Jacob Anderson had an enormous yr starring in AMC+’s new collection “Interview With the Vampire.” The present rapidly discovered itself an avid and dependable fanbase, one thing Anderson is not any stranger to because of his six-season flip as Greyworm on “Game of Thrones,” which led to 2019 with loads of controversy. But regardless of the sturdy fan reactions to that last season, Anderson tells POPSUGAR that his emotions about it have not modified.
“I did not have sturdy emotions concerning the finale. I feel everyone assumes that all of us hated it,” he says. “That’s not the case in any respect. I keep in mind once I first obtained the scripts for that last season, I used to be like, ‘There’s one thing type of punk about this season. It feels dangerous.'” According to him, “Games of Thrones” all the time warned viewers that it was by no means going to go the way in which individuals anticipated. “And I really feel prefer it was type of enjoyable. I loved it and it was enjoyable to make. It was full on, nevertheless it was enjoyable to make,” he says.
What he did not take pleasure in was individuals’s response to it. “We have been filming for 11 months within the snow and there have been hundreds and hundreds of individuals labored so arduous on [the final season],” he says. “And then for it to simply, when it got here out for individuals to simply straight up be like, ‘You must remake this. This is horrible. This is the worst factor ever.’ It was a bit of bit unhappy. But to be sincere, I anticipated individuals to not prefer it, despite the fact that I preferred it. I assumed individuals have been going to be aggravated by issues.”
In “Interview With the Vampire,” which premiered final fall, Anderson performs Louis de Pointe du Lac, who’s become a vampire by the highly effective and mysterious Lestat (Sam Reid). Based on Anne Rice’s novels (which additionally impressed the 1994 movie with Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise), the brand new collection modifications Louis’s story. In the unique, he is a white man who runs Louisiana plantations within the late 1790s. In the TV present, Louis is Black and a thriving enterprise proprietor in 1900s New Orleans. He has to navigate racism from white politicians and enterprise homeowners as he tries to carve out a distinct segment for his household and group to thrive in — a quest that will get much more sophisticated when Lestat turns him right into a vampire.
“I do not suppose I’d ever learn something earlier than that explored the type of questions on the middle of human existence in such a shame-free and explorative manner,” Anderson explains. “But then on the similar time, they’re vampires, they don’t seem to be people.” Anderson says that exploration of human points and issues is central to Rice’s novels as properly. “It simply felt very private,” he says of the present’s attraction for him.
The present, he says, goes into “all the things”: “Our relationships to sexuality, our relationship to our morality and our moral and ethical compass, our relationship to the weather and earth.”
“In the books, the vampires all couple up they usually have these covens that usually they don’t seem to be very comfy in they usually all really feel like very dysfunctional households,” he says of the present’s domesticity. “And I feel that this primary season of our present very a lot features as a microcosm of that concept. These are immortal people, it is simply that they survive off the dying of different people.”
Anderson learn all of Rice’s novels to organize and he did some analysis into 1910s New Orleans and the pink gentle district known as Storyville. But he explains that that was a significant problem as a result of there may be little or no historic document of that point interval. “Weirdly, the factor that struck me probably the most about it was the truth that I could not discover very a lot. It was a extremely troublesome interval in time to analysis . . . even simply discovering audio from folks that have been alive or have been the kids of folks that have been alive at the moment.”
“It strengthens the thought of this being an ideal time for vampires to function in, and Storyville being an ideal place for them to hunt,” he provides. “It’s not a completely forgotten a part of historical past, however I feel a number of it was buried due to a notion of Storyville being this sordid a part of town.” But Anderson was notably impressed by outdated pictures that he and costume designer Carol Cutshore discovered of Black males sporting fits on the time. “And I beloved taking a look at these and simply taking a look at how individuals stood, how individuals leaned on lamp posts or sat in a chair, how individuals wore their hat,” he says.
Viewers can clearly see that very same sense of swagger and magnificence in Louis — at the least earlier than he turns right into a vampire. “He’s depressed and he is simply utterly overwhelmed by his existence, like he questions it with each breath,” Anderson says of the change in Louis. He says taking part in despair is a big problem, however “in an appearing manner, I really like that stuff.” “It’s like a problem of making an attempt to speak what is going on on inside anyone’s head however by means of your face,” he provides. “And that is an actual problem as a result of most individuals try to cover these issues and it is simply discovering moments the place it slips or the place the cracks begin to present.”
He continues, “And as anyone who manages or lives with psychological sickness, I utterly perceive that factor [where] there will be 5 issues occurring on the similar time and you are attempting to maintain all of them inside you and also you’re making an attempt to undertaking one thing else. And I feel that is an enormous a part of who Louis is.”
While the present handles very heavy matters, like trauma and grief, there are additionally a number of moments of enjoyable. “There was by no means a day the place you’d do one thing that you just’d accomplished the day earlier than,” Anderson says. “Every single day for 5 months, there was some new ingredient thrown into the combination that we would make that day — simply insane. I used to be drained a number of the time, however I simply loved all of it.”
The overwhelming majority of filming befell at night time — they’re vampires, in spite of everything — so Anderson says it was vital for them to maintain each their vitality and their temper up. “And to be vampires in New Orleans by means of the night time, you are feeling such as you’re doing this factor in secret. And I feel that simply provides to the vitality of it,” he provides.
One factor that helped preserve issues gentle was all of the pretend blood. The present makes use of 4 differing types, and Anderson says none of them are notably pleasing once they get in your mouth. But a lot worse than dousing himself in pretend blood, he explains, was scorching milk. In episode two, shortly after Louis’s vampire transformation, he needed to pour “freshly boiled milk” over himself. “I may odor milk and it was going off in my nostrils for a few week,” he says. It was boiled to maintain him from getting chilly, however that did not assist with the scent. “I really mentioned to one of many props guys, ‘Oh, so I assume oat milk and almond milk would not actually appear like actual milk on digital camera.’ And he was like, ‘Oh, we did not consider that. That would’ve been fairly good.'”
Now, the crew is preparing for season two, which is able to begin filming within the spring and can adapt the second half of Rice’s novel — this time, hopefully, with none boiled milk. Anderson is able to dive again into the enjoyable. “You cannot take your self too critically. You take your work critically. You do not take your self critically,” he says.
“Interview With a Vampire” season one is streaming now on AMC+.
