This ‘Interview With the Vampire’ Death Scene Took Three Days to Film

One of the most heartwrenching episodes in Interview with the Vampire’s second season was the mock trial of Claudia, Louis, and Madeleine. It resulted in Lestat de Lioncourt’s return to the narrative as he watched the demise of his adoptive daughter and fledgling. Delainey Hayles and Sam Reid sat with Entertainment Weekly to discuss filming the trial and Claudia’s final moments.

“We shot Claudia’s death for three days,” Reid started. Hayles then explained the process of her death scene, saying, “I had levels of prosthetics. We’d complete one stage of it. I would go away, and I think they would film something else. Then, I would come back with more prosthetics. I think it took around three days for us to finally complete it.”

“Every single time was as harrowing as it was for you to see it,” Reid chimed back in. “We watched that so many times. It will be forever seared into my mind. It was an extraordinary performance by Delainey and Roxane Duran (Madeleine’s actor).”

Striking On and Off Again

Also in the interview was the Vampire Armand’s actor, Assad Zaman. He shared more insight on filming the trial scene and working around last year’s SAG-Aftra strikes. “That trial scene,” Zaman began, “We started that before the writer’s strike, and before we had to shut down. So, we began that episode then, and we had to come back and finish it. That was the first thing we came back to after two months.” Reid added that there was some silver lining in the midst of filming, “Luckily we had rushed the majority of the meat of that episode. We knew the strikes were coming, so we had to rush it.”

A chunk of Interview with the Vampire’s second season was filmed in Prague, including the warehouse that was transformed into the Théâtre des Vampires. “That set was haunted!” Reid claimed, before explaining, “Everyone was convinced there was a ghost in there. There were lots of accidents. Someone broke their ankle. Delainey had an accident.” The SAG strikes must have miffed this so-called ghost, as Hayles laughed, “On the day that the strike was announced, I decided to fall off the stage. It was weird because I had like an out-of-body experience where I envisioned myself falling, and then I hit the ground. And oop! I’m down!”

AMC’s Interview with the Vampire has been greenlit for Season 3. The first season will arrive on Netflix on August 19.

Interview with the Vampire

Based on Anne Rice’s iconic novel, follow Louis de Pointe’s epic story of love, blood and the perils of immortality, as told to the journalist Daniel Molloy.

Release Date

2022-00-00

Creator

Rolin Jones

Cast

Sam Reid , Jacob Anderson , Eric Bogosian , Bailey Bass , Assad Zaman

Seasons

2