[This story contains spoilers from the season two finale of Interview With the Vampire, “And That’s the End of It. There’s Nothing Else.”]
Daniel Molloy (Eric Bogosian) could have accomplished his second interview with the vampire Louis de Pointe du Lac (Jacob Anderson) in Dubai, however the two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalist couldn’t resist unraveling the largest secret that underlied Louis’ strained, 77-year relationship with the vampire Armand (Assad Zaman).
Within the season two finale of AMC’s adaptation of Anne Rice’s Interview With the Vampire, Daniel — with the assistance of the key society often known as the Talamasca, which investigates and displays supernatural beings — discovers Armand’s largest betrayal of Louis. Not solely did Armand report Louis and Claudia (Delainey Hayles) for turning Claudia’s companion, Madeleine (Roxane Duran), right into a vampire and for violating vampiric legal guidelines, however Armand additionally directed the present trial that was speculated to result in the demise of all three on the Théâtre des Vampires in Paris.
The penultimate episode had ended with flashbacks to that fateful day: Louis is shoved right into a coffin crammed with gravel and locked in a crypt to die from hunger. And, in one of the vital harrowing loss of life scenes in latest reminiscence, Claudia and Madeleine are burned to loss of life by daylight. Whereas Armand has repeatedly maintained that he solely had sufficient willpower to power the viewers members to offer the order to banish, relatively than kill, Louis, Daniel items collectively that it was really Lestat de Lioncourt (Sam Reid), whom Louis and Claudia tried to kill in New Orleans on the finish of season one, who saved Louis’ life.
It’s a heart-wrenching twist that govt producer and showrunner Rolin Jones, who developed the critically acclaimed adaptation three years in the past, has had in thoughts ever since he determined to separate Rice’s Interview into two seasons. Within the finale, below the guise of asking some follow-up questions on the finish of their interview, Daniel fingers Louis a replica of the script from his present trial in Paris — with Armand’s manufacturing notes scribbled in crimson pen within the margins. Louis’ fingers start to shake as he pores over every web page, whereas Armand is left dumbfounded.
“It was one of my favorite scenes to shoot because it was very fun to modulate different states of relief and joy from Louis at just finishing what is essentially a really long EMDR session,” Anderson tells The Hollywood Reporter. “We had to work backwards from the reveal to get to a place where it would really take the air out the room. I remember flipping through the script trying to find a way to read something super quick, which I guess Louis can, but also feeling like I’m collapsing inside,” he provides. “I always feel like Louis knew. Since he was burning it all down, I think he knew that Armand was involved in a greater way.”
Zaman — who initially auditioned for the position of Louis’ servant, Rashid, in season one, solely to find that he was really being tapped to play the love of Louis’ life, Armand — tells THR the massive reveal is an actual “gut punch.”
“I watched that last episode with my sister and when that reveal came, she threw a cushion at me. She was like, ‘How could you? We were fucking rooting for you, man!’” he remembers with fun. “She was devastated. But that’s kind of the effect, I guess, it’s supposed to have. It is quite tragic that that’s been a lie that’s lived for so long in this relationship.”
A Deadening of Feelings
Within the finale, after Armand secretly provides him a few of his personal blood to outlive, Louis hatches a plan to burn down the theater and kill the vampires liable for Claudia’s demise. Head honcho Santiago (Ben Daniels), and actors Estelle (Esme Appleton) and Celeste (Suzanne Andrade), are among the many choose few who handle to flee the hearth. However that solely makes the way in which they meet their finish much more brutal.
“The joy of this show is that it’s very truthful about humanity. So you are always playing these high emotions. But it’s really fun when you get to add that extra layer of camp — of fun, of extremity. And that was one of those situations where, at the end of the day, you’re like, ‘What have I done with my day? Someone flew out of a manhole, and I chopped his head off,’” Anderson says with fun.
