Interview With the Vampire Star Reveals He Held Real Rats For AMC Series

While vampires are, traditionally speaking, drinkers of human blood, in AMC's Anne Rice's Interview With the Vampire, that predatory nature is something that Louis de Pointe du Lac (Jacob Anderson) struggles with. The series sees Louis try to stop feeding on humans and instead, opting to sustain himself on the blood of animals, particularly rats. And according to Anderson, while no rats were harmed (or consumed) in the making of the series, he did have to hold real rats while filming scenes as Louis — but perhaps even more unsettling was the "rat dolls" he had to bite into every time Louis would feed.

"I did hold real rats at various points, but Tami Lane and Howard Berger [of the makeup department] had these little rat dolls," Anderson told Vulture. "They're like dog toys, so that you could bite into them or squash them. They've got really intricately punched-in hairs. They're like little beanbags, hacky sacks, hacky rats, hacky-sack rats. I'm biting into them whenever you see me biting into a rat. They've got really detailed faces and tails, but the VFX team has CGI-ed movement in the tail and in the face. I had something practical to bite into, but the hair gets stuck in your teeth. It gets stuck behind the fangs. You have blood as well in there. I was swilling water to get fake blood and rat hair out of my mouth for days afterward."

What is Interview With the Vampire About?

A sensuous, contemporary reinvention of Anne Rice's revolutionary gothic novel, Anne Rice's Interview with the Vampire follows Louis de Pointe du Lac (Jacob Anderson), Lestat de Lioncourt (Sam Reid), and Claudia's (Bailey Bass) epic story of love, blood, and the perils of immortality, as told to journalist Daniel Molloy (Eric Bogosian). Chafing at the limitations of life as a Black man in 1900s New Orleans, Louis finds it impossible to resist the rakish Lestat de Lioncourt's offer of the ultimate escape: joining him as his vampire companion. But Louis's intoxicating new powers come with a violent price, and the introduction of Lestat's newest fledgling, the child vampire Claudia, soon sets them on a decades-long path of revenge and atonement.

Will There be a Second Season of Interview With the Vampire?

While the first season of Anne Rice's Interview With the Vampire is well underway on AMC and AMC+, the critically acclaimed series has already been renewed for a second season, a renewal that was handed out ahead of the series' premiere.

"The scope and breadth of this show, and what Mark and Rolin have delivered, is just stupendous," Dan McDermott, president of original programming for AMC Networks and AMC Studios, said in a statement. "They have rendered the rich and vibrant world of Anne Rice's Interview in a wonderful way, and we're incredibly proud. From the set build to production design, costumes, and more — no detail was overlooked. This stellar cast delivers powerful performances that emotionally connect us to these characters and their humanity. We look forward to sharing the final product of this extraordinary effort with audiences in just a few short days and are thrilled that this story will continue. This is only the beginning of an entire Universe featuring enthralling stories and characters that capture the spirit of Anne Rice's amazing work."

Interview With the Vampire airs Sundays at 10/9c on AMC. You can also stream new episodes on AMC+.