Interview with the Vampire's Jacob Anderson, Sam Reid, and Delainey Hayles Rewatch Scenes From Season 2

[The following contains spoilers for the first six episodes of Interview with the Vampire Season 2.]

The end of the pivotal sixth episode ofInterview with the Vampire's second season finds Louis (Jacob Anderson), Claudia (Delainey Hayles), and Madeleine (Roxane Duran) on trial for Louis and Claudia's attempted murder of Lestat (Sam Reid), who will take the stand to tell his side of the story for the first time in two seasons. (Well, as much as any version of Lestat filtered through Louis' memory can tell his story, anyway.) It's a crucial moment for the show, so TV Guide took a page out of Daniel Molloy's (Eric Bogosian) book and went right to the source to get the scoop. When Anderson, Reid, and Hayles stopped by TV Guide's video studio, we asked them to revisit that episode, as well as a few other major moments from Interview with the Vampire's second season.

Going back to the season premiere, Anderson and Reid discussed the first appearance of "dream Lestat," where a featherless bird flies out of the gash in his throat — a sequence that Reid said was initially much more "rancid" than the version that made it to air. "There was a piece of music written by Daniel Hart that I did perform on the day and used the wound as an instrument," Reid laughed, to some cringing from Anderson. "It was sort of like a glass rim sound... I think it was probably right to remove it."

Anderson and Reid were eager to chat about another scene with dream Lestat: his rain-soaked "breakup after the breakup" with Louis in Episode 4. Anderson called out Reid's "heartbreaking performance" as Louis parts ways with dream Lestat, noting it as a moment of freedom for Louis as he moves forward in his relationship with Armand.

"How is he supposed to be a new version of himself — this businessman, this more empowered, hardened version of Louis — if he's got this daffy ghost on his shoulder the whole time?" Anderson wondered. ("I wouldn't necessarily call him daffy," Reid defended.) "He hands the umbrella over to Armand, he's like, 'You hold it. I'm the boss now. I'm the captain now.'"

Hayles revisited Claudia's distaste for her "Baby Lu" alter ego, thrust upon her by Armand (Assad Zaman), in Episode 4, revealing that she and director Levan Akin initially saw Claudia's aversion to the role as a gradual progression before eventually deciding she would hate it from the jump. "What the role entails is not what she wants," Hayles said. She referred to the frilly blue dress, which Armand later forces her to wear even when she's not performing, as a particular point of contention. "I think there's an element of her that likes being on stage, but not in this particular role." Anderson called it "one humiliation too far" for Louis' sister-daughter, saying that as Louis bears witness to Claudia's performances from the audience, he "knows how perverse this is." 

Finally, the trio revisited the final scene of Episode 6 (which Anderson called his favorite episode of the season), discussing the beginning of the vampire trial, which will be seen in depth in Episode 7. The most heartbreaking detail of the whole thing, they all agreed, was the painful end to Claudia and Madeleine's fleeting romance. "I think it's the great tragedy of this part of the story," said Anderson. "It's the relationship that the other relationships in this story can't be. It's the perfect vampire companionship."

"It's all happened very quickly for her," Hayles said of what is going through Claudia's mind when she suddenly finds herself on stage in front of a jeering audience. "But I think she also has a bit of relief, because Louis and Madeleine [are] beside her. If she was by herself, I think she'd be in much more panic than what she is."

And as for whether that final shot of Lestat preparing for his entrance marks the first appearance of real Lestat all series? "No," Anderson said definitively.

"We're still in a narrative," Reid added. "It's always complex when you're trying to play multiple levels of storytelling, and who's telling the story, and how things are remembered."

Check out the video above to see Anderson, Reid, and Hayles' entire rewatch.

More on Interview with the Vampire:

• Interview with the Vampire costume designer Carol Cutshall delves into Season 2's best looks
  
• A conversation with Interview with the Vampire's Daniel Molloys, Eric Bogosian and Luke Brandon Field
• Interview with the Vampire returns once more, with feeling
• The complete guide to summer TV

Interview with the Vampire Season 2 airs Sundays at 9/8c on AMC and AMC+.