The Best Quotes From the Interview with the Vampire Cast We Couldn't Fit in Our Cover Story

When speaking to anyone involved with creating Interview with the Vampire, you can bet you're about to be faced with an embarrassment of riches. For TV Guide's spring digital cover story, the cast and creative team behind AMC's supernatural romance gave a tantalizing preview of the upcoming second season. They offered up so many thoughtful, passionate quotes that we simply couldn't fit all of them in one article — so here, for your reading pleasure, is a collection of our favorite extra quotes from our interviews with the cast. 

And don't forget to check out our full, in-depth digital cover story about Interview with the Vampire Season 2.

Jacob Anderson

On Sam Reid's performance as dream Lestat: "I noticed after we did a few scenes together with that dynamic, I would just notice Sam copying me. I would have to be like, 'OK, he's studying the way that I stand or the way that I say things. It's the story. It's what's supposed to be happening.' But occasionally I was like, 'I don't do that!' Now I've seen the season, and I'm like, 'It's genius.' I'm looking forward to seeing what Sam says about playing Louis, essentially. It's Lestat as Louis remembers him, filtered through the things that Louis doesn't want to say, and can't say. And maybe the things that Louis is embarrassed or ashamed about, Lestat just says it."

On the interview dynamic between Louis, Daniel, and Armand: "[Claudia] is Louis' Achilles heel. Louis can talk about Lestat, and he can feel this complex range of love and hate and regret and excitement, and those things can also be contained. But I think with Claudia, it's quite volatile, because the wounds are still open, even after all this time. For Daniel to start talking about Claudia, and to visit Louis with that, without Louis being able to prepare it beforehand, that sets up a really fun dynamic where Louis can be on top of Daniel and can throw things back at him, but Daniel can very easily be like, 'Claudia was unhappy and it was your fault.' And that could shatter him. That could immediately take him out. So it was really fun to play those little moments where a scene would just completely switch. I think they're constantly pinning each other, and then to have Armand — I think quite often, he's sort of silently watching, and figuring out when the right time to comment or speak is, to either save Louis or save himself."

On his favorite selections from his three-hour Season 2 playlist: "Either 'Humpty' by Mitski, or 'Icarus' by Fana Hues, is another one that I listen to a lot. There's two that I listen to the most, but I feel like if I told you what they were they might give something away, so I won't. But I will publish the playlist if people want me to! … There's actually two Mitski [songs] on that playlist, and there probably would've been more but I was like, 'I can't just have a bunch of the same artist on the playlist.' Louis' not somebody who'd be stuck on one thing."

Sam Reid

On the comparisons between Louis and Lestat and Louis and Armand: "I think it's important to not take away all of Louis' agency in his life. He's a pretty capable character — actually incredibly capable. A lot of this is to do with him understanding his own power and accepting his own ability. I know Anne Rice always kind of wrote him as the weakest vampire, but we didn't really make him like that in our show. And it didn't ever really make total sense, because you're meant to inherit the powers of your maker, and Lestat is incredibly powerful. In terms of Louis and Lestat and Louis and Armand, Lestat was always sort of saying, 'This is who I am, but I'm not going to show you all of my powers because they're a bit hectic, and I would love to just try and live a human life with you. Let's just be able to do whatever the f--- we want.' But that's a mistake, because you don't really show all of your powers, so when they do come out they come out in horrific ways, and surprising ways. In the books, when Armand and Lestat first meet, Armand plays this really big mind game on Lestat. And I love that scene, I think it's fantastic. And that happens with Lestat and Armand [in the show]. Does it happen with Louis and Armand? I don't know, because I don't play their characters. But I would say that Louis is a little bit more on the ball than Lestat is when he first meets Armand. You have to give Louis credit."

On Lestat and Armand's relationship: "They have a very, very, very messy relationship. I think a big part of why Lestat didn't want to go back to France, in Season 1, when they were in New Orleans, is because he doesn't want to run into Armand. He doesn't want to see Armand. He's got a very, very complex relationship with him. It's not like he's like, "Ugh, Armand!" [Disgusted noise] It's like, "Ugh." [Exasperated noise] He's not twisty, turny, thinking about Armand every single day or whatever. He's like, "Ugh, I just would rather… Yeah, I don't want him around." But when he does the flick of his wrist when he thinks about Armand, he's also flicking a huge chunk of his life away."

Delainey Hayles

On Louis and Claudia's relationship: "The book became like my Bible in a way, where I was able to look back and look at how Anne Rice describes Claudia. And I was taking into consideration that it's been her and Louis for a very long time. As a child, you absorb your surroundings. Claudia has spent a lot of time with Louis over the past couple of years. So I think, in a way, his empathy kind of rubs off on her."

On wearing her vampire lenses for the first time: "My first day, for obvious reasons, was my most memorable day, because it's the first day I acted with Jacob, first day of everything. Getting my lenses, I felt like I'd got, like, knighted. And I was like, 'Now I can't see anything, but this is great.' Because I hadn't had them in before, when I got them on my first day, I was like, 'Oh my god, I cannot see.' The longer you have them in, the more you adapt. So, my first day, I fell over a couple of times. It was one of those slapstick moments. I had walked into the props, fallen over, so the guys that were in charge of the props were like, 'Oh my god, we're so sorry. We'll move the props here.' Didn't tell me, and I've gone, 'OK, I'll go the other way.' But then the props were [there] — I loved falling over as well. It was like, 'I cannot see a thing, but I'm having the time of my life.'"

Assad Zaman

On working with Jacob Anderson: "I came in in the last month of filming [Season 1]. We did all of the Dubai scenes in one chunk. So he'd already been there doing Season 1, he lived Louis' life for nine months by then, I think, and he was exhausted living that life, and the night shoots. I think we started talking about it in Dubai. We were kind of like giddy kids, a little bit. We both met each other, and we were like, 'Oh, my God, dude. I'm exhausted, but this is going to be cool, right? How are we gonna do this?' It was kind of freeing, because we didn't have to think about it right then because it hadn't been written yet, but we knew it was coming. And as soon as we sort of built a rapport — he's from Bristol, I'm from Newcastle. We have a lot of similarities in where we come from and stuff. As soon as we realized this is going to be really easy, it was pals straightaway. And so then when we started Season 2, it's just easy. It's just really, really easy working with Jacob, and just being open to try and talk about things without getting too heady. My thing is sometimes I tend to overthink everything, and sort of overanalyze before I do anything. With Jacob, it was nice to not overthink things, just see how we feel in the moment and then let that dictate how the story goes."

On the show's memory theme: "I personally think often we equate — if the memory's a little bit inaccurate, then the feeling isn't real. [But] if you think back to our childhood, we elaborate on the stories in our heads so much, and often the tiniest things, moments that meant a lot to us become bigger as we remember them. Time slows down or speeds up, and people become larger or smaller in our heads depending on how they made us feel in that time. I think [there's] a lot of that this season — when we go into Paris, I think that's where the performative nature comes into it. We get to really embrace those emotions. The love between Louis and Armand, the romance, is one of the most beautiful parts of it, the way it starts."

Eric Bogosian

On Daniel and Armand's relationship: "Armand, you know, he didn't come into this voluntarily. I don't know how strong Armand is, and Armand doesn't know how strong I am. I don't know how smart he is. He doesn't know how smart I am. One thing I'm definitely picking up on him is that he thinks he's superior to me. But that's always a mistake when you're dealing with an enemy. The first thing you want the enemy to do is to make those kinds of mistakes. I mean, I play competitive poker. And the first thing I want to do is be playing against somebody who thinks they're hot."

On his experience working on the show: "To be working on such complex material and be asked to do things that I haven't done before, and to be working with such amazing creative team — I mean... I've been around. I'm not speaking from, like, this is my second show or my third show. This is like, my 35th show, or 60th, or something. So when I say that Rolin [Jones] is amazing, Hannah [Moscovitch] is amazing — that's our writing team — and that Jacob and Assad are amazing — these guys are very generous. And I think a lot about [how] when you go into deep work as an actor, you have to feel safe. I have definitely not been safe [in the past], especially with men. Men can be real jerks on set, and the audience can't see it, because we have to do our job. But if you're with a bully star, it's hard to go to where you need to go to. And Jacob, who's mainly who I'm working with, he's a very loving guy. Maybe people don't want to know this about him. Maybe I'm only supposed to say things like, 'In real life he's actually a vampire,' but in real life, he's actually a real, very sweet man. Very human."

Ben Daniels

On Santiago's approach to the theater: "It's like people trolling on Twitter. It's like, they're hidden behind the screen, but his screen is the fact that he's pretending to be a human. And he sort of is getting those mortals by the scruff of the neck and saying, 'Look at yourselves. Look how ridiculous and pathetic you are.' But they lap it up because they think it's a show."

On the backstory behind Santiago's name: "I said, 'Well it's obviously a stage name.' ... It could be an anagram of sang à toi, which means 'blood to you' in French. He was originally French, the character. They changed him to Brit, which I was really relieved [about]. [Laughs.] And also Iago. He'd had a hit playing [Othello's] Iago."

For more, read our digital cover story about Interview with the Vampire Season 2, premiering May 12 on AMC and AMC+.