In Interview with the Vampire‘s first season, we’re experiencing not the interview that took place in Anne Rice’s original novel…but a new one, 50 years later. Which means Daniel Molloy (Eric Bogosian) is older, less willing to just take Louis’ story at face value, and, at times, downright sassy. There’s really no other way of putting it, and honestly, we’d wouldn’t have him any other way.
There’s something very special about the way Bogosian delivers all of Daniel’s challenges to Louis’ story. It’s almost as if the character is constantly testing his boundaries, trying to figure out just how hard he can push the vampire before something bad happens. Which, if you’ve seen the finale, you know he definitely went too far with the pushback on the story surrounding the plot to kill Lestat. In fact, Molloy went on the offense so hard, he made one of our all-time favorites stop playing a role — and start displaying some of his 500+ years’ worth of power.
But truly, Daniel has some of the best dialogue in the series. He’s called Louis “the biggest rat-eater of them all and pressed Louis for information on the missing pages of Claudia’s diary. The character has described Louis and Lestat’s story as “some kind of fucked up gothic romance.” But, of course, that was only after pointing out the inconsistencies in Louis’ new, improved versions of events, complete with providing the receipts.
The character “never pass[es] a comfortable night” (still same). And he absolutely must know if Louis ate his sister’s baby. Of course, that list isn’t even close to complete.
Through all of it, Eric Bogosian absolutely destroys us with timing and deadpan, snark and a personable sort of sincerity. And we can’t get enough.
As part of the roundtable interviews for the finale, Eric Bogosian spoke with us and other outlets about what makes Daniel…Daniel.
Why is Daniel so combative during his second interview with Louis? Does he feel like there aren’t any consequences due to his illness? Or is something else at play?
For the actor, having experienced bullying as a kid and “developed a completely different approach to things by the time [he] was a teenager,” he sees himself as someone who will fight back — to “go right into them” — if someone challenges him. Regardless of if they’re more powerful or not.
And he thinks, in retrospect, that maybe Daniel is at least a little like that, too. “I don’t think Molloy worries about any kind of physical harm, not because he’s sick anyway, but because it’s just his nature. He’s just the way he’s built. He’s that dog that chases cars and then doesn’t know what to do with them when he catches them. He gets run over.”
But Bogosian also pointed out that this is what actually makes Daniel good at his job. “That’s what makes him a good journalist. I think that this has been his MO throughout his career, that he finds that if he really goes at the story, he will ultimately succeed. Or not — at least he survived this far.”
And we agree. More journalists could actually stand to learn from Daniel Molloy’s example. If a story seems unbelievable, question it. (Maybe don’t challenge an immortal being with the ability to incinerate things at will and/or spell the Parkinson’s symptoms in your body into activating hardcore, though. Especially when his even more powerful boyfriend is lurking in the shadows.)
Of course, another obvious question would be why Daniel decided to take a second interview with Louis, especially when we get the very distinct impression that he knows Louis is an unreliable narrator. Part of his understanding of this actually came after he’d already finished filming Interview with the Vampire. Fittingly for a series that’s based off of a book, his thought process involved literary reference.
“In the course of thinking about this show after we finished it, somewhere along the line, the notion of Molloy being a kind of Ahab character, chasing the white whale, started to evolve in my mind. And the more I think about it, the more I… That’s where I’m at with it,” he told us.
Which makes sense if you know the reference. In case you don’t, he elaborated a bit. “And of course, Ahab was perfectly willing to chase Moby after having, already, his leg bitten off. He then continues to go after Moby Dick, and to his own end, at the end of the story. So, I’m down with that. Just call me Ishmael — no, just call me Ahab.”
Additionally, Bogosian mentioned, revisiting the interview is about solving a puzzle. And making up for past mistakes.
“Louis is a puzzle that hasn’t been solved by a guy who spends his life getting the story. I find one of the interesting — most interesting — lines in the whole show is that I’m describing my former self, and I say it’s a tale told to an idiot. Well, who’s the idiot? That’s me. I’m calling myself an idiot. So, I’m calling my youthful self an idiot. And I want to make up for that by going back and finding what…had to be the greatest story I had ever investigated — but ineptly — 40-something years ago.”
There’s certainly nothing inept about Eric Bogosian’s version of Daniel Molloy. And we can’t wait to see how he survives the finale’s final shot.
Or, you know…Given The Vampire Chronicles‘ canon, maybe we can hope he doesn’t get out of it, so much as become a part of it. And if, as the vampire Lestat once told us, “none of us really changes over time; we only become more fully what we are,” (The Queen of the Damned, Ballantine paperback, p. 4), we can’t wait to see Molloy become more fully blunt in his criticism of Louis’ story. And for Eric Bogosian, likewise, to get even better at delivering on those moments that he already nailed this season.
You can catch Eric Bogosian as Daniel Molloy in Interview with the Vampire season 1. All seven episodes are now available on AMC and AMC+.
