Bloody messy

Anna Paquin, 26, has slept through her first interview with Time Out New York having for two weeks been shooting back-to-back episodes of HBO’s True Blood. “I don’t party. I’m not that cool,” Paquin says. The New Zealand import has managed to lie low, avoiding that telltale trail of scandal and paparazzi. As telepathic waitress Sookie Stackhouse, Paquin discusses blood and says the cuter the outfit, the more you’re about to get really messy in it on set. “There’s eye blood, there’s mouth blood, there’s congealed blood, there’s liquid blood, there’s old blood, there’s crusty old blood,” she says. “The old-school shaving foam, like Barbasol, is the only thing that gets it out of your skin.” She says the trick to soul-shivering screams, like the one that ended last season when she discovered the dead body is to just scream. “Loud. Have older siblings. I’m the youngest, so you scream loud or no one will come and intervene. My older brother stuffed me inside a cello case once. Zipped it up.”