Actress Jurnee Smollett-Bell jumped into action when she found out she was being considered for a role on the hit HBO series True Blood.
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In an interview with the Hollywood Reporter, Smollett-Bell said that she and her husband shot an impromptu audition video in her in-laws’ basement to convince producers that she had what it takes to appear alongside the show’s bloodthirsty vampires.
She got the gig. Smollett-Bell plays a new character, Nicole, in the series’ sixth season, which premiered on June 16.
While visiting THR’s video lounge, she reveals that she had been in Detroit visiting relatives for Christmas when she got a call that the producers of True Blood were interested in her for a role.
So with the help of her husband, musician Josiah Bell, she taped her audition in the basement of her in-laws’ home.
With the show’s dark and sometimes-creepy feel, we can’t imagine a more appropriate setting to shoot an audition. But Smollett-Bell says it wasn’t as appropriate as it seems.
“You can hear the running water, the water heater coming on, my nephew’s upstairs, he’s a baby so he was crying, you can hear the chairs being dragged,” she says with a laugh. “So not professional.”
The tape was enough to get her the part as a series regular. Smollett-Bell will make her first appearance in the second episode of season six.
Read more at the Hollywood Reporter.
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