AMC’s Interview with the Vampire returns for ‘guts out’ second season

Vampire weekends are back at AMC. The critically-acclaimed series “Anne Rice’s Interview with the Vampire” reinterprets Rice’s cult classic novel, infusing elements and characters from across her sprawling Vampire Chronicles series. The sleeper hit returns this May for a second season that promises to be bloodier, raunchier and more devastating.

Actors Jacob Anderson (“Doctor Who,” “Game of Thrones”) and Sam Reid (“The Newsreader,” “Belle”), who play toxic immortal husbands Louis de Pointe du Lac and Lestat de Lioncourt, offer a preview of the eight-episode season.

Note: This article may contain spoilers for “Interview with the Vampire” Season 2, Episodes 1-4.

KTLA: How would you describe this season compared to the first?
Jacob Anderson: It is a very felt season. Everything is heart, guts out, tears in your eyes. Extreme emotion.
Sam Reid: And it’s a bigger season, too. It’s just bigger. It’s more vampires, it’s like the world has opened. You saw a little crack of it last season and this season, this is the world and it only gets bigger.

KTLA: Jacob, who is Louis this season compared to last?
Anderson: I think in this season Louis is reckoning with who he really is, what is his nature. I think in season one it’s very much about coming to terms with how is he gonna hold onto his human nature in the face of becoming a monster or a vampire. And this season is about him coming to terms with… the other side of his nature and figuring out how to do that on his own terms. But it’s quite a trial to get there, if he gets there. Yeah. A lot of things are bubbling up.

KTLA: You welcomed a new actor into your cast right at the meaty crux, this tender point in their journey. What was it like working with Delainey Hayles, who brings this fierce and tender Claudia to life? What was that transition like?
Anderson: It’s kind of remarkable. She just fits like a glove and was incredibly—from day one—was just game to do [and] try whatever. Amazing. She’s amazing. We’re very lucky to have her.
Reid: It was a great gift we were given that Delainey joined us. She’s so, so phenomenal. We’re really lucky.
Anderson: She will break your heart and terrify you at the same time.

KTLA: Sam, the last time we saw Lestat, he was in the dump, munching rats. What do you think his takeaway is at this point? Has he learned from that experience?
Reid: Well, I think you will find that out. I feel like it would kind of be a mistake to explain it at this point, but I think, somewhere deep down, Lestat knew that he had to die. And I would say definitely he was proud of Claudia. I think he spent a lot of time thinking about what happened, but I think he and Claudia are a lot more similar than either of them would like to admit. I think he spent a lot of time being very proud of Claudia [and] ashamed as well.

KTLA: We’ve been told that memory is to be questioned and that the Lestat that we’re seeing is maybe not a full picture. As an actor, how do you make choices knowing you may be playing different versions of this guy?
Reid: With great pleasure. (laughs) It’s very fun, you know. That’s one of the great joys of this character. I don’t have to stick to any form of continuity, so I feel like I can change things up. Particularly when you get some new perspectives coming in, which we have this season, a whole other point of view. I can go, “Well, what’s that version? What’s that guy like? What is it like to be his ex? What’s he like there?” So it’s a very fun thing to do. And also the majority of the season he’s a vision through Louis’ imagination…
Anderson: That was giving Jeff Goldblum.
Reid: (laughs) …Louis’ imagination. I’m also playing Louis, as well. They’re so intertwined. Lestat can also be a part of Louis, because he is a part of Lestat. So yeah, it’s a great joy.

KTLA: I read that you once wanted to study clowning in Paris, and we see a bit of Lestat’s history as a stage actor. Was this your showrunner Rolin Jones’ Parisian clown school? What was it like playing this Commedia-style, period actor?
Reid: I actually always treat Lestat like a clown. When I did study acting, clowning was one of my favorite things. And I do see Lestat like a clown. I see him like an auguste clown, which is like a clown that’s kind of high status…
Anderson: (laughing)
Reid: (laughing) I think he’s funny, I think he’s…
Anderson: I can never hear you talk about clowning and not think of, like, clowns… (laughing progressively harder as Reid earnestly explains theatrical clowning)
Reid: Yeah, so… it was kind of funny. It was fun for him to do that scene as a clown. But you know, the fun thing about it as well is that he’s playing Harlequin, he’s not playing Lelio. So why is he playing that clown and who’s put him in that clown costume? That’s kind of the joy….
Anderson: (laughing)
KTLA: It’s been a long day, I can tell.
Anderson: No, I just find the idea of clowns hilarious. [To Reid] It’s not what you’re saying.
Reid: Jacob has a fear of clowns.
Anderson: I don’t. I’m not afraid of clowns.
Reid: He can’t actually say the word without…
Anderson: I find serious clowns very funny. Like, the idea of earnest clowns. Anyway… no disrespect to the clown community.

KTLA: We’ve met Armand (Assad Zaman) and we know he’s a powerful character. Who are Lestat and Armand to each other?
Reid: They have a really wildly complex relationship and I think one cares more than the other. I think if Lestat had a choice, he would never see him again and would be very happy to have no interaction with him whatsoever. And doesn’t think much of him. But he’s one of those characters that just, because he’s so old and so entwined with all of vampire life, keeps turning back up. So they’re like foes—foes, is that the word? Yeah, but I can imagine that when Lestat found out Louis and Armand were together, I can imagine that he would have been pissed but not surprised in the slightest.

KTLA: Louis and Armand’s relationship in this season was very potent and surprising, and it’s complicated in a juicy way. Jacob, how did you and Assad carve out this distinct relationship when both the characters and the audience are in the shadow of a relationship from season one?
Anderson: I don’t think we really thought about it that much. We didn’t really talk about it. Before we started shooting, we just said the one thing that’s really important about their relationship is to not try and replicate Louis and Lestat’s relationship. The minute you try and do that, it fails. They have such a different dynamic from each other and it’s based on such different factors. Those characters are in such different places compared to where Louis and Lestat are when they meet each other. There was just never any point in comparing. In terms of how people who watch the show think of Louis and Lestat, and Armand and Louis, I genuinely don’t think too much about that, because I think then you can sort of try to play up to things too much that don’t really serve the story. You want to tell the story that you’re telling and not try and play up to anything else. So we didn’t really talk about it so much, we just tried different things. They have quite a gentle relationship in the beginning. Or certainly it seems that way.

KTLA: What do you enjoy most about playing these characters?
Reid: The show asks a lot. It gives us the opportunity to do a lot. It’s very rare when you get a role where you get to do all of the things that we get to do in the show. It’s so much fun—
Anderson: Every day you’re like, “What? Is this my job? Is this what we’re doing today?”
Reid: Obviously it’s a lot of drama, beautiful dialogue, you’re going through the 500 degrees of every emotion. And it’s also funny and it’s also lots of action and we’ve got blood and we’ve got crazy contacts in. It’s fantasy and it’s raunchy. It’s just like, wow, it’s a bit of everything. It’s a mixed bag, you never know what you’re gonna get. It’s a joy.
Anderson: I feel like that as well about, specifically, playing Louis. He is so many different people. I don’t just mean the difference between 1910s Louis and modern-day Louis, [or] 1945 [Louis]. I just mean Louis’ brain is a storm and sometimes you get to go to the different stages of that storm within a few minutes and that’s very fun. And he’s not clean. He’s not a clean-cut character. He’s not easy to pin down. He’s complex. And he behaves in ways that I don’t love sometimes. And he also does things that, you know, he… I love Louis. Although it’s heartbreaking.

“Anne Rice’s Interview with the Vampire” airs Sundays on AMC and AMC+.

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