Alive Magazine

Kristin Bauer isn't just another pretty face with fangs. Like Pam, the lusty vamp she plays on the hit HBO show "True Blood," Bauer has flashes of defiance. In college, she earned A's in the classes she liked (drawing, painting) and failed the ones that she didn't (math, science). "I've definitely been known to be insubordinate," says Bauer, a Midwest native who spent a year at Washington University's art school. Bauer used to take or leave things in the working world, too. "I always had a million day jobs—you know, for two weeks, and then I'd get fired."

Now Bauer has a career that's to die for: vampirism.

Scoring the role of Pam left her feverish with excitement—but not because she could expect frequent scenes with Swedish heart slayer Alexander Skarsgard, known to "True Blood" followers as Eric Northman. "I thought, ‘Great! I get to be sarcastic, witty, in great clothes killing people," Bauer says. "I'm there."

Bauer and her on-screen pals get their share of kicks behind the scenes, and the amusement began one of the first days on the set. "We were trying to look like we were flying, so we kept putting our arms behind us and trying to lift our knees," she says. "We all bonded because we were laughing so hard. It looks really cool on film, but in person it just seemed silly." To go airborne, Bauer explained vampires roll down a metal track on wheeled platforms. The rest is illusion. "To get our hair blowing so it looked like we were moving at a fast speed, there was a fan with a long extension cord with somebody running backwards in front of us," she says.

Two short years and millions of thirsty fans later, "True Blood" is entering its third season, premiering Sunday, June 13. Bauer doesn't know what the upcoming year will bring for her character. "Pam really isn't in book three," she says, referring to the novels by Charlaine Harris that gave rise to the TV series, "so the storyline is completely out of the brilliant minds of these creators. I'm waiting as the scripts come to find out what happens."

Bauer's first break in acting was like a scene right out of a movie. In the early '90s, someone walked up to her on the street in Los Angeles and offered her a part. Rock 'n' roll, however, was her original ambition. "I always dreamed I would be a guitar player," she says. Last August, Bauer married South African guitarist, singer and songwriter Abri van Straten, frontman for the band The Lemmings. "My husband would like to fly," says Bauer, when asked which vampire power she craves most. "I'll go for the immortality–I'll go for getting to stick around awhile." What's the allure of living forever among the undead? "No Botox."

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