any experience. I took some classes in theatre and auditioned for my first community play and got the role and I haven’t stopped since.

What do you consider a paying acting job?

It was a dinner theatre and it was “How to Succeed in Business,” and it was $45 a show.

You were big time! What was your first paying job in Hollywood?

Probably Dante’s Cove would be my biggest and most paid.

How is working on Dante’s Cove?

It’s fun. The people are awesome. I really like everyone but the network people, but I am sure that happens a lot. I have gotten some acting friends out of it like Tracy Scoggins [The Colbys].

I love her.

She is a crazy woman.

You are going to be coming to Chicago for the Lesbian and Gay Film Festival. You’re in the movie The Way I See Things. What can you tell us about the movie?

It’s about a guy who deals with loss and finding yourself.

I understand the you will be making an appearance at the movie. Will your fans be able to meet you?

Of course. I love my fans!

You can meet Josh Berresford on Sunday, November 9 at 7 p.m. at the Reeling Film Festival at Landmark Theater.

All questions for Mark can be sent to marktnagel@aol.com.