Damian Holbrook

[Warning: The following contains MAJOR spoilers for Interview with the Vampire Season 2 Episode 2, “Do You Know What it Means to be Loved by Death.”]

Coven, knock on our door. We’ve been waiting for you!

Three’s more than company as Louis (Jacob Anderson) and Claudia (Delainey Hayles) fall in deeper with new Parisian vampire pal Armand (Assad Zaman). As the show’s rabid and so-devoted fans already know, this is the launch of the Théâtre des Vampires arc and, in a way, the beginning of the end for certain characters from Anne Rice’s classic tale of homoerotic hemoglobin addicts.

This is also the hour that unleashes the great Ben Daniels, who devours the scenery as Santiago. The coven’s leading man fancies the art of pretending to be a bloodsucker on stage so the troupe can drain a victim live in front of audiences who think it’s all an act. He may also fancy the group’s leader, Armand…who clearly fancied the Théâtre’s founder, Lestat (Sam Reid). Honestly, it’s all sorts of fanciful up in here, from the production design and costumes to the styling and the sinister way the writers set the stage (pun intended) for a bloody tragedy waiting in the wings.

But before any of that, let’s have a round of applause for the Shakespeare-loving Daniels for being so open with us during a recent chat about his devotion to putting the Iago into Santiago.

This is such a great role. How did this come to you?

Ben Daniels: Well, I was watching a movie and I got a text from [showrunner] Rolin Jones, who as you know is an old acquaintance from The Exorcist and he said, “What are you doing in March?” I was booked to do a play in the West End and I was like, “Please tell me it’s not Interview with the Vampire.” And he went, “Yes…to play Santiago!” [Laughs]

Then he sent me this photo and said that I had to delete it immediately. It was a picture from his office and it had all the characters, but he said I had to delete it because it said under Assad’s name, Armand, which hadn’t been released yet. And then my picture was there of Santiago and I went, “Oh, I can’t do it. I can’t do it…can’t you just shift your dates?” And then in the end, that date shifted so I could do it. But he did say, “Okay, there’s a part in Season 3 that you could play…”.

He was going to get you somehow.

Yeah. So that’s how it came about.

Tell me about your Santiago, because this guy, I feel like people don’t realize how dangerous this character is when we first meet him.

Yeah. I mean, he’s got a lot of gristle going on and it was kind of fun developing that, because he’s kind of quite sketchy in the novel. I think Santiago, his main thrust of being a skilled manipulator and sort of filled with drama and cruelty and revenge are there. But I went back—because I’d read the books years ago when they came out and of course loved ’em—to dive back into the novel and I was like, you know what? It’s sort of jarring for me because the world that I wanted to create for him isn’t there in the book. So we had fun kind of giving him a backstory. And then I think as soon as you’ve got a rock solid backstory, then you can fly into those themes.

Literally!

Yes! [Laughs] So every day, I used to get up and before [filming], I’d go and sit and go, “Okay, your mission is to f**k s**t up.”

And he gets right to it. The first taste we get of him is on stage and it’s just so perfect. The projections alone.

There’s a real theater company that does that, a theater company called 1927. And the women who play [theatre coven members] Celeste and Estelle are the company’s co-founders, Suzanne Andrade and Esme Appleton. And then their partner is Paul Barritt, who does all the projections. They create theater pieces here in London and Rolin had seen them a few years ago and it had sort of nestled in. So they are responsible for the whole look, and I mean, they’re absolutely brilliant. So as soon as I knew they were doing it, while I was doing Medea in the West End,  I would go over and meet with these guys and rehearse all those little play-lets that you see.

It’s gorgeous. And what is Santiago’s initial take on Louis? Why does he not like him so quickly?

I think with Santiago, in the way that I created him, it’s that everything is a facade. He is not that person you first see, I mean, you maybe get glimpses of it along the way. I can’t remember if you do or not, but as soon as he lays eyes on Louis and starts to talk to him, it takes one to know one, you know? He knows that there’s a lot of bulls**t going on. And it takes him the season to find out exactly the ins and outs of all that.

But he does take a shine to Claudia, or is that a manipulation also?

It’s kind of a manipulation. There’s this thing called the MACH IV test, which measures your level of Machiavellian intent. It’s a thing that’s used by psychiatrists. There’s an online test you can do, so as I was working on Santiago, I sort of did it as Santiago and it scored like 98 out of 100. [Laughs] And part of that is telling people what they want to hear. So he sort of lures in Claudia to get information, but he loves her. He thinks she is totally admirable as a vampire.

Santiago really is the catalyst for how things go south very quickly. How was that filming that entire arc?

All of the theater stuff was really, really tough anyway, because it was in this incredible building, but it wasn’t a studio, it was on the side of a really busy road in Prague that, in the winter when we started filming, was absolutely freezing. And then it was baking hot in the summer and noisy. It was part of a factory, so they’d sort of paid the guys to be quiet. [Laughs] So we were dealing with a lot to start off with. And the days were incredibly long because there are I don’t even know how many characters on stage that all have to be covered, and there’s also the audience, too. So it was long and intense. And that part that you’re talking about, it’s intense. It took a lot.

What did you get to do that was just so cool for you?

It’s always fun to fly. And he has the cloud gift, as it’s called, and not many of them do. But he has to pretend that he’s not flying [on stage], so he puts on this fake rope and flies. And I’ve flown in a few things now, so I’m sort of like an old hand, like “No, no, this harness isn’t on” and “Can we have Hong Kong harness?” [Laughs]

I spoke with Assad the other day, and he thought it was going to be fun flying but said it’s so uncomfortable.

Oh, it is uncomfortable! [Laughs] But it’s fun to make it work and I really, really enjoyed that. And I dunno, it’s just fun playing a big old evil vampire. It’s just great fun. My years spent watching Bella Lugosi and Christopher Lee all paid off.

And he’s got that quintessential “vampire” look with the styling and costume.

Oh my God, the costumes! I’m such a control freak when it comes to that, so when I knew I was doing it, I was like, “Okay, this is what he looks like in the book but I don’t care. There are a lot of black haired vampires already in this show.” Well, maybe because in the book, I think Armand is red hair with green eyes, but I said to Rolin, “I have this other idea that he’s like platinum bleached blonde.” And I sent Rolin and a fantastic hair designer named Francesco Pegoreti, who is just a genius, pictures of [Peter] O’Toole as Hamlet and Olivier’s Hamlet because I had this idea that Santiago was doing this s**tty tour of Hamlet in France when he was too old to play Hamlet. And he was a drunk and his creator happened to come and see the show and turned him into a vampire. So he ended up with this [bleached blonde] hair!

And he’s not an old vampire at this point when we meet him.

He’s only been a vampire for 20 years. So for the costumes, Carol Cutshall is an amazing designer and I sent her a million pictures of Vivienne Westwood stuff, Alexander McQueen, David Bowie in his Thin White Duke look. And I said, sort of “Stripes on stripes, plaid on plaid.” And she just ran with it.

What is his relationship with Armand? And had he ever encountered Lestat?

No, he’s never encountered Lestat. He obviously knows about him because they talk about “this great actor!” which obviously makes Santiago incredibly jealous. He’s just like, if you cut him in half through the middle, which, you know [Laughs]…you would see jealousy. He’s a green eyed monster.

And Armand? Armand, oh Armand…it’s love-hate, absolute love-hate. I think that’s Santiago’s driving force. And it’s something that I would certainly pick up on if I watched it. It’s like when I watch Othello, I pick up on the fact that Iago [has feelings for him] even though it’s never ever mentioned at all