Jacob talking about Armand during S3 press (Compilation)
Assad, after the revelations of the previous season, I wonder if you consider Armand as a villain of the story now, or maybe I'm not fair and that he's just one of many ambiguous characters of the show.
ASSAD: As an actor, I don't know– I don't think it's wise for me to think of Armand as a villain, I have to go in figuring who Armand is as a human being. When you think of someone as a villain you can almost think that they're a god; you deify them in some way. You put them on a pedestal or on a thing that simplifies them too much. So to me Armand is just a person, who has gone through very very difficult circumstances and those have shaped him to who he is. [...]
JACOB: To answer your question as well, I do want to say something about Armand quickly! Because I give Armand so much shit when I talk about the show all the time. And he is probably the character that I, Jacob, watch and I'm like, that guy gets on my nerves, he just seems to get things wrong at every stage. But I think something that this season goes into in a really powerful way, and I think reframes a lot of what you see of him before is that... he's what happens if you go through some of the worst personal atrocities from a very young age. So much cruelty is inflicted on you, and then you're just alone. And he tries to, I feel, Armand is continually trying to find community. And so, in one way it manifests in religious fundamentalism and this really dark sort of cult... he tries to control people. And then he just tries to find that– Louis becomes a bit of a weird sort of religious figure to him at some point. And then he's trying to recreate this diet– this horrific dynamic that was inflicted on him from a very young age. So I think there is a way that you can look at Armand and be like, that guy's evil, his behaviour's not cool on any level. But I think something that our show does really well is that there is a version of every single one of these characters –including Claudia, including Madeleine even– they would be the villain in a lesser story. But we spend the time on getting to know all of these characters and understanding why they make these decisions they make. And I think it's quite easy to pin the villain pin on Armand, and I am guilty of doing it myself. But actually, between Assad and Rolin and Hannah, I think he becomes in this season an even more fully formed, fully understandable character.
SAM: [The séance] is wonderful closure for these characters as well, because I think they finally get to acknowledge that they were terrible parents and that they really used somebody that's like, a roof shingle that flew off their house, and they had to fully deal with that, that they continued to carry her as this sort of idolized thing, but actually they used her as a crutch in their marriage, and this person is really angry with them and she finally gets her actual say. She finally gets the truth out at them both, which was she fucking hated them both. [...] And it's so devastating that she doesn't have a Louis or a Lestat in hell, and she's searching for Madeleine forever. [...]They now carry the fact that Claudia is suffering.
SAM: Forever, and they did that.
KELLI: [...] Also why Armand needs to go to jail. [Laughter] But uh to wrap up, in episode–
JACOB: I want to say though! About Armand. 'Cause I'm always shitting on Armand and actually I think the thing that is really key about that scene is that it's Louis and Lestat! Armand might have set the seeds, Armand might have killed her, but so did they. Both of them.
KELLI: Yeah, they're all culpable.
I have a very specific question for you, Sam, specifically related to the blood shower scene, which is that... after the many, many horrors these two– that he shared with this, you know, Gremlin that has wrought chaos upon him and his family, why does Lestat love toying with him more than he would want to like... just kill him.
SAM: Oh, wow. [...] I think it's great fun for Lestat to play with Armand in that way. I mean that's their dynamic. I think they both get a kick out of it. [...] Armand, bless him, is just trying to put meaning in their totally meaningless existence and Lestat's like "Dude, just have a good time." But, because Armand is the mouthpiece for this weird vampire cult and how you live and how we operate, they give each other meaning because then Lestat has something to rebel against. [...] it's good to have an enemy. Because if you have an enemy, then you have something to fight against. You've got purpose. I mean, they live forever.
JACOB: They're so messy. And they need to be messy in order to give purpose to their existence; to give a sense of meaning to this all. And it goes too far sometimes: like Claudia being– but that I think is part of why Claudia's death is such a monumental earthquake, is that she's gone. Like they have to clash and contrast and collapse into each other and collide and destroy each other, but then come back and– like that's what this is, it's not like... I know I've definitely had some pretty reductive ideas about Armand in the past, but I think this is the fun of him, is that he's not just like– I love Armand in the Vampire Lestat! I will just say that. I just think it's such a delicious thing in this series.
SAM: And you haven't even seen all the episodes, right? So, I mean, like–
SAM: Yeah, he's a very– he's a wonderful character.
JACOB: The subway. That episode-ending in– is it episode four?
JACOB: Episode five! That is one of my favorite moments, shots, expressions in the history of our show.
LIZZIE: [Armand] looks so beautiful in that [S3E5 closing shot]!
LIZZIE: (Laughs) and he's just done the most evil thing!
SAM: (Shrugs) That's Armand!
