Sam Reid talks with In Creative Company on Interview With The Vampire and his character Lestat

The Interview With The Vampire Season Finale Promo

 

Bailey Bass talks with AMC on Interview With The Vampire series & her character Claudia

 

Based on Anne Rice's iconic novel, Interview with the Vampire follows Louis de Pointe du Lac's (Jacob Anderson) epic tale of love, blood, and the perils of immortality. In Episode 4, we come to learn more about vampire fledgling Claudia, the newest addition to 1132 Royal Street. In this interview with amc.com we speak with Bailey Bass about Claudia’s relationship with her new uncle and dad, what it took to become Claudia, and the backstory she dreamt up for the precocious teen.
Q: We meet Claudia at the end of Episode 3, and by the start of Episode 4 she’s transformed into a young vampire with a LOT of energy. When you first read the script, what was your initial reaction? What drew you to Claudia? 

A: What’s so fun about her is that I’m just free and I get to explore. Playing Claudia is a gift to an actor because really there's nothing I can do wrong. I can do the craziest thing, have the craziest expressions, and it's so fitting for her because she feels everything so deeply, being stuck in this young body. Her mind matures because of her experiences, but truly she's always going to act off from instinct and emotion because the biology of her brain will never mature.
Q: Creator/writer Rolin Jones took the source material and tweaked it in a variety of ways. When it comes to this version of Claudia, she’s a bit older and is going through the ups and downs of puberty... only now she’s trapped in that life stage forever. Can you talk a bit about creating this internal chaos within Claudia on screen? 
A: What I did was just technique. I used Uta Hagen technique, which is building a character that's not a part of you at all and not really using experiences that I've made personally, but instead experiences that the character would have had. Fortunately, I had the book to base it off of and I just annotated it like crazy. I would write quotes from the Anne Rice novel and then compare them with quotes from the scripts, and then build Claudia from that. From there I just had to live in her shoes. She reacts from emotion and she doesn't think anything through, which is really fun to play around with because everything is really sharp and quick. I always work from the ground up instead of tackling this really, really big thing that is Claudia. 
Q: That’s so interesting because often when I talk to cast, they talk about pulling from their own life experiences, so it's so fascinating to me that there's a completely different technique of acting where you're purposefully not doing that.
A: Yeah! Yes, I've been 14. Yes, I'm Black. But besides that, Claudia has a way more pessimistic mindset than I do and her thoughts are very, very dark — that's just not who I am. So, the easiest way I could have stepped in her shoes was to really think, "Okay, what has Claudia gone through?" I made a very, very big backstory for her on her parents and how they treated her. I always held this image of who Claudia was before she was a vampire, and that was just a girl wearing probably the same outfit every day that was dirty, and she did not care. She had her only blanket that she would take with her from house to house, and she would just run around barefoot with the kids in the neighborhood. Even when you see Claudia in the other episodes, I tend to carry that through.
Q: I love what you're saying about building her backstory because I was curious about that too. Obviously, she mentions her aunt who died in the fire, but you're right, we don't really know much about her parents or her backstory.
A: As an actor I always ask "why?" All the whys need to be answered for me in order to play the character fully and truly. I asked, “why is it so easy for her to just quickly fall into Lestat and Louis being her dad and uncle?” That's a bit odd. But the reason why it's so easy for her is because she never had a loving parental figure. Her parents were not in her life. She lived with a mean aunt, who didn't really see her as a person but more as a tool. That's the backstory I made up. She would do all the cleaning and just anything her aunt would want her to do. Her aunt would belittle her, which is why this freedom of her running around and hanging out with kids her age is so special because it's not an experience that Claudia had all the time. Now she gets turned into this vampire and there are these people in this big house. She's never even seen a house like this! Never even stepped by it, walked by it because she didn't even live near it, and now she's in this house. She has all these clothes, and she enjoys playing dress up. It's not until later in the episode that she realizes, "Wait, there's more to life than this."
Q: What’s so fun about watching Claudia this season is seeing how she finds confidence through her clothing. She may not be able to show her age like a regular human, but the evolution of her maturity seems to be reflected in her outfit choices. Did you feel like the costuming added to Claudia’s journey? 

