After a May premiere, AMC’s hauntingly brilliant Interview With the Vampire’s second season ends this Sunday. The season found our unreliable narrator, Louis de Pointe du Lac (Jacob Anderson), and his lover Armand (Assad Zaman), recounting their time in 1940s Paris to volunteer captive, journalist Daniel Molloy (Eric Bogosian). In early June, mxdwn joined a press roundtable conversation with creator/writer Rolin Jones, executive producer Mark Johnson, and Zaman at the ATX TV Festival about the season, bringing Anne Rice’s words to life, and why this couldn’t have worked anywhere else but AMC.
*At the time of this interview, only episodes one through three had aired, with episode four screening early exclusively at the festival.*
We’ll start with Rolin. Given you adapted both HBO’s Perry Mason and this from original works, how did your approach for each differ or compare?
Jones: How do I do this elegantly? One of them, I feel like I got to do the job I wanted to do, and the other one…[laughs]. Both had this sort of venerated, sold-over-100-million-copies IP. So they had built-in audiences that also loved them and tattooed stuff on their bodies on both sides. One was really beholden to that television show. So you had that little obstacle at the beginning of it. Not really an obstacle, just sort of given circumstances. So you could be intimidated by that or you could be really very privileged and grateful that you got the gig.
And you know on this one [Interview with the Vampire], there were a lot of things for the kind of writing that I do that were really exciting. Language was the prose that she [Anne Rice] had, seeing how you could mine the prose and figure out really artful ways of how to get that prose. Which is sometimes describing landscapes or interiors and stuff, not stuff for drama, and putting it in the mouth so these wonderful actors. So that was all this constant joy for both of these seasons to figure out how to get as much in as you could.
Perry Mason was totally the opposite. Plot, plot, plot, plot, plot. Zero character. It’s a character rarely revealed. The similarities actually between those two, we built Perry Mason around the idea that we would grab bits of dialogue and things that Mason would say and go, okay, ‘How do we get him to that moment where he says this that comes directly from these books?’ And in the second half of Interview with the Vampire, it’s not plot-heavy. There’s a lot of that. And so those were the tent poles we put on how to build it. It was like, ‘When Claudia says this, how do we get her to that moment to say that authentic thing that came directly from the book?’
Johnson: I keep saying that Rolin’s Interview with the Vampire is so much closer to the book than the movie, which is ironic because Anne Rice wrote the screenplay for the movie. And yet, I don’t think it’s even, I mean, I think, I’ve never been involved in an adaptation where the writer, the screenwriter, has had such respect for the material. And with that, still understands what to keep and what not to keep.
Jones: If you’re a writer, you remember that the first day was a blank page and she had nothing but blank pages. And so you got to respect every comma. There are different things, one’s a novel, one’s serialized television. And we also have the advantage that she didn’t have, too. We have books that she wrote after that movie. We know the whole thing.
For season two, Assad, you become a more prominent figure in the narrative. How did you prepare for this transition?
Zaman: What was really nice was being able to kind of observe season one, and see how this world is being sort of constructed and built and lived in by these actors and by this set and sound, and then seeing it all sort of come out gave me a good sort of foundation to go on. The first thing I shot was episdoe five and that was sort of being thrown straight into the deep end and I’m really grateful for it.
I kind of hated you [Jones] when you pulled me in. But, I think it was the right thing to do because I think the anticipation was so, so big and it was like over a year of sort of this built up kind of energy going ‘How’s, what’s going to happen? How am I going to do this?’ And then, like, me sort of trying to picture it and then in the end you kind of, it all goes out the window. You have to sort of just go with your instinct and I knew, I was like, ‘I’m not sure what’s gonna come out but something’s gonna happen.’ And I think that work and sort of the conversations and seeing it, somehow something was going in, I guess, by osmosis and it manifested to how it is now.
Jones: Do you know what his first scene was this year as Armand? It’s the fight between him and Louis. That’s day one for him.
Zaman: That was our first scene. And Jacob and I were like, what?! We haven’t even developed a relationship yet. We’re going to have a break for it.
Jones: He was battle-tested. He had to do a lot of Armand auditioning in season one to prepare so we knew that he could do it. If you go back and watch episode five of season one, there’s some of the most subtle, nuanced Armand that is just cracking open in there. It’s really quite elegant.
Johnson: What did you promise him in season one? What did he know? What did you tell him about season two? Because you hadn’t even written it.
Jones: I mean, you knew you were going to be the guy.
Zaman: I distinctively remember that third audition was when Rolin told me that Rashid is actually Armand. But he was so subtle about it, he was like, ‘Have you read the book yet?’ In my head, I was thinking ‘I’m playing Rashid, of course I haven’t read the book, I’ve read the thing that you’ve given me. I haven’t had time to read the book.’ Anyway, I was like ‘Yeah I’m familiar with it,’ and you were like, ‘Yeah so you’re not Rashid, you’re a character called Armand, and you’re going to be quite prominent.”
Mark, we’re celebrating 10 years of Halt and Catch Fire at AMC. You were also involved with Better Call Saul. What is it about AMC that keeps drawing you back to make these classic titles?
Johnson: Well, you know, I come from features and my first real experience in television was Breaking Bad at AMC. So it’s probably as perfect a wedding as you can possibly find. And I feel, in many ways, that AMC and I sort of went through our infancy in terms of original television together. And I can’t say enough. It’s interesting because a lot of the executives who were there in the early days on Breaking Bad days are no longer there, but the spirit of AMC is still the same and they have been so supportive.
When you look at Breaking Bad, and I don’t know quite frankly who today would make Breaking Bad, AMC made it then. Better Call Saul Halt and Catch Fire, and a show I’m particularly proud of, Rectify, are all AMC and there was no…listen, the money’s not always there, but the enthusiasm, the heart is always there and we find a way to do it. And I have to say, wouldn’t you [Rolin] say in this last season, AMC has been so incredibly supportive and let us make the show the way we wanted to make it. I’m so proud of it thematically and just the damn size of it. It just looks like a huge show and you know it’s on an AMC’s budget which…
Jones: It’s still a lot of money. Do we have the money that HBO and Amazon? No. That’s cool but we never would have made this show. This cast wouldn’t have been cast at HBO. The combination of some very, very passionate and wide-open creative executives and some very creative plays in production to figure out how to do these things. It’s a really lovely home to make television.
Johnson: It sounds like an advertisement for AMC, but I just can’t imagine it being somewhere else and having the range of what I’d like to do and what I want to see and having the support.
Jones: We have a 49-piece orchestra for our television show. Who else has? It’s like, it’s mind-boggling. And then the weirdos we get, they let us just drown American and English theater. We just took all of these actors or whatever.
Zaman: [jokingly] I thought it was because HBO wouldn’t be able to afford me. So I’m going with AMC.
Jones: Could be that one.
Could you all speak to the casting change for Claudia and what that’s been like this season?
Jones: Yeah, you know, one of those logistical things that just didn’t map out well and was very sad and everybody sort of like, well, uhh ‘Watcha gon do’ and if you look at not only the rest of our cast, you start looking at our day players too. We have a lot of talent in our casting department. And Kate Rhoades James is the person who found Delainey. We had, [I] forget the exactly the timeline, we were three weeks out and we were auditioning a week and a half out before our first day of shooting. This is, again, why we flipped it over to episode five first.
And she called them together, read everybody she could, and picked four really, really, lovely, lovely actors. And then Delainey walked in and did her three scenes and we were supposed to go across or down the street at the Ivy to talk about it. We had a big, long conversation. It was me Levin, Kate, and Jacob. And we sat down, we were like, ‘Well, let’s have our big, long discussion.’ Everyone just said Delainey. It was all worth it. We didn’t have a conversation about it. And then we sent it over to Mark and said, ‘This is it.’ And this totally…this old soul dropped down into our laps.
And she feels seamless to me.
