Janina Gavankar to play Luna on True Blood

Janina Gavankar recently learned that she’d won the role of shapeshifting sexy public school teacher ‘Luna‘ on HBO’s hit show True Blood. Better, the lovely actress joins True Blood as a regular cast member so we will be seeing quite a bit of her. Gavankar couldn’t say much about being cast on True Blood though with good humor she revealed that:

‘She’s very different than I am… obviously I am not a teacher, and I can’t shapeshift”

When asked why she is taking such a seemingly unique turn in her career she answered:

“I don’t feel like it is, actually! I often play normal people with abnormal life skills and or challenges.”

Gavankar responded in the negative when asked if she thinks she could be defined as sexy:

‘Nope. I can look at other actors and say ’she’s sexy’ or ‘he’s sexy.’ I think it’s a lot harder for me to turn the mirror around. Many of my characters have been uber-confident, and therefore perceived as sexy. Looking back at some of them, like Ms. Dewey or Papi, I would say “Hell yeah! Those girls were sexy!” But that’s not me, that’s them.”

Asked about the True Blood upcoming season 4, Gavankar remained, as many True Blood cast members do, tight-lipped:

“All I can say is the show is going to continue to give you everything you love about it, and more.”
In response to questions about her True Blood wardrobe, she replied:
“Well, there’s not much to it at all. Shifters remove their clothes before they shift. Needless to say, I’ll be in the gym over the holidays.”

Among others in a broad range of inquiries both serious and less so, Gavankar had this to say about staying in shape:

“I value being strong over being skinny. But my gym confession is: if I don’t have a trainer, I’m probably not going to work out. I hate it. (Laughs) I’d much rather use my energy artistically. So I change my routine often because I get bored easily. I just started boxing this week, and let me tell you, right now it hurts to sneeze (but) at least I’m not bored. (Laughs)”

Gavankar was asked about her memory of first being introduced to vampire lore as a child:
Her reply?

“Count Chocula (a monster-themed line of breakfast cereals). Best cereal ever. (Laughs) Hm, I think the first vampire lore I’d really seen was “Dracula” with Keanu Reeves and Winona Ryder. I think I saw it in high school at a friend’s house, and I didn’t tell my mom. She would have never let me see things like that. I found it horrifying.”

When queried about what she loved the most about her character and being on True Blood, Gavankar shared:
‘I’ll be working with Sam Trammell a lot. I’ve marathoned the entire show and have fallen in love with his character. It’ll be nice gazing into the eyes of Sam Merlotte.’