A: Costume, hair, and makeup are always my favorite parts of my job. I love talking to the people in those departments, because as much as acting is my art, costume, hair, and makeup is their art. I always want to see, when they read the script, what were their first thoughts? It’s a huge collaboration. I want to know what they think, because then it helps me build my character. [Costume designer] Carol [Cutshall] was always so open to collaborate and we talked a lot about posture in the beginning. Claudia didn't have a lot of strong female role models, so her posture was always hunched over. She squats down. 
She just wants to run around, play, be feral, and kill what she wants, when she wants, how she wants, and that was really important. We also wanted to make sure that my womanly figure was not shown, so Carol had all of my dresses and skirts start to shape at the hips rather than above the hips, so we wouldn't have that curve or the tightening, so it would really look like a little girl dress. You see that when I play Claudia. I see myself outside of work and then I see myself playing Claudia and I'm like, "These are two different people," which I love because I can step into this costume and become that person.
Along with that, there’s her makeup – we added a liner towards the end when she's becoming a tween. We had a Baby Claudia look, which was just really fresh skin, and then when she became Tween Claudia towards the end of Episode 4, we added a little dark liner, just to show she's trying. But one of Rolin's key notes was that Claudia always needs to do something wrong. We never should hit the nail on the head because she's never going to reach that point. So, with my hair the bows are always a little bit out of place or the updos are never as tight as they should be because she's trying, but she can never quite get it right.
Q: Even though Lestat is her maker, Claudia immediately shares a connection with Louis and positions him as her dad while Lestat is her uncle. What was it like working with Jacob and Sam to create this weird little family on screen? 
A: It was really, really easy to do it because they were so dedicated to their characters. They also had some time to be in those spaces to establish a relationship between Louis and Lestat before I came in. So, the destruction that we wanted to create of just Claudia stepping in and changing the dynamic in this family was so easy and effortless. They're so dedicated to the craft and their job and they're such giving actors. If I ever needed something more to get a reaction in a scene, or if I needed to talk something out, they always made sure that I was comfortable and I felt safe on set. Claudia gets some very dark emotions and it's not easy for an actor to get to that place because you have to get very vulnerable. There's a fine line between the actor and the person, and there's a fine line between Bailey and Claudia. Sometimes I would pass that line and they always made sure that my mental health was great.
Q: So much happens in Episodes 1 through 4 that really sets the stage for the rest of the season. We learn about Storyville, about Louis’ relationship with his family, his reckoning around his own sexuality, his early relationship with Lestat and now his growing relationship with Claudia. There’s so much more to unravel, throughout S1 but what are you most excited for viewers to experience as the season continues? 
A: I'm excited for them to see the journey of Claudia! It was so fun to create every episode, especially Episode 4 because it's such a big time jump for her. She's 14 and then it ends when she's 19, so we have those years in between that I got to play around with. I'm excited for audiences to see her evolution, see how she grows, and see how all the circumstances that she's put in affect her. The murder of Charlie, that's a huge turning point in Claudia's life. Throughout her entire life that will be a big, big moment and it changes the trajectory of who she is as a person. I'm excited for audiences to see the mark Charlie left in her life and how that will affect her throughout the rest of the season.

New episodes of Interview with the Vampire air on Sundays at 10/9c on AMC. Full episodes are available to stream on amc.com (with a cable provider login), the AMC apps for mobile and devices, and a week early on AMC+. AMC+ is available at amcplus.com or through the new AMC+ app available on iPhone, iPad, Android, Fire TV, Apple TV, and Roku. AMC+ can also be accessed through a variety of providers, including AppleTV, Prime Video Channels, DirectTV, Dish, Roku Channel, Sling, and Xfinity. Sign up for AMC+ now.

Source: https://www.amc.com/blogs/interview-with-the-vampire-q-and-a-bailey-bass-on-claudia-s-whirlwind-entrance-into-louis-and-lestat-s-lives--1060228?fbclid=IwAR2UGBsuUvS8c5SqOMNKRTHVkXjxSOCe3m3dUNWmmYtQ6zFiJQVcToeXED8

Bailey Bass talks with Collider on her character Claudia from the Interview With The Vampire Series

 Anne Rice's Interview With The Vampire airing on AMC and available to stream at AMC+, tells a story of epic love that is at times poetic and decadent, but also cruel and lonely, in seemingly equal measure. As a Black man in 1900s New Orleans, Louis de Pointe du Lac (Jacob Anderson) dreamed of more than his position in society would allow, which made the offer of immortality presented to him by Lestat de Lioncourt (Sam Reid) impossible to resist, but being intoxicated by the man and the powers wasn’t enough to fill the pain of regret and desire for atonement that could haunt him forever. 

During this 1-on-1 interview with Collider, Bailey Bass (who plays Claudia, a newly turned vampire whose body will forever be stuck at 14) talked about how honored she is to be a part of both Interview with the Vampire and Avatar (she plays Tsireya in the sequels), the three different life stages of Claudia, the freedom in playing a character like this, how much the wardrobe informs her performance, the challenge of the contact lenses, her first day on set, and shooting scenes in a coffin.

Collider: I am in absolute awe of your work in this show, especially because you’re still so new in your career and this character is just so complex and complicated, and everything you would want to play, somehow in one character.

BAILEY BASS: Yeah, right? That’s why I keep saying that this is a dream role. I get to do so much. I can do anything an actor could possibly dream of doing, in this show.

Along with this, you have your role in the Avatar sequels. You’re really putting yourself out there, as an actor. As someone who’s still navigating what you want your career to be, what’s it like to be here, in this moment?

BASS: It’s a blessing. I’m so honored that I get to be part of these two universes that are so incredible and so loved by so many people. I’ve learned that I enjoy being a character actor. I enjoy playing complex characters and being someone that’s not like me, at all. What’s great about playing Claudia is that audiences can empathize with her, even though she does all these vicious, evil, feral things. That’s exciting because she’s multi-dimensional.

When the possibility of being a part of Interview with the Vampire came your way, what was your reaction to that? Did you have any reference for it? Were you intrigued? When something that’s revisiting a title comes your way, are you someone who’s normally more hesitant or more curious about it?

BASS: I was excited. I always do my hardest for all my auditions and try my best, and that’s what I did. And then, when I got a call back, they sent new sides where it was Claudia at 14, 17, 19, and then 40. I had to play her at three different life stages and create this evolution in two days, and then do the tape. It made me excited because I love being challenged, as an actor. I love doing things that are unexpected and stepping into different shoes, and Claudia lets me do that.

Had you read the book and had you seen the movie? Were those things that you did in preparation for all of this?

BASS: Once I got a call back, I watched the film, just to immerse myself in the world quickly. And then, after that, I read the book once I was cast. I did so much prep work, before I even stepped onto the set.

Because Claudia existed at around five years old in the book and she’s around 11 in the film, does this 14-year-old version of her allow you a sense of freedom? Does it feel like you really can find the character a bit more than if you had to stick to what we already knew of her?

BASS: Claudia is powerful and allows so much freedom for an actor, no matter what age she is, because that’s her essence. That’s what Anne Rice wrote. She is a beloved character for a reason, and her essence is in this, even though she was changed to 14, instead of five or 10 years old. The same idea is there. She was almost a woman. She was 14 years old. She was just about to go through puberty. And we talk about that. We talk about the fact that she’s never gonna have boobs. She’s never gonna be able to have a relationship. These are actual things that are a very big part of girls becoming women, and Claudia will never get to experience that. 

It’s so tragic to watch her in that moment, where she’s sitting across from the boy and trying to tell him that she’s really 19, no matter what she might look like.

BASS: The way she acts changes. Her posture evolves throughout the episodes, and I really paid attention to how she walks. She’s being influenced by Louis and Lestat, and the people around her. She’s being influenced, as the years go by and women change. The costumes change from the 1910s to the 1920s to the 1930s. Women were evolving, and because of that, Claudia is too. The introduction of the relationship with Charlie is so special and so perfect because audiences can see the real trauma and the depth of the trauma that she’s dealing with, in a visual way. You can actually see her experience love at the highest form, and then see it all crashing down. That’s what she relives, every single day of her life.

How did the wardrobe help you in finding Claudia? What’s it like to be able to use the clothing to express who she is, while her outside appearance never changes?

BASS: Costumes are one of my favorite parts of my job. I love being able to talk to the costumer. Carol [Cutshall] was absolutely incredible and collaborative. She has so many ideas. The bows were such a big moment because it’s like she was a baby doll. When we were doing my makeup, we had baby Claudia, in the beginning. And then, we had tween Claudia. And then, we had the Claudia that we see at the end of episode five, and going forward. That evolution is so important. Everyone understood that. With the costumes, we spoke about making sure I had no shape and no curves at all because I was 18 years old and post-puberty. It helped me, as an actor, really feeling like I’m a little girl. Even though how she dresses changed, the shape stayed the same, so there was no form, no matter how much Claudia tried to be a woman.

You also have fangs, you have contact lenses, you have nails, and you have all these things that you don’t normally get to have with a human character. Is one of those more challenging than the other, or do you have to adjust to all three of those things?

BASS: The lenses was definitely the biggest adjustment because we wore them all the time and our eyesight is restricted. Sometimes I couldn’t see my scene partner in the scene, so that would be a little bit difficult. We also dialects to learn because voice is so important. No stone was uncovered, really. The detail on this show is so incredible. You can really see that when you watch it.

What was your first day on set like? What was the first scene that you shot?

BASS: The first scene was when we came back from the movie theater and Lestat was recreating the vampire that we saw at the movie theater. I got to be baby Claudia, and there were a lot of laughs and there was improv, which was a nice segueway from not playing Claudia at all, and then going into her. After that, the next scene that day was Claudia’s birthday, where she’s wearing that beautiful pink dress.

It must be so bizarre to have to get into a coffin. In most instances, when someone finds themselves in a coffin, they don’t know about it. What’s it like to have to get into one to do a scene? What is that like to experience?

BASS: I’m game for it all. I love playing Claudia. I love how dark and twisted she is. It’s fun. Especially in episode four, the comedy is there. It’s hilarious, when she’s picking out her coffin. Keith Powell, the director of episodes three and four, comes from a comedy background, so we really got to play with that. Claudia is very matter of fact. She says the wildest things, but she’s really, honestly, genuinely curious. It’s fun because she gets to be this comedic relief in this very intense romance that Lestat and Louis have.

Interview with the Vampire airs on Sunday nights on AMC and is available to stream at AMC+.

Source: https://collider.com/nterview-with-the-vampire-bailey-bass-interview-claudia/

New Promo Episode for Interview With The Vampire Series

New promo episode for Interview with The Vampire Series

 

Sam Reid & Jacob Anderson talks with Collider on the Interview with The Vampire Series

                             Photographed By: Philip Friedman for Esquire Magazine 

Anne Rice's Interview With The Vampire airing on AMC and available to stream at AMC+, tells a story of epic love that is at times poetic and decadent, but also cruel and lonely, in seemingly equal measure. As a Black man in 1900s New Orleans, Louis de Pointe du Lac (Jacob Anderson) dreamed of more than his position in society would allow, which made the offer of immortality presented to him by Lestat de Lioncourt (Sam Reid) impossible to resist, but being intoxicated by the man and the powers wasn’t enough to fill the pain of regret and desire for atonement that could haunt him forever.

During this interview with Collider, co-stars Anderson and Reid talked about how showrunner Rolin Jones’ pilot script won them over, the beauty of the words of Anne Rice, how they approached their characters, doing the interview portion at the end of the shoot, how Louis and Lestat would describe their relationship, what it was like to shoot the sequence at the end of episode two, and how they feel about working in their coffins.

Collider: I love this show. I was one of those people that was really not sure what to make of the existence of this show, as I’m sure many people are feeling, but now having seen it, I think it’s absolutely beautiful and poetic. It’s so not at all what I expected, and I love everything about it.

When the possibility of being a part of this project came your way, what was your reaction? Did you wonder why? Were you intrigued and wanted to know more? Especially when a revisiting of something comes your way, do you tend to be more hesitant or more curious than you normally would be about a project?

REID: I was super curious. When I read that it was getting made, I really hoped that I would get a chance to audition for it. When I read the script, very early on, I just thought, “This is exactly what I think it should be.” And then, I just thought [showrunner] Rolin [Jones] had found the essence of Anne Rice’s writing so beautifully. So, I was just excited, really.

JACOB ANDERSON: I was less familiar with Anne Rice’s writing. I’d seen the film when I was a teenager, a long time ago, but I also had that thing, at the beginning, of slight skepticism and thought, “Why are they remaking that film? Why are they making that film into a TV show?” And then, I read Rolin’s script, the pilot script, and was like, “Hang on. I feel watched. I feel understood, on some level.” Then, I read the first book, and then the second book, and I felt sad for myself that I’d been deprived, or had deprived myself, of such beautiful writing and such a beautiful world that I think would’ve helped a lot, when I was growing up.

 So, You found out you’d be playing these characters, and know that you could be bringing these characters to life for what could be awhile, so that means the decisions that you make, early on, really count because you’ll be living with them for some time. Once you did find out that you had gotten these roles, where did you start? What was the first thing you did, on your path of  finding your characters?

REID:  I went back to the books, always. I was always going back to the books and rereading, and had to make sure that I could speak French and know the piano basics. I had to start those early. But in terms of Lestat, he’s an oscillating character. He’s quite different, in a lot of different circumstances. He’s different, in the books. He goes through a huge emotional journey, and he changes quite significantly. He’s being seen, initially, through the eyes of Louis, so he changes a lot. He is mercurial, I suppose. And so, you don’t want to put too much pressure, to set anything in concrete at all, because you need to be able to change, and he needs to be able to change. It is just beyond exciting, as an actor, to have the opportunity to play this kind of creature, that can evolve and adapt, and does so over centuries and centuries.

ANDERSON: For me, there were things that helped and things that made it slightly harder, in that we shot the interview at the end, so I could use all of this memory and could remember how things felt or how things looked to have a more concrete picture. But then, something that was kind of difficult was that you do have to make decisions that then inform things later. Because we’re meeting Louis now, in present day, there are things that had to be absolutely concrete. But then, Daniel Molloy says it, “Memory’s a monster.” Because I was reading the scripts, it wasn’t a surprise at the end, but you can choose those moments where you’re like, “Maybe this is the unreliable version of events. Maybe this might not have been how Louis responded in this moment.” I think that’s part of the fun. A lot of Anne Rice’s writing is characters going, “Well, maybe it didn’t happen like that.”

It’s even brought up to Louis that maybe he’s remembering things in the way that he’s choosing to shape them, instead of entirely accurately.

ANDERSON: Yeah, that’s so true. It’s such a human instinct. We are the hero in our own stories, which is not true. It’s never true.

Hypnotic, mesmerizing, and decadent are words that I would definitely use to describe the vibe of this series. The dialogue in it often sounds like poetry. What’s it like to get to work with, embrace, and really live in these words? Do you have to find a rhythm to make it easier?

REID: It’s so easy because it’s so beautifully written. It’s just insane. When you’re given such an extraordinary script, you look at it, and you’ve learned it because it’s so beautiful. We were so careful with it, and didn’t want to change anything that Rolin had written. It’s exactly what he wrote. It’s amazing. You can’t really ask for anything better, as an actor. It’s an utter gift, really.

ANDERSON: I second that. There’s not a lot more I could say.

