A quick word ... with Stephen Moyer

True Blood star Stephen Moyer is checking out the homeland of fiance Anna Paquin while working on his latest feature film. Photo / Supplied

True Blood's vampire Bill and New Zealand actress Anna Paquin's fiance Stephen Moyer has been in Auckland filming adventure film, Ice. And no, Anna wasn't here with him. He heads back to the States this week to start filming the third series of True Blood. TimeOut caught up with him briefly as he traipsed around the bowels of Auckland museum, which forms part of the Ice set.

How do you like New Zealand?
It's absolutely beautiful, I love it, and hopefully at some point I'll be able to come back and spend more time here when I'm not working, and have a better look around.

Would you ever consider moving here with Anna?
The truth is that it would be very difficult to do that given that six months of the year we are in America and my kids are in London. I think there's a possibility that at some point we might have a holiday home here but I can't imagine us ever really being able to live in New Zealand.

Did you get any down-time to explore Auckland outside its isthmus?
I've been over to Piha, and loved it, loved it. I walked up that central rock and dug some sand and took some photos. I had a wicked sandwich over there which I was very impressed by because I didn't think I was going to find anything. It's so beautiful - I just want to go everywhere and look at stuff.

You said you took photos at Piha, are you a bit of a photographer?
Yes, I've taken photos for years and years and I've always made a little photo diary of everywhere I've been.

How many diaries do you have now?
Oh my God, I started when I was 15. And I have travelled a bit - Thailand, all over Malaysia, India, Australia - so I have quite a few. They're not going to be of any interest to anyone else because I'm sure it's all dull navel-gazing but I love doing it.

How does New Zealand compare to those places you've been to?
It's quite interesting because it reminds me of home a lot. I'm from North of London, from Brentwood in Essex. A very green, villagey kind of place and New Zealand feels very much like that. Where I'm from I would have to drive a bit further to get to water, and if I wanted to get to mountains I would have to get to Scotland but I do find New Zealand is very similar in colour at least and weather. It's fab, I love it.

Who's this character you've been playing in Ice?
I play the Minister of Environment Simon Peterson, who's also the chair of a polar sub-committee that is monitoring the effects of global warming on the Arctic Circle. The show's set in 2020, we imagine a world where global warming has accelerated faster than we imagined.

Now that you've had a taste, can you tell us what's it like in 2020?
2020 seems quite like it is now - obviously we survived the movie 2012 - I think everyone's going to be very warm, and we'll have nice radioactive tans if we make it that long.

Has playing this part altered your views of climate change at all?
I've been aware of it for quite a long time. Once you've got children you start thinking about what they're going to live with, and their children once you've gone, and so I suppose, if anything, it's just cemented my views in looking after everything.

How old are your kids now?
My daughter Lilac is 7 and son Billy 9.

In what ways do you look after the earth then? Do you recycle?
Yeah, I'm pretty obsessive about it actually and I have been for quite a while in a very boring way. I think what we need to do is be more exciting about our recycling because I think everyone thinks of it as a chore instead of something that is possibly saving the world.

And how does your character in Ice compare to surly Bill from True Blood?
Well, he is English, and he is alive which is a major difference. He is very concerned about doing the right thing but he realises he has to do them within the structures of the law.

Do you have any other acting plans on the horizon?
I'm about to do a film called Master Class [about the life of opera singer Maria Callas produced by actress Faye Dunaway], then a thriller set in Puerto Rico called The Caller.

I suppose you'll have to do another photo diary in Puerto Rico.
I will be taking my camera and I will be doing all of that stuff, and if I get a day off in Detroit I will be taking photos of defunct car museums that used to be factories. Detroit is dying. If there's anything that's an advert for what's happening in the world, Detroit is it.

The final in the second series of True Blood screens Wednesday, 9.30pm, on Prime.