[Editor’s note: The following contains some spoilers for Season 2 of Interview with the Vampire.]

The Big Picture

n Season 2 of ‘Interview with the Vampire,’ Louis is haunted by Lestat, leading to a spiral in the past, while his relationship with Armand is explored.
Co-stars Jacob Anderson, Sam Reid and Delainey Hayles discuss the complexity of Louis’ journey, Lestat’s behavior, and Claudia’s struggles in Season 2.
Memories are key to the story, as the relationship dynamics between Louis, Lestat, and Armand are brought into question.

In Season 2 of the AMC series Interview with the Vampire, Louis de Pointe du Lac (Jacob Anderson) continues to recount his vampire journey to journalist Daniel Molloy (Eric Bogosian) in 2022. While Molloy continues to dig as deeply into the truth as he can get, which has varying success when it comes to dealing with rather secretive and guarded vampires, Louis relives life with Claudia (Delainey Hayles) at the Théâtre des Vampires. Being haunted by Lestat de Lioncourt (Sam Reid) is contributing to Louis’ spiral in the past and learning more about Louis’ relationship with Armand (Assad Zaman), how they met, and what is going on in the present isn’t given Molloy the clarity that he was hoping for.

When it comes to both Lestat and Armand, Louis has a knack for complicated relationships. However, Anderson is clear in his feeling taht Louis is the complicated one. During this interview with Collider, co-stars Anderson, Reid and Hayles talked about the different headspace Louis is in with Season 2, understanding Lestat’s behavior, Claudia not accepting how lost she is, what it was like for Hayles to do the scenes in the Théâtre des Vampires in that blue dress, that moment Lestat ate one of Louis’ photographs, Louis’ relationship with Armand compared to the one he had with Lestat, and how Anderson and Reid feel about where things are left for them by the end of Season 2.

Interview with the Vampire Based on Anne Rice’s iconic novel, follow Louis de Pointe’s epic story of love, blood and the perils of immortality, as told to the journalist Daniel Molloy.Release Date 2022-00-00 Creator Rolin Jones Cast Sam Reid , Jacob Anderson , Eric Bogosian , Bailey Bass , Assad Zaman Seasons 2

Season 2 of ‘Interview with the Vampire’ is an Exploration of Who Louis Really Is
Image via AMC

Collider: Jacob, did it feel like Louis was in a different place mentally at each point in the timeline that you get to explore, or does it feel very much like an evolution over time, between his time with Daniel and the past?

JACOB ANDERSON: Yeah, he’s in a very different space. The dam breaks in episode seven of Season 1, and there’s a level of pretend that he can’t achieve anymore. He still has an innate attachment to modern-day Louis that’s like an alien quality that comes in and out, but he’s pretty raw at the beginning of the season and only gets rawer. So yeah, he’s in quite a significantly different place with Louis’ journey in Europe, as well as him having to come to terms with what he’s really about. In Season 1, and it was a big thing in the book, it was about moral versus aesthetic. You really see the completion of that idea in Season 2. What is Louis really about? Is he all about morality, or is there quite a significant aesthetic element to that? He’s a complicated one with lots of problems.

Sam, how do you even find the mindset of a character that’s really being guided by what someone else wants him to do and say? How did you even try to wrap your head around that for Season 2?

SAM REID: I can tell you that I had a lot of questions when we started. I did consistently grill Rolin [Jones] about lots of things. But once we worked out that it’s Louis, and Louis is placing Lestat in certain moments for specific reasons, it’s about why is he remembering Lestat in this particular way? Why is he not remembering him as this horrendous, violent aggressor who’s there to destroy his life? Why is he remembering him as this sweet, dopey guy who’s ready to be his friend and confidante at any moment? That’s the one that Louis wants to forget or can’t remember. So, there was a fair amount of investigation in that regard. It was fun because you get to play around with how they all remember him. Armand remembers Lestat in a very different way from the way that Louis remembers Lestat. That’s a fun thing to play. We got to lean into that quite significantly. You still haven’t really met him yet.

Related ‘Interview with the Vampire’: Everything We Know About Season 2 Louis and Claudia discover their new monster in haunting memories as the vampires return for another chapter of love, betrayal, and blood.

As the person playing Lestat, did it change your perspective or how you thought about him to see him through the different points of view of all these different people? Were you surprised, in any way?

REID: No, I wasn’t surprised. I definitely deeply questioned the take that certain characters have on certain events. With those, I was like, “Wow, this is definitely a take that cannot be real.” But then, once you get over that, you’re like, “Great, let’s lean into that and have fun with it.” It’s quite a joyous thing to play something that doesn’t have to be concrete, but can be mercurial and can change. That’s the whole show. It’s a very different show this season, and that is so much fun. As an audience member getting to watch that, you’re like, “Woah, I never know what I’m gonna get.” That keeps you on your toes a bit. It’s the same as being an actor in it. It keeps you on your toes.

Delainey, where are things at with Claudia? She feels like she knows what she wants, and then she gets what she wants, but it turns out to not be exactly what she wanted it to be. Where does that put her this season?

