The Vampire Lestat’s Jacob Anderson Explains Louis’ Growth (& How THAT Confrontation Wasn’t Really a Surprise) [EXCLUSIVE]

We’re getting closer to the end of the season for The Vampire Lestat and as the finale gets ever closer, the story is only getting more complicated and intense not just for Lestat himself, but for all of the characters in the AMC series—including Louis. Last week, we saw both Louis and Lestat deal with the deeply emotionally challenging element that was Regina (played by Delainey Hayles), a young waitress that Louis had found who not only looked exactly like Claudia, but whom he had been paying to impersonate her as well. It led to Lestat getting involved as well and a deeply vulnerable position for both vampires.

This week’s episode, “Montreal” picks up some of those vulnerable and emotional threads, especially for Louis. As the series accelerates towards its season finale, we spoke with Jacob Anderson about this the episode and it’s startling, emotional moments, particularly in what they mean for Louis and just how far the vampire we met back in Season 1 has become as well as that shocking final scene that even he was surprised by.

Warning: Spoilers for The Vampire Lestat, episode 6, “Montreal”, beyond this point.

Louis Has Grown and Evolved as a Vampire (And So Has His Relationship With Lestat)

ComicBook: this episode in particular starts out in a place that I think a lot of people are going to be both surprised about and also really excited to see. And for a moment, it seems like Louis and Lestat are in, I would say, a surprisingly good place. How would you say this season, because we see them in the car and they’re talking, and it’s a different energy than we’ve seen for them in a very long time. How would you say that the relationship has evolved, especially after what I am calling the Regina experience?

Jacob Anderson: The Regina experience. Yeah, I think that it’s evolved a lot, and I think as well, it’s good to remember that Louis’ memory, or Louis’ kind of telling of his life with Lestat, pre-Claudia, after Claudia, pre-Paris, there’s a sort of ease and like, loose quality that they always did have. But it’s kind of fogged by everything that happened after it. You get a bit of it, I think, with Dream-Lestat in season two. Like, there’s a kind of playfulness to them, and a comfort that they have. And then you get to see that Lestat can access that side of Louis a little bit easier, in like, in how he talks about him and their relationship.

So, you get a bit more of that, but I think as well, where they get to towards the end is a sort of new step for Louis as well, in terms of how vulnerable he’s able to be with Lestat, and that Louis has a kind of, like, vision of the future that includes Lestat, and then to actually voice it is real growth for him.  It’s definitely a new thing, but then it’s also an old thing that I think we haven’t been quite as privy to in Louis’ telling of events.

This season, in a way, is very much Lestat’s perception, the way the first two seasons were from Louis’ perspective. But this season, this episode in particular, is also a kind of a feast of Louis, in a sense, because we’re getting some big moments with him.

I call them the educational moments for Louis, and one of the big ones is with Sofia, aka Gabriella, and he meets her, and there’s a lot to unpack there. It leads to kind of that intimate confrontation conversation between the two, and he finds out who Sofia really is, and what’s really been going on. And I think, for me, this really encapsulates, we see not only a different side to Louis, but a lot of growth. What, from your perspective, do you feel has changed about Louis, since we’ve met him, that leads to him being, not accepting of what was going on between Lestat and Sofia, but maybe more understanding, because that’s a lot.

I think it’s important to remember that Louis does love Lestat. I think, maybe he has done, like, there’s a lot of growth in how quickly he comes to sort of a place of, if not acceptance, but of, like, I can hold that with you. We can keep thinking about this, like, as he says, it’s a hill to climb, you know, like, we can park it for now, and I think that that is a big step for Louis, and I think it’s not coming from a place of, like, let’s bury this, let’s never think about this again, like, you’re disgusting. I think Louis generally says what he means, and I think there is, like, a thing about that ending of season two, when he comes to visit Lestat and says, like, I didn’t accept it as a gift, and part of the gift that you, that Lestat gives Louis is, is the thing of be who you are, be it without apology, be all the beautiful things you are, be them without apology. 

There are a few moments in episode six where he kind of, I think he tries to give that back to Lestat a little bit, like, just a little bit more of, like, okay, I am not without complication, and Lestat points it out to him, I think that’s the reminder that is, is the shift for Louis, and he can’t quite see that in the moment, it’s like the red mist. And I think, as well, something that’s in that scene that nobody’s really talked about, like, as we’ve talked about episode six is that, like, for Louis, it’s not so much about, like, the Gabby stuff, okay, it’s not so much about, like, the, the incest of it, because that is Lestat’s, right, that’s Lestat’s thing, you know, that’s something that he is going to have to process, and I’m sure Louis would help him, but it’s more the lying, yeah, it’s the fact that, like, you’ve asked me to be myself, and all of the things that I’ve revealed to you, all of the things I’ve been in front of you, and around you, and you know everything about me, and you could keep something, you could hold something that is that instrumental in who he is.

I guess the season, to some extent, argues that that’s, like, one of the two or three most instrumental things about who Lestat is, and he kept that from Louis all that time, and I think that is where the shock comes in, that’s where the anger comes but, the growth is then, like, okay, let’s talk about it, then.

Louis Not Only Expected Claudia’s Rage, But He Welcomed It

We also see some very other interesting, challenging moments for Louis, and what, for me, is the centerpiece of the episode where he gets a chance to speak to Claudia, and Claudia has been a big part of, of all the things that Louis has to carry, and we’ve seen this season that Louis has been trying to deal with things for Claudia. He went after Bruce but now he’s going to Claudia, and he wants to say his piece, it doesn’t quite go the way I think he thinks it’s going to go, but first I want to know, what was Louis really hoping for when he got that chance to speak to Claudia once more, and once he did, what did her hard truths do to him?

Well, I would, to be honest, I’d actually argue the opposite, I’d say that he knows exactly what she has to say to him, I think there are things that she probably says in that, in the seance that are to hurt him, but I think, like, she’s also saying the thing that she maybe never actually said to him, and he always knew was there. I think there is like, a real inevitability about the whole thing. That’s why he’s so resistant to it, I think, in the beginning, where he says, she’s going to be angry, she’s been in hell all this time, she’s going to have some things to say to us, and we’re going to have to, like, be ready for that, I think the only shock for Louis is how he responds when he says, what about the thing you forgot, that you should be thanking me for. I think he went to listen, not to speak, like, I don’t think he went to sort of, to, specifically to just, like, relieve himself of guilt, I think he went there because he, on some level, he knows that there are some things that she needs to be able to say to him.

The last scene of the episode is a doozy. I’m not freaking out about it; I know where the season started. I’m sure that, I’m sure that our boys are gonna get their heads back at some point, like, I feel that, but that is such a shocking moment, and I just want to know for you, when you saw that script and saw that, what was your thought about that scene, because that’s intense.

Rolin pitched that to us at the end of season two, so I, like, I knew that was coming, I didn’t know how we were going to get there, or how we were going to get out of it, but, but I knew we were going to get there. I wish that I’d had the surprise of just, like, reading through the episode, I mean, to be fair, I was still shocked, because there are things about that it was at, specifically Daniel’s hand, it took me a minute to sort of accept, Armand, like, nothing would surprise me at this point, but like, yeah, that was the real shock for me, was that Daniel would do that.

I was just like, oh, look, it’s another little park bench scene with the boys, wait a minute, hold up. Yeah, park benches have been ruined forever.

They’re all gods at play in, in the, in the writing of this show.

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