Interview with the Vampire (2022) s01e04 Episode Script

1
The tapes are an admitted performance.
This is the premise of our interview.
A sacrifice is made
when the dark gift is shared.
You can't read my mind anymore?
You're not welcome in this home!
There he is.
- What are you?!
- I'm a vampire.
I could not save the Storyville,
but I could save her.
Dubai.
I can't tell you that.
Can't tell you that either.
No.
No. Yeah.
Yeah, look, i-it's not an article,
it's a book.
I mean, we can do a chapter
in Vanity Fair, but
I-I know it's been 10 years.
I haven't forgotten what a book is.
This is This is a book.
A-All right? Look, um
Yeah, I gotta call you back.
I'll call you back.
Good morning.
I hope you've passed
a comfortable night.
I never pass a comfortable night.
You were scheduled to have
your levodopa transfusion
- this week.
- Been tapping my phone?
Mr. De Pointe du Lac
has arranged a physician
to administer it here tomorrow.
Well, I'll take care of it on my own.
Your doctor in New York was
consulted and has given consent.
You'll find a note from him
in your electronic mailbox.
Where's Louis?
Mr. De Point du Lac
will be resting today.
Would you follow me to the reading room?
Quite the house plant.
Well, the interior designer
hired was a sentimentalist.
Some notion of hers, he was
missing the natural world.
You are getting access to
very precious items
from the archives,
an alternative perspective
on the years of your interest.
Please, wear these when
handling the materials.
We suggest you begin on the left.
"The P.O.Ws are malnourished,
nothing but bone and sinew.
Their blood is bitter.
It almost makes you feel sick
to drink it".
Wow.
Auntie told me to stay put
and keep away from the door.
I tried to be good and
stay right where I was.
But when Auntie came back,
she got stuck on the other side
and brought the fire back with her.
I closed my eyes and waited
for the fire to take me, too.
I just prayed it wouldn't hurt too bad.
That's when the Black angel came.
He was beautiful and strong and fast,
and he carried me like
I was made of feathers.
Help me!
Gimme some water!
The Black angel took me to a fine house
with gold ceilings,
like the ones in the picture houses.
And that's when I guessed
I was in Heaven.
So, I waited for the pain to
go away and my mama to join me.
But she didn't come,
and the pain got worse.
The Black angel was crying.
She goin' cold. What do we do?
- Lestat: Nothing. We do nothing.
- And I remember thinking
- She's dying.
- "Why would an angel
- cry in Heaven?"
- More human entanglement.
And then, I saw the white angel.
Drain her.
She's only a kid.
No, please.
Please!
I don't know where to bite.
Her body's all charred.
You know you can do this.
And she'll be what? A lap dog?
No, not not a dog.
- A daughter.
- I-I-I don't know.
You were ready to abandon our home.
Now you want a third.
I-I just need her not to die.
Please.
Please.
The white angel, he bit me,
right in the neck, and I thought,
"What a strange thing
for an angel to do".
And then, I tasted it.
And right away, I felt strong
as a street car.
Enough!
And I realized,
what I thought was Heaven
was just some nice room.
And what I thought were angels
were really hell demons.
But seeing as Mama died, and Auntie,
she was burnt up too,
I decided to make the best of it.
You got some of your own I can have?
Y-You want more?
Right away, I had a lot of questions.
So, this is my new house?
It is if you want it to be.
This is my fountain?
That's my
What is that?
Well, that's the incinerator
where we burn the
We'll get to that soon enough.
So where'd you find me?
At my old house?
I heard your cry for help.
We We can hear people's thoughts.
- What?
- Mm-hmm.
It's true.
Prove it. What am I thinking now?
Well, I can't.
I'm your maker.
You're wonderin' if your nails
will be like that forever,
and the answer is yes.
It's a special trick,
only folks like us have,
like the nails and the teeth.
So, you can hear me, but he can't?
