[Editor’s note: The following contains spoilers for Season 2 of Interview with the Vampire.]
The Big Picture
In Season 2 of the AMC series ‘Interview with the Vampire,’ Daniel Molloy grapples with uncovering the truth from guarded vampires, blurring lines between adversaries and allies.
The complexity of Louis, Armand, and Daniel’s dynamic unfolds, fueling Daniel’s intense investigative pursuit.
Past histories revealed between Louis, Armand, and Daniel in Season 2 lead to disorienting discoveries and uneasy introspection.
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 digs 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 giving Daniel the clarity that he was hoping for.
The dynamic between Louis, Armand and Daniel has been an interesting one to watch, as the very human journalist keeps trying to peel back the layers of inconsistency and distraction to find the truth. What should be clear lines between predator and prey blur as Daniel pushes and questions Louis in a way no one else can, and that has left audiences wondering if they would ultimately end up being adversaries or allies.
During this interview with Collider, co-stars Bogosian and Zaman talked about the layers of these very complex characters, the similarities between Daniel and Bogosian himself, the disorienting feeling of knowing something has happened to you but not knowing what that is, the fun of exploring the different worlds of Armand, the Louis and Armand dynamic, how uncomfortable a walk down memory lane can be, what Daniel thinks of Raglan James (Justin Kirk), and whether fans will be satisfied with the Season 2 finale.
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
‘Interview with the Vampire’s Assad Zaman Explores the Many Versions of Armand in Season 2
Image via AMC
Collider: How would each of you describe the mindset of your characters in Season 2? Assad, what more is going on with Armand beneath what he shows us? Is he less measured this season? Will those cracks become easier for us to see?
ASSAD ZAMAN: Nothing. Absolutely nothing. He’s completely blank inside and dead to the world. No, it’s the opposite. There are six or seven versions of Armand that we see throughout the season, in big forms and small forms, and all of them live in Dubai where we’re in the present with all of it. Along with the disdain of [Daniel], the protection of Louis, and his protection of himself, he’s juggling like crazy. He’s holding it together with this very stoic front, but I think he’s scrambling for his life inside. That’s the only way I can describe it.
ERIC BOGOSIAN: Each one of us is a complex ball of wax. If you start with the idea that my character is an investigative journalist and has just learned a big fact that he didn’t know, but kind of knew somewhere in his gut that something was up, now he will go after the story as intensely as he can, which involves all kinds of problem-solving. For example, these two guys have decided they’re gonna sit down and tell me the truth, but they must be lying to me because why would they be doing that? It gets complicated because the very nature of my existence, of being such an intense, journalistic, work-oriented person is because, emotionally, I’m totally messed up. And guess what? I’m totally messed up because of [Armand]. Now, we’ve got a real Rubik’s Cube of crazy going on here that has to be figured out. The more that I figure out about them, the more I’m figuring out about me, and that isn’t necessarily a place I’ve ever really wanted to go, as a character. I’m so similar to Daniel. There are a lot of similarities. There are a lot of parallels between my life and the life of this character. However, I’m very different from Daniel in the fact that he’s one of these type-A work people who shuts down his emotional life and works, and this is the biggest mystery or investigation that he’s ever been on. It just turns out to be existential, as far as his life goes. I don’t do that. I’m not that hard of a worker. I’ve been nominated for a Pulitzer. This guy has won two Pulitzers. You don’t do those things without being very motivated. I’m not that motivated. I’m actually a pretty happy person.
How would you say getting some of those missing pieces back really affects Daniel? Does it affect him in ways that he didn’t expect?
BOGOSIAN: People who are very work-oriented try to solve their lives by working even harder. He learns that there is this whole angle of his life that he kind of remembers but doesn’t. I hate to keep bringing myself into this, but I had an experience when I was young that was traumatic, and I completely forgot about it for 15 years. I didn’t remember that it happened, and yet it motivated me in the way I acted toward people. Making this big discovery, he’s suddenly got this huge thing dropped in his lap. But in the case of this guy, he just works harder. He has to break the back of this problem, and that’s where he’s going to put all of his energies. His situation with these guys is a lot like somebody who drinks and goes into a blackout, and then the next morning, they have to call up their best friend to find out what they said and what they did and who they slept with the night before. It’s a weird, queasy feeling to not know what happened. It’s very disorienting.
Related ‘Anne Rice’s Interview with the Vampire’ Season 2 Review: A Gloriously Tangled and Compelling Part Two
Season 2 premieres May 12 on AMC and AMC+.
Assad, after just getting to portray the present-day version from Season 1, what have you enjoyed about getting to play Armand through these different timelines over the years and exploring different points of his life?
ZAMAN: It’s always fun to go into different periods and explore worlds with costumes that you wouldn’t ever have the confidence to wear in real life, and be in these environments that seem so alien, but also were part of history. In the theater that I’ve done, you get to do that a lot and I really enjoy it, and this show gets to enjoy that. Those moments in the past are always fun for an actor. It was like putting on different shoes and different moments. There was the world of Paris and what that entailed, and the theater, which entailed something else. And then, we go into the coven in the 17th century and that’s an entirely new world and life and darkness there. And then, we’re back in Dubai, but it’s a new version of Dubai because it’s an unleashed Armand there. All of it was very fun and interesting.
‘Interview with the Vampire’s Assad Zaman Got To Know His Character By Reading ‘The Vampire Armand’
Image via AMC
What did you enjoy about getting to explore the relationship between Armand and Lestat and playing with the dynamic they had?
