The AMC adaptation of Anne Rice’s Interview With the Vampire is a rich gothic romance that takes the source material and updates it in ways that are both fascinating and, at time, far more explicit than the books ever were. While gay sex was deftly skirted around, the deed was all but said in the novels. In the new series, it’s just another part of the show. What’s the point of being coy in 2023?
Jacob Anderson (Louis de Pointe du Lac), who is filming the second season in Prague, and reportedly only “weeks away” from wrapping up, sat down with Digital Spy for a quick interview. AMC has signed an interim agreement with SAG-AFTRA, allowing Interview With the Vampire to continue filming and promotion. Anderson said to Digital Spy that he was “worried” about how the adaptation would land, especially because the inclusion of a Black storyline, but has said the enthusiastic response from fans has been a “relief.”
But Louis and his immortal lover, Lestat (Sam Reid) aren’t your typical romance. This is a gothic romance “around a really toxic couple in a really toxic relationship,” Anderson said. “Something that can get misunderstood about representation is that all representation has to be good representation. It’s important actually that we don’t show a queer couple as a monolith or a Black character as a monolithic thing. I love that the show is willing to explore the multitudes of that relationship.”
He went on later in the interview to explain that even when the steamier scenes happen on screen, it’s a rather technical production. “There’s this rig, for instance, for the little drink scene, there’s this thing that we’re sitting on, butt naked sitting on bicycle seat that gets seesawed up and down. There was a grip on the other side just trying not to look at us,” Anderson explained.
“There’s a scene in episode six, where Louis and Lestat are having sex and Louis is speaking to Claudia, but there’s this hydraulic thing that’s lifting underneath me,” Anderson said. It’s hilarious to imagine all these practical effects happening in the background to help the camera capture the spicier moments. Nothing’s a boner killer quite like a hydraulic lift. But it does look great on screen.
Interview With the Vampire season one is currently available to stream on AMC and on Max.
This piece was written during the 2023 SAG-AFTRA strike. Without the labor of the actors currently on strike, the show being covered here wouldn’t exist.
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