The actor relished the chance to play all of the “different colors” of Louis’ grief over shedding Claudia, with whom Anderson thinks Louis had a “really disturbing” relationship. “My feeling is that rage and sadness and a sense of longing all coalesce to create grief, as well as a lot of other conflicting emotions. I think they become grief, and then an extreme progression from grief is madness,” he says. “Louis says this thing in the episode about [how] he becomes grief, he becomes madness — or his grief and his madness become him. So that’s entirely what’s driving him.”
However curiously, Anderson by no means noticed these flashbacks as Louis is exacting revenge: “It’s something slightly less emotional, almost. It’s a deadening of the senses; it’s a deadening of his emotions. He’s been starving in a coffin for God knows how long, screaming subconsciously. He’s reached a point beyond grieving, and I think he is just rage.”
A Relationship Constructed on Spite
After taking out the coven, Louis, with Armand in tow, confronts Lestat on the dungeon tower that belonged to Lestat’s maker, Magnus, in Paris. “I think it’s very shocking for Lestat to see Louis come in and straight away assume that Lestat came back just to rehearse a play, to kill Claudia, to do some big vanity project,” Reid says. “I think Lestat just would’ve assumed that Louis knew that he saved him, because the rest of the coven would’ve known that Lestat saved Louis. The only person who didn’t assume it was Louis, and that’s really Lestat’s fault. He’s obviously hurt him so badly that Louis thinks that Lestat is incapable of doing that.”
In a ultimate act of retaliation, Louis kisses Armand in entrance of Lestat. “Where your miserable life takes you, whoever you find to do your time with, whatever pale proxy of me … I’ll be with [Armand],” Louis tells Lestat. “I just wanted you to know that.”
“I think it’s really tragic, because it makes you question why Louis doesn’t want to speak to Lestat in that moment,” Reid says of that scene. “The first time you see it, you think, ‘No, he’s afraid to speak to him,’ or ‘he’s angry.’ But actually, he doesn’t want to speak to him because he doesn’t want to break his rule that he’s set up, which is, ‘No, I’m with Armand, in spite of Lestat.’ It’s pretty wild shit!”
Anderson argues that Louis didn’t enter his romantic relationship with Armand out of spite — he feels there was a real love between them, and Armand represented a “calmer” and doubtlessly extra wholesome companion than Lestat ever was. “But I think that scene in Magnus’ dungeon tower is the beginning of the spike in Louis and Armand’s relationship. I think he continues the relationship with Armand out of spite for the next 70 years. I think he’s making a point, he’s trying to hurt Lestat. There’s probably a self-destructive element to it as well,” he says. (However over time, the ghost of Lestat, in addition to Armand’s net of lies, begins to wreak havoc on Louis and Armand’s relationship.)
Reid factors out that within the authentic novel, Armand bodily pushes Lestat out of a tower after the trial. However the writers have now chosen to include Louis into that storyline — and Louis is now the one who pushes Lestat out of that metaphorical tower. “It’s no longer a physical fall, because we’ve learned that vampires do recover from physical falls. But a psychological fall is probably the most damage that you can do to these creatures that live forever,” he says. “It also means that there’s much more agency for our Louis in the show, and I think that’s fantastic.”
Whereas adapting the primary guide, Reid admits that he was at all times trying to discover methods to evolve Lestat as a personality, contemplating that the viewers solely sees him in flashbacks (which can or might not be solely correct). “I think the fact that he doesn’t say anything in the tower, that he doesn’t stand up for himself, that he doesn’t tell him that he saved him, is the first step where you’re like, ‘Oh, okay, he might be learning something here. He’s not necessarily just following his loud vain M.O., and he is not being impulsive either.’ He’s thinking, ‘There’s no space in which this is going to work for me here. [Louis] is too angry. It’s too painful.’ So that’s a big development change for Lestat.”
Why Didn’t Armand Save Claudia?