That make him the dumb one?
What's funny?
If he makes you, he can't hear
your thoughts anymore.
Somethin' about the sacrifice
of creation.
Did he make you, too?
- He did.
- What's she saying?
He has to rely on my words
to understand me,
just like a human.
I'm not human no more, am I?
No, you're a vampire.
Well, I can see where this is going.
Bonjour.
How'd you do that?
Well, you'll do it too,
in time, my little milkweed.
I'll teach you, just like
I taught Louis here.
But not if we're going to
have family secrets.
We're a family?
Yeah, but with no secrets.
All right.
So, what's that for?
That's where we burn bodies.
Why do we burn bodies?
Uncle Les and Daddy Louis were rich.
They had nice clothes
and a nice auto carriage
and a funny way of
being nice to each other.
So, I'm supposed to kill him?
You don't have to.
There's always the birds and the beasts.
Or you can endeavor on an experience
that feels like eating syrup
while riding on the wind.
I'm not sure how I feel
about that pleated skirt.
It's chiffon. It has movement.
Hmm.
Looks like she takes after me.
Tremendous.
Fortifying myself for an evening
of swan hunting.
Back in the car, Claudia.
- Claudia.
- Claudia!
Claudia!
- Claudia!
- Hey, no, no.
Get back here, missy.
Young girl, where are
your parents at this hour?
I asked you a question, young lady.
I said, where are your parents?
Claudia! No!
Don't!
Not a cop!
You're not a girl.
You're a devil.
You have to stop while they're alive.
Who was it that she takes after?
Hm.
You ain't a girl.
You a devil.
Confusion, regret, euphoria.
You gon' wake up feeling
a lot of things.
A little guilt, a bad taste
in your mouth from the cop,
which again, you should never choose.
Claudia.
I'm sorry.
What did I just say?
Don't eat cops.
You gotta listen to your elders
when they're talkin'.
You're new to this
- I'm hungry.
- Hungry?
You just ate a man twice your size.
You can't possibly be
An ominous observation.
Her young lady metabolism
is permanent now.
I'm so hungry.
I think I'm gon' die.
Is that how vampires die?
From starvation?
You don't want to engorge
yourself, ma petite.
More tomorrow, okay?
Please.
Histrionics.
Some sleep is what she needs.
Sedation is what she needs.
She'll settle.
- No! Don't, don't, don't!
- Claudia:
Claudia.
Claudia!
You suck 'em like frog legs
and burn 'em like trash.
And the things I used to eat,
I don't like so much anymore.
Claudia!
- Come on up to bed.
- Coming!
It's bedtime.
What comes out of humans,
it's just so much sweeter.
Me and Uncle Les have
a nickname for it
"kill juice".
Claudia!
Comin'!
Geez Louise, mercy please.
I gotta go to bed when the rest
of the world wakes up,
so there's less kids to play with
but I found ways to fun it up some.
Have you seen my slippers?
Under the chair by the window.
Must every night end like this?
Y'all get tired 'fore I do.
Why does she talk to the book?
The sun comes up, we go down.
That's never gonna change.
We've got rules, Lil Miss.
Rules are for fools, Daddy Lou.
Keeping you safe, little waif.
She talked to the book again.
Why do you talk to the book?
- The book is my friend.
- The book is her friend.
The book is a book.
Good night.
- Night.
- Night!
Put the pen down, Claudia.
Uncle Les, I got a question.
If you made me and you made Louis,
who made you?
When I'm tired, I'm not so kind.
And where are all the vampires at?
Uh-oh. They speakin' French.
They gon' fight now.
Fighting sounds funny in French.
Climb in, ma cherie,
best see if it's a good fit.
Ooh!
Good evening, sirs.
A loss in the family?
Nah.
A heart condition.
Yeah, she gon' pass r-real soon.
Poor child.
Can't nothin' be done?
We tryna accustom her
to the thought of
going home to God.
I-I-I could take her measurements
so as not to distress her
any further than she already is.
It's so soft!
Somethin' Somethin' ain't right here.
- I love it, Daddy Lou.
- I think you two gentlemen
- Can I get this one, please?
- ought to leave
Please? Can I?
A girl vampire needs her own space
if she's gonna find herself
in this no-day world.
And, diary, you can already tell,
the words come easier
when you're locked in tight,
wrapped in pink satin
and Daddy Lou's feet
ain't in your face.
It's just me, my pen,
my brain, my heart,
and the blood
of the street car conductor
I drained after he got off work.
Thank you, street car driver.
I hope they got more of you
at your company
to fill in for you.
It's never great waiting for the car,
especially when the weather gets hot.
Shh, shh, shh, shh, shh, shh.
Don't you shush me.
- I missed you.
- Hm.
You missed me?
Mm.
Uncle Les got secrets.
How you figure?
He don't give good answers to questions,
sits on the truth like
it's his chair or somethin'.
I thought we weren't supposed
to keep secrets.
Les got a few years on us.
Sometimes, old people don't like
talkin' much about the past.
Sometimes, you gotta be careful
where you dig, you understand?
I guess.
How does it work, love between two men?
It works like
I don't know.
Works like love.
You ever liked girls?
I used to.
Uh, I used to pretend to.
Can't say I do anymore.
Uncle Les does, sometimes.
Is that what he's up to
when he goes out alone?
Nah, he is, um
Sometimes, his kills get
what's the word?
Extravagant.
And I don't like seeing it.
Mm.
I don't know how you do that.
You can't like the taste.
I try to.
And, Claudia, it
it's not just what you eat.
You can kill quick and painless,
or you can get extravagant.
There've been times I gone
a little too far myself.
Some killing has consequence.
The fire in your house
was a consequence.
It came about 'cause of one of my kills.
I-I used to get a little
caught up in human affairs.
Then what?
Then you.
Got one.
I thought Louis was your god.
How does Muhammad feel about vampires?
Is it Ashura every day
here in the penthouse?
Do you have what you need, Mr. Molloy?
A cure for Parkinson's?
How is your reading coming along?
For a killing machine, I kinda like her.
I interrupted. You were praying.
Asr namozi.
"Asr namozi".
What is that? That's not Arabic.
What is it, Kazak?
Somewhere in the Crimea?
You're not from Dubai.
I thought you were a native.
Dubai is a child, Mr. Molloy.
No one's a native.
Hmm.
Dear new diary
Nice to meet you.
What adventures we will have.
You've joined a happy home,
even if we're an odd one.
I have my own room now, which is good,
'cause Daddy Lou can be smotherin',
just as Uncle Les can get crotchety.
And, well, sometimes a door
can be your best friend.
You have to knock first!
Out! Out!
Out!
- Happy birthday to you ♪
- Happy birthday to you ♪
Still, you wouldn't believe
how time flies
when there's people to eat
and money to spend.
This was given to me
by a marquis who was beheaded
- by a mob 10 years after he gave it to me.
- Oh!
I love it. Oh!
How old are you again, Uncle Les?
- Hundred and sixty
- 159.
Daddy Lou, when am I gonna
grow into this, though?
We We'll find one in your size.
Kill, spend.
Kill, spend.
Then the next thing you know,
the leaves are turnin'.
Of course, Daddy and Uncle
have problems, plenty of 'em,
but they figure 'em out
quick most times.
And when they can't,
I can always get in between
and make it right.
Stop.
Stop laughin'.
Shh.
We do like mortals do.
- We fight, we eat
- Hush, now.
we laugh
- Oh.
- Oh, there.
we sleep, we love.
Aah!
I prefer you like that.
And then the phone rang last night,
and all the easy times stopped.
Hello?
Say again.
- Oh. I'll take one. Oh.
- And for you?
- Thank you, dear.
