This article contains light spoilers forInterview with the Vampirethrough episode 4.
The series is set 50 years later, in the current COVID-19 pandemic era of 2022.
The series tackles the problem of rewriteshead-on in its very first scene.
Louis would like to remix those tapes.
He isnt comfortable with the first telling, calling it, in the second episode a cautionary tale.
Older, suffering from Parkinsons Disease, and far more cynical, Daniel Molloy comes primed to call bullshit.
No one calls bullshit like Eric Bogosian.
For 20 years he went out alone on stage for one-man shows speaking truth to power.
He brought his special quality to TVsSuccession,Billions, andLaw & Order: Criminal Intent.
Eric Bogosian: I barely remember it.
I should have gone back and watched that.
I dont know how to even do that.
But yeah, Im being interviewed in that about vampires or something.
Im like some kind of computer that we wipe the memory and then we move on.
Meat Loaf called it transcendental amnesia.
Had you read Anne Rice books before being cast?
I didnt read all of them, theres a lot of them.
The young Eric read Anne Rice and didnt really appreciate what he was reading.
You always want to know whats going to happen next.
When I do a job, I go to the script.
Thats what Im going to have to be saying.
I didnt expect it.
And then he would tell me the story.
Would you be as confrontive as Molloy if you were interviewing someone who just might bite back?
Its a strained relationship.
I am also in the period were in now.
The actor playing Rashid, Assad Zaman, is just a wonderful, wonderful guy.
The chemistry for all of us.
One of the reasons I did the job was because I wanted to work with Jacob.
Because what he was doing was so subtle and so challenging for an actor.
People often get off on yelling and screaming and fighting.
People get Oscars for that stuff.
But thats not the hard stuff.
The hard stuff is the kind of stuff that Jacob does.
Then he came to do this and his skills are crazy.
I had a great time working with him, and gazing into his vampire eyes.
I was struck by the comedy all of you bring.
Tell me about that, because its so important in dramatic works.
That is a lot of whats going on in terms of the humor.
I just talk the way I talk, and I think the way I think.
When Im doing things like interviews, I get all earnest and serious and very unfunny and uninteresting.
But fortunately, Rolin puts words in my mouth that make me seem smart and sharp and sarcastic.
Thats the Daniel Malloy thing.
The project began with Anne Rices direct involvement.
How is her presence still felt on the production?
I was brought in around March, so she had already passed away by then.
We are here for a brief amount of time and then were gone.
Writers, artists, they emanate their aura into their work and then its just there.
And thats her presence.
I was going to New Orleans anyway.
I already had a ticket to New Orleans before they brought me in on this show.
I was going down for the French Quarter Festival.
I love New Orleans.
I love the vibe of that place.
Anne Rice is one of the great heroes of New Orleans because of that.
Then theres her humanizing of vampires.
The vampire is not this austere, scary, otherworldly person, but a human being with feelings.
These are the things that she bequeathed to us.
Also, reading the books, again, her storytelling skills are off the hook.
You always want to know whats going to happen next.
And it only keeps amping up.
You want to know whats going to happen with these two guys.
Then the girl shows up, and youre hooked in even stronger.
That is the stuff that she left to us.
The series takes on the inconsistencies directly, which I think is brilliant.
Will the audience or your character ever regret the burning of the original tapes?
He regrets it already.
Every actor has a different way of approaching a character.
Mine is whatevers on the page, thats what I play.
But I have to spend some time really making sure I understand whats on the page.
If its not on the page, then I dont think about it at all.
I dont have any truck with that.
I dont believe it has anything to do with anything.
I am the servant of the writer whos doing that construction.
This is a very complicated answer to your simple question.
Sometimes we do plays and therell be a Q&A afterwards.
People will ask so what happens to these people after the play?
Nothing happens to them.
Theyre characters, theyre not real.
This role encompasses nostalgia, it encompasses regret, and it encompasses passion and desires and ambition.
Maybe hes going to get this story and hes going to be a big, cool guy again.
So many things that I have to hold on to when Im playing this guy.
But Ill think about that.
Ill think about those tapes.
Maybe next season well find a way to bring that up.
Ill mention it to Rolin.
Were you inspired at all by Anthony Bourdain for the character?
People are always saying hey to me in the street, and he said hey chef.
And I was like, whos chef?
Then found out who he was.
I thought he was an amazing artist and talent.
His end was very sad.
Barry Champlain came a long time before Anthony Bourdain showed up on the scene.
In terms of who gave birth to who.
I think somebody has to look at the timeline for that one.
