‘The Vampire Lestat’: Assad Zaman Is Hungry for Armand’s Full-Tilt ‘Chaos’

After two seasons of performing the version of himself he thought he needed to be, Armand returns in The Vampire Lestat ready to drop his stoic veil once and for all. So says Assad Zaman, who tells TV Insider that he asked the creators of AMC‘s Interview With the Vampire to bring Armand into full-tilt “chaos” in Season 3. But he was surprised by how he was introduced in Episodes 3 and 4. Armand is on a redemption tour, and he’s doing the making amends segment of the 12-step program to do it. Of course, that’s not all he’s up to this season.

The first look at present-day Armand in Season 3 came at the end of Episode 3, when a haunting, screeching score played as the camera panned over to him in an AA meeting that Alex (Seamus Patterson) was attending. We next find 2025 Armand in a bowling alley in Episode 4, when he’s attempting to apologize to Daniel Molloy (Eric Bogosian) for turning him into a vampire. The exact nature of that turning is yet to be shown in the show, but Episode 4 revealed that it was on a private jet bound for New York, around two weeks after Daniel revealed the truth of Armand’s role in Claudia’s (Delainey Hayles) murder in the Dubai interview with Louis (Jacob Anderson).

Zaman and Bogosian are eager to learn the show’s vision for that brief time period. In the meantime, Zaman shares his personal theory on what the nature of that turning could be in the Q&A below. Additionally, there’s a huge admission from Armand to Daniel that he was distracted by love in the Dubai interview, but it wasn’t love for Louis. This is why Daniel was able to get to the truth about Armand’s role in the trial; Armand wasn’t just letting it happen. We discuss this with Zaman below as well, in addition to the “Big Boss” concert scene and more.

The Vampire Lestat Episode 4 also dives into one of the show’s most untapped veins: Armand’s relationship with Lestat (Sam Reid). Reid tells TV Insider that Lestat is somewhat of a reliable narrator when it comes to Armand, because he understands him more than most.

“We’re getting Lestat’s perspective [of Armand], but he’s not wrong,” Reid says with a wry smile. “Look, Lestat loves Armand, but he loves him for what he is. Armand is a really complex little gremlin. And I think Armand likes being called little gremlin. I think he’s good at it. I don’t think Louis let him shine the way that Lestat lets him shine. Real true colors coming out.”

Sophie Giraud / AMC

In a delicious Episode 4 scene teeming with mutual hatred and erotic taunting, Armand tries to make amends to Lestat while he showers in blood. Lestat’s response to the apology: “Be who you are, but be it on the other side of the moon, or kill yourself.” Zaman tells TV Insider that Armand is well aware of Lestat’s true feelings about him. “His amends to him in that scene are more for himself rather than Lestat,” Zaman says, “whereas I think his amends to Molloy are for Molloy.”

Daniel’s book made Armand famous. The line “Armand told the truth” is repeated by his vampire and human fans who have a cult-like commitment to him, just like the Children of the Darkness coven. Zaman thinks “there’s something about his slightness” that makes Armand an appealing leader. “He’s so powerful, but he prefers not to show it too much,” Zaman explains. “There’s something about keeping a lid on it, and then bringing it out in short bursts that maybe is a little more threatening, or a little bit more endearing.” Reid notes that Armand is “also really good at being a secretive, seductive gremlin.”

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“He’s good at being an under-the-covers [schemer],” says Reid. “He’s not like a storm-the-room-down [type]. That’s more like Lestat. Armand is really clever. He’s manipulative.”

Seeds of this are strewn throughout Episode 4 through Alex, who returns to the band a changed man after meeting Armand (under the name Arun) in AA. Armand is scheming something here. At the same time, he really has been reflecting on his actions between seasons, but not enough to break him out of the survival mode in which his traumatizing past landed him. As Zaman previously told us, Armand is “digging his heels in” even more this season. Lestat’s Episode 4 narrations say that Armand “would do more damage than the Queen ever did.” That damage is still to be revealed, but Zaman hints at Armand’s reaction to Lestat’s very public persona.

“There’s the idea in the books of Armand almost reverting back to his Children of Darkness days where he strongly believes that we need to live in the shadows,” he says. “Lestat is undermining that very important principle and doing the opposite. [Armand] doesn’t agree with it. Maybe they clash because of it.”

We have a feeling they will. Louis’ interview with Daniel tested Armand’s patience about outing vampiric existence. Lestat’s rock star fame is pushing that even more. Here, Zaman breaks down how this makes Armand finally look at his complicated layers, as seen in The Vampire Lestat Episode 4.

Armand is doing the Steps, which is absolutely crazy, but I think it makes sense for a person like him who finds meaning in ritualistic spiritual practice. I can’t imagine there are a lot of vampire AA meetings, but I’m curious why you think he goes to AA with humans and what he gets out of it.

Assad Zaman: I think the reason we see Armand doing the steps in the beginning of Season 3 is because [executive producer Rolin Jones] didn’t want me to go full gremlin yet [laughs], full chaos. I remember after Season 2 talking to him. He was asking me, “What do you want to do for Season 3? Is there something that you really want to explore?” And I just went, “I’m done playing put-together leader of a company, stoic Armand. Now that his entire world’s crumbled, let’s see chaos. Let’s see him going crazy.” And then I read the first episode with Armand and that reveal of him in the AA meeting, I was like, “OK, interesting. That’s not exactly what I was expecting.” But that’s brilliant. I think it makes complete sense. Like you said, it does track.

Are there vampire AA meetings? Probably, but it’s no coincidence that he’s ended up at one with a member of The Vampire Lestat band, so there’s clearly something going on there. But also, where we left him after Season 2, his entire world’s been shattered, broken; he’s been exposed for all the lies and manipulation that he’s undergone to build this entire empire life with someone who clearly was needing escape from. We are now two years in the future, and he has had to reconcile with a lot of those things. This is probably one of the first times he’s come out of whatever shadow that he’s been living in. There’s a real intention of owning some things, but also he’s a survivor.

What we know of Armand from the books is that this isn’t the first earth-shattering moment in his life. He’s had many of those, and after each one he’s had to reevaluate and rebuild himself and find a new path. This is no different. He has to survive. He can’t just end it. He has to find a way out, and part of that is going to be reconciling with the things that he’s done in the past.

Sophie Giraud / AMC

He says that he’s caused the most harm to Daniel in the scene in the bowling alley. How does Armand view the nature of Daniel’s transformation?

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We don’t know yet. We don’t know [what] the circumstances were, and I’m hesitant to pin it because I’m also curious, but if I was to speculate: It didn’t happen directly after the events, but it also wasn’t a long time after, so Armand was in a state of flux when it happens. Prior to this, we know what his feelings are towards siring, towards creating vampires. It’s a disdainful act. It’s an act that he finds objectionable, so we can assume that it’s done as a form of punishment, maybe as a form of retribution. Anger is there, but also it’s more complicated than that, I think. And we find out at the end of Episode 4, when he confesses that he wasn’t manipulating Daniel the whole time; he was being manipulated himself, by his own affection for Daniel that he didn’t realize.

I think we know then that him turning Daniel was more than just a “f**k you.” It was something. He was turning him for something, not because of something. I think he’s struggling with that. He’s struggling with that realization and coming to terms with that because it was violent. Regardless of what his intentions might have been, the act itself, the moment itself, which I hope we get to see, has to be violent, has to be not good, not fun for Eric or Molloy.

And as you said, he does say that it was love in the Season 1 and 2 interviews. Not his love for Louis, but it was love. Do you think that’s something Armand was aware of in the moment in Dubai, or is that something he realized in hindsight?

I, Assad, don’t think so. I don’t think it’s something that he was aware of. I don’t think it was something that he understood properly until after, and I think until after turning him even. Something that I think will be interesting to see [is] what those two years in between Dubai and now were for him.

Sophie Giraud / AMC

In Episode 3, it’s quite sad to see the Théâtres des Vampires scene, the remade one where you really see Armand’s unrequited love for Lestat. I wonder how Armand feels about Lestat in the present day and how he feels about those feelings.

By the way, one of my favorite scenes is that scene in the tour bus with Lestat in the shower. It’s one of my favorite scenes.

I’m going to ask you about it. It’s incredible.

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With Lestat, the feelings are so complicated. There’s always going to be this attraction to Lestat because everyone is enthralled by Lestat. He’s just magnetic, and that will never go away. But for Armand, he’s come to reconcile with what those feelings are, what that obsession was. He comes to accept that that unrequited love was always going to be like that, so his amends to him in that scene are more for himself rather than Lestat, whereas I think his amends to Molloy are for Molloy. It’s to acknowledge and see Molloy and see what he’s done.

To Lestat, from the beginning, he just says, “Can I just read them?” Armand starts it with, “Can I just read them?” He’s just reading them just so that he can acknowledge, “I was crazy about you. I was unhealthily crazy about you. And now I see that this would never have worked. You would never have seen me the same way. I’m OK with that, I accept that, and I choose to acknowledge that and move forward from that.”

In that scene, Lestat admits he did give Louis to Armand [after the trial in Season 2] to torture Armand and to make Louis miserable. Armand says, “You showed strength of character. You weren’t giving him to me to torture me.” And Lestat’s like, “Yes, I was.” What does that change for Armand, if anything, when he hears that?

I think he might be in denial about that. Armand is so used to Lestat ridiculing him and using any opportunity he can to ridicule him and belittle him and taunt him that even that admission Armand can’t bring himself to really believe it. He just thinks it’s another taunt. It’s another way to dig into him.

Sophie Giraud / AMC

And then he really digs into him in the “Big Boss” scene. How does Armand feel walking away from that? He looks so lonely when he’s walking away from that concert.

Yeah, lonely, maybe slightly aroused as well [laughs]. Conflicted by how lonely and aroused he is, possibly. Again, the scene before he thinks he’s acknowledging and coming to terms with the fact that he was obsessed and, of course, Lestat was never going to respect and value him in the same way. But then he sees him in the show, and there’s Lélio. There’s the person, there’s the performer that he saw when he first met, when he first saw Lestat and fell in love with [him], and there’s that glint again.

He can’t help but desire that, and so he is. He sees that, and he’s also acknowledging that this song is a complete shattering of his own character. And so he’s seeing something that he can’t have and something that also doesn’t want him. It’s devastating, and it’s also just, I guess, sobering to him as well. It’s hard. Episode 4, for Armand, really feels like a redemption, but also like a humiliation tour that he’s brought on himself. We know that it’s not without merit; he deserves, to an extent, to be humiliated because of everything he’s done. That doesn’t take away from the fact that it hurts. It’s really hurtful.

The Vampire Lestat, Sundays, 9/8c, AMC, Streaming on AMC+