Throughout Louis’ interview with Daniel within the current day, Armand reiterated that, regardless of his powers of manipulation, there was nothing he may have carried out to cease Claudia’s loss of life — however everybody now is aware of that could be a lie. Though he by no means acquired to a degree the place he may personally justify Armand’s actions, Zaman says he understood his character’s desperation “to cling onto some form of reason for living. For Armand, his reason for living or carrying on was Louis, and you can start working out how someone, who isn’t necessarily a mustache-twirling villain, can do heinous acts.”
“I don’t think Armand thinks villainously, but he made these very consequential decisions because partly, he is immortal. He knows the worst outcome is fleeting because if [the truth] came out, which it does, and he was put to question, Louis might hate him for what he did. But over time, it might change because they won’t die,” he explains. “When you live forever, you are more capable of doing horrible things, maybe, because what you’ve got to deal with is time. If you’ve dealt with time already for that long and been through a lot, what’s another hundred years?”
The true tragedy of this a part of the story, as Zaman frankly places it, is that Armand “doesn’t give a fuck about Claudia.” Positive, they might have gotten to know one another by way of Louis in Paris. “But that’s nothing compared to the years and years and years he spent with the coven and with the Children of Darkness before that, and with [his maker] Marius before that, and with the children in Marius’ home, who were his actual comrades, before that,” Zaman says. “Someone who’s so consequential to Louis is completely inconsequential to him, and that’s what I think you see in that last episode. That’s why he let her die.”
Louis and Lestat Reunite in New Orleans, 77 Years Later
After studying that Lestat saved him in Paris, Louis decides to go to his previous stomping grounds in New Orleans, the place he notices a fledgling vampire gathering rats in a hurricane for Lestat to feed on. Earlier than lengthy, Louis comes face-to-face together with his ex-lover, who has been dwelling in New Orleans (and presumably in squalor) for many years.
“What happens to Lestat in that period of time [before Louis discovers the truth] is he slowly becomes a shell of himself,” Reid explains of the primary present-day scene between the lovers. “I think Louis has time to connect with his vampiric self, and all these things that are beautiful and powerful and give him heaps of agency in his life. Whereas Lestat is kind of reconnecting with the things that are connecting to humanity, which is music and isolation, and [he’s] made memories. I think a few things have happened in that New Orleans hovel that we might see at a later date that explain a bit more of his mental state.”
Whereas the ultimate model of that reunion is deeply heartfelt, Jones confesses that his first draft of that emotional scene was not very satisfying, however the writers’ strike prevented him from making any revisions: “I was really panicked that we were going to have to shoot it. And then the actors’ strike happened and we had a little bit of time left.”
After the strikes ended final fall, Jones referred to as up each Anderson and Reid to debate what they needed their characters to get out of their reunion. Ultimately, they determined to “make the scene more about contrition and forgiveness,” Jones reveals. “I think we had Lestat’s side pretty down, but we didn’t quite have Louis’ side. So there was a really lovely kind of interaction between all of us about what that was all about.”
Louis thanks Lestat for bestowing the present of vampirism on him, though he has spent a lot of the final century believing that it was a curse. “I think the culmination of this story is that Louis has found his vampiric self, and I don’t think he could really get there without reconciling with Claudia’s death and [his brother] Paul’s death, and without acknowledging to Lestat that [becoming a vampire] was a gift,” explains Anderson. “I think it could be read as just a pure thank you or an apology, and I don’t think it’s solely either one of those things. I think it’s an acknowledgement of something [deeper].”
Lestat mentions that he, too, can’t get the picture of Claudia dying in entrance of him out of his head. “Claudia is going to be the biggest mistake Lestat has ever made in his entire life — not the fact that she’s alive, but the fact that she died,” Reid explains. “The loss of life of Claudia goes to be the factor that haunts him perpetually, and I want that he did save her. I’m unsure if he knew that he may, however the truth that he noticed her have a look at him with a pure connection on the finish [of episode seven] — and the 2 of them did share a connection at a number of instances of their lives. I believe he’ll by no means get that picture [of Claudia dying] out of his head.
