True Blood fans know how Sookie Stackhouse and Bill Compton first fell in love on the show, but what got things started for the two actors in real life?

Before yesterday’s Emmys broadcast, Stephen Moyer told E!‘s Giuliana Rancic what made his soon-to-be wife so special to him. “She doesn’t take any of my nonsense. She is very funny, and very frank, and very direct…and beautiful,” he explained.

And though some costars - like Ryan Kwanten (Jason Stackhouse) - were clueless about the off-screen relationship, Moyer said the romance didn’t start immediately.

“Firstly, I fell in love with her talent, because we were working together and we were playing…like in in a very theatrical theater sense. You know, we were actually improvising and trying stuff, [like] ‘It doesn’t work this way, let’s do it another way,’ and so immediately I was very excited about that. And then after a few weeks, we’d finished working and I was back in London and she was in New York and I really, really missed her. So it was then…”

The HBO star was also kind enough to share details about his proposal to the Oscar winner.

“It was very intimate and quite surprising for her, I think. We were by ourselves at dinner in Hawaii and I surprised her. But it was something that surprised me, probably more than it surprised her. One of the great things was I went to Audrey Fisher, our costumer designer, and I got her ring size from her. So that was great—I could get the ring built before without having anybody knowing. And we almost used one from the show as a joke.”

No word yet on whether a wedding date has been set for the couple.