AMC’s Interview with the Vampire is a series adaptation of Anne Rice’s best-selling books. Considered a success for adaptations by book and TV lovers that just wrapped its second season.
Due to the cast performances, Interview with the Vampire is already well-reviewed and adored, bringing to life already infamous characters. The show’s popularity has given a stage to its incredibly talented cast, including a South Asian, Bangladeshi actor, Assad Zaman.
Who is Assad Zaman
He is a British actor mostly known for his stage work. Assad Zaman and his family immigrated to England from Bangladesh in the 1980’s where he grew up and pursued acting. His most notable roles before Interview with the Vampire were in Hotel Portofino, a period drama, and Apple Tree Yard a BBC thriller.
The Vampire Armand
The series describes Armand as the most impressive character. A 500-year-old, ancient vampire from France with a tragic transformation and backstory. The head of the Parisian coven and Theatre des Vampires, he’s in multiple relationships with significant characters from the series. These include Lestat, Louis, and (in the future) Daniel. Armand is an extremely powerful, notorious vampire. Therefore casting a South Asian actor for such an iconic role has been a win.
Representation and the Show
Anyone familiar with Anne Rice’s Interview with the Vampire series knows that it has little to do with the presentation and experiences of South Asians. So analyzing the adaptation by its South Asian representation seems nonsensical. However, AMC’s creative decision to deliberately stand out in the casting says otherwise.
Casting Jacob Anderson as the show’s protagonist Louis depoint Dulac automatically brought awareness of race and the subsequent effect this would make to the narrative of the character living in that time and environment. Validating the consideration of Assad Zaman’s South Asian identity’s effect on Armand when watching the series.
Assad Zaman as Armand
In season 1, Zaman’s Armand is introduced through the guise of Rashid, Louis’s human butler. Keeping his true identity a secret for the entirety of the season only to build up the reveal in the final scene. In doing so, season 1 of the series played up Zaman’s identity to favor the misdirection. We were given a whole scene and dialogue purposefully to include the Muslim representation that often comes with the South Asian diaspora. Unfortunately, the execution was more cliche than believable, making Armand’s reveal feel insignificant.
Season 2 makes up for time lost in the previous season, allowing Armand’s development to be the focus as he is Louis’ co-narrator on the events of when they met in Paris and their life together after it. This season gives us everything known and possible with Armand. His origin, backstory, past relationships, life as a vampire, and the relationship with the love of his life Louis, creating the character that comes to life by Zaman’s s performance.
A South Asian Vampire
The significance of casting a Bangladeshi man for the role is seen in how it changed absolutely nothing about him. No further questions about how he got there or what his family origin was. No need for an in-universe and time-accurate explanation of why South Asians would be in France. Not just for the sake of accuracy but a statement that there is no need for an explanation of Armand’s casting. The fact that Anne Rice’s story remained unaltered is a sign of the best representation, one that South Asians could exist in this world.
Expanding South Asian Representation
It’s not very often that South Asians can play these rich, amazing characters without being turned away because we don’t fit the “way they look”. Assad Zaman’s performance as Armand breaks barriers of the expectations. Interview with the Vampire is an indicator of what South Asians can bring whenever given these roles.
@mariawatcheseverything #greenscreen hate him all you want but armand slayed #armand #iwav #assadzaman #southasianrepresentation #bangladesh #foryoupage #muslimrepresentation #interviewwithavampire #fyp #armandandlouis #armandanddaniel #lestat
Seasons 1 and 2 of Interview with the Vampire are currently available for streaming on AMC+ and all episodes from Season 1 will begin streaming on Netflix in the US on Monday, August 19.
A big part of season two episode four is very explicitly telling us how he, a man from the Lodi Dynasty, got to be in Paris. Then they also directly explain the father/son Southeast Asian pair later in Paris. The canon also has vampires from India, such as Arjun and Fareed, the latter of which is also in the show. Azim is also from there and he goes back to books from the 80s so it’s not a recent thing.