Alongside all of the sexy, scary supernatural goodness that makes True Blood as addictive as V – that’s vampire blood, for those of you who haven’t been spending every Sunday for the last three summers hanging out in Bon Temps – a couple of regular ol’ humans are making a play for the series’ best storylines. The frontrunner? Tara Thornton, best friend to vampire bait heroine Sookie Stackhouse, whose no-nonsense attitude and tenacity in the face of danger and loss keeps the show rooted in reality.

Tara, played with grit and vulnerability by Rutina Wesley, gets another chance to steal scenes as Season 4 picks up Sunday night. We checked in with the actress to find out what bad – and good! – things are in store for her this summer.

Tara got mixed up with some bad vampires last season. Are things looking brighter for her now?

We are finally going to see happiness for Tara. Definitely some stability – she is more stable – and powerful. She has started going to the shrink and she has learned how to love herself in a way that is beautiful and secure. I think it is nice to see because we have seen her suffer so much. And she may have a smile on her face.

The writers really put Tara through the wringer. If you could take her out of their hands, what would you have her do?

I kind of like where they have been taking me. That doesn’t happen all the time but I really trust them. They haven’t given me anything that I’ve been like, “Wait a minute.” A lot of the time, I’ve been like, “Does she have to suffer so much?” and “Do I really have to cry in every scene?” But those are challenges, and I just have to cry for 18 hours to go through the rape scene and being violated and tied up.

And the orgies. That is one script that I got and I’m like, “Wait, wait. Back up.” But we did it and we did it as a group and we were all professional, freezing out there together. It was kind of cool that the director was like, “Hey, we are going to do this. Good luck. Let’s have some fun.” And we did. We all played together and it was nice.

You mentioned her powerful side – but for a stretch there, she was being held prisoner and was very powerless. Was that difficult to play?

Tara, to me, has always been a voice of reason. So seeing that “True Blood” is so much drama, they needed someone to be in peril, and someone who represents human sufferings. It has been great as an actor to have those types of storylines to play. And it is also an incredible journey. I have worked with really great people, like James Frain, who plays Franklin Mott [Tara's vampire kidnapper]. That was amazing. We had so much fun doing it. I mean, if you don’t have fun at the end of the day, what’s the point of doing it at all? So, seeing her get back that strength, I think it is going to be great. I know there are a lot of women out there who want women to be represented strongly on television and not as victims. I think it is nice to see her find her strength again, like I said, “to love herself.” I think that it is important for women, for us to find our inner beauty and our own inner strength.

So when we meet Tara again on Sunday, what is her mental state?

It is good, it is happy. I think her fans – I mean, I can’t give away where she’s been and what’s she been doing – but I think when people see it, they will be incredibly surprised. I also think that they will be like, “OK. That makes sense.” I mean, granted, with everything that she’s been through, I think that people are going to understand the sort of turn in life that she’s taken. As a woman, I think it totally makes sense for the abused to find a new way of life. At the end of Season 3, Tara sort of had a catharsis and she shed her skin, and now she has got this new hair and has been to somewhere else other than Bon Temps, and living this other life. She could always slip back to the world of vampires and a whole bunch of other stuff. So it’s going to be really cool.

With all the plot twists and character deaths on this show, do you hold your breath every time you get a new script, hoping you’ll still have a job?

I do hold my breath, especially as it gets to the end and you never know what is going to happen.  I feel that all the characters, really anybody, thinks they are going to croak. You have to keep the show interesting, you have to keep people interested, so things have to happen, people die, and people get injured. That is what makes the drama. If it was all fairy tales and happy-go-lucky, I’m sure people would get bored after a while, and no one would want to watch it anymore.

True Blood is very much about fairy tales though – vampires, werewolves, shape-shifters, even fairies now. Does it ever get too weird, or is that the fun of it?

Yeah, I think that is the fun of it. I love that we sort of cross the worlds of fantasy and reality, and I think that makes good TV because ideally as actors, we really have to go there with these extreme situations that they put us in. But we have to play them with a level of humanity that you will believe it. I heard people say, “You guys have this level of humanity that I actually believe that vampires are walking today. I actually believe that when I turn around, someone is going to bite me at midnight.” So we have to keep it real. Because I think if we get too kooky, even if the situations are kooky, we can’t play it as kooky. We have to play like, “I am kidnapped by a vampire. What would Rutina Wesley do?” I would be scared for my life. Yes, I will be quivering. Yes, I will be shaking. I will be trying to run away by bashing his head. All the things that I did are true to life. It is going to happen if it was true.