Interview with the Vampire: Don't Be Afraid, Just Start the Tape Books Included

June 9, 2024 2:40 AM - Season 2, Episode 5

With Louis's help, Molloy delves into a haunted memory of his own.
posted by fight or flight (5 comments total)

I know I say this every week (or at least I think it), but what a fucking fantastic show this is. Just everything in this episode was superb, the acting, the writing, the sound design, the set design with all the details, the editing. For real, I think this is one of the best and most lovingly crafted things I've watched in a long time.

Loved this episode, even though it means I need to throw out most of my crackpot theories about Daniel's past. Loved the horror elements, the nasty shit, the toxic relationship shit. Loved Armand being a broken little gremlin who just wants someone to love him back. Loved Louis and his complicated rage and his 128 victims and calling Daniel "boy" every other sentence. Loved the hints of Lestat and the building horror. Loved Armand stealing his victim's shades. Loved Daniel breaking down and hating the gravel and being sheltered by Louis.

I had to literally stand up and walk in circles during this episode. I can't even. I can't even!!
posted by fight or flight at 2:45 AM on June 9 [3 favorites]

It's fine. You're fine. Everything. Is. Fine.

-me after this episode.
posted by haplesschild at 4:49 PM on June 9

I can not think of a single misstep in the casting of this show but special tip of the hat this episode for finding Luke Field who both credibly looks like he could be a young Eric Bogosian and who also nailed all of his mannerisms.

Rashad deciding to perform his hunt while the Dubai sun is still high in the sky is quite the flex. For a guy who tries to act as though he's above showing off he's, well, maybe not exactly as humble as he thinks he is.
posted by Parasite Unseen at 11:36 PM on June 9 [1 favorite]

There have been some great press interviews with the cast coming out of this episode, full of really fun insights.

The Devil's Minion: How Assad Zaman Is Bringing The Théâtre des Vampires to Life in Interview With The Vampire

Zaman’s fondness for a prop isn’t limited to the Théâtre des Vampires, thankfully. When faced with fans' description of his Armand as an immortal “iPad kid,” he can’t help but laugh. “The iPad is going to be iconic now, forever. And I love that! In season one, when I got the iPad for the first time as Rashid, the props master gave me a very basic old iPad with a few screens for Rashid to play with in the background. I jokingly asked if he had any games, and the next day the props master gave me three: Minecraft, solitaire, and pool. A lot of the scenes that you see in season one, where I'm just in the background, I am playing Minecraft. And now, in season two, the iPad is bigger, and it's more advanced, but he’s still got his video games.”

[...]

When questioned as to if Armand is capable of receiving love, Zaman prevaricates. “I have my answer, but I ultimately think it's something that is up to the audience to decide. He's flawed in his need and desire for love. Does he know what love is? Does he know how to receive it? Would he recognize it, if he received love? I would go as far as to question if what Louis is showing is love. Is that real love? Is that what Louis offers? They both think they're giving and receiving love, but are they or are they coping in their own ways, and giving and receiving something else that presents itself as love? I don't know.”

A Conversation With Interview with the Vampire's Daniel Molloys, Eric Bogosian and Luke Brandon Field

Bogosian: For me, it's an evolving relationship [between Daniel and Armand] that begins with puzzlement, then it turns to distrust, and it will eventually move toward hatred of the most ultimate level. What's also interesting is that Assad and I were stationed, we were living very close to each other in Prague, and we spent a lot of time with each other. So there were two characters, completely separate. There's this very sweet guy, and then there's this evil character who is wonderfully created with a lot of looks. I [haven't had] that many roles where it's done with staredowns. As opposed to Luke's introduction to this character, which is nothing but sheer hell from the get. So as I learn what this guy did to me, that moves my relationship to him into deeper and darker waters. I think that one of the more challenging things was, when [Armand] returns from killing that knucklehead and he finds me and Louis hanging around, and the camera goes to our reaction [to] him coming into the room — sometimes there's certain things that are kind of challenging for an actor, and I had to kind of seethe. But come on, there's a limit. Luke, don't you agree? You don't want to billboard it, but you have to show it. You're not feeling that. Well, I guess I was kind of feeling that emotion. Later, we have scenes, I get really angry at some point. Yeah, it was really funny. My director — I guess he'd never seen anything that I've done, and he goes, "Eric, now, I know you're a really sweet guy, and you're very mild-mannered and everything, but you have to get really angry in the scene." And I'm like, "Sure, yeah, OK. That I can do. I do it all day long." I'll leave this now, I'll go on the street and I'll get in a fight with somebody in about two minutes.

Inside the Brutal ‘Interview With the Vampire’ Season 2 San Francisco Flashback

Anderson explains how Louis was driven to such an act. “He’s essentially an addict at that point,” he explains. “He’s like a heroin addict through blood. He finds people that have addictions and drinks them. He’s in a very, very, very dark place.”

[...]

Reid tells TV Insider he was in the room with Zaman, Anderson, and Field when reciting these lines. It was also his first scene filmed for Season 2. Reid and Zaman agree that this “call” is the closest thing we’ve gotten to hearing the real Lestat in the series. Every moment before this was a memory of Lestat from Louis or Armand’s point of view.

“The telephone you hear in Episode 5 is probably real Lestat,” Reid says, or at least “it’s the echo of the guy,” he notes. He admits it’s a confusingly “meta” plot detail to work out. “It’s complicated because who’s hearing that?” he asks. “I was like, ‘Rolin, so does Louis hear Lestat?’ And he was like, ‘No.’ I said, ‘Does Lestat’s voice come out of Armand?’ He said, ‘No, he translated it.’ I said, ‘Then how do we hear him?'”

All that’s certain is Louis could only hear Armand’s voice in this moment. Reid says the lack of response terrifies Lestat, who screams out Louis’ name in fear as Armand cuts the line. “He doesn’t hear [what’s going on] because Louis doesn’t respond,” Reid explains. “The thing is that Lestat for all intents and purposes thinks Louis is dead.”

[...]

Zaman says that Louis’ suicide attempt has defined Armand’s life ever since. “One of the really specific and tragic things about that is the knowledge that Louis hurt himself has been there from San Francisco up until [Dubai]. He has carried that on his own,” Zaman explains, adding, “The implications really hit home in Episode 6. I don’t think he realized how painful that memory or that feeling has been. To hold onto that on his own, to know that the love of his life got to a point where they felt so alone that they had to hurt themselves, I think only people who have been through that kind of thing can understand what it feels like to feel like they were the problem or they should have been there to fix it.”

posted by fight or flight at 9:10 AM on June 10 [3 favorites]

Here's how good this show is... The Devil's Minion chapter of QotD is big time Formative Influences for me, like SO FORMATIVE, and I do not even care that we're not getting it here. Do! Not! Care! What they're doing instead is so captivating that I'm fully along for the ride, wherever it's taking me.
posted by merriment at 5:50 PM on June 11 [1 favorite]