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"Nelsan Ellis has revealed the inspiration for his character on True Blood.  The actor, who plays Lafayette Reynolds on the HBO series, stated that everything about the character from his strength to his hair is based on his mother, according to an interview with New York Magazine.  &amp;quot;He&amp;#039;s inspired by my mother: his spirit, his strength, his femininity, his masculinity, his hand gestures, his hair pieces,&amp;quot; Ellis said. &amp;quot;A friend saw a picture of Lafayette and goes, &amp;#039;That looks like your mother, dude.&amp;#039; I don&amp;#039;t look anything like my mother, except when I&amp;#039;m Lafayette. I look like my father.&amp;quot; Ellis went on to discuss how Lafayette has changed from the third to the fourth season, confessing that he came up with the idea for the character&amp;#039;s new mohawk.  &amp;quot;Yeah, [the mohawk] was my idea,&amp;quot; Ellis said. &amp;quot;I figure since he&amp;#039;s got a boyfriend (Jesus, played by Kevin Alejandro), he probably wants to jazz it up a bit.&amp;quot; He continued by addressing how his relationship with Jesus will be affected by the world of witchcraft that the nurse is involved in.  &amp;quot;You&amp;#039;d think it would sort of shake up the relationship, because Jesus is a witch and Lafayette don&amp;#039;t want nothing to do with that business,&amp;quot; Ellis said. &amp;quot;It&amp;#039;s a world he&amp;#039;s, quite frankly, afraid of, because his mother - we found out last season - may be somewhat supernatural in the witch world. But it actually brings a closeness. While they&amp;#039;re navigating this world, things happen and they have to protect each other.&amp;quot; Alejandro said in February that his character&amp;#039;s relationship with Lafayette will continue to evolve in True Blood&amp;#039;s fourth season.  True Blood star Ryan Kwanten recently revealed that he loves his character Jason Stackhouse&amp;#039;s new role of authority on the HBO series.  True Blood airs Sundays at 9pm on HBO. Watch a preview for next week&amp;#039;s episode of True Blood below:      "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.digitalspy.com/tv/ustv/news/a328794/true-blood-star-lafayette-inspired-by-mother/>