- Yes.
I'd never been to a wake.
Hadn't even known
Daddy Lou was Catholic.
I didn't know he had a mama
till he lost her.
Hello, sweetie.
Everything all right?
Never seen a dead one look so peaceful.
You know what her last words were?
Who are you here with, honey?
My dad and uncle.
Who are you?
This your Aunt Grace
and her husband Levi.
How 'bout you go to your uncle?
He could use someone to talk to.
You have a kid?
The girl is an orphan, adopted her
off of Liberty Street, did right by it.
Do you think you and her uncle
are the right people to adopt an orphan?
Maybe don't bring them
to the funeral tomorrow.
Not sure I'm gonna be able to ma
To make it?
Heard that plenty.
Your nieces and nephews' christenings,
- Grace's 30th.
- Watch yourself, Levi.
We need to talk about the house.
Over the cold body of our mama.
Was wonderin' why I got
an invite this time.
You don't need it.
You haven't needed it for years.
Well, good we've got each other's backs.
Make you proud, you hear?
We can pay you in installments.
You and your white daddy
are doing fine in the Quarter.
We can't pay you what it's worth,
and you don't need the money.
You forget what I did
to that door, Grace?
You should measure yourself.
Claudia has expressed
an interest in going home.
- It is late for y'all
- The smell is awful.
Hmm. Wakes were invented
in places where it snows.
I'll have the papers drawn up.
Daddy Lou said I had been away
from people too long.
I didn't know how to behave
right anymore.
But Uncle Les said, I behaved just fine.
Just steer, steer.
Ugh! But we're immortal!
Well, you can still smash
your pretty little head
and then take long,
dull months to recover.
Eyes on the road.
There ain't no doubt
Daddy Lou is my favorite.
Pull over. Right.
But sometimes, Uncle Les
and I have a lot in common.
Now, here's a treat
I think you're ready for.
This is what the meat calls
a "lover's lane",
and by my estimation,
no blood is sweeter.
Young people, swollen with passion,
denied spirits by
this senseless prohibition,
park along this lonely stretch
to contemplate
that most mysterious
of mathematical equations
how one plus one
becomes one.
They come out here to do math?
You've been too sheltered,
my belladonnic beauty.
Yours.
Mine.
Young, strong, and likely to fight back.
You must be most ferocious, hmm?
Mm-hmm.
Mmm, that's nice.
Where'd you learn that?
The kissin' or the down below?
That's nice.
Jesus, Mary!
What? Oh.
You gonna stand there
watchin', little girl?
Where's your momma?
She just crawl out of the swamp
or somethin'?
Oh!
There's something back there,
something evil.
Ah, yes.
She's with me.
Uncle Les says I gotta practice killin'
both the one and the plus one
at the same time,
but I came away understanding
something else tonight.
You took her where?
She's a prodigious killer.
Why you'd want to limit her
is beyond comprehension.
I can't quite put it into words,
but it's like somethin' opened
up in my head, in my body.
I've been 18 for seven months now,
and it's time I started actin' like it.
Well, look at you.
I don't recall buying that outfit
I jumped a girl in between speakeasies.
I wear it better, though.
Don't do something he would do.
I'm gon' tell Uncle Les
you talkin' to me this way.
Happy hunting.
Woman: Hey, I think you're drinking
too much of that moonshine.
Thank you, sir.
Isn't he so cute?
Oh, my He's so handsome.
He's adorable.
Look who fell into her momma's closet.
Darkie playing dress-up in the dark.
Hey, easy.
Watch it. Easy.
Whoa.
Stop it. What's gotten into you?
Calm down, Bella.
You all right?
You look a little sick there.
Sorry about my horse, miss.
I'm sorry.
I got so scared, I almost fainted.
I thought the flowers might
bring me back a bit.
Well, I'm glad you're back.
Diary, his name is Charlie.
He's got veins like rivers.
They flow right down his arms.
