Episode 4 of AMC’s Interview With the Vampire introduced viewers to Claudia, the teenage girl turned into a vampire after Louis (Jacob Anderson) saved her from a burning boarding house in Storyville. The addition of Claudia to Louis and Lestat’s (Sam Reid) at first seemed to complete their little vampire family, but as the episode continued, it became clear that while Claudia remained eternally a teenager, there were emotional consequences for the young woman. The episode ended with Claudia falling in love for the first time with a young man named Charlie and, tragically, accidentally killing him before their romance could really get off the ground. It’s a devastating turn of events for Claudia, one that changes everything for the character — and according to Bailey Bass, who plays Claudia, it’s soul-crushing for the young woman and has major impact on the character’s evolution in the series’ upcoming fifth episode as well.
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“Claudia does go through a lot. Episode 4, I think whirlwind is truly one of the best adjective to express what Episode 4 is. It’s a ride,” Bass told ComicBook.com. “You’re really taken on this roller coaster journey of Claudia’s life and you’re seeing it from her point of view. How she sees blood, how she sees Louis and Lestat. I’m so happy that we had Claudia find love because I think it added something that we’ve never seen before in the Interview With the Vampire world, and that’s that she can find love. It’s just that because it’ll never be what she wants and that’s frustrating and I feel like when Claudia was 14, it’s almost impossible to do that and now she has to go through this soul-crushing experience of knowing as much as she wants to love, she learns firsthand that she can never have it.”
Bass also explained that the end of Episode 4 was initially a bit different with how Claudia handled her emotional devastation at Charlie’s death, and that the shift in things is something she’s really proud of in how it approaches different facets of depression — something that’s relatable even if one isn’t a vampire.
“I love that she’s able to evolve and we have that evolution in Episode 5, and it was very exciting to play. As I’m watching it, Claudia really went into straight depression. At the end of Episode 4, she is contemplating suicide,” Bass said. “And because of that, we’re following her and we’re like, ‘Oh, my goodness, what’s going to happen?’ So much that I had a friend of mine say, ‘Does she die? Is this it? Is she just here for one episode?’ And I’m like, ‘Just keep watching, please.’”
She continued, “And the end of Episode 4 was a long process. We actually ended up reshooting it towards the end of filming. What you see on screen was not the first draft or the second draft. We kept working with it. Originally, Louis and Lestat came into the room as Claudia was burning her arm and even Jacob and Sam at that time were like, ‘Why would we just be looking at her?’ And Rolin Jones, the writer, was like, ‘This doesn’t feel right.’ And we changed it to something that I feel is even more empowering. It’s a moment alone that she’s having and she’s burning her arm and it’s almost like testing the limits of her immortality, and I love what that says because she didn’t actually do it. She tests everything, she’s pushing the limits of everything, her relationships and her life. And that leads her into depression, and I love that we see that depression isn’t just lying in your bed, barely being able to get out, not thinking you can do anything. You could be outside seeming like you’re living your best life and be depressed and that’s Claudia.”
Interview With the Vampire airs Sundays at 10/9c on AMC. You can also stream new episodes on AMC+.
