Kristin Bauer van Straten (born November 26, 1966 in Racine, Wisconsin) is an American film and television actress. She's perhaps best-known for her role as Ensemble Dark Horse extraordinaire Pamela Swynford De Beaufort on HBO's True Blood, as well as Jerry's girlfriend Gillian on Seinfeld. She also recurred as iconic villain Maleficent on ABC's Once Upon a Time.
Film Roles
- 1997: Romy and Michele's High School Reunion as Kelly
- 2004: 50 First Dates as Female Firefighter
- 2012: The Story of Luke as Cindy
- 2018: Suicide Squad: Hell to Pay as Killer Frost
Television Roles
- 1995-96: The Crew 1995 as Maggie Reynolds
- 2001: Justice League as Mera / Various
- 2003: Two and a Half Men as Laura
- 2008-14: True Blood as Pamela Swynford De Beaufort
- 2010-13: The Secret Life of the American Teenager as Didi Stone
- 2011-2015: Once Upon a Time as Maleficent
Kristin Bauer van Straten provides examples of the following tropes:
- Cast the Runner-Up:
- Michael Radford wanted to cast her as Angel in Dancing at the Blue Iguana, but Darryl Hannah was interested, and he had to go with her as the bigger name. Kristin was then written into the film as a character called Nico.
- She had read for Wonder Woman while auditioning for Justice League, but the role went to Susan Eisenberg. However, Bruce Timm remembered her and later cast as Mera.
- Dyeing for Your Art: She dieted and trained religiously for her role as a stripper in Dancing at the Blue Iguana.
- Hostility on the Set:
- She's said the only actor she's never gotten along with is Eddie Jemison, who she starred alongside in the pilot of Hush. He blatantly told her that he hated her to her face.
- Michael Radford was mean to her while filming a scene in Dancing at the Blue Iguana where she merely has to wake up and answer the phone - making her do seventeen takes because was "acting too much", and eventually ordered her off the set. He later phoned her from the editing bay to tell her that it was his favourite scene in the film, and he was using the first take.
- The Other Marty:
- She replaced Paula Marshall as Maleficent in Once Upon a Time.
- She was initially cast in the series Hung and filmed several the pilot, but was recast with Anne Heche for the series proper.
- Screwed by the Lawyers: The Once Upon A Time Season 4 finale stated that Lily was going to find out who her father actually was, but the creators couldn't get the rights to the character, so the storyline was abandoned, only getting tied up in the finale with a throwaway line of dialogue revealing him to be Zorro.
- Stage Names: She goes alternately by her hyphenated married name (van Straten is her husband's surname) but will do interviews just as Kristin Bauer for convenience purposes.
- Throw It In!: For her striptease scene in Dancing at the Blue Iguana, she'd prepared a routine involving a whip, studying under the same trainer as Michelle Pfeiffer for Batman Returns. Although she'd rehearsed multiple times in the planned location, on the day of filming, she discovered that the lights had been lowered from the ceiling, and therefore she couldn't use her whip. She tried with a shorter whip but it got tangled in the lights, so she had to fill a three-minute routine on the spot, and just stripped completely naked (she'd originally only planned to flash her breasts).
- Typecasting: Early in her career, she was frequently cast as the Dumb Blonde.