There’s so much dialogue sometimes, and it’s just so beautiful to listen to, which I don’t think I’ve ever said about a show before.

ANDERSON: Yeah, it’s amazing. And you want to do it. I’m not saying this to brag, but I learned all of the interview. Sometimes people would be like, “You don’t need to learn that. Why did you do that? You didn’t need to do that.” But I did because it was fun. It’s like storytelling.

Sam, how would Lestat describe his relationship with Louis? And Jacob, in comparison, how would Louis describe his relationship with Lestat? Do you think they see it differently?

REID: I think that Lestat would probably say there are a few more sweeter moments between the two of them than maybe Louis remembers. I think Lestat loves Louis deeply. He loved him from the very beginning, as soon as he sees him, and he would do anything for him. And I think that’s how he would describe his relationship with Louis. He just wouldn’t admit the negative parts, even though they do exist. He would omit anything negative, if he were to describe their relationship.

ANDERSON: Yeah, I think Louis is the same. Louis doesn’t admit the negative, but this version of Louis, or certainly Louis at this point in his life, is more nuanced about their relationship. I think he does remember the romanticism of their relationship, but there’s a bit of a “can’t live with him, can’t live without him” kind of thing from Louis’s perspective, as well. He’s difficult to live with, impossible to live without. Maybe not impossible, but difficult to live without.

One of the scenes that really most stood out to me was at the end of episode two, where Louis is still in denial and there’s that whole sequence of Lestat playing the piano, singing, and trying to seduce him with blood, and then this man on the couch and them both feeding on him. What was it like to shoot all of that? Did that feel like quite a significant sequence to do?

REID: Yeah, because if you look at it on the page, it’s this beautiful script. But then, when you actually look at the actual elements that have to go into play, like playing piano, singing opera, speaking Italian, doing a stunt with a blood rig, and I have to lift the guy, there are a lot of elements that have to be broken up to actually make the whole thing work. It was quite challenging. But like I said before, it’s an amazing opportunity and it’s the kind of thing that you dream about, as an actor, being able to do. It’s really fun.

ANDERSON: I just had to read a book and watch you do that. It was hard. No. There’s so much in that scene, for everyone involved. There’s so much going on.

REID: Yeah, because you see the dynamics between the two of them. Rolin’s drawing out Louis’ humanity, having too much compassion for the victims, and Lestat’s humanity existing in art and his appreciation of music. And then, there’s the very Rice-ean conversation of, “You have to embrace what you are. You are an apex predator. You are a killer. You can kill, like the hand of God. This is an extraordinary thing, so do it with the most panache you possibly can.”

ANDERSON: And Louis is like, “I’m not feeling that right now.”

REID: These two characters are approaching the world from two very different points of view, but they still love each other, and they’re drawn or tied to each other through this vampire bond.

It must also be bizarre to have a job where you have to do scenes in a coffin. What goes through your head, in those moments?

ANDERSON: You’re the first person to ask us about the coffins, actually.

REID: They were real coffins. They’re really, really heavy coffins. To open them, they had to be pulled on these weighted ropes. They’re very heavy. It’s actually quite relaxing.

ANDERSON: My coffin is very uncomfortable. Bailey [Bass]’s is really nice. It’s like memory foam, bouncy and comfortable. But Sam got locked in. They couldn’t get him out.

REID: Yeah, it’s probably not the best because they have to be lifted up on ropes. It’s weird because they’re so heavy, but they’re kind of like sensory deprivation tanks. It’s so dark in there that all you can do is just close our eyes and relax.

ANDERSON: We had little speakers in them, so we could talk to each other and hear each other. That’s how thick the coffins are.

Yeah, I can’t imagine they make them very easy to get out of, from the inside anyway, because that’s not something you would normally need to have to do.

REID: That’s true.

Anne Rice's Interview with the Vampire airs on AMC on Sundays and is available to stream at AMC+.

Source: https://collider.com/interview-with-the-vampire-jacob-anderson-sam-reid-interview/