Doin' a'ight back there?
I'm good.
- I just wanted to say thank you for
- Mm-hmm.
for driving me home,
for jumping in front of me like that.
Well, I had to make sure
you wouldn't faint again.
I tell you, I don't
I don't know what
spooked old Jonesy, here.
You said 1132 Rue Royale?
I wanna know what his laugh sounds like
when it's all the way.
Drive by that house almost every night,
takin' Mr. Sloane home.
Never imagined a colored family
lived in one of them houses.
I wanna know how tight he holds
you when he dances.
Yeah, I'm surprised your fancy
parents let you out at night.
- They know I can take care of myself.
- Whoa!
You almost got trampled by a horse.
I wanna know what
his tongue tastes like.
I've lost my appetite.
I can't sleep
which is borin' as all get out
when you're stuck in a coffin,
waiting for the big hand to hit nine
and the little hand
to hit three.
Ahh!
No runnin' in the house!
What did we say
about skipping?
Ooh!
I'm not gon' say it again, missy.
Look up. Look up.
If he looks up, he likes you.
If he doesn't
No running, young lady.
I met Victor once
Well, hello there again, diary.
I finally got a few secrets of my own.
Who's Charlie?
Claudia, are you blockin' me?
This is your father speaking.
Do you not like it?
No, I-I love it.
I'm just tryna make it last.
I guess you're probably
used to having ice cream
anytime you want.
No.
I promise.
I never have it.
So, is this what you always
do for a first date?
Take a girl out for some ice cream?
Whoa, whoa, Claudia, this isn't
What?
A boy sends flowers, asks a girl
to go somewhere fun.
I You're a cutie, but
I'm what?
Young.
I'm 19.
No way you're older than me, Claudia.
Everyone in my family
looks young for their age.
You live round here?
I used to, too.
I remember there used to be a toy shop
a few doors down by there.
They used to keep stray cats
in boxes for people to take.
That shop must have closed down
when you were but a baby.
I wasn't a baby.
Mmm.
Wait, wait, wait, wait. Wait for me.
I'm tired of waiting.
- Claudia.
- Yeah?
- You're real forward.
- What?
It's making me
Kiss you a little longer?
Claudia, you don't even
look like a girl.
You're an angel.
I feel loose.
Charlie?
Charlie?
Charlie?
Charlie?
I was and he
And I bit him, and now he
It's easy to get carried away
when you're young and in love.
Please, save him.
Turn him.
I can't.
You can.
You did it to me.
He's dead.
You didn't half-kill him,
you killed him completely.
Lestat.
Just try, please.
You drained him dry.
Now, go on, clean up after yourself.
Stop squirming and watch.
Remember this, his face as it melts.
This is why we never
get close to mortals.
Because sooner or later,
they end up dead.
It'll be all right.
It'll pass. You got us.
I don't want you.
Vivid writer, isn't she?
A singular style.
Anne Frank meets Stephen King.
Session four, Louis De Pointe du Lac,
and the child vampire, Claudia.
So, it begs the question,
where were all these diaries in 1973?
Scattered.
One in New Orleans, another in Paris.
Bullshit.
Claudia was
everything.
I loved her unconditionally.
All the noise, the chaos,
the crisis of my former
existence, silenced.
The simple joy of her hand in mine.
You had a daughter.
I had a daughter.
I've got two.
The love is kind of
And if you were to come
across their diaries and learn,
in detail, how and when you failed them,
would you share those failures
with a brash young reporter
you met at Polynesian Mary's?
It's funny.
I've been dreaming about old Mary's
ever since you sent me the tapes.
Where have you reached?
1923-ish.
Her date with Charlie.
Ah.
- "And his bones"
- " cracked black
and his face turned to soup".
Charlie's death ushered in
one of the darkest eras in our lives.
The oh-so-delicate balance
of our oh-so-delicate household
was shattered.
The fantasy of happiness burst.