“I think what it does is it also sets us up for a relationship with a haunting of Claudia and Lestat that is quite exciting,” he posits. “We’ve got the potential of not letting Claudia go because Lestat has not got any closure there, and he has a lot to atone for. He has done some really terrible things, and I think a wonderful motivation for a character going forward is shame.”
The long-awaited dialog reaches a fever pitch when Louis and Lestat, who each assume lots of the duty for what occurred to Claudia, share a passionate embrace. Jones says Anderson and Reid improvised the dialogue between their hugs — and so they haven’t shared these phrases with anybody else.
“We said something that only Sam and I know, and it was scripted like that as well: ‘Jacob Anderson as Louis says something to Sam Reid as Lestat that only they will know.’ But it was in character,” Anderson reveals.
“We always knew that we had a moment to take back these characters for ourselves,” Reid provides with a smile. “There’s so much discourse around who did what to whom and how this happened and how they should feel about each other, and I think it was nice for us to have the opportunity to just close it off and know things about them that other people don’t know.”
And though Jones says that he doesn’t suppose the characters are “about to get back together and have a steamy love affair” anytime quickly, Reid thinks Louis and Lestat gained’t have the ability to “stay away from each other at all,” partly as a result of he believes the “cataclysmic” nature of their relationship is “what makes good television.”
“It’s also a part of their M.O. to hurt each other — that’s a big part of how they show love to each other. They destroy each other’s lives and then they build them back up again,” Reid says of the place he thinks the characters will go from right here. “Hopefully, I think Lestat has learned to never physically hurt Louis in such a way that he’s hurt him in the past, because Lestat is really quite culpable for all of the things that happened to him [since the end of season one].”
Armand Turns Daniel Right into a Vampire
The finale ends with a time bounce: Regardless of skepticism from his colleagues, Daniel’s Interview With the Vampire guide turns into a bestseller — and viewers rapidly uncover why the journalist can solely be seen out at night time and out of the blue talk telepathically with Louis.
Jones confirms that, identical to in Rice’s books, Armand is the one who turns Daniel right into a vampire. “Will we see that moment of turning? No, but Armand finally made a vampire and clearly made him out of spite,” he says with fun. “It looks like it was really not a great moment [between him and Daniel], but that connects those two characters. They will have scenes going forward, obviously.”
Zaman, who doesn’t suppose that his character was out of the blue overcome with the urge to show the journalist who had simply blown up his life into an immortal being, says he’s notably to study what occurred after Louis left Armand and Daniel alone in Dubai. “I would love to know that window of time — maybe, I don’t know, it could be another bottle episode — where we just see how Armand gets from that moment at the end of season two to the moment where he decides to turn Daniel. Just seeing that whole dynamic play out next season would be so fascinating.”
He continues, “I have already said this to Rolin, and I think Rolin agrees: We’ve seen Armand desperately trying to preserve his sense of etherealness or whatever, and he’s trying to control how people perceive him. I think what would be amazing next season to see would be a completely unhinged, crazy, fucked up, weird gremlin Armand. I think there’s no hiding anymore. There’s no reason to hide. He’s lost everything. So, who’s left?”
“I Own the Night”
Following the publication of Daniel’s guide, Louis has been receiving threatening messages from different vampires, who usually are not greatest happy that he has revealed their way of life to most of the people. However Louis is unfazed by the threats, even going so far as telling his ilk the place he lives. “For all you cowards out there talking shit, talking about taking a run at me, hear this now and hear it plain: I own the night,” Louis says in his ultimate monologue.
“There’s a very innocuous line in that [final] conversation between Louis and Molloy where Molloy goes, ‘I’m worried about you, man.’ [Louis] goes, ‘I’m fine, actually,’” Jones says. “In the three and a half years [that he played the role], Jacob goes, ‘That is the first time I got to speak a line where [I say] I was fine.’ Louis was fine. He wasn’t perfect. But he had a way forward and the burdens had been lifted a little bit.”
