Bailey Bass Breaks Down Claudia’s Most Traumatic Scene in ‘Interview With the Vampire’ Episode 4 (2024)

Interview With the Vampire Episode 4 “…The Ruthless Pursuit of Blood with All a Child’s Demanding” finally introduces us to one of Anne Rice‘s most iconic vampires: Claudia (Bailey Bass). Unlike Lestat (Sam Reid) and Louis (Jacob Anderson), Claudia is transformed into a vampire while she is still a child. While she’s elementary school aged in the books, the AMC show ages her up a bit to 14. Nevertheless, Claudia is forever stuck in suspended animation. While her heart, mind, and soul age in real time, she is physically trapped in the body of a child. Well, a child in the throes of puberty.

This slightly older, far more horny version of Claudia is played by 19-year-old actress Bailey Bass. While Bass has popped up in a few small guest roles in the past, Interview With the Vampire is sort of the rising star’s big debut. She completely takes over the screen with a rare gift to flit between the comic and the tragic within the same scene. Claudia is a completely devastating character, but one who will have you laughing all the same.

Decider caught up with Bass to chat about how her take on Claudia differs from Kirsten Dunst’s, which of her two gay vampire dads Claudia loves more, and what it’s like to pick out your own coffin…

DECIDER: You are the second actress to play Claudia. What is like stepping into the role and what are you hoping audiences take from your version of the character?

BAILEY BASS: Well this version [of Interview With the Vampire] has so much Claudia in it. It’s really her essence, it’s Anne Rice’s beloved character just onscreen and older. And what’s nice about that is I feel like we can explore Claudia in even more depth now because she is older and we can see the more graphic things that are in the book. Being stuck right when you’re going through puberty, she has those hormones for life and you can see how that affects her.

When we first meet her, she has the naiveté of a child, but she does seem to emotionally mature over the course of Episodes 4 and 5. I’m curious. Did you work to map Claudia’s maturity scene by scene? How did you manage that?

I did a bunch of research. In my audition process I had three scenes – I had Claudia at 14, I had her at 17, 19, and I had her at 40. So right in the beginning when I did my second audition, I was thrown in and I had to figure it out in two days and go ahead.

Really it’s just about, like you said, this naiveness, this innocence that she has and this excitement to be a vampire at a young age. And then, “Wait. I’m going to be stuck like this for my entire life?” That realization that she has when she’s a teenager, early twenties and then by the time she’s 30, 40, she’s like, “Okay, this is my reality. Now how am I going to take control of my life?” Fortunately, it’s written so beautifully. Rolin Jones did such an incredible job at really having Anne Rice’s essence in the show and because of that, I did all the prep work and then I could just live in this space, live in this world.

In episode four, I really loved Claudia’s relationship with Louis and Lestat. They’re kind of like her two gay dads, it’s really sweet at first and funny at times. What does their love and their mentorship initially represent to Claudia?

It’s her family. She came from trauma. She grew up really really poor. She had a really mean aunt and I really gave her an abusive backstory. So I can really appreciate Louis and Lestat being these kind of saviors. She calls them angels. And because of that, because I created this hard trauma for her, when I was playing her in Episode 4 — her being changed and living in this house and having these clothes and all these incredible experiences, having this power and this hunger — I was able to appreciate it more as Claudia because I created this horrible, terrible backstory.

The whole sequence with Charlie is incredibly heartbreaking. She falls for him, accidentally kills him. What is it first that she is taken with? And then what is more traumatizing for her: realizing that he’s dead or having to watch him burn?

It’s so sad. Like even to this day, when I think about it or when I listen to the clips… I think deep, deep down actors kind of carry the trauma of their characters. Acting is a very, very giving job and we have to give so much of ourselves as people so talking about it sometimes is hard for me.

But it was love at first sight. And then she experiences a love and this intimacy that she’ll never experience with anyone else. She wanted to have that just with him, but then it’s also like these raging hormones. Like you can tell, she wanted it way more than he did which I feel like you don’t always see. And then when she kills him, I think, when she drops him on the table and she kills him, it’s like, “Okay, there’s a chance. He can be turned.” But then when she’s burning him, that’s when her relationship with Lestat starts to fall apart because he’s holding her and forcing her to relive the moment.

She has this relationship with fire because she gets changed in a fire and that’s just the incredible writing of Rolin Jones. She gets changed because she was burning in a fire and that’s where Louis finds her. And then she has this. She loves watching people burn. But then, she has to watch the person she loves the most burn. This is very interesting: Claudia’s relationship with fire and the power that it’s given her. But then also the trauma.

Totally switching gears, in the show you get to pick out your own coffin and you were told to make sure it’s comfortable. What was it like lying in that coffin? Were they comfortable? What was it like when you had to squeeze in with Jacob for a couple of those early scenes? Tell me about the coffins!

That scene was hilarious. It was so fun. I see how people could see it being so creepy but I did so much prep work that I was like, “This is like picking your race car bed that you wanted as a kid. This is the best thing ever.” She also gets her privacy. It’s like finally getting your own room. And Claudia gets that.

And then doing the scenes with Jacob and Sam shows her relationship with Louis. Honestly, like she chose him. That’s who she’s closer to. That’s who she will go to if she has a really really bad issue.

And yes, my coffin was the most comfortable.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.