Claudia was
A Band-Aid for a shitty marriage?
I was going to say
something else.
But, yes
that's almost certainly
what she felt like.
And what should I have done?
Tucked him into the coffin with her?
She was already broken-hearted,
and you burned her first boyfriend.
She's the one who killed him.
It's funnier when they fight in French.
And, diary, you'd think
a girl whose mama died in childbirth
whose daddy gave her away
to a mean old auntie
who beat her 'cause
no one said she couldn't,
who died in a fire
but came back by the blood
magic of two demons,
well, you'd think that girl
wouldn't know what funny was.
But you'd be wrong, diary.
And if I told you, dumb diary,
that that same girl
was being raised to kill
like her demon parents did,
to take two souls a day
so she could stay
in the same flat-chested,
hairless-crotched
14-year-old baby doll body
as her mind and spirit turn 19, 20, 25,
63, 358, you dumb, dumb diary,
I bet you'd say to anyone
who'd listen, "Fun? Fun?
How does she even get up
in the morning?"
Well, let me tell you
something, you stuck-up,
flower-covered, three-dollar
fancy fucking paper diary,
I'm doin' just fine.
And how do I know that?
'Cause the first man I killed
called me the devil,
and the last boy I killed,
the last boy I'll ever love
in this world,
called me an angel.
So, that means I'm on the right path.
And that means there's so much
more fun out there to have.
I'm just getting started.
Every single one of those corpses
had some soft part of it lopped off.
You wanted her, you fix her!
Deputy Habersham!
What is it?
"Dear Diary".
There are four pages torn out.
This is how it has to be,
for me.
You are a mistake.
You are getting access
to very precious items
from the archives.
An alternative perspective
on the years of your interest.
Episode four
"The Ruthless Pursuit of Blood
With All a Child's Demanding".
Claudia and her diaries.
There's so much beautiful
prose in Anne's work,
and we wanted to figure out a way
to get some of that into the show,
so we thought it was a very
interesting way to be able to
get into the interior life of Claudia.
That was the quickest,
easiest, dirtiest way.
Claudia: I closed my eyes and
waited for the fire to take me too.
That's when the Black angel came.
I think the room was very, very excited
to try to switch point of views
and really be the story of the
young girl and let her own it,
so the voice-over changes,
and the perspective changes.
All these half-hour comedies
have a great way of doing it.
They have these fake
documentaries where they can
turn to the camera and tell you
exactly how you're feeling.
That's our equivalent here.
And then I tasted it,
and right away I felt
strong as a streetcar.
Enough!
I think she's just trying
to figure it out.
"I can leap and I can
kill and I got power".
No! Don't!
In the novel, she is without a doubt
the most vampire out of both of them.
She's a pretty dark killer.
What would it be like to be
trapped in the chemical stew
of puberty for your entire existence?
Must every night end like this?
Y'all get tired 'fore I do.
Why does she talk to the book?
"I got desires, and
I'm a little out of control,
and I love writing in my journal".
In our Claudia, I think there's
something precocious about her,
but there's also something
that has been sheltered.
There is a lack of wisdom
and world experience
that goes there that makes it
a very toxic and volcanic
and potentially explosive little
suitcase bomb of a vampire.
You gonna stand there
watching, little girl?
We are looking at the portrait
of the troubled teen.
The idea of a sexual awakening
in the midst of this,
unfortunately, in the confines
of our story,
your first date becomes
your first homicide.
Here comes Charlie.
Think about your first love, everybody.
And then you ate that person.
You're an angel.
It's pretty pretty rough.
Charlie?
Yeah, that would screw you up
going forward a little bit.
She cannot process what has happened,
and, like any teen,
just grabs onto all of the grand
operatic drama of it all.
Turn him.
I can't.
You can't?
She's about to act out
like every teen gone wild,
and is gonna start by harming herself
in a very particular way only
a young vampire could do.