As those crazy kids who call themselves True Blood fans probably already know, this Sunday marks the debut episode in which we meet Alcide Herveaux, the wildly popular werewolf from Charlaine Harris's Club Dead novel who helps Sookie (Anna Paquin) on her quest to save Bill (Stephen Moyer).

Alcide’s portrayer, Joe Manganiello, knows he’s got high expectations to live up to. He became interested in the role when bloggers posted his picture and named him as a candidate to play Alcide back in Season 1, and knew he needed to prove himself to beat out some of the other suggestions, like Jeffrey Dean Morgan.

A strict twice-a-day workout regimen, 2,500 daily calories comprised of mostly meat, tanning and a read-through of all the books later, and Manganiello called the role his own.

TVGuide.ca caught up with the former One Tree Hill and How I Met Your Mother star to chat about his big première, working with wolves, getting naked, and this episode’s upcoming controversial sex scene.

TVGuide.ca: Congrats on the new role – it sounds very exciting. What are you going to do for your big debut? Any special plans?
Joe Manganiello: Yeah, I’m actually going to have a party. I flew my mom and dad into L.A., so we’re going to have a party at this bar/restaurant in Beverly Hills that rented me their space and watch it from there.

TVG: That sounds nice — have you warned them you’re probably going to be naked, though?
JM: Umm … I haven’t gotten to that. Actually that’s not true. They definitely heard through the rumour mill, so they’ve both been kind of alerted. I can’t see how any parent would be looking forward to seeing their son running around with his butt hanging out!

TVG: Obviously the series takes a lot of liberties with the books, so how close does Season 3 of the series follow the third book as far as Alcide is concerned?
JM: The books are from Sookie’s perspective, so they do fill in the story a lot. But it’s pretty close at least in spirit to the book. He rarely smiles – he’s very grumpy!

TVG: We meet Alicide’s sister soon, but do we meet his father this season?
JM: You don’t meet his dad, not yet. Alcide’s been forced into body-guarding Sookie, so he’s with her the whole time.

TVG: In the books, we see Alcide in future instalments. Were you given an option to appear in more seasons?
JM: I’m not sure what they have planned, and I’m not sure they do either. I’m just finishing up the season strong and we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.

TVG: Every time you shift, you’ve got a wolf by your side. What’s that been like, working with wolves? Are they temperamental?
JM: They’re really not — they’re shy around people a lot. And they’re very good about hitting their mark. The trainers just point and the wolf will walk around in a circle and sit on his mark. They’re very smart and responsible.

TVG: Do you work with the same animal or a few different ones?
JM: My wolf is the same one that I transform into; his name is Thunder.

TVG: That’s appropriate! Did you get any tips or anything before working with them?
JM: The trainers let you in on their personalities, and you learn about them. If you take one of the wolves away from the rest, all the other wolves will start howling so they know where to come back to them. It’s kind of interesting, even if you walk 10, 20 feet away, the whole pack will start howling, really loud. And then some wolves, not my wolf, but they won’t work unless they have a buddy with them. When you bring the wolf out to work, you have to bring another one to sit there so they have a friend. They have all these idiosyncrasies.

TVG: Can you give fans any early tidbits about what they can expect?
JM: There’s a lot of blood and a lot of people die, and there’s a lot of sex.

TVG: So pretty much like last season?
JM: I think this season’s better. I think this season is the best season so far. I think when people look back at the seasons, this one is going to be one of those seasons of television. Kind of like the second season of Sopranos. I think this is going to be like that season of True Blood.

TVG: Besides your debut, there’s a really controversial sex scene between two characters in the upcoming episode … did you watch that yet and what was your reaction when you read it?
JM: I haven’t seen it yet, but we joked about it a lot. I read it and kind of heard the description of it at the table read and bumped into everybody on set as it was going on. But that’s True Blood. It’s pushing boundaries and not just to shock people — they do it because it works in the confines of the story.

TVG: You sound like you’re pretty down-to-earth and comfortable with all that. Was there anything you came across in the scripts that shocked you?
JM: Reading that your nude scene is coming up! You can’t help but go, ‘Oh boy, here we go.’ The workouts definitely escalated after I read that script. There’s no better motivator. But that’s part of the show. The whole cast is in it together, and each one of us is asked to do the most insane things we could ever possibly imagine being asked to do, and we all go out and do it with a smile. There’s a camaraderie that gets built because of that. We’re like platoon in Vietnam together or something.

TVG: Did Anna or anybody give you tips or anything before you started out? Did she take you for dinner before you had to drop trou in front of her?
JM: (Laughs.) Like dinner and a movie? No! Not at all. I guess I’m still waiting on that. No, you just jump in there and go for it.

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