EDGE Interview: The Queer Men with Fangs Are Back! 'Interview with the Vampire' Cast Spills the Blood

Louis is determined to strip away the embellishments he added to his story all those years ago and give an accurate account of how, in 1910 New Orleans, a charming Frenchman named Lestat de Lioncourt (Sam Reid) seduced him into a sexual relationship that would, with the bite of a fang, transform from an illicit, but mundane affair into a supernatural odyssey of love, hate, violence, and bloodshed. Louis gained unimaginable power, but he also lost his family and struggled to hold onto his humanity as decades passed. Like many a dysfunctional couple, the feuding pair sought a solution in parenthood: Lestat turned a 14-year-old girl named Claudia (Bailey Bass) into a vampire whose body would never reach physical adulthood. The schism between her juvenile body and maturing mind became acute for Claudia, and Lestat's brutish parenting style didn't help. Claudia ran away to search for other vampire mentors, but encountered only a vicious drifter who sexually assaulted her. Season One ended with Louis and Claudia conspiring to murder Lestat in flashback while, in the present, Louis reveals that he and Daniel have been in the constant company of yet another vampire: Armand, who has been Louis' lover for seven decades, and who was also on the scene in 1973, when Louis and Daniel had their first encounter in San Francisco.

Rolin Jones, who adapted the book to the small screen, continues to reimagine the source material, sticking to the novel's basic story points while wildly reinventing the narrative. As Season 2 begins, Louis and Claudia (now played by Delainey Hayles) are in Europe, searching for some old-world nosferatu but finding only the human-made horrors of World War II and its aftermath. Louis keeps seeing (or imagining) the specter of Lestat, who is happy to interject his dry, often caustically funny commentary. But is this phantasmal Lestat a mere vision, or something more? In present-day Dubai, Daniel and Jacob continue their interview, but, as they comb through old notebooks and artifacts, journalist and vampire both realize that there are unexplained holes in their recollections and begin to suspect Armand.

Season 2's eight episodes balance drama, horror, humor, and camp, with the latter factor amped up considerably once Louis and Claudia finally do happen on a coven of ancient vampire – an acting troupe, of all things, whose presentations include feeding on screaming victims right in front of an audience of unwary mortals. Jealousies, rivalries, and revenge all take shape with the operatic sweep and menace that only the undead can summon.

EDGE caught up with the cast of Season 2, hearing from Jacob Anderson, Sam Reid, Delainey Hayles, and Assad Zaman about the thrill of returning for Part II, the secrets their characters harbor, and just how far these messed-up immortals might go.

Watch this preview for Season 2 of "Interview with a Vampire."

EDGE: Are you happy to get your fangs back into the show for Season 2?

Jacob Anderson: Always happy to get my fangs back in!

Sam Reid> We've finished it now, so we've kind of been defanged!

[Laughter]

Jacob Anderson: Even though this is an adaptation of the second half of the book, I really didn't know what to expect. We'd kind of been told bits, but there were a lot of surprises. This is not one of those situations where the second season is a rehashing of the first. This is very different. We go to places that not only really progress the story, but there are some quite shocking things that these characters do that aren't direct adaptations of the book.

Assad Zaman: We have a very, very strong show that is doing something that not a lot of media is doing at the moment, which is exploring life in in really interesting ways.

EDGE: Delainey, you're new to the cast, taking on the role of Claudia. Was it easy to join in on the fun?

Delainey Hayles: Yeah, I did, actually. I think the book helped me a lot, and watching the series – I watched it over a couple of times, so I was able to see where I was picking up from and understand that Claudia is older this season, and she's a bit different. She's still the same Claudia, but she might approach situations a bit differently now.

EDGE: Jacob and Sam, your characters had quite the tumultuous relationship in Season One. How would you say that relationship has changed in Season 2?

Sam Reid: For a lot of this season Lestat is haunting the narrative. You have a lot more freedom when you're playing a hallucination. You don't have to necessarily root anything in logic. It can be like, "Well, it doesn't necessarily make sense to me, but that doesn't matter. It will make sense, somehow, somewhere."

Jacob Anderson: It's all in my mind! It doesn't make sense to me, either, but it's okay.

Sam Reid: I think the thing that helped me was, "What is this memory that he can't stop from coming back?" You know, "What is the idea that he's being haunted by?" We got to have a bit of fun playing with a more bubbly Lestat in the dream version of him.

EDGE: Assad, you also play a very different relationship with Louis this season.

Assad Zaman: When we started filming Season 2, Jacob and I had talked about what our relationship will be going into it, but we were suddenly going deep into the heart of their insecurities as a couple. We had to make bold choices and go straight in – and it felt incredibly safe, because he's an incredible actor, and he's super generous. The rest of the relationship blossomed through that.

EDGE: Sam, Lestat has the best one-liners except for the journalist, Daniel. If Lestat and Daniel ever were to meet, who do you suppose would win in a contest of wit?

Jacob Anderson: Can I answer that? Daniel! Daniel Molloy would definitely win in a battle of wits with Lestat.

[Laughter]

Sam Reid: Wait a minute! I disagree. I would say that... there's a lot I could say, and I'm not gonna. I'm gonna be like, "Okay, fair enough, Molloy outwitted Louis." But if and when Lestat and Daniel spend some time together, I can imagine there's gonna be a lot of chaos. I actually feel like Molloy and Lestat would understand each other, because... Yeah, that's enough, I think.

EDGE: There are eighteen books in Anne Rice's "Vampire Chronicles," including books that focus more specifically on Lestat and Armand, so does it seem to you that there's a path to future seasons for the show?

Sam Anderson: We've all read the book, so I think these [television] characters exist in a much larger continuum that they weave in and out of.

Assad Zamand: It would be a dream come true. When I got the part, I chose to read "The Vampire Armand" first because I wanted to know who he was before we meet him as a character in "Interview with the Vampire." I'm not gonna lie – it traumatized me a little bit. If you read "The Vampire Armand," it's one hell of a book. It's a tough read, but it's also beautiful in so many ways. It was on my mind, thinking it would be amazing to get to that point, maybe in [a hypothetical] Season Five, where we get to see the vampire Armand. We'll see. I love playing Armand, and I'd love to peel back a bit more into who he is.

"Interview with the Vampire," Season 2, airs on AMC.