ZAMAN: It was so much fun. For the people who know the books, it’s a nice little nugget into the expanded world. I don’t think anyone anticipated seeing that glimpse so early on in Season 2. That’s something that’s gonna flower into the universe in the future, hopefully. After I got the part, I read The Vampire Armand first before Interview because I wanted to understand who Armand was before we meet him in Interview with the Vampire. Reading his life and his backstory in the coven with the Children of Darkness was so fascinating. I was like, “If this show does well and we manage to get into Season 3 and 4, then Season 5 would be great to explore this part.” And then, we get the script and suddenly in episode three of Season 2, we’re going into the Children of Darkness. I was like, “What?! This is insane. This is great.” What’s also amazing is that we’re seeing it through a memory and through recollection, so that gives us the chance to revisit it and recontextualize it. This show is so brilliant at using memory and narrative to revisit moments and dissect moments and go, “Okay, how much do we know about this? How accurate is this? And what’s that like if we see it through someone else’s eyes?”
I love that in episode five we get to really dig into what happened in that first interview in the seventies and what things were really like with all three of them. What was it like to really learn about what that past history was, and what happened to Armand and Louis, but also Daniel?
BOGOSIAN: It was a walk down memory lane. They showed me the prop of the drug box before they actually shot the scene and they said, “What do you think about this?” And I said, “You don’t have a little brass pipe in there. That has to be in there. You’re missing the little brass pipe.” One of the things about being an older person, as I am, at this point in my life, is that you do wonder, if you met yourself at 22 or 23, what would you think? I have sons that age. I was an idiot at 22 or 23. I have no respect for who I was then. And yet, that person laid down the pavement for who I was to become in my later life. That’s the weird Mobius strip thing that occurs when he becomes very aware of who he was when he was young. It’s like, “Yeah, I was a crappy writer, but I was me. That guy became me. How did that happen?” Anne Rice is always asking the big questions, and the question here is about the road not taken. If I hadn’t done all those things, then what would I have become? If I hadn’t wrecked two marriages, what would I have become? If I hadn’t been bitten by a vampire, then what would I have become? You’re always wondering about yourself. Maybe we shouldn’t wonder about ourselves as much as we do. He’s all shook up with that stuff. All that energy just gets put into, “I’ve gotta figure this out.” Plus, I hate this guy (Armand). I don’t like him, at all.
ZAMAN: There’s a thin line between love and hate.
BOGOSIAN: I’m using everything I can because he’s just not gonna beat me. I’ve gotta win against him.
Related ‘Interview with the Vampire’ Season 2’s Best Character Has Been Hiding in Plain Sight Until Now
The simplest moments from Season 1 now have a whole new layer of meaning.
Assad, what was that like to find that past history with Jacob Anderson?
ZAMAN: That was the first thing we did. Episode five was my first day on set, for the big fight between Louis and Armand. It was like being thrown into the deep end, straight away. I had to make quite bold moves and play 20-something years of history and explode with each other. It was terrifying and fascinating, at the same time. I credit the writers because they built it in the text with the argument. We went for it, and after, when we revisited the things that we talked about, like meeting each other and falling in love in Paris, the future is almost there as a memory. That really helped me. In a weird way, seeing Louis in Paris and falling in love with him and seeing those things that are the real details that I really like about him, but then also discovering the things that I know will come back later to haunt me and haunt us, was really interesting. It added a layer to that flowering of the romance. And it was great working with Jacob.
‘Interview with the Vampire’s Eric Bogosian Shares Daniel Molloy’s Season 2 Talamasca Doubts
Image via AMC
Eric, what does Daniel make of someone like Raglan James and the Talamasca? After Louis and Armand, does anything surprise him?
BOGOSIAN: The first thing that goes through his head is, “This is not what it seems to be. This is some sort of CIA, or some kind of operation that’s going on, and they’re tracking me and following me around.” I guess Daniel is thinking, “That’ll be the next book.” I fell in love with the guy as soon as he sat down next to me in the sushi bar. He was pretty cool.
Related Who Are the Talamasca? ‘Interview with the Vampire’s Secret Society Explained
This secret organization has a complicated history (and members).
As if this cast isn’t great enough already, you get to play with Justin Kirk now too.
BOGOSIAN: He’s fun. The sushi chef was fun, too.
ZAMAN: It was a real sushi chef.
BOGOSIAN: They said, “Okay, you have to be very angry when you put the food down. No, that’s not angry. That’s smiling.” He had never acted, and they kept cajoling him to be angry. Finally, he did it and it was like, “Yes, that’s it. You’re the angry chef.” He was such a sweet guy. I went and found him toward the end of our stay in Prague, and he did a whole dinner for me. It was wonderful. He even gave me that fish that was flopping around, but it wasn’t flopping around.
ZAMAN: Those moments of laughter are needed and they add a dimension to these people as well, or else it’s just intense vampire stuff.
Eric Bogosian and Assad Zaman Are Both Satisfied with the ‘Interview with the Vampire’ Season 2 Finale
How do you guys feel about where things are left at the end of Season 2? Is it a satisfying conclusion?
BOGOSIAN: You have no idea. From a perspective of being a real person, living in a real world, doing a dramatic show, and I’m acting in it, the inventiveness of Anne Rice and Rolin Jones together, you just can’t wait to see where this is all gonna lead. And they definitely leave us in a position of, this is a stepping off point to the next crazy thing that’s going to happen. I’ve had such a good experience with this show that I’m ready to be puddy in their hands for whatever Rolin cooks up. I was quite happy with the way it all ends up, mostly, but I’m not gonna get into that right now.
ZAMAN: I think you’re gonna be satisfied.
Related ‘Interview with the Vampire’ Creator on Telling a Haunting Season 2 That Will “Stay in Your Bones”
Showrunner Rolin Jones and executive producer Mark Johnson also talk about the future of Anne Rice’s Immortal Universe.
Interview with the Vampire airs on AMC and is available to stream on AMC+. Watch the Season 2 trailer:
Watch on AMC+