From Dusk Till Dawn’s Blair Bomar Talks Vampires, Fight Scenes, and Playing a Monster [Exclusive Interview]

From Dusk Till Dawn’s Blair Bomar is no stranger to the supernatural.

Bomar is a new face on the El Rey Network series, playing a fierce character you don’t want to mess around with. I had the chance to speak with Bomar recently about her role on From Dusk Till Dawn and her experiences on the show.

As it turns out, there are a few things about Bomar’s character that she feels pretty familiar with. “I’m Alice, the head waitress at Jackknife Jed’s, which is the local honkey-tonk. And I’m in a heavy guise of hair and make-up. Lots of hair spray,” Bomar explained. “It’s funny, because, you know, I’m from Dallas, and I love my hairspray and my make-up. It’s like this suit of armor that you – especially when I was growing up in Dallas – that you would put on every day. I mean, I wouldn’t go anywhere without my hair and makeup. Now I do. Now I’m more crunchy and granola, being a yogi out in LA. It was nice to step back into that. I mean, it was second nature to me.”

Bomar has worked as a waitress herself, so the one side of Alice, the side that greets the people coming in and out of Jackknife Jed’s, was something she felt accustomed to. But there’s also another side to Alice. “She’s a Culebra, which is a snake vampire, and will essentially suck your soul out and eat your heart out.”

For Bomar, playing that kind of character has been an unforgettable experience. “It was so cool, because I got to have that subtly, overly flirtatious kind of inappropriate waitress thing happening – and also really get to try and turn into a terrifying monster. I haven’t done anything like that before. It was very liberating.”

It’s also not entirely surprising for Bomar that she’s found herself playing a monster on television. In fact, this sort of thing is right up her alley. “This is so weird, and don’t take this the wrong way. I don’t know how you couldn’t. But my mom, growing up, used to tell me that I was a witch,” Bomar said. “She’s not a Wiccan or anything. And I have friends out here who are very much into witchcraft, and I respect them and anybody who is doing anything like that.”

“I sort of grew up thinking that I was a witch, and I would tell people that [laughs],” Bomar continued. “Very convincing. You know if I got in trouble or something, my mom would say that she was going cast spells on me or make it stop raining. There were a couple of times I’m like, ‘Mom, I really wanna play outside. Can you just make it stop raining?’ And she’s like, ‘Give me ten minutes.’ Then it would stop raining and I’d be like, ‘Oh my God, we’re witches!’”

Bomar also said that she has always been attracted to the macabre, and she especially loves Halloween. “I was always a vampire for Halloween. Or a witch. Halloween is my favorite holiday. My teeth – I kind of have vampire teeth naturally. It’s funny. I’ve always been drawn to vampires and witches and the darker side. And mythology and magic. It was kind of overdue.”

Speaking of vampires, Bomar also shared her favorite vampire from popular culture, though she found it to be a tough choice. “The first thing that pops into my head is Interview with the Vampire with Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise. How do you top that?! But, you know, I grew up watching The Witches of Eastwick and Hocus Pocus. Those are very different, but I guess Interview with the Vampire is the most legit. I’ve seen The Vampire Diaries – love it. True Blood’s pretty awesome. So yeah, if you made me pick my favorite, I’d have to say Brad Pitt.”

Another reason Bomar loves working on From Dusk Till Dawn so much is because of its amazing cast. “All of the actors on the show are really strong and very talented,” Bomar stated. “They also have very different energies. I interact with the Gecko brothers quite a bit, D.J. Cotrona and Zane Holtz, and they’re very different. I have little flirtatious moments with them.”

The show has also given Bomar a chance to show off her many talents. “I have a fight scene with D.J. [Cotrona] that was really awesome. I had a stunt double and everything. I learned the whole routine myself and I ended up doing such a good job, that they’re like ‘Whoa, okay. Well, you just do it.’”

Having the chance to be on this show has also served as a bit of a homecoming for Bomar. “It’s in Austin and in LA. I went to college in Austin at the University of the Texas. I stuck around after I graduated and got involved in the film community there. It’s a wonderful place to do that and be creative – and really explore the more independent side of things. Then you have someone like Robert [Rodriguez] who works with Quentin Tarantino all the time, and you have Troublemaker studios and everything that you need, that you would have in LA, they have there. It’s so much more laid back, and it’s such a trusted environment, because it’s smaller,” Bomar said.

“It was a very, very sweet homecoming to be able to be cast in a show that was shot where I went to college and where I started. That was really special.”

From Dusk Till Dawn is a particularly exciting experience for Bomar. She explained why she thinks viewers are so drawn to the series, which expands on the original 1996 cult classic film. “They’ve expanded on the original characters and creatures and really sort of taken the opportunity to dig into the Mesoamerican mythology. And [they] really get more intricate as far as exploring the how and the why of the relationships created in the original film.”

“Robert [Rodgriquez] is such a visionary and pioneer,” she continued. “The main thing that I noticed working with him is that there were very few limits. He just did whatever he wanted to, and it was such an intuitive environment and a brave environment. You know, we’re monsters! People are fighting for their lives. They just go for it. I think that sort of raw, exciting, you don’t know what’s going to happen next, very gritty energy is what draws in the viewer.”

Don’t miss Blair Bomar in From Dusk Till Dawn, airing Tuesdays at 9/8c on El Rey Network.

*Edited for space and content.