‘Interview With the Vampire’ Stars Sam Reid and Delainey Hayles Break Down Claudia’s Final Moments: “Lestat’s Never Gonna Get Over It”

Interview With the Vampire Season 2 Episode 7 “I Could Not Prevent It” on AMC finally takes through what’s perhaps the most tortuous moment of Louis de Point du Lac’s (Jacob Anderson) life. Louis, Claudia (Delainey Hayles), and Claudia’s new vampiric love, Madeleine (Roxane Duran) are being put on “trial” for the murder of Lestat de Lioncourt (Sam Reid). The trial, of course, is less about true justice than revenge. The Parisian coven, now led by Santiago (Ben Daniels), has no intention of letting the defendants go. What follows is a horrifying “one night only” show at the Théâtre des Vampires that is designed to culminate in Louis and Claudia’s violent deaths. And seemingly helping the Parisian coven in this kangaroo court show trial? None other than Lestat himself…

**Spoilers for Interview With the Vampire Season 2 Episode 7 “I Could Not Prevent It,” now streaming on AMC+**

Last week’s episode of Interview With the Vampire ended with the reveal that Armand (Assad Zaman) was convinced to betray Louis, Claudia, and Madeleine to Santiago. The problem, it seems, is that Louis and Claudia are guilty of breaking many of the vampires’ most sacred laws. (Mostly because, to be honest, Lestat never taught them about the official rules of being a vampire.)

The specific rules Louis and Claudia have broken? Well, they “murdered” their maker, Lestat. And Claudia has been recording evidence of the vampires’ existence in her multiple journals. Oh, and Louis is in trouble for coercing Lestat to make Claudia a vampire in the first place since giving the “dark gift” to children is a big no-no.

So you can understand why the Parisian coven could be pissed off, their feelings of petty jealousy aside. You can also understand why Lestat might have a bone to pick with Louis and Claudia. They did almost get away with killing him, after all. Nevertheless, it’s truly upsetting watching the perfectly rehearsed cruelty of the trial in Interview With the Vampire Season 2 Episode 7 “I Could Not Prevent It.” Especially since it climaxes with Claudia and Madeleine’s deaths.

Louis is magically spared his death sentence when it seems Armand uses all of his psychic power possible to sway the minds of the “jury,” a human audience brought in to render the final “judgment.” Louis is exiled…into a coffin filled with stones. Claudia and her love, on the other hand, are executed in a most messed up way. The Théâtre des Vampires has specifically put on their first and only matinee so they could open the roof and burn Claudia and Madeleine with sunlight. Lestat looks on in horror as his defiant daughter uses her final moments to stick it to her killers, singing the inane song they forced on her when she joined the coven.

“Oh, it was horrendous because Delainey is so beautiful,” Interview With the Vampire star Sam Reid told Decider during a recent interview over Zoom. And we shot that quite a lot because it was like multiple stages through FX makeup. So I had to watch her do it many, many, many times over a couple of days. So it was pretty awful.”

When Decider caught up with Delainey Hayles earlier this week, she confirmed that it did indeed take many, many, many takes.

“Lestat and Claudia always did have quite a beautiful relationship.”

Sam Reid

“Yeah, so, we filmed it quite a lot of times and then we’d do a section of it and then I’d go to prosthetics with Tami [Lane], come back, do it all over again,” Hayles said. “Go to prosthetics, come back, do it over, prosthetics, come back, go on.”

Hayles credited the episode’s director, Emma Freeman, with helping her “ignore everything going on and just focus on the performances.” What made the moment even more difficult was the fact that Hayles had to keep her body in a certain, specific pose each time “in order to help special effects.”

Despite all this, Hayles had nothing but praise for the show’s Oscar-winning makeup department head, Tami Lane, an alum of The Lord of the Rings films. “When I saw myself in the prosthetic, I was really shocked at how much was on me. And on Roxane [Duran] as well. But it was a lot of fun and Tami’s like really wicked at her job.”

“Like we were talking about it and she was like, ‘Do you want a burn there?’ And I was like, ‘Yeah, put two burns there,'” Hayles said. Yeah, it was a lot of fun to do. But yeah, the scene itself was, it was a heavy scene.”

For Sam Reid, Claudia’s death was especially hard because he felt that “Lestat and Claudia always did have quite a beautiful relationship.”

“I mean it’s very complex, but they’re very similar,” Reid said. “He’s probably the more strict parent because he actually has experienced some pretty rough stuff as a vampire. Whereas Louis and Claudia have not. So I think he was trying, he was trying to protect them and protect her.”

“He probably would have been a bit stricter, but he always loved her very, very deeply.”

“She is a vampire and she’s enough for somebody, and that somebody is Madeline. So, yeah, I think she can die happy having heard those words.”

Delainey Hayles

Lestat might have loved his daughter, but fans of Interview With the Vampire will know that neither he nor Louis were able to give Claudia the full acceptance she so craved. Ultimately, it is Madeleine, the French seamstress who falls for Claudia and willingly accepts the dark gift, who makes the greatest proclamation of love for her.

Because Madeleine is actually innocent of Claudia’s crimes, the coven gives her a choice: refute Claudia and join them, or die with Claudia. Madeleine defiantly chooses Claudia — and death.

“I think [Claudia]’s been waiting to hear those words from somebody,” Hayles said. “Someone has put her first.”

“She is a vampire and she’s enough for somebody, and that somebody is Madeline. So, yeah, I think she can die happy having heard those words.”

Claudia can die happy, but Reid warned that witnessing his daughter’s death is “always gonna haunt” Lestat.

“[Lestat]’s always gonna be burdened by the guilt and the shame that Claudia’s death, you know, is on him, really,” Reid said. “He’s never gonna get over it. And Delaney is just so fantastic. I mean, it’s just, it’s extraordinary.”

“I just wanted to give Claudia her full arc,” Hayles said. “And I think we got to do that. I’m very thankful for that.”

The Interview With the Vampire Season 2 finale will premiere on AMC and AMC+ on Sunday, June 30.