Stephen Moyer Talks Career, Family And His New ‘Art Detectives' Series
Perhaps still best known for playing vampire Bill Compton on the HBO hit series True Blood, actor, executive producer and director Stephen Moyer has come a long way since his blood-sucking television days. Most recently seen on the Elsbeth CBS comedy series and soon on the Netflix action series The Night Agent, Moyer, 55, has continued to take on a wide array of roles, both in front of the camera and behind-the-scenes.
With his latest project, Art Detectives on Acorn TV, Moyer plays Mick Palmer, a detective inspector in charge of uncovering mysterious thefts, murders and other crimes that occur around the art world. Sitting down with Moyer in early May while he appeared at SeriesFest in Denver, Colorado, I wondered what it was about his Art Detectives character Mick and this fictional world that intrigued him to want to take this on next.
'Well, I was approached by the boys, [creators] Paul [Powell] and Dan [Gaster] and Will [Ing], quite early when they had got the idea for the story. At that point, all I knew was the smallest department in the entire police force is the art forgery department, Heritage Crime Unit. I was really interested in that. I knew I'd never seen that before. And so, I was interested in what they were going to try and do with it.'
Not only does Moyer co-star alongside Nina Singh on Art Detectives, but he is also an executive producer on the project. So, what does it mean to Moyer at this point in his career, to have such an active hand on the production side?
Stephen Moyer and Nina Singh on "Art Detectives"
Acorn TV
Moyer said, 'It's not my first time I've done that. The thing that is interesting about creating your own stuff is you might like the kernel of an idea, you might like sort of what it is, but you can keep pushing to try and make it richer and richer and richer. As an actor, you can suggest stuff, but you can't necessarily change things. As we go through the show, we learn more about [Mick's]
Also speaking briefly with fellow Art Detectives executive producer Paul Powell at SeriesFest, he had nothing but praise to say about Moyer as a collaborator.
Powell said, 'We were so pleased to get Stephen. That really unlocked a lot of things for us, in terms of the writing, the performance - and of course, he is so experienced. He has got so many great opinions. We would talk quite frankly about the show, the character - so, he was really good to have onboard. He's generous, as well. He would fight in his corner, but if he felt like, 'You know what? Okay, I'm going to step back now' - he would. There was never an ego with Stephen. He was always like for the good of the show.'
When Moyer is not working, his life is at home, which includes his wife of nearly 15 years, Anna Paquin, whom he met on the set of True Blood. I was curious what it means to Moyer to have a partner like Paquin, who understands the entertainment business and the schedules and the weird travel that can come with this type of chosen artist lifestyle.
Moyer said of Paquin, 'I mean, she's sort of like my manager. She's sort of like my coach. She's the person who pours the water on me during the ring breaks. She's the person who puts my gum shield back in. She's the person who clears the blood up. She's the person who sort of is the cheerleader. She goes through lines with me when I've got big stuff to do. I just had ten pages in two days on The Night Agent. She's a genius, so she doesn't need much help. She likes ideas, work wise - I've directed her quite a few times and she takes that stuff seriously, but she's very, very, very good at learning lines - and I'm not.'
Being also a dad alongside Paquin, how does Moyer find balance within his work commitments, while still prioritizing his loved ones at home?
'Well, I've been working away a lot and Anna has been at home a lot. So this job, The Night Agent that I'm doing right now, it's the first time I've worked from home in 12 years. It's so great. So when I get home, I see the kids, I cook dinner, I take them out on the weekends. We go and do stuff, and that has been great.'
Being someone that has now been around the entertainment business for more than half of his life, I wondered what Moyer is liking about the industry ways of today and what things does he perhaps miss from yesteryear that he wishes were still in place.
Moyer said, 'Oh, that's a really good question. The thing about streaming when it first started and when we first began this sort of new world, there was a just a plethora of stuff. There was so much material, so much being made. I'm not saying anything wrong here or out of the ordinary - during that period of time, the quality control - things that were good, stuck. Back in the days when I was first auditioning to do pilot season, the pilot season is very different from the UK system. They make a show - they make six episodes of something. There are not pilots - you just go, they get commissioned and you do a six-episode arc. When I was starting, I'd go to LA and there 80 to 100 pilots happening. It's not like that anymore. Pilot season sort of doesn't exist. I miss auditioning in-person. Back in the old days, we used to audition in-person. I've got 30 years worth of work that they can watch, and you still have to audition and prove that you can do it. You do get occasional offers - like Art Detectives came to me as a 'Would you be interested in doing this?' - which is lovely.'
This year marks 11 years since True Blood aired its series finale episode on HBO. Looking back now on his time with beloved characters like Bill, Sookie and Eric, how does Moyer feel about his experiences and overall thoughts about the show, and what gave it the winning recipe with audiences for so many years?
'I mean, it all stems from [writer] Alan [Ball]. It stems from Charlaine Harris's books. I've read hundreds of pilots in my life - it's one of the top five I've ever read. In that pilot, [Ball] set up all of the characters brilliantly, but he also set up a world where [the Louisiana town] Bon Temps had a texture to it - it had a feeling. Merlotte's Bar had a feeling about it. This idea that they [vampires] walk amongst us, but they don't need to feed on us because there's this other [synthetic] blood. All of that world - so smart, brilliantly cast, amazing people. The other thing that I think that's really important about True Blood, apart from it being super sexy and scary and fun, is it was really funny and I think that people forget how funny it was.'
After all that Moyer experienced on True Blood over those seven seasons, I was curious if there is anything that he would have changed, whether that be a certain performance of his, or speaking up when he was given a storyline for Bill that he was not crazy about.
Anna Paquin and Stephen Moyer on "True Blood"
HBO
Moyer said, 'That's a really interesting question. I mean, with the benefit of hindsight, maybe - with perspective. I've never worked on a job where, ever - probably the closest to it would be The Night Agent - where when the scripts come out and back in those days, they used to come out in a brown envelope on a Thursday on True Blood. Everybody on-set when we weren't turning over, when we weren't rolling, would be sitting - the crew would be sitting, reading it. I've never seen a grip sitting on the back of their dolly grip, because they absolutely loved [the script] and they wanted to know what happened next."
He added: 'The show had its 'Scooby Doo' elements towards the end. There was some wild stuff, but it's never not fun. So, would I change it? I don't know. I would probably have made some more sound investments. It's really nice spending money.'
As I concluded the conversation with Moyer about his ever-expanding career, I wondered if he has noticed that his interests in the stories that he is choosing to tell, evolving as time has gone on.
Moyer said, 'Good question. I used to be very, very picky. I've turned down - I'm not going to tell you, but I've made some stupid decisions across the way. I've got to the point now where, I mean, I love working. So, I love doing what I do. I'm so lucky to do it. When I produce and I direct, and acting really sort of is the predominant payer of the bills - but having a hand in crafting where you want things to go and where you want it to be, I'm interested in all of that. I think that as I've got older, I've just gotten used to sort of going - Oh, I think this could be interesting - or I might say yes to something because I think I can do something interesting with that character, whereas before, I might have gone - Oh, the sum of the parts might not be quite what I would have wanted. I think now, I'm much more willing to just go - I want to do what I do.'
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