In Anne Rice’s book Interview With The Vampire, Claudia is a 5-year-old girl that Louis and Lestat turn into a vampire to save her life. The idea of a little girl having a vampire’s bloodlust is very creepy, as is the idea of a little girl growing older inside her own mind while her body remains that of a child.
The 1994 movie starring Brad Pitt, Tom Cruise and Kirsten Dunst mostly retains this idea, although Claudia has been aged up to 11. That was done mostly to comply with child labor laws, and also because it’s probably very hard to find a 5-year-old actor who can handle some of the material Claudia gets. In AMC’s new Interview With The Vampire show, Claudia — now played by Bailey Bass — is 14 years old.
Speaking to SyFy Wire, showrunner Rolin Jones explained that the change was done in part, once again, for legal reasons. It was difficult following the rules that allowed the 11-year-old Kirsten Dunst to act for long hours on the set of the Interview With The Vampire movie. A TV show requires even longer hours spread over a longer period of time. “Claudia is such a huge part of this show and this universe, so we wanted to have as much screen time as possible,” Jones said.
Interview With The Vampire crew explain why they changed Claudia
Rather than just cast an older actor as a very young girl, Jones and his team changed their approach. “We thought there would be a third way to go about this, and that is to lock Claudia in the chemistry of a 14-year-old, with the body chemistry of that and all the fluctuations and passions that happen,” he said. “Bailey’s done a really remarkable job of giving us this third version of Claudia. And I think everybody’s going to be quite thrilled and surprised by it.”
Director and executive producer Alan Taylor was definitely interested in that angle. “I have two teenage daughters and it’s fascinating to think what would happen if this phase was extended for potentially eternity,” he said. “The fact that Bailey took that on and made it her struggle in her first audition, it was like, ‘Okay, yes! We have it now. This works.'”
The most recent episode of Interview With The Vampire introduced us to a Claudia still coming to grips with her new unlife. It’ll be interesting to see how she and Bass evolve as the years pass and things change.
AMC airs new episodes of Interview With The Vampire on Sundays. It’s been quite good so far, so if you’re in the mood for some spooky Halloween fun, now’s a good time to hop on!
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