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Interview with The Vampire, the classic novel by Anne Rice, is now a television show. This time around, Louis, Lestat, and Claudia are in New Orleans and dealing with humanity and immortality.

I talked to Jacob Anderson, Sam Reid, and Bailey Bass about the new series:

The show doesn’t shy away from race being a factor in the vampires’ very long life experience. Was that important to you? Were you afraid of any ignorant backlash because previously the characters were played by white actors?

Bailey Bass [Claudia]: I was really excited to play Claudia. It’s really a dream to play such a complex character who’s very loud and unapologetic. And I honestly didn’t think twice about anything else. I just know that Rolin [Jones, Creator of the TV series] was very intentional about the actors he wanted to cast in the show and I’m very fortunate that I was one of them. And I just dove into all the research, I read the book. I would cross reference the book and the script and see the quotes that Rolin took from the book and was very intentional about adding them into the script. After doing all the research, I became Claudia and it was fun to play her.

Jacob Anderson [Louis]: I think something that Rolin has done with, which is, I’m almost loathed to call it important, but it creates a richness. This isn’t a color-blind casting situation. Louis central question is about his humanity and his place in humanity. And I think if you were to cast Black actors in Louis and Claudia and not address that, you would take a lot away from that question of their humanity. I’m glad that we don’t shy away from it. And in terms of backlash, I just don’t want to give it energy anymore. Like, people are going to…I think people need to be seen sometimes. They’ll say anything to be seen or recognized. It’s sad, but it’s the internet.

Obviously, as vampires your characters live really long lives. Which era would you love to be able to play your character in?

Jacob Anderson [Louis]: 80s! 80s! 80s! 80s! I want the pastels, I want the hair,. Let’s go! 80s!

Sam Reid [Lestat]: I think the 1700s, that’s where he [Lestat] is from and the era in which he was born into so I’ll quite like to see him in that era.

Bailey Bass [Claudia]: I just want to get to the 50s. I just want Claudia to get to the 50s so I can wear all those skirts and just explore more hairstyles because we evolved. Doing the prep work, we had a horrible time looking for photos of Black girls in that time period with very versatile hair, which we know they existed, just no one took pictures of them. So to be able to expand that more and to show women that have curly hair that this is what they look like in that time, I would love to expand that and go into the 40s and 50s.

Great, I’m obviously team curly so I love that.

Interview With the Vampire is now streaming on AMC.

Watch The Movie

Interview With The Vampire Blu Ray on Amazon or rent or buy on Amazon.

Read The Book

Interview with the Vampire at Amazon

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