DELAINEY HAYLES: Claudia is lost, but she’s not accepting that she’s lost. She has this idea of what Paris is. She finds the Théâtre des Vampires and she thinks it’s what she’s been looking for, but she’s going in blind. Things don’t go her way and she gets ostracized by the cove, so she’s left to find her own way through Paris. That’s quite hard for her because of her circumstance.

Related ‘Interview with the Vampire’s Delainey Hayles on the “Heartbreak and Confusion” of That Big Fight Hayles also discusses Claudia’s big stage debut, delivering Episode 2’s most memorable line, and more.

When you play Claudia, are you always thinking about the duality of her age on the outside versus her age on the inside, or does it depend on who she’s sharing a moment with and how much they might know or not know about her?

HAYLES: I think it’s always on her mind. It’s the main thing that holds her back. She tries to push through life accepting it, but it’s something that she can’t accept because it affects her a lot. It puts her in danger. She’s not as strong as she should be. She has all these goals that she’s trying to achieve, but the circumstance that holds her back is her body. In every situation, she has to factor that in because she basically has to protect herself. Sadly, it bothers her a lot.

We know how she feels about having to keep doing the same show in theThéâtre des Vampires while wearing that same outfit and being forced to live in that dress, and I would imagine it probably gets a little old to wear the same costume. What was it like for you to explore that, as an actor? As tragic as all that is for Claudia, is that just fun to play?

HAYLES: It was so much fun. I’d love to do it all over again. We had five rehearsals. Shirley Temple was our reference, playing very cutesy stuff. I had the time of my life filming it, but it was something that Claudia definitely really, really hates. The costume was really amazing. I had six baby blue dresses in total. The costume was fantastic. I took one home and put my sister in it, just to see.

REID: You put your sister in it?

HAYLES: The costume was ridiculous. It’s what makes it. When I put it on, I was like, “Oh, yeah.” I had to remember that it’s something that Claudia despises. It was fun experimenting with that.

What Were Louis’ Photos Made Out of, and What Was it Like for Sam Reid to Eat So Many?
Image via AMC

Sam, the scene with Lestat eating one of Louis’ photos is one of my favorite scenes of this show.

REID: What was that about? I know what that’s about. It took me a long time to work out what that was about, but I know what it’s about. It’s mad. And I ate so many of those photos.

ANDERSON: Nice.

REID: They were made of rice paper, so they stuck to the roof of my mouth. There were a few where I just shoved the whole photo into my mouth, but that didn’t work, so I had to eat it. It was like eating a sweet cake. They were stuck to the roof of my mouth and I couldn’t keep talking.

That moment just made me laugh out loud because it was so surprising.

REID: They’re saying mean things about Louis’ photos, so he’s going, “Fuck you! You took a beautiful photograph. Don’t listen to that guy. I’ll eat it.”

ANDERSON: I loved it so much.

Related How ‘Interview with the Vampire’ and ‘Mayfair Witches’ Could Cross Over Based on the Books How did author Anne Rice bring the characters together?

Jacob, how do you view the difference between the relationship with Louis and Lestat, and the one with Louis and Armand? Does Louis just love complicated men>?

ANDERSON: Louis is the complicated man.

REID: Louis is actually the problem.

ANDERSON: They’re so different. They’re very different. I think you really get it at the end of the book when Louis is like, “And this guy is okay. We settled down and traveled the world, and we were okay and it was fine. The end.” There is an inevitability about Armand for Louis. It’s like, “He’s nice to me.” Obviously, there are a lot of other things going on that are revealed in the present, but as Louis sees it, Armand is not without complication, but is nowhere near as messy as Lestat. Lestat and Louis will just explode. When you put those two elements together, there’s gonna be a fire. Whereas with Armand, it’s more like, “We can coexist nicely and I care about you.” There’s an argument that Louis and Armand have, later in the season, where you really get a sense for how Louis feels about that relationship and how he has for quite a long time. Lestat is his great love. I think he does love Armand, but in a different way. My thing with love and Louis is that the last person that Louis told that he loves, walked off a roof, immediately after. So, saying, “I love you,” is a really big deal for him. It’s not just about withholding. The most meaningful moment in Louis’ human existence was what happened to Paul, or what Paul did. What preceded that was, “I love you.” He feels it, but he doesn’t necessarily say it.

REID: You have to remember that the great conceit of what Rolin has created is that memory is the monster. The way things are remembered or told, or the way that we interpret our feelings in a past process, is always gonna be different from the reality. Because we’re in a first-person narration style story, there’s always gonna be room for conflict, and the more narrators you’re bringing in, the more conflict is created. That’s really fun. It also creates a lot of tension for the audience because they’re like, “Who do I pick to believe?” You do need to follow someone and believe them, but what happens when the rug is ripped out from underneath and you don’t trust this person. That’s interesting.

ANDERSON: All those different truths tell a single story.

Jacob Anderson and Sam Reid Both Feel Satisfied By the End of ‘Interview with the Vampire’ Season 2

How do you feel then about where things are left at the end of the season? What was it like to leave them where you leave them?

REID: Pretty good. It’s sad, but I think it’s a very, very satisfying conclusion.

ANDERSON: That’s a good way to put it. I feel very satisfied.

Interview with the Vampire airs on AMC and is available to stream on AMC+. Check out the Season 2 trailer:

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