Chris Meloni Talks ‘True Blood’ and Cultural Catholicism

Christopher Meloni is one of the bravest actors working today – he’s not afraid of getting naked, looking bad, or even peeing on camera. After a 12-year stint as conflicted Catholic cop Eliot Stabler on Law and Order: Special Victims Unit, he just started a new role on True Blood, which loves to skewer religious iconography. He’s interviewed in this week’s New York magazine:

[His character Roman has] stabbed a traitorous ally, chanted vampire liturgy in Aramaic, and shagged the ancient Salome, of New Testament fame. (Meloni may have a tattoo of a Crucifix on his arm and come from a very Catholic family, but he says, “If you say, ‘let’s go to church,’ I break out in sweat. It’s the last place I want to be found. I get my God in a drive-through window.”

So, maybe Stabler wasn’t that far removed from Meloni himself? Either way, I’m so glad this dude is still on my television.