10-05-2025
Sam Reid, Mark Johnson, and the ‘Interview With the Vampire' team sink their teeth into FYC season
Forget the typical "For Your Consideration" panel. When it comes to showing off for Emmy voters, the team behind Anne Rice's Interview With the Vampire celebrated their second season with a bloody good "For Your Consumption" event.
Representing AMC's hit horror series were producer Mark Johnson, Lestat actor Sam Reid, editor Yuka Shirasuna, production designer Mara LePere-Schloop, and composer Daniel Hart. The Q&A, moderated by Gold Derby editor-in-chief Debra Birnbaum, took place at Smogshoppe Culver City in Los Angeles. Watch the full panel above.
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The artisans began by discussing their favorite moments from Season 2. Johnson said, "The one that stands out is at the very end of the first episode of the season, in the back of the truck when Louis [Jacob Anderson] is talking to Claudia [Delainey Hayles], and we think it's just the two of them ... and the camera drifts over and there is Lestat. So, whether or not he's there in person or it's the specter of Lestat, is going to stay throughout the entire season."
For Reid, Season 2 was all about the sets. "I remember walking onto the set for the first time, and there's an incredible theater that they've built, and it's totally functional," he told the crowd. "We go backstage, and you've got all of the dressing rooms. Each individual vampire has their own style and coffin. It's heartbreaking because there's so much detail that it's impossible for them to film it."
Reid also gave a shout-out to his costar Anderson, raving, "Jacob is such an incredible actor, and the breadth that he goes through this season is mind-blowing. Being with him the whole time and seeing that has been a real joy."
Shirasuna said there were "so many moments" to choose from in Season 2, but she spotlighted "the scene in the season finale when Louis is finally meeting the real Lestat. I was so lucky to get a chance to cut that scene, and that moment when I was watching the dailies, I was crying."
Originally LePere-Schloop was going to create the "Theatres des Vampires" for Season 1, but it moved to Season 2 and so she had to wait another year. "I was like, sh--, that's the one I really want," she chuckled. "So, getting to realize it in Season 2 was amazing." In particular, the designer loved seeing "Lestat walking into the theater in advance of the Episode 7 sequence."
Hart chimed in, "One of the first things I started working on for Season 2 was the song that Claudia sings at the beginning of Episode 4, 'I Don't Like Windows When They're Closed.' I wrote the song long before it was filmed, and then it was several more months before I first got to see the opening, with everybody in costumes, and all the animations in the theater, all the choreography. It just was a very fulfilling, full-circle moment for me."
Johnson praised "the artistry" of Interview With the Vampire, saying, "It's so honest and beautiful. I look at it and I just don't see a false moment in it. Quite frankly, there are a lot of good shows in television, but they ebb and flow. This show comes out of the starting gate and just doesn't let up. It embraces really important themes about memory and love and family and 'Who am I?'"
Reid commented on how the TV show is "very faithful to the source material," and creator Rolin Jones is a "freakishly talented man ... he's got this very intense energy about him, with a lot of second-guessing but incredibly confident." He continued on, "And that's what the show is. It's incredibly confident, so you feel strong when you're there, because there's been a lot of agonizing and panicking and freaking out and people over-committing."
Anne Rice's Interview With the Vampire earned a 98 percent on Rotten Tomatoes for both Season 1 and Season 2, in addition to receiving nominations at the Critics Choice Awards, Television Critics Association Awards, GLAAD Media Awards, Gotham Awards, and various guild awards. Both seasons are streaming now on AMC+.
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