Interview With the Vampire stars unpack that 'bloodthirsty' Théâtre des Vampires debut (exclusive)

Warning: This article contains spoilers for Interview With the Vampire season 2, episode 2, "Do You Know What It Means to Be Loved by Death".

Louis de Pointe du Lac (Jacob Anderson) has finally met the other love of his life on Interview With the Vampire.

While fans have seen Louis' love interest Armand (Assad Zaman) since the very beginning of AMC's TV adaptation of Anne Rice's iconic gothic romance, it wasn't until Sