When the Vampire Claudia (Delainey Hayles) is murdered by the Théâtre des Vampires in Interview with the Vampire, that’s pretty much the end for her character. Sure, she continues to haunt the narrative, popping up as a ghost before her surrogate dads, the Vampires Lestat (Sam Reid) and Louis (Jacob Anderson). But Hayles never expected to return to the series in any major capacity.
“I had no idea,” Hayles tells Inverse. “But then [showrunner] Rolin [Jones] called me and said, ‘We have this thing. Just trust me... hold on.’”
Jones’ “thing” turned out to be Regina, a Claudia doppelgänger that Louis discovers in Season 3 (aka The Vampire Lestat) working in a cafe in New York. Regina represents a second chance in the most twisted sense of the term: she roleplays as Claudia (for an exorbitant fee, of course) to help ease the angst of Louis’ guilt. It’s one of many cringe-worthy dynamics explored this season, and the jury’s still out on the morality of it all.
“I feel like there’s mixed reviews on Regina, which I kind of enjoy,” Hayles admits. “I love when shows create a conversation, because none of our characters are black and white. They’re always gray, multidimensional, do stupid stuff and do amazing stuff, and both are allowed.” The world of Interview is one of façades and false narratives. Regina deserves as much grace as our protagonists do as they stumble from one lesson to the next... and the same could easily be said for the version of Claudia that appears in the penultimate episode of The Vampire Lestat.
Spoilers ahead.
The Vampire Lestat’s shocking séance, explained
Louis and Lestat summon Claudia from hell... and they don’t like what they hear.
Episode 6 follows Lestat and Louis as they work to overcome the decades of misunderstandings and tragedies driving them apart, and one of those tragedies — perhaps the biggest — was Claudia’s fate. A dying Claudia was reborn as a vampire to keep a straying Louis from leaving Lestat outright, but her turning was a mistake no matter how they sliced it. Not only was she far too young to inherit the Dark Gift, creating an immortal being forever trapped in a child’s body, but Louis and Lestat treated her more as an afterthought than a true member of their family. Her very public demise in 1949 might leave Louis in the throes of guilt for years to come, but in the present day, he seems more concerned about other parts of her life — like her assault at the hands of a vampire named Bruce.
Lestat, meanwhile, is stuck on a story she told Louis when the trio lived in New Orleans: Claudia claimed that when she tried to escape to Europe, Lestat intimidated her into returning home. He maintains that this story was a total lie. It’s one of many mysteries surrounding Claudia, even decades after her execution — but when our doomed duo gets a powerful witch to perform a séance and summon Claudia, they seem to get to the bottom of it.
Claudia is still holding a grudge against her dads — but can you blame her?
With the help of Claudia’s old journal and the last dress she wore, Merrick Mayfair manages to bring Claudia’s ghost into the land of the living. She’s got a lot to say to Louis and Lestat — who, much to her chagrin, seem to be back together. She reveals that she always hated Louis, calling him a “slave” to Lestat’s whims. Claudia also admits that she favored Lestat; not only that, but she actually did lie about their confrontation on the train... or did she?
Is Claudia finally telling the truth?
For Anderson, Claudia’s séance represents the truth that Louis has long denied. “There are things that she says in the séance, to Louis specifically, that are deeply, deeply hurtful things to say — and she intends to hurt him,” the actor tells Inverse. “But I think there’s also a lot of truth in what she says.”
If we take this reunion from a glass-half-full perspective, it’s about Louis and Lestat “holding space” for Claudia to express the rage that she’s “fully entitled” to. “They never held that space for her because they needed her to be the various things that they needed her to be,” he continues. “I sort of think of that scene as fairly hopeful and pretty good parenting on their part.”
Anderson sees the séance as a necessary truth session for Louis. Others might see something else.
That may be, but we as the audience still have to contend with the elephant in the room: Lestat’s potentially unreliable narration. “I did get asked before if the séance scene is [told from] Lestat’s perspective,” Hayles says, “which is why [Claudia] doesn’t rip into him as much. That raises another conversation, to me.”
Lestat narrates this entire season through a multi-vinyl album called “The Failures” — and it’s entirely possible that his word can’t fully be trusted. Very little of what Claudia says during the séance may be true, save for her frustration about searching in vain for her partner Madeline (Roxane Duran) in the afterlife. Lestat’s perspective might also explain things that happen elsewhere in this episode: when the whole world learns that he’s been engaged in an affair with his own mother on and off for decades, Louis is quick to forgive him. The pair also move on from the tumult of Claudia’s séance fairly quickly... though, at the end of Episode 6, they’re decapitated by Armand and Daniel Molloy, along with agents of the Talamasca, which kickstarts even more drama for the pair.
If there is a right answer to the question of the truth, Hayles doesn’t have one. “The show’s beauty is that it’s based off memories and diary entries and characters’ perspectives,” she adds. “And then you have the viewer’s perspective... We’ve learned Claudia from Louis’ perspective. We’re learning her now through Lestat’s perspective.” Will we ever get the objective truth of the character? It’s probably too late for that, but Hayles says there’s still a chance to give Claudia the “grace” she’s been denied, and let her exist, alongside Louis and Lestat, within those gray areas.
