In episode four of The Vampire Lestat, a long-awaited reunion finally comes to pass. After three excruciating episodes of separation, Armand and Daniel reunite for the first time since Armand turned Daniel into a vampire. Their first collision with one another in The Vampire Lestat doesn’t go so well—Daniel becomes drenched in complete rage at the very sight of Armand, and Armand attempts to communicate with Daniel by reading from a script. But the course of true love never did run smoothly. And the second meeting between them takes a much different turn; a complicated muddle of that same rage, but drenched in something far more raw on both sides of the equation, something pained and, perhaps, yearning. And in the mix of it, Armand, perhaps more honest than he’s ever been in his life before, confesses that he’s in love with Daniel. Being obsessed with this sequence as we are Nerdist dot com, we had to discuss it with Armand actor, Assad Zaman, who filled us in on the confusion inside of Armand, the unexpected nature of the confession, and the way in which, in the end, the result was a tender moment between the pair.
For Zaman, Armand, as always, is a muddle of confusing and conflicting emotions and motivations, a tangle that is inscrutable, even to the vampire himself. On the one hand, Zaman confirms that Armand has absolutely been following Daniel and company for some time, lurking in the shadows and watching them from afar. He notes, “I said this before, Armand has, even though he hasn’t been around, he has been around. He’s always watching, he’s a lurker, he’s a serial lurker, and he’s been that as his world has crumbled and he’s gone into the shadows.” And offers that a motivation for keeping tabs on everyone is that he feels the Great Conversion is dangerous, and he wants to stop the impending explosion. And yet, beyond the idea that “Daniel is there creating a documentary about Lestat and vampires,” which could definitely add fuel to the fire, “He’s also Armand’s fledgling…” And although the act of creating a vampire fledgling is abhorrent to Armand, now that he has created one, the idea that Daniel is Armand’s fledgling isn’t something that Armand can let go of easily.
But despite this magnetic draw between the pair of them, Zaman thinks Armand couldn’t fully grasp why he was doing what he was doing in this time. “Does he know that he missed him? Does he know that he is in love with him?” Zaman responds when I wonder why Armand has stayed away if he is in love with Daniel. “I think what’s beautiful about the end of four, that confession that when I read that, I was like, ‘Wow, this is a really, really fascinating way to make this admission.’ Because I don’t think Armand was prepared to… I think it surprised Armand, even, that it came out because it also confirms that what happened in Dubai, the sort of not being able to hear Daniel’s thoughts or being able to be on top of the manipulation, letting himself be discovered was in essence something to do with his affection for Daniel that he himself didn’t understand and couldn’t work out, couldn’t place.”
He continues, sharing that coming to terms with his love for Daniel is still a work in progress for Armand, “I think that only happens after he’s turned. I think that happens after he’s turned Daniel. And we don’t know the circumstances of his turning Daniel, yet. But I think the cocoon period of Armand happened very soon after turning Daniel, because the act of turning himself is something that he’s just done, something that he finds abhorrent. He, as a vampire, finds disgusting, disgraceful, and abhorrent. And so there wasn’t any space in his mind, I think, to go, “Oh, I’m sorry, let’s work this out. Let’s find…” He just runs away. So this is him facing it, him facing Daniel facing his sort of actions.”
And even though Armand couldn’t be sure what his emotions for Daniel are, it is, as mentioned, more than just his concern over the Great Conversion that draws him out of hiding. Zaman shares, “At the same time, he’s trying to come to terms with what he’s done in Dubai, what he’s done to Louis and Daniel, and trying to reconcile with that. It’s sincerity that’s always peppered with manipulation or peppered with a mission that he feels like he needs to do to survive.”
And that sincerity, the one which surprises even Armand, comes out in the form of a love confession to Daniel. And it’s drawn out by Daniel… Being Daniel. Zaman walks me through the love confession scene between Armand and Daniel in The Vampire Lestat episode four, “In the beginning, I think he just thinks that Daniel is just going to sort of berate him again because that’s what he did in the bowling alley. He fully believes that Daniel has every right to hate him. He left him. He left him completely vulnerable. He left him with something that he didn’t ask for, and so he feels guilt for that, and he knows that Daniel really does hate him in his guts right now, but then I think both of them don’t… Daniel and Armand, they don’t understand what this connection is that’s happening. Armand does more than Daniel, but they don’t understand this vampire bond because it’s new for Armand as well, but the fact that Daniel is asking about Dubai and going, ‘Was it all a lie? Was it all fake?’ Is a moment that kind of comes out of nowhere for Armand.”
Daniel’s abrupt ability to throw Armand off his game and press him for the truth when he least expects it is one of the reasons why I’ve always thought the pair make a ton of sense romantically. Daniel presses to the heart of things with stubborn intent, and Armand, who is always evading, can’t help but let himself be pinned.
Zaman shares that Armand felt what might be one of the rarest sentiments that could exist in Armand. He offers, “In that moment, I feel like he doesn’t want to lie to Daniel.”
And from that determination, born of his affections for Daniel, he gives him something honest—his love. The confession of the power that Daniel has over him. Zaman concludes, “And I think it comes out, it’s an honest confession that, ‘Yes, you can hate me, you can hate me for what I did. I manipulated you. I turned you, I did some fucked up shit, but that pretending to let you manipulate me… That’s not true. You think you were under my spell, actually, I was under your spell. That’s why you were able to free everyone,’ and maybe that’s part of it. Maybe Armand, somewhere deep inside, is like grateful to Daniel for freeing Louis and Armand from this disastrous, nothing relationship that’s a spiral of misery. So yeah, it’s a really tender moment that comes out.”
The tenderest. And so we must ask, and then what happens…? But for that, and the rest of Armand and Daniel’s (hopeful) twisted love story, we’ll have to wait for more of The Vampire Lestat.
The Vampire Lestat airs on AMC and AMC+ Sundays at 9 pm ET/PT and midnight, respectively. You can snag The Vampire Lestat by Anne Rice to read, if you’d like to know a little bit more about what’s going on.
Rotem Rusak is the Editor-in-Chief of Nerdist. She’s ready for Devil’s Minion to become canon so one of her ships can finally sail.
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The post Assad Zaman on Armand Making THAT Emotional Confession in THE VAMPIRE LESTAT appeared first on Nerdist.
This articles is written by : Nermeen Nabil Khear Abdelmalak
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