Men's Health

Q&A With True Blood's Stephen Moyer

Have you had to give up those amazing English ales in the name of good nutrition and a flat stomach?

Yep. Sadly. The truth is, fitness is about what you put in. It's equally about exercise, but it's about what you put in, too. I'm sitting here as we speak eating a salad with seared tuna. When I've got a big scene coming up, the bread and potatoes go out the window. I'm an English boy and I like a bacon sandwich every morning. But when the kit's comin' off [English slang for stripping], the bacon sandwiches go out the window, too.

You'll soon be seen on the big screen opposite Paul Bettany and Maggie Q in the thriller Priest, playing a mere mortal trying to fend off -- you guessed it -- killer vampires. Is it nice to bite into a new character, one that doesn't bite back?

I see what you did there, that was very clever -- awesome! Let's see if I can do some puns back. It was one of those things where the character was a really nice one. I was in the middle of shooting something else, and I was able to run in and do a few days on it. It's a small part but a lot of fun. I'm not a vampire but someone who's affected by vampires. It seems I can't attach myself to anything that doesn't have sharp teeth at the moment. It's going to be really good.

Of the five senses -- sight, hearing, taste, touch, smell -- which do you value most, and why?

You know in the morning and you wake up and you smell your kids' hair? And that sweet, sticky, warm, baby aroma? It's just extraordinary. My boy is starting to develop that pre-teen post-soccer smell that we all know so well, and yet, you know what? If you told me I was never going to smell it again -- that's a horrible thought.  Even morning breath that children have! I just love it. So I'm going to go with smell.

When and where were you happiest?

Last summer, the week before we got married, Anna and I went to a dude ranch and I remember we went on a ride where you go out over these mountains to an amazing cooked breakfast in an adobe, where cowboys are singing around a campfire. On the way back we stopped at the top of this amazingly beautiful lake. I'd be hard-pressed to imagine being happier than I was in that moment.

You're 41 now. How do you feel about aging in Hollywood?

I'm very happy with where I'm at now. I spent my 30s getting over the massive destruction of my 20s. By the time I got to 40 I felt like I had finally got rid of a ton of stuff I'd been carrying for a long time, on a personal level. It has cost me a fortune to get to the point where I am now, and I'm very happy to be here.