François Arnaud and Sarah Ramos on "Midnight, Texas" Characters, Source Material, and Playing Sexy Romance on Network Television

François Arnaud and Sarah Ramos are two of the leading stars on NBC's enticing new supernatural drama series "Midnight, Texas", adapted from the novels penned by Charlaine Harris. Arnaud plays Manfred Bernado, a psychic-medium new to the town of Midnight, while Ramos plays Creek, a waitress residing in Midnight who meets Manfred when he arrives. Both actors took the time to introduce their characters at the show's round-table interviews at SDCC 2017.

"I play Creek," begins Ramos. "She is one of the only people in town who was raised in Midnight. She doesn't really have any supernatural powers but she's really familiar with them. She grew up, it's not like anybody comes here and they're like, 'I'm a were-tiger." You just kind of figure it out by trial and error of living in Midnight. So Creek's really got the rules of Midnight down pat. There's kind of a question of if she doesn't have supernatural powers and everybody in Midnight is running from something or has a secret or a supernatural power, what is she doing there?"

"I play Manfred, who's a newcomer to Midnight," adds Arnaud. "He's a medium, he's had very powerful psychic abilities for a long time but he still doesn't control them very well. Ghosts and spirits have been taking over his body. He's been on the run from people he may or may not have hurt or scammed and he's trying to find a place to rest, and find peace of mind in Midnight. Little does he know the town is populated with a bunch of incredibly powerful, scary beings."

Being that the characters were first introduced in Charlaine Harris' novels, the actors must gauge how much to draw from the novels when creating portrayals in the live-action adaptations. "I think we have a loyalty to Charlaine's origin story and the characters that she created," says Arnaud. "But it's a new entity and we also have a loyalty to the scripts themselves and the tone of the show which I think is faster-paced than the books and at times darker and more violent. But physically, there are some changes. I think we try to stay true to the essence of these characters and their relationships."

"I think Charlaine created really cool characters that we were all excited to play," says Ramos. "I think Creek is a little bolder in the show than she is in the book but then again in the book there's a scene where Manfred's getting attacked by a biker or something and she comes up and hits him with a chair. I think she has really short, black hair in the book so there are physical changes but we tried to do our best to serve the characters that we really liked."

"Yeah, Manfred's supposed to be covered in tattoos and piercings, and have bleached blond hair. They wanted to go in a different direction," adds Arnaud.

"Like Spike from Buffy!" chimes Ramos.

"I got a few studs and earrings," says Arnaud. "I have a big tattoo on my back but they're covering it for the show. They're giving me new ones."

As True Blood was broadcast on HBO, there was no shortage of gratuitous displays of sexuality and violence. But with Midnight, Texas being an NBC series, the approach to the more sensual material must be approached differently.

"You can't show as much on network TV as you can on cable," says Ramos. "But sometimes less is more. We have a shower scene pretty quickly."

"I think there's definitely a lot of romance," adds Arnaud. "The dynamic is still steamy. A lot of the sexuality is implied more than shown, but... sexuality, I can't believe I said 'sexuality'. I think it is very sensual."

"Everybody's got a flame. Midnight is a very romantic town," says Ramos.

Watch our full interview with François Arnaud and Sarah Ramos here: