'Interview with the Vampire' star Assad Zaman DISHES on season two and all things Armand

AMC is taking a bite out of Anne Rice’s gothic world with season two of Interview with the Vampire, teasing secrets of the past, the allure of Paris, and Old World Vampires.

PRIDE recently caught up with Assad Zaman to dish about the new season, his favorite episode being episode five because it was the first one he shot during production, and bringing the beloved character Armand to life.

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Assad Zaman as Armand, Yung as Tuan Pham and Ben Bradshaw as Hans Luchenbaum - Interview with the Vampire Season 2, Episode 2

Armand is a layered vampire with many facets to his personality. Behind his well-composed demeanor, he is afraid to look into his past and examine how his history has shaped who he is. But this season, he is forced to come to terms with them.

One thing that is immediately clear is that Armand does not want this interview to happen, fearing that everything he's spent generations building with Louis (Jacob Anderson) will come crumbling down.

"There's a lot of self-preservation that [Armand's] trying to uphold and preserve a life that he's worked very hard to build with Louis. And we see through the course of the season how difficult and how hard he had to work on, I guess they both had to get to this point in Dubai when we meet them. And Daniel, I think, is a threat to that," Zaman tells PRIDE.

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Eric Bogosian as Daniel Molloy - Interview with the Vampire, Season 2, Episode 5

The audience will see Armand placate the interview, attempting to sway Daniel (Eric Bogosian) with his powerful and mysterious presence to hurry his line of questioning along without digging too deep into their vampiric past. Armand genuinely believes that his mere presence will do that, but Daniel is proven to be more formidable as a journalist than he could imagine.

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Jacob Anderson as Louis De Point Du Lac and Assad Zaman as Armand - Interview with the Vampire Season 2, Episode 2

For the Interview with the Vampire star, the aspect of Armand's personality that resonated with him the most was the vampire's insecurities — admitting to PRIDE that he understood those much more than the menacing and masterful side of the fan-favorite vampire. "Those were harder to tap into for me, but his weaknesses were very easy," he says.

"I found [it] easiest to tap into because I think we all have insecurities, and we can use them as superpowers, or we can let them eat us up. There have been moments in my life where my insecurities have sort of gotten the better of me and moments where I've been able to harness them and understand them because I don't think they're bad things. So [Armand's] inner kind of weaknesses were my favorite parts of him," Zaman shares with PRIDE.

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Jacob Anderson as Louis De Point Du Lac and Assad Zaman as Armand - Interview with the Vampire Season 2, Episode 2

As for the romantic relationship shown between the vampire lovers Louis and Armand, it is best described as tender and soothing, especially for the latter.

"Behind the facade of his power and stoicism, [Armand] is a scared child looking for support and care. And that's how I think Louis sees that. And that's how their relationship kind of blossoms in Paris. He's vulnerable, and he allows himself to be vulnerable around Louis, which the theater coven of the vampires haven't seen before as well, [which] shakes up that dynamic. But yeah, it's tender," he says.

Larry Horricks/AMC

Assad Zaman as Armand - Interview with the Vampire Season 2, Episode 2

While some Interview with the Vampire fans may wonder how Zaman tackled this likable yet dark character of Armand, he didn't approach it with a sense of navigating a gray area but instead by capturing as much complexity as possible.

"I didn't [have] to find a gray area in sort of how moral or immoral this character is. I think what's so brilliant about how Rolin [Jones] has constructed [Armand] and what we've taken from the books is it's just ... humans are flawed, but humans are also capable of amazing things. And here, this vampire is flawed, as are they all. And so, I didn't have to worry too much about this side of Armand is good and this side is bad, but all of them make him who he is," the actor tells PRIDE.

However, Zaman admits that bringing Armand to life for the screen was very different from his theater acting background, where the stage required big energy; the medium of TV thrived with subtlety.

"On a very technical level, it took me some time to sort of hone everything down into a space where the camera can pick you up because I am quite naturally gangly and a little bit chaotic. On stage, when you embody a character and when you work out the blocking, it helps, and you can really let go. But here, I had to learn to bring that energy inside and do something that I hadn't really done before, which was sort of emulate that energy through stillness. And I'm still learning that," Zaman tells PRIDE.

It's a skill he tries to refine each day by watching the other actors on set as they deliver their scenes, especially Eric Bogosian and Jacob Anderson, whom he spent a lot of time with this season.

"It's just a masterclass with them. So good at it. They really sort of helped me along with it," Zaman says.

Check out the video below to see PRIDE's full interview with the Interview with the Vampire star, Assad Zaman.

PRIDE Interviews 'Anne Rice's Interview with the Vampire' star Assad Zaman

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PRIDE Interviews 'Anne Rice's Interview with the Vampire' star Assad Zaman

'Anne Rice's Interview with the Vampire' star Assad Zaman dishes on season 2 and what playing Armand has been like for him.