MD Bastek
We have two more teaser trailers for AMC’s upcoming series, Interview With the Vampire. Both trailers were shared in tweets from a Twitter account for AMC’s Interview With the Vampire. One trailer gives us a glimpse of Bailey Bass as Claudia and the other Eric Bogosian as Daniel Molloy, the interviewer.
Bass talked to ComicBook.com about playing the blood-thirsty vampire child of Lestat and Louis at San Diego Comic-Con. She said that, while Claudia is a complex character, she’s also a lot of fun to play.
“I would say it was like you said, she’s extremely complex, but that makes it fun,” Bass told ComicBook.com. “Like, I wanted the challenge. I wanted to be able to play around with the many, many emotions that she feels because she’s stuck in this 14-year-old body, her brain never develops. So, she’s consistently going off the feeling and she feels things so deeply. So, to be able to read this incredible script and dive into all the situations that she has to deal with was really fun.”
In the trailer, we see Claudia step into the frame wearing a cape, then we see Louis shout “Don’t!” Claudia, dressed in a sailor-style dress, bares her fangs and lunges at what looks like a police officer.
In Anne Rice’s novel, Interview With the Vampire, Claudia is only six years old when Lestat makes her into a vampire. He does it to tug on Louis’ heartstrings so that he’ll stay with him. In the 1994 film, Kirsten Dunst played a 10-year-old Claudia. In the series, Bailey Bass plays 14-year-old Claudia. However, no matter how old she is, Claudia is raised as a vampire with barely any memories of being a mortal child. Lestat takes her under his wing and teaches her to hunt. Claudia is depicted in both the movie and book as playing with her victims before she kills them. She enjoys the kill as much as Lestat. It looks as if AMC is going to give us a version of Claudia in tune with her original conception and previous film portrayal.
Bleeding Cool reports that there’s another new trailer showing Eric Bogosian as Daniel Malloy, the interviewer. He’s rushing through instructions, saying “I ask the questions, you answer the questions. Anything that can’t be verified, I send to my researcher.” And that’s it.
In the 1994 film, Interview With the Vampire, Christian Slater played the interviewer as a young skeptical reporter who eventually comes around to believing Louis’ story. It looks like AMC is portraying Molloy as more of a seasoned, blunt, no-nonsense veteran reporter. 
ComicBook.com quotes executive producer Mark Johnson: “We tried to stay as true to the spirit of the book as possible, but it’s very much a modern interpretation,” Johnson said. “In many ways, our show is truer to the book than the movie was, which is ironic because Anne Rice herself wrote the screenplay to the movie.”
Johnson added that the series is a “character-driven” story that focuses on the love story between Lestat and Louis. ComcBook.com quotes Johnson “Interview With the Vampire is above all else a really beautiful love story,” Johnson said. “As a result, as opposed to the movie, the series is less plot-driven and more emotional, more character-driven. There’s also a shift in the time period with the series taking place during the early 20th century instead of the late 18th century.
I’m a long-time fan of Anne Rice and loved the 1994 film. Changes to the story are inevitable with any new adaptation of a novel. While some fans may not be open to changes, I look forward to seeing AMC’s version of Interview With The Vampire.
Speaking of interviews, be sure to check these out!
Popcorn Frights: Interview With The Filmmaker: Ramone Menon on The Pey
A Banquet: An Interview With Director Ruth Paxton
The Seed: An Interview With the Key Cast
They Live In the Grey: Two Interviews
Those Who Walk Away: Interview With Director and Co-writer Robert Rippberger
