This Week's Cover: Inside the crazy, sexy, last season of 'True Blood'

Viewers will need to savor these last few drops of Blood. In just a few weeks, production will wrap for good on HBO’s True Blood after seven ­seasons (the final batch of episodes begin Sunday at 9 p.m.). In the most ­basic terms, the show — based on the Sookie Stackhouse series by Charlaine Harris and created for TV by Alan Ball (Six Feet Under) — follows half-faerie waitress Sookie (Anna Paquin) and her relationship with gentlemanly vampire Bill (Stephen Moyer). But there have been detours into witches, werewolves, orgies, and one really nasty meat tree.

Blood has been a huge hit for HBO, ­averaging 11.4 million viewers a ­summer, but for Paquin and Moyer it’s been life-changing. The pair met filming the ­series, married in 2010, and had twins, Charlie and Poppy, in 2012. Says Paquin, “Because it has lasted ­seven years and because of the relationships, not just between us but the way they all evolved as a family, it’s been extraordinary to have that experience that is completely life-changing in all of the best possible ways — and with the person you want to spend the rest of your life with. We will always have this.”

For this week’s cover, EW sat down with Paquin and Moyer at Bellefleur’s, in the very booth where Bill first saw Sookie, for a revealing (take a glance at that cover!) look back at their bloody good time in Bon Temps. Here’s a brief tease:

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: Speaking of nudity, in the first ­episode of the new season, Stephen you directed a love scene between your wife and Alcide, played by Joe Manganiello.

STEPHEN MOYER: There are moments where I’ll be watching on a monitor [and say], “Oh, Joe, just move your hand up towards Anna’s breast. Good. And can you move your right thumb just a little bit towards her nipple? Great.” And then I’ll go, “Babe, babe, enjoy it.” I’m certainly talking to her as “babe.” “Darling, go for it. Yeah, feel the nipple.”

ANNA PAQUIN: We set the bar very high for weird very early on. We’ve done a lot of odd sh– on this show. Actually, the potentially awkward couplings [are] not the weirdest sh– that we’ve done on this show.

MOYER: In a funny way, I feel like — without revealing too much — it’s quite interesting for us as a couple because we’ve kind of gone to places where a lot of people don’t get to.

PAQUIN: Or have to.

MOYER: And we’re still here. And I think that’s good for us in a way.

Prove that you’re #TrueToTheEnd in our Twitter Q&A with Anna Paquin and Stephen Moyer this Sunday, June 22, from 8-9 p.m. ET. Submit your questions now with #AskAnnaAndStephen and follow along Sunday as you quench your thirst for more True Blood knowledge.

For more with Paquin and Moyer, including Moyer’s personal photos from the last 7 seasons, plus interviews with creator Alan Ball and final season teases from executive producer Brian Buckner (“Heads are gonna roll,” he reveals), pick up the latest issue of Entertainment Weekly.