Reginald The Vampire is one of our favorite new shows and the season finale is just around the corner. In anticipation of the episode, we sat down with Mandela Van Peebles and Savannah Basley to talk about what’s in store for Maurice and Angela, their characters on the show, and a possible season 2. Ready?
Here we go!
To break the ice in our interview with Mandela Van Peebles and Savannah Basley, we asked them to say two things they like and two things they don’t like about their characters. And, although it was quite a difficult question for them to answer, their answers gave us a new and profound perspective on Maurice and Angela that made us know and understand them better.
For Savannah Basley, “one thing I like about her is how confident she is. And I like how unapologetic she is and, regarding her actions, I don’t always agree with them but I do enjoy the way that she is, like this is who I am and this is what I’m going to do. I can appreciate that about her. Especially that strong competence that she has. Because that’s something I personally struggle with. So I’m like oh, I admire that in here,” she shared.
“Two things I don’t like about her is how mean she can be. Some of the things she says to Reginald…I’m like that is so mean. Don’t agree with it. I hate it when I set it on fire because that hurt so yeah, I’m gonna double that. I don’t like how mean she is because she’s like that just to hurt people. But that is not a way to go through life,” she added.
And we strongly agree because we couldn’t have explained it better.
Mandela Van Peebles likes “being able to put a new spin on a classic character, you know, people have been in love with vampire lore for ages. And it’s fresh to see such a diverse cast taking on a traditionally white good-looking kind of space. And now we have people from all different backgrounds, all different genders, all different sexualities, all different body types, playing characters that traditionally have been reserved for a very select group of people. So I like that a lot,” he shared.
And we said PREACH!!!!!
He also really enjoys “the ability of backstory that is possible when playing a vampire. Because you’re around for a while, technically, I was made in the 70s so taking elements from someone in their 90s and trying to play with that as someone who’s in their 20s it’s fun to craft that person in your head and embody it. So that was a really fun thing. And about things that I didn’t like, I just feel like, with that, the other side of it is there are so many stories to tell. And my mind just goes crazy about all the stories that we haven’t gotten into yet.”
With our next question, we dig a little more into what awaits Angela and Maurice in Reginald The Vampire season finale, and…you will be surprised! But don’t worry, there are no spoilers, just teasing.
Savannah Basley shared that “for Angela, you get to definitely see her in a position that you never would have thought that you would get to see her. So that’s really fun. You just get to see her in a different light, which will be interesting for her and then interesting for the audience to get to see that as well.”
For his part, Mandela Van Peebles commented that he had been “enjoying seeing it all come to life. It’s different when you’re there filming it months ago and you finally get to watch it on screen and enjoy it like everybody else and be a part of the fan base. So not only did I get to play Maurice, I’m a fan of Maurice, I’m a fan of the show. And I’m enjoying one of the things I’m looking forward to is as we get closer to that finale, as the assessment comes closer and closer the stakes are raised exponentially, and seeing kind of how we all deal with that in our way that raised intensity. I’m excited to watch everything kind of come into play. I can’t give away too much but…keep watching.”
Although Mandela Van Peebles and Savannah Basley love their characters, we wanted to know who they would want to play if they didn’t play Maurice and Angela and you’re going to love their answers!
For Savannah, “it would be really fun to play Nikki because she’s just so fun. I love her. She’s insane. And I love it. Chaotic wild. It’s so fun with the knives I wouldn’t be as cool as she’s like super talented. So I wouldn’t be able to like play with the knives as well. But either Nikki or Sara would be fun. Because she’s very like rom-com and I’ve never really done that before. I’m not sure there are so many great ones. So many great characters. Ashley too, she’s so vampire around. Yeah, love it.”
Mandela “enjoys playing Murray’s and definitely having a blast with that. But I think it’s different when you’re there versus when you’re watching it. Because you’re not always there for other scenes or not in and seeing some of the stuff. But I would say if it wasn’t Maurice, I would be Todd because just the things [Aren Buchholz] says is just that he really embodies that role pretty well. And I think it’s a nice little area for some comedic relief. Yeah, I would say Todd’s character, if not Marie.” Which is definitely a good choice.
Savannah added that she “was gonna say Todd, but I feel like that’s too similar to Angela. But he’s is this such a great character at the same time because he’s like a human bad guy. And Reginald. I just love playing the villain!” And it suits us that she does!
Our last question is about a possible season 2 of Reginald The Vampire. With the season finale just around the corner, we wanted to make sure that if SYFY decided to renew the show – fingers crossed – Mandela Van Peebles and Savannah Basley would be on board.
Savannah didn’t hesitate to confirm that “of course, always.” And Mandela gave us some more clues when he confessed that he thinks “that’s always been the goal. Even while we’re filming season 1 is leaving those stories open-ended, where we can unpack that more and kind of dive deeper into the lore of rational the vampire. And to be honest, it’s based on fat vampire books. And there’s more than one of those. So, hopefully, fingers crossed, as you said, but I’m on board.”
And we are also on board!
Mandela Van Peebles and Savannah Basley were a delight to interview. They get along great and that was shown at every moment of the interview when they joked with each other. They made me laugh so hard and the conversation was so funny that time flew by. Hopefully, I get a chance to talk to them again in Reginald The Vampire season 2.
Reginald The Vampire airs Wednesday on SYFY.