Jones: She does. Yeah. Well, we definitely started rigging that first episode to make sure there would be no doubt by the end of that, that that was Claudia. So there were some adjustments made just to make sure, ‘Hey, this is a Claudia episode.’ I’m going to really buy that.
Johnson: And that first episode is very Claudia-heavy.
Jones: The thing that permeates for the rest of the season…we have no assholes or divas on our set anyway. And that we had another really, really lovely person. It’s not only like professional grace, she just threw an energy and a warmth that you can feel in the performances… just a little glow of joy and kindness. It’s very helpful. Making our weird ass show, a weird dark show, it’s really nice to have.
Mark, did you have a day where you looked around and went, ‘This is gonna be good?’
Johnson: This is going to sound a little trite. I had that moment lots of times on this but the first time was when I saw, read his [Jones] very first draft of 101 and I just said ‘This is extraordinary.’ I just sort of, just signed on to spearhead Anne Rice World for AMC and I thought ‘What have I gotten myself into?’ And I got his first draft, which was so extraordinary. I just thought ‘It’s up to us to foul this up.’ This is so, so good. And along the way, casting and listening to Daniel Hart’s music for the first time, every bit of it. There must be 13 different points where I just said, ‘We’re in pretty good shape.’ And that is rare because, and you warn yourself against that, you don’t want to really sit back and take any satisfaction until everything’s done. But at this point…
I think one of the roles of a producer is hopefully assembling everything and helping assemble everything so that the creator then can make whatever it is she or he wants and is thinking of. And I had those moments throughout this. And if you knew me better, I don’t always say this, I’m so incredibly proud of this job.
Was there a similar moment for you all? Was there a moment where you thought, ‘OK, I’m comfortable here?’
Zaman: Before my argument with Louis, I was sat on the bench, and I had my headphones in, and I was like, I think we had a rehearsal the day before. And I think I was really overwhelmed with the rehearsal. I was like ‘I’ve got to get out of this. How do I get out of this? How do I leave?’ And you [Rolin] came and sat next to me on the bench in the studio. You just tapped me on the shoulder and you’re like, ‘How’re you feeling?’ ‘I’m all right,’ you know. ‘Go have fun’, and you literally just got up and walked away.
Jones: I knew I had seen it. I knew what the instrument was, what he was capable of. And we all wake up almost every day with some kind of weird imposter syndrome. And then you just get up on your feet and all that training. And you have this beautiful scene partner and the only thing that you have against you is time, right? Because the private money is being spent every day, so how much can you get out there?
Zaman: I’m constantly apologizing for myself and I think you gave me that permission to stop doing that and that was what I was really grateful for, is that sometimes we are our own worst enemies. We hold ourselves back so much and kind of need to let that go and that’s what I had permission to do and that was great.
But for me though, just thinking about the moment when I knew that, I guess I knew I was involved, in something really special was my first day in season one. So me coming in and meeting everyone in that set and then seeing, I can’t even remember what the first scene is. Oh, it was the opening scene of episode one and I’m just sat, Rashid is just sitting in the background on that chair with his little iPad and I was sitting there all day looking at Jacob and Eric. And I was like, ‘This is so incredible’ Everything, like, we were in a penthouse in Dubai in the middle of this studio in New Orleans and I was like, ‘This is insane.’ And they were so good.
Jones: It was in the editing room I was watching for this season, it’s episode six, I don’t think any of you guys have seen this, but I’ll tell you this. It’s just a moment that’s seen between him and Madeline. And there’s a moment when he sits on the couch and I cannot tell you, when you get to it watch it, how this character’s fully been embodied. Madeline, her voice in the generosity of the actor, but in the body. Just watch him sit down on a couch and watch both hands. I remember I played it for you [Zaman]. I said, ‘Look at this. If you doubt anything that you’re doing right now, take a look at this.’ And it’s really, that was a moment for me. I was like ‘Wow, check this out.’ And I remember like bringing some others, ‘Get over here, look at this. And watch it.’ It was really a very changeable moment.
The second season finale of Interview with the Vampire airs at 9 p.m. ET on Sunday, June 30 only on AMC and AMC+. View the season finale trailer below.