"Steve and I had a certain instant connection. It doesn't hurt when the relationship on screen
that you're trying to create is one of attraction and fascination."- Anna Paquin

Are there parallels or similarities between the relationship your character has with Sookie and your relationship with Anna?
"As much as I may look it without the makeup on, I am not 150 years older than her, but there is an age difference.
There is a Sookie-ness to her, but Anna is much more streetwise and savvy. She's bright, and smart, and funny, and she doesn't suffer fools.
She's hardcore, man, and I love that. I'm much more outspoken than Bill. My problem is shutting me up [laughs] Whereas Anna is very reserved.
But it works for us. If I clam up, she will get it out of me."

May we ask where you went on your first date?
"That's one we haven't been asked before. HBO put us up in West Hollywood. We were the only two out-of-towners;
she's from New York, and I'm from London. There's a great sushi restaurant on Sunset, a little hole in the wall,
but I always eat there. So that's where we went on our first date. Well, actually, the very first date, although it wasn't a date,
was breakfast at La Conversation, on the corner of Doheny and Santa Monica. We had omelets. That was when we were first getting to know each other."

And it grew from there?
"The truth is that after the pilot, I got back to London, and she got back to New York, and it pullled my legs from underneath me.
I couldn't believe how much I missed her. And from then on, we were in each other's pockets, and have been ever since. Two years."
- Venice Magazine

These days they are often snapped by tabloids doing entirely low-key couple things such as shopping at Whole Foods
and swinging on the monkey rings in Santa Monica. They appear very together, very much in love. Anna is also a firm fixture
in the lives of Steve’s two children, Billy, nine, and Lilac, seven.

With a stable relationship, her first proper home in Venice, Los Angeles, and high hopes for a third series of True Blood,
it all seems as though, for the first time, Anna is settling down. ‘I don’t want to disappear. I’m done with that.
I don’t want to be a transient figure in my own life any more. I’m enjoying the prospect of doing up the house.
I’ve never decorated anywhere I’ve lived before.’

You can’t help but feel, though, that she must have missed out somewhere by growing up so quickly.
‘Yes of course I did,’ she admits. ‘I was always quite shy and learned quickly how to behave like an adult in an adult world.
But I have a Hello Kitty bike now, thank you. I might not have had it when I was eight but, hell, I appreciate it so much more now.’

So is it any surprise that Anna, 18 years and 23 movies after her debut, wants to kick off her shoes and stay by the beach
with Stephen, and have downtime filled with yoga and photography?

As to whether she and Stephen are thinking of having a child of their own, she can’t say.
‘I don’t know how they’d resolve me and my short shorts on the show with a baby bump! So there are a few “not untils” on that one.
At some point, when that convenient time, which never exists for actresses, comes – somewhere between now and menopause – I will. I have time.’
- MailOnline