AMC Press Tour Summer ’22 – Interview With The Vampire Gets A BIPOC Reboot!

By Delaina Dixon | August 16, 2022 | Entertainment

Interview with the Vampire Louis Lestat AMC

Hello Divas! If you love Ann Rice novels, you’re in for a treat. AMC has purchased the entire Ann Rice collection, and the network is bringing her books to life, starting with Interview with the Vampire. But in this new incarnation, two of its major characters are being played by Black actors.

Jacob Anderson plays Louis de Lac, the vampire who shares his longevity tale. And the British actor is excited to go down those paths. “it’s the experience of building on a person’s life over a century,” he shared. “It was really fun for me to think about what books has Louis read. What is he seeing? Who has he met? Who does he model himself on?” Anderson also learned that a person doesn’t really change, even over the course of a century. “There are little moments that I really enjoyed kind of bringing the old Louis back in.”

Bailey Bass plays Claudia, the young girl Louis keeps to be their eternal child forever but quickly learns while the body doesn’t age, the mind and spirit do. “Claudia is stuck in this 14-year-old body and we do touch upon what it means to be a Black woman, but also a Black child in that time,” Bass shared at the AMC press event. She admitted that doing research for her role wasn’t easy, and here’s the reason why.

“There’s not much research to be found,” she declared. “You can see a lot of pictures of Black women, but not necessarily Black children who were part of a wealthier family because there wasn’t much of that in the 1920s.” The actress and team did as much research as they could, and then worked to flesh her out on their own. Bass is excited to share what they came up with. “It was great playing Claudia and I’m excited for people to feel seen, especially young women and young girls.”

The series also stars Sam Reid and Eric Bogosian. Interview with the Vampire premieres Oct. 2 on AMC.

photo credit: AMC