Interview With The Vampire Cast Talk Black Vampires, Blood, and Favorite Season 2 Moments
Vampires are back, baby! In AMC’s Interview With The Vampire, the vampire Louis de Pointe du Lac tells the story of his afterlife to renowned journalist Daniel Molloy. Season 2 picks up with Louis and Claudia, haunted by Lestat, searching for fellow vampires in Europe at the end of World War II. They eventually find themselves among the Théâtre des Vampires, a Parisian troupe that is actually a cover for a nocturnal coven led by Armand. Pop Culture Planet’s Kristen Maldonado spoke with the cast at their New York premiere of season 2.
Throughout Molloy’s interviews, it’s become clear Louis is holding back or not telling the full truth, which comes out during the explosive season 1 finale. “At the end of season 1, particularly in Dubai, all of the detached confidence that Louis had is gone. Molloy's found him out and it's like, ‘Okay, now let's get real.’ It's like a very vulnerable place for him to be and he has nothing,” Jacob Anderson told me on the red carpet. “He's got no skin left, so everything is triggering. Everything is scary for him. We open the season with Louis in a very low place and hopefully he's going to build that backup and figure out who he is. It's like a journey of self-discovery, which makes it sound way more whimsical than it is.”
Meanwhile, this now allows Molloy to look at the bigger picture, namely the vampire Armand. “It all pivots at the end of season 1 because, all of a sudden, I realize that the game is much more serious than I thought,” said Eric Bogosian. “I was just busy focusing on Louis and now I got this other guy I got to deal with who looks like trouble and turns out to be trouble. Then, as we proceed through the season, of course, it gets deeper and deeper and deeper into very problematic stuff.”
Bogosian had nothing but wonderful things to say about his scene partner Anderson. “I’ll say this, I do stuff in this show as an actor that I've never done before. Jacob is such a wonderful guy to do scenes with. He'll take you emotionally into these deep waters, which is why I do acting,” he shared. “I find it to be like I'm becoming a different person and it's sort of magical. If you work with partners who are ready to go there — not everybody is, some people just do fake acting — but if they're ready to fly, let's fly together. We fly and he's all heart. That guy was wonderful.”
This season also features the specter of Lestat. “He’s a vision mostly — until he's not. So he's evolved in no real tangible way. He's actually sort of de-evolved and he's more ephemeral and hard to pin down,” said Sam Reid about his complex character. “I think Lestat does evolve, but it's not the right time to talk about that.”
With such a musical character, it’s no surprise that Reid had a particular song on repeat that he felt soundtracked Lestat’s journey this season. “‘Smoking Section’ by St Vincent,” he teased. “The lyrics really spoke to me a lot while we were shooting and that becomes clearer later on in the season.”
Season 2 also brings us a newcomer in Delainey Hayles, taking over the role of Claudia. “It’s been the joy of my life,” she said about the experience. “Acting with these guys is a blessing every day to me. The cast in this show are ridiculously nice and so supportive. I'm very blessed to be here. I understand the coven behind these books. I'm very excited to be a part of it and for everyone to see season 2. I was very happy that I was able to give Claudia her full arc.”
Reid couldn’t help but share his awe over his new co-star. “Delainey Hayles is the hero of this season for me,” he gushed. “I think she is astonishing and I cannot wait for everyone to watch her. The stuff that she does in the vampire theater she is a real gift and we're very lucky.”
Beyond luck, it’s refreshing and groundbreaking to see Louis and Claudia be portrayed by Black actors. Give us more creatures of the night of color! “It’s a beautiful thing. I feel very proud to be a Black Creole vampire in this show. I hope that all it does is opens the gates for more,” exclaimed Anderson. “Let's tell more stories. Let's be monsters and enjoy it. Let's be problematic. Give us the space to be a problem.”
And, of course, you can’t have a show about vampires without blood. According to showrunner Rolin Jones and executive producer Mark Johnson, they have about seven different types of blood on set, including vampire and human blood. They use different versions depending on the situation, like if they’re filming in broad daylight or dark night scenes. While they haven’t tried it, Jones confirmed it gives “everybody a sugar rush.”
It “depends on the blood” shared new vampire Hayles when asked if it tastes good. “We have sticky blood, non-sticky blood. The sticky blood kind of tastes like syrup, so it's not bad. The liquidy blood kind of tastes like medicine, but like minty. Not very nice, but not terrible,” she said. “Shout out to Tami [Lane]. She’s working on making it sweeter for us.”
When it comes to the can’t miss moments of the season, the cast teases episodes five and six. “The peak moment in episode five between my younger self played by Luke Brandon Field and Assad Zaman,” revealed Bogosian. “Armand does this speech that is one of the most intense speeches I've ever heard on any TV show. That's a heavy piece of writing and it's a heavy piece of acting and I think it's terrific. I don't know how many times I can watch it ‘cause it's almost too much for me.”
“For me, it’s in episode six. I think the transformation of Madeleine is the lyrical high point of the first two seasons,” said Jones, while Johnson added: “I love the specter of Lestat in this season and Lestat is a very complicated character as people will see. His very presence is in question.”
Jones continued: “We considered the whole thing one giant book and we split it down the middle. So like any other movie it gets larger and bigger and more ambitious as you get closer and closer to the end. So in scale and scope it gets larger. I think in emotional depth it gets larger. We took a big swing.”
And that big swing includes expanding the Immortal Universe! “We’re in the middle of shooting Mayfair Witches [season 2] and [in] very serious development of the Talamasca. We are all Anne Rice all the time,” said Johnson. When asked about crossovers between television shows, Jones teased, “We are beginning the cross pollination.”
New episodes of the second season of Interview With The Vampire air Sundays on AMC+.
