Last week Moonlight?s Jason Dohring took a break from his TV-star day job to chat with us about his role as Josef in one of CBS?s freshman shows this year. The Veronica Mars vet turned suave vampire had a mouthful of info to reveal about the remainder of Moonlight?s episodes and a possible second season?pleasing the show?s eight million viewers. Though only the first season, up until the twelfth episode has been filmed, Dohring gave us a taste of some second season details regarding Josef and Mick?s relationship, and where their unwavering male camaraderie may go awry?after Josef reveals a secret that will betray Mick.

How has your experience on Moonlight playing Josef differed from your experience on Veronica Mars playing Logan?

There are a couple things. Between the characters, there?s a big difference. There are a lot of interesting stories. With Josef there?s sort of an expansion of character, but not for Logan. Because of the four hundred year aspect with Josef, there?s so much history. As an actor, with each new script that comes out you sort of add that piece to your backstory. You usually don?t know beforehand what your history is so you learn as you go on.

Also, I think that CBS is quite a bit different. It?s obviously a bigger cast. And you?re at Warner Brothers, which is a lot closer to my house so I don?t have to travel down to San Diego which is kind of nice.

How do you prepare for a role like Josef, where you have to stay eternally young with a four hundred year history?

I think what helps that is I am young! [Laughs.] If you could study all of the things on vampires you?d be at it for longer than you can live in a life. There are just so many books on it but we sort of have our own code. I?ve been picking up things and started reading some of the Anne Rice books, getting a feel for what vampires are like. It?s a cool character for an actor to be able to work on.

How did you come about playing Josef?

It came to me as two pages, which were essentially the first scenes in the pilot episode. I was immediately fascinated with the character because he was very sharp and keen with a hard edge. As it develops you get to see some more backstory and see where he?s been. It gets more interesting all the time, but it started off cool.

Will Josef have a love interest in coming episodes?

That would be fantastic. You?ll get to see some cool stuff in the next episode. I don?t know if that?s too much of a spoiler. You?ll see. Like Logan, he?s probably a tough guy to live with but if he found someone I think he would. For instance there?s that episode with Lola where there?s some history with and on-and-off-again thing. I?d like to really see someone who could match him and have a passionate relationship.

Since the writers? strike do you have any information on what to expect from the future episodes of Moonlight?

Les Moonves said some kind stuff about our show and The Big Bang Theory perhaps coming back for a second season. That?s a good sign. Our show is one of two shows that has been up trending in viewers?up around eight million. We just finished number twelve a few days ago. It was very good. There?s another vampire that comes in and makes me look like a popper. We go back in time and have some great makeup and sets with an old world feel. I think it?s going to be really cool to see how it all turns out. Episodes eleven and twelve will air on January 4th and 11th.

Going past episode twelve do you know anything about what your character is expected to face?

It?s pretty much in the formative stages. Obviously there aren?t any scripts written because of the strike, or we?d already be filming them. We have ideas about possible things. The one idea that?s pretty cool is a possible betrayal of Josef against Mick. Something that he?s been telling Mick all along is not true, and it?s something very important to Mick. I think that will lead to some really cool stuff.

Would you enjoy playing enemies for a while?

Absolutely. I?m always into changing things around. You can always go back. I would love to see him tear me a new one.

What is the blood on the show made of?

There are two generations of blood, because we got love handles from the first one?it was just pure sugar and you?d wake up feeling horrible, so we had to change it. The new generation is pomegranate juice and something else, some concoction that the prop guys make up. It?s quite sweet and it?s sort of hard to keep a straight face when you?re getting it down but that?s why they pay us the big bucks [laughs].

Obviously vampires have been a big fear of many for years, but what is your personal biggest fear?

It?s funny? I think I would have to say, looking around and seeing the way the world is now as opposed to how it was forty, fifty years ago? It?s funny for a kid my age growing up because it?s way different than how my parents grew up. They grew up with morals and manners and I look at some of my friends and say, ?Damn, where did that go?? You look at hundreds of thousands of years that way and in the last fifty years it?s gone down and we just have to pick it back up. That?s scary to me, not like the ocean but it?s scary.