She plays sassy Arlene, a gossipy southern gal who hysterically apologized for marrying a serial killer in the first season of ‘True Blood,’ Now, Carrie Preston is talking to me about set secrets and season three!

Carrie and I hooked up Hollywood style - through our fabulous hair stylist Andrea Rothstein! Andrea showed us all How-To Go Hollywood Blonde recently. While Carrie herself is a natural blonde, she wears a red wig for the fang-tastic HBO series.

“I like being in the blonde realm,” she says. “I often change my hair color for roles, but keeping your real hair that particular color of red is really hard to maintain. I would have to dye it before every episode! Plus, the wig has become a character in and of itself. We call it Gwynnie because apparently it was made for Gwyneth Paltrow at some point, but I don't think she ever ended up wearing it.”

Gwynnie also helps her get in character. “The minute I get that wig on,” she says, “I want to start sassing people off.”

On the set, she can get away with that sass. “We get along really well,” Carrie says. “We like to crack each other up in between takes. In season two, a bunch of us were possessed by crazy Mary Ann Forester, who was a Maenad. We had to do this choral chanting to call up her ‘God.’ The lines were something like ‘Lo Lo Bromios! Lo lo Dentrites! Lo lo Eleutherious! Lo Le Enorches,’ and we would throw things in there like ‘Lo Lo Burritos. Lo Lo nachos. Lo Lo Dentures. Lo Lo Eucalyptus trees’ - whatever would come to our minds.  I bet the sound editors were either laughing their heads off or cursing us in post production.”

Currently filming season three, she’s not giving up any spoilers. She does dish on her character, saying, “Something very unexpected is going to happen to Arlene this season.”

Whatever comes her way, I’m happy as long as she stays put. This beauty is one of the best parts of the show! As we concluded our convo, she passed along some great advice, which I’m happy to share with you here:

“A mentor of mine once told me, ‘Keep yourself open to the mysteries of life even if the world is crumbling around you,’” she says. “When I feel stressed or overwhelmed about something, I try to remember to stay open and it helps to calm me down and keep me from circling the drain.”

For those starving artists tying to make it out there, she says, “I would encourage them to not give their power away to others and to appoint themselves the authority on what they can and cannot do in their lives. I would also suggest to them to find ways to create their own work when they are looking for other people to hire them. It keeps you sane and focused on creating and not just on getting a job.”

To conquer her bad days, she gets Zen with it. “I’ve taken an in interest in meditation and Buddhism for the last several years. So I do what they suggest and try not to resist the discomfort because that only causes more suffering. I try to sit with whatever is making me miserable and let it be because I know it will eventually pass. This is of course much easier said than done!”

Carrie also gives back to the art world. “I like to support the arts,” she adds, “especially since we live in a time when the arts are not being fostered in communities and schools as much as they used to be.” She’s a board member of the New Harmony Project, a volunteer for Free Arts for Abused Children and supports the Actors Fund of America.

More with the stars:

True Blood Baddie Kristin Bauer Doing Good Work

A Bloody Good Conversation with Ryan Kwanten

Wes Ferguson went as a ‘fang banger’ for Halloween. He’s a Hollywood lifestyle blogger & published author. Follow him on Twitter @Westopher

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