So, what did it take for Louis to succeed in that place of feeling at peace together with his id? “For Louis, it’s about connecting all these conflicting ideas about himself,” Anderson responds. “He has at all times been this creature of rage, of resentment, of harm and trauma. However he’s additionally this very tender, considerate, depressive, insular character — and all of these issues are true, and there are 100 different issues about him which can be true. I believe it’s in all probability true of most individuals, actually.
“The change that Louis finds at the end is like, ‘I don’t just have to endure [this life] anymore. I can live. I can live as myself. I can be here as myself,’” he continues. “But then, there are thousands of vampires around the world that are like, ‘You did this, and you did that. We’re going to get you!’ I think he’s just shrouded within that acceptance of himself. He’s just like, ‘Cool, you know where I am. I feel very comfortable in my own skin, so come and test that skin if you really must. But I’m not scared.’”
Jones argues that Louis has at all times had that form of bravado — simply take into consideration the brutal manner he killed Alderman Fenwick and worn out a complete coven within the first season — however he “just had some personal shit he had to work through.” The showrunner encourages followers to match the primary shot of Louis within the collection premiere with the ultimate shot of season two — which solely happen 14 days aside on this iteration of the story — to see the clearest change within the character.
“You can really see what Jacob went through for three and a half years with that character and see what his face looks like [at the start] and see what it looks like now,” Jones says. “It’s like a picture of Lincoln after his first four years. It’s really something else.”
The Subsequent Chapter of the Story
Just a few days forward of the season finale, AMC renewed Interview With the Vampire for a 3rd season, which will probably be tailored from the second guide in Rice’s Vampire Chronicles: The Vampire Lestat.
Resentful of the perfunctory manner he was portrayed in Daniel’s bestselling guide with Louis, Lestat decides to set the document straight by beginning a band and happening tour. “Because we have [composer] Daniel Hart helming the music of the show, I’m very excited to see whatever he creates,” Reid says of his impending transformation into “rockstar Lestat” (a model of his character that guide readers have been anxiously awaiting).
AMC’s renewal announcement included the names of a number of characters who’ve but to be launched within the present — together with Gabrielle, Lestat’s mom. “I really can’t wait to meet her and see what that character is like,” Reid provides. “I also think the dynamic between Gabrielle, Louis, and Lestat is really interesting, so I’m very keen to see how that unfolds.”
For his half, Anderson, who will stay an integral a part of subsequent season regardless of the story’s focus shifting extra to Lestat, thinks there’s a form of finality to Louis’ storyline on the finish of the second season. “I really feel comfortable and satisfied with at least this conclusion of this part of his life,” he admits. “I love, certainly in the later books, that Louis just wears a cardigan, he reads a book, he does a bit of gardening. There’s something cozy about it. I genuinely don’t know anything about the future. I’m just happy with where we finished this bit of the story.”
Jones says he and his inventive crew have but to determine whether or not they plan to divide The Vampire Lestat — the guide the showrunner reveals “originally attracted me to the whole thing” — into two seasons like they did with Interview. “I think that it’s sort of another origin story, and there’s certain things in the book that we probably, in our adaptation, have already hit a little bit,” he notes. However the advantage of the present’s formidable strategy to storytelling throughout centuries implies that the writers can now pull from all the remaining books from Rice’s Vampire Chronicles.”
Every little thing, he provides, is now on the desk for future seasons.
“Obviously, we’re going to be going back and forth in time a little bit, but I think that narrative should probably be Lestat [after] the publication of the book going, ‘Wait, huh? No, no, no. No one’s talking for me anymore,’” Jones teases. “I think the idea would be to try to see what would happen to our show visually, and storytelling-wise if Lestat de Lioncourt took over everything and literally took our show hostage.”
The primary two seasons of Interview With the Vampire at the moment are streaming on AMC+.
