Ryan Kwanten

Oh, Jason Stackhouse. You’re always wandering into the wrong situation. “There’s honestly not a day that I’m shooting that I’m not thinking, ‘I can’t believe I’m about to do this, ’” says Ryan Kwanten, the handsome Australian who plays the loveably dimwitted Southern boy Stackhouse on the hit HBO show True Blood. Stackhouse—the erstwhile brother of Anna Paquin’s lead vampire-loving belle, Sookie—gets addicted to V (vampire blood), has sex with just about everyone on the show, and even joins an anti-vampire Christian cult. “At the end of every day, [the cast and crew] looks around and says, ‘Wow, did we shoot that? ’ We get so many firsts in the show, things that I’ve never seen before on television. ” But being on a show that features America’s hot topic (and nearly exhausted) folklore—vampires—hasn’t jaded Kwanten either. “We do very much a TV-savvy version. We apply a little bit of that folklore and then add our own twist on it, which I think is part of the reason that you can’t predict what’s going to happen. ” The affable Kwanten is always up for the unpredictable—his success with True Blood has lead to a lead role as a superhero in the upcoming Australian comedy Griff the Invisible, and a voice-acting turn in Zack Snyder’s next project, the animated Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga’Hoole.

Aaron Paul

As Jesse Pinkman on AMC’s Breaking Bad, Aaron Paul delves into some dark places: methamphetamine trafficking, murder, and drug addiction. “The story we’re telling is very intense and sad at times, ” says Paul, “so [co-star] Bryan [Cranston] will squirt me with penisshaped squirt guns in the middle of a scene. ” So it goes on the set of the superserious show that features relative newcomer Paul and comedy veterans Bryan Cranston and Bob Odenkirk. “It definitely breaks the tension, ” laughs Paul. For his role as the methaddicted Pinkman, Paul did his research, albeit not in the same way Roger Corman famously researched for The Trip by dropping acid in the desert. “Are you asking me if I’m a meth-od actor? ” Paul gags, and then turns a grave tone to the role and the addictive quality of meth. “No, it’s amazing what you can find on YouTube. You can see how people react to the drug and how people’s voice patterns change. It’s a sad and tragic drug. The show is about very bad decisions. ” Paul is now finding himself in a position to make very good decisions about his career. With recurring roles on both Breaking Bad and HBO’s Big Love, Paul is suddenly in demand. “There’s a little bit more cushion, ” he admits. “I don’t have to do a job to survive or pay rent. I can be a little bit more picky now. ” We look forward to seeing him in challenging roles for years to come.

Matthew Bomer

The role of a charmingly cocksure escaped conmancum- FBI-consultant sees Matthew Bomer get into quite a bit of trouble as Neal Caffrey in the acclaimed USA Network series White Collar. “We actually work with a legitimate conman on set. I’ve learned how to pickpocket someone with two fingers instead of using your thumb, ” Bomer says with a smile. Bomer has an immense love for acting, which he channels into a career that has seen him study or star in every single arena of the craft, from musicals and theatre to big production films, soap operas, and TV series. His action-packed roles as a man-on-the-run in The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning and a CIA agent in Chuck have allowed him to flex some amazingly spry abilities. It’s unsurprising to learn, then, that Bomer grew up under the athletic guidance of his ex-Dallas Cowboy father, John. “Anytime you can get physically involved as an actor is a great thing, ” he says. “I’ve played a lot of characters who operate on their own morals, and they’re generally on the run from something. ” Far away from football-obsessed Texas, Bomer expresses his affection for New York and the “kinesthetic comforts” of the city. “I’m still pinching myself and knocking on wood that I get to shoot in this city, ” he says. “We get to see a lot of great architecture, including the NASDAQ building and massive multi-million dollar houses—real white collar areas. Some shows shoot New York in a really gritty way; ours is a real love letter. ”

Ivan Sergei

Though Ivan Sergei admits he’s been close to the mortal edge, he surely hasn’t been as close to self-immolation as his character Robert on the brand new hit show Gravity on Starz Network. Nope, he has never staged a car accident and made headlines for landing that very car into the pool of a gay cruise ship. Contrary to his Gravity character’s self-destructive tendencies, Sergei is perfectly happy—happy with the show, happy working with a diverse and talented cast (he plays alongside the likes of Ving Rhames, Rachel Hunter, and Krysten Ritter) and, most of all, happy for the freedom. “[Cable] offers an opportunity to portray how people really are. The show’s about people who’ve tried to kill themselves. You wouldn’t see such a serious subject on network TV, ” he says. Sergei welcomes the challenge of playing a suicidal character. He’s played a range of everything, from good guys and killers to bisexual adulterers and martial arts aficionados. Of his martial arts training for John Woo’s Once a Thief, Sergei reminisces that it helped him get rid of a recurring dream. “I was constantly punching in slow motion, ” he says, “unable to hit anyone in these dreams. After the movie, I never had those dreams again. I guess acting is therapeutic after all. ” Surely the mounting success of Gravity will also encourage Sergei to remain far from the edge.

Vincent Kartheiser

Shortly after teasing Mad Men’s Vincent Kartheiser about his hole-gnarled flannel and ill-fit trousers, he suggests, “Fashion changes the way we walk and talk and treat other people. The way you cross a street in ripped jeans and old sneakers completely changes when you put on a three hundred dollar pair of shoes and a nice suit. And a lot of people put these things on but don’t have the persona they project. Generally, the better dressed you are in L. A., the less power you actually have. But fashion’s foolish. It’s a fickle little thing. ” It’s a refreshing point of view from someone whose character, Pete Campbell, regularly contributes a love-to-hate-him blend of materialism and go-getter vanity. Of Mad Men’s thematic likeness to his recent role in the BBC’s television adaptation of Martin Amis’ silver-spoon-to-supermarket- pork-pie benchmark ‘80s Brit novel, Money, Kartheiser speaks to modern culture’s inability to reach contentment. “In both films, you’re talking about capitalism, ” he states. “[It’s] a merry-go-round, a dog track we’re all on, chasing this inedible carrot. But we haven’t figured out that carrot’s a piece of plastic yet; these stories spotlight all these dysfunctional and gratuitous parts of our own psyche. ” At mention of a recent Guardian interview, which tells of his possession abandonment and asserts Kartheiser’s self-crowning as a kind of new urban Tarzan (he was remodeling, actually, and is surely soon to fill his West Hollywood batch pad with at least some stylish treats), he says, “You spend an hour talking to someone, and maybe you’re in a crazy place that day, or whatever, but they’re going to make their own thing out of it. ” At that, we can be sure Flaunt’s the sexiest, most debonair team Kartheiser’s ever had the pleasure of working with.