Interview with the Vampire (now The Vampire Lestat)’s Armand is one of those characters I knew I’d love almost on instinct, a pull I felt even before he had fully arrived in the narrative. And that love only grew as Armand’s story unfurled over the first incredible seasons of the series, the vampire played to perfection by the talented Assad Zaman. In my opinion, Armand is one of the most complex, confusing, and tortured characters gracing our screens today. And despite my self-identified position as an “Armand Apologizer,” it’s not apologizing for him that truly interests me, but understanding him. Thus, in the lead-up to The Vampire Lestat, it was my privilege to sit down with Armand Apologizer/Understander-in-Chief, Assad Zaman, for a discussion of pure Armand-unraveling intent. Join us for this Nerdist Character Profile, as we walk the winding roads of Armand’s psyche and consider his motivations, his definition of love, and why everything always goes wrong for this naunced character.
We begin with what I consider one of the most interesting contradictions about Armand in Interview with the Vampire/The Vampire Lestat. Above all, Armand seems determined to survive, to dig his sharp vampiric nails into life and fight hard to keep his existence going, no matter the cost. But despite this, Armand doesn’t seem to know what he’s fighting so hard to survive for. When I ask Zaman what he imagines Armand’s true motivation as a character is, he shares that a part of his drive for survival is actually in service to finding the purpose he lacks.
“Armand… I think Armand is constantly striving for purpose, to find his purpose and a reason for him to be himself and feel safe. Because his entire life has been, up until he became a vampire, and also after, just absolute torture,” shares Zaman. “I think he thinks his purpose is one thing. He thinks he’s looking for something, but actually, what he needs is completely the opposite thing. And so he goes around in circles, I guess, looking for the wrong thing, and then it gets taken from him in little bits in different iterations of his life.”
When I question what “the wrong thing” is for Armand, Zaman explains, “There’s something about the destructive nature of everything he strives for. He’s always looking for a situation and seeking comfort in places where he can feel safe and sort of let go, but actually, the things that he goes after or the people that he sort of surrounds himself with don’t want that, and he sort of desperately clings onto them until he either breaks them or they break off from him.”
And that’s in line with a concept I’ve considered a lot as I watched Interview with the Vampire: the idea of Armand through the lens of inertia. For me, it’s the concept that Armand is truly an object at rest that will stay at rest unless moved on by an outside force—that more than most characters, he’ll stay in situations he doesn’t even necessarily want to be in, and won’t leave them until some kind of external circumstance makes him. But what keeps him from meaningfully taking charge of his own existence?
“Himself, mostly.” Muses Zaman, “He’s constantly at the whim of other whirlwinds around him. He obviously has this really… The gremlin side of his mind is there, but that manicness only comes out once he’s lost everything. He tries to keep a lid on it when he thinks that things are going well or he has a foundation to uphold.” But that restraint never really sees him all the way through, often exploding in a way that doesn’t really work out for anyone, Armand included.
And ultimately, Zaman thinks it might be better, at least for Armand, if instead of trying to grip onto the stability that doesn’t suit him, he just allowed himself to embrace some of those core, messy parts of his nature. He notes, “I think if he did just let go, though… I think, actually, in a strange way, not that I’m self-destructive, but I think if he did just let himself be manic and embrace that insanity, he’d probably do a lot of damage, but he might be happier.” And doesn’t Armand deserve to be happy?
Speaking of damage done, we shift to consider Interview with the Vampire‘s revelations about Armand’s role in Paris and the trial of Louis, Claudia, and Madeline. To be a bit of an Armand Apologizer on main, I share that I feel that Daniel and Louis drew some rapid-fire conclusions as things came to a crescendo in Dubai. But Armand’s choices in Paris are actually quite complex. Although, yes, wrong and harmful, they are not necessarily just borne of a desire to be evil. I ask Zaman to walk me through Armand’s perspective on the events. And, as always with Armand, the idea of self-preservation and survival takes center stage, but woven in are notions of Armand’s terror of loneliness, and, perhaps, in a sense, his compassion.
Zaman offers, “I think sometimes Armand can be incredibly cunning and conniving, but I think in that final sort of chapter of Paris, I think it’s pretty clear that the wheels were coming off really, really quickly, and he was desperate. He’s just like, ‘Okay, I need to survive.’ Because he hasn’t got the guts to end it himself. So if he’s going to survive, he’s going to have to have someone because I think he’s profoundly lonely and he’s profoundly terrified of being alone. Armand above everything, above wanting things or wanting people, wanting Louis, or even Daniel, to an extent, he wants to survive. And he needs to cling onto something to survive. He can’t off himself. He’s too afraid to do it. So he needs something else.”
And that something, much to everyone’s “We were rooting for you, we were all rooting for you” disappointment ended up being the Paris Coven because Armand came to understand it wasn’t ever going to fully be Louis. Zaman shares, “There’s that scene where Louis basically sort of says, ‘I’m going to turn Madeline, keep them out of the way.’ And I think Armand there, he got the sense he’s never going to have Louis while Claudia’s there. He’s never going to have him. So if he has to do this, he’ll choose his coven, because again, he’s just surviving.”
Zaman does leave a sliver of space for my favorite pet theory that, maybe, at some point, Armand considered that his involvement in the trial might save Louis’ life, if not Claudia’s. That perhaps “there might have been a part of him that did believe directing the play would ensure that Louis stayed alive, and Claudia might die, but that’s collateral damage that he was prepared to take.” But ultimately, kiboshes it, which is right and fair. Saying that in the final portions of Paris, Armand had no such delusions; he “did know Louis was going to die” and “he’s like, ‘Okay, he has to die if I’m going to survive.’”
But while losing Louis was not a desired outcome for Armand, over time, Zaman has come to consider Armand’s feelings about sending Claudia to her death in a bit of a more complicated light as well. “I thought about this a bit… ” He shares thoughtfully, “Initially, I remember saying in an interview at the time that Claudia doesn’t mean as much to him, clearly, as Louis, or doesn’t mean as much to him as she means to Louis, but I think also he could see the torture of vampirism in Claudia. I think he could see how painful it was for Claudia in a way that Louis couldn’t. And I think in a twisted way, he thought this might be a gift that I’m giving to her, the gift of… Death.”
And it’s this perspective that prevents Armand from feeling a true burden of guilt over Claudia’s fate and Louis’ grief, although some regret DOES exist for him over the incident. More than Armand regrets that the trial happened, Zamand notes, “I think Armand regrets HOW it happened. But he knows that Claudia was always destined for tragedy. And he also recognized that Louis was using her for his own comfort, the same way Armand was using him.”
This next part, Zaman shared in a written format, so the punctuation is all his own, “The interesting question is, ‘What is grief to a 514-year-old vampire who’s suffered ten times more grief??’ Not that it’s a competition!! …” Ehm. No, of course not, but if it were a grief competition, though… We all just need to have a little bit more compassion for Armand, I think, is the bottom line.
Especially since, when I ask Zaman whether, had Armand felt more secure in Louis’ love in Paris, he might have just run away with Louis (as we all wanted!) and left Claudia and Madeline to their lives, he says, “Yes, I think so. But I think Armand always knew that he wasn’t number one in Louis’ life. There was always the shadow of Lestat there, and also the thorn that is Claudia.”
But what is love and feeling love for The Vampire Lestat‘s Armand? Another series of tangled constructions that rarely lead the vampire down the roads that would actually bring him any kind of peace, acceptance, or joy. As a top-level thought, Zaman suggests, “I don’t think Armand knows what love is, really. Because I think there are better, more compatible options for him that I think he’s blind to because he looks for something he can’t really have.”
But as we dig deeper into the thought, Zaman does offer a more operational definition of how Armand views love. And it’s at once an incredibly tragic and completely illuminating insight. “I think he thinks power is love or like strength.” Zaman ultimately concludes, “He’s incredibly attracted to strength and power, and anyone who seems to navigate the world in a more relaxed way or understands the world better than he does, because he seems to never really understand it. I think that’s part of his fascination with the changing times, the technology, the blenders. He’s constantly trying, trying to understand the world in a sense, trying to understand love, but he falls short every time because when it is in front of him, he sort of discards it and goes, ‘No, this thing’s stronger. This must be love.’”
Armand!!! We all shout, shaking our heads. But it’s no wonder that so many of Armand’s relationships have blown up so spectacularly, the basis of them on the idea of who might be able to offer a certain kind of transactional safety, and not on who is right.
But could Armand be in a true relationship and let someone see all of him, as opposed to his usual tricks of masks and molding himself, often unasked, into whatever shape the strongest person in the room seems to want him to take? Could Armand be vulnerable with someone? Zaman shares, “It’s a hard question. Because he’s tried and failed so many times to give himself to someone. I think two broken people will always struggle to heal each other. But if a broken person can find an unbroken person who accepts them, there is potential there for healing. Of course, it could also go the opposite way…” An interesting answer… and we’ll have to see how it fits into Armand’s narrative going forward in The Vampire Lestat.
But we’ll hope for it for Armand anyway, because, as I share with Zaman, I feel like some part of him is a romantic… Despite always getting in his own way. In Interview with the Vampire, he seems to enjoy these fanciful sentiments of walks in the spring rain and strolls through empty art museums. Before Louis and Armand’s relationship sours so intensely, there was something quite sweet about it. But does Armand have a romantic side to him, or is that just another mask that we see?
Zaman laughs, “There’s a tender side to him. Maybe that’s more me than Armand. I’m a bit of a hopeless romantic, and I think that carries into those scenes. But I think, actually, I identify with Armand in that sense. I think he is also a hopeless romantic, a little bit.”
Certainly, when I first read one of the books that will serve as inspiration for The Vampire Lestat, Queen of the Damned, I found Armand to be something of a romantic—especially when it came to the vampiric turning of one Daniel Molloy. If you haven’t read the “Devil’s Minion” chapter of the book, let’s just say there were lush flowers, ancient ruins, and sparkling stars in the sky involved. But, so far, all we’ve heard about Daniel’s turning in Interview with the Vampire is from Louis, who notes that Daniel was turned “out of spite.” Something that has not sat in particularly well with fans of the canon pairing.
When I ask Zaman what he makes of that sentiment, he shrugs. “That’s Louis’ opinion.” He offers with a widening grin, “That’s what Louis thinks.” Well, sounds like a biased opinion to us and not a statement of fact, at any rate. When I press a little bit more on whether any of the romance of the original turning carries forward into The Vampire Lestat (something I also asked Eric Bogosian, who plays Daniel Molloy, in the past), Zaman only smiles more. “You’ll just have to see, I think.”
But speaking of Daniel, Armand’s turning of him into a vampire at the end of Interview with the Vampire, regardless of whether flowers and stars were involved, is not only a choice that contradicts centuries of Armand’s internal code, but also a rare act of agentic action for him, a choice he makes, for his as-of-yet-unknown reasons and not a choice made for him. What about vampirism has been so abhorrent to Armand, and what about Daniel moved Armand beyond his own edicts?
In answer to this, Assad Zaman gives me what I think is probably one of the most beautiful sentiments of our interview, which is already filled with his deliciously thoughtful insights into Armand. He says, “Vampirism to Armand, I think, acts like a form of self-flagellation, similar to the way prayer and punishment go hand in hand. So yes, there’s agency in turning Daniel, but also, he’s punishing a man whom he also worships in a fucked up way.” Well, I think we’ll take a chaotic blend of punishment and worship over spite. Punishment and worship, albeit in a different way than wisteria blooms and all the constellations known to man shining in the sky, does feel darkly romantic. Yeah?
When it comes to Devil’s Minion itself, Zaman does agree that the relationship between older Daniel and Armand has merit, especially since Daniel tells it like it is and wouldn’t let Armand get away with his BS in the same way Louis did. Of course, we can’t take any of this as confirmation of Devil’s Minion in The Vampire Lestat or any other Interview with the Vampire timeline because this is a non-spoilery interview and we’re talking in objective abstractions only, looking at the potential of the two characters. And Zaman says that he’s “a bit contrarian, maybe, to the fans of Devil’s Minion…” Because, he “think[s] they’re doomed.” Noting, “I think Daniel is broken, and much of it has been done by Armand!” But like, now they have eternity to figure it out, right? We guess we’ll have to wait and see what happens between the duo.
As we close out the conversation, we return to the overall vision of Armand in Interview with the Vampire/The Vampire Lestat. What’s his greatest fear and what’s his greatest hope, I wonder. According to Zaman, more than anything, Armand’s greatest fear is “To be alone.” Meanwhile, when it comes to what he hopes for, it’s yet another sad, complex tangle for our favorite vampire. Zaman shares, “I thought it was to find safety or acceptance. But actually, I think it’s to find purity… or perfection… which is a bummer because nothing is perfect.”
That IS a bummer. But if Armand wasn’t so delightfully messed up, we surely wouldn’t find him fascinating enough to devote 3,000 words and many minutes of our time to. Perhaps one day, Armand can know peace, love, and purpose. Until then, we’ll seek to continue to understand the ins and outs of his twisted, tragic mind… And apologize a little bit for him as a treat.
But wait, there’s more! As a post-script to his article and as a gift to all the truly loyal Devils out there, Zaman took me up on trading a song from his Armand playlists for a song from my Armand playlist. If you’ve read this far, you probably know that Zaman is famously private with his Armand songs, so let us all consider this a great honor. After I trade him my offerings, Zaman laughs, “I’m literally pulling up my Spotify playlist now so I can find it.” And reveals, “The first one that has come up, and actually one that I actually really, really love. It’s “The Flame” by Johnny Jewell. That’s a nice instrumental there. And also, “Windswept” by Johnny Jewell. So there you go, that’s two.”
Fascinatingly enough, both these songs were written for David Lynch and feature in the Twin Peaks Season 3 score. We’ll talk about it a little more in a separate post, but the description for the album says, “part plaintive ambiance, part haunting lounge jazz, all ethereal & movingly other-worldly.” In. And, hey, you know who else we think might like to watch Twin Peaks…
And with that, curtains.
Assad Zaman’s Armand and all the rest return when The Vampire Lestat premieres on June 7 on AMC and AMC+.
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This articles is written by : Nermeen Nabil Khear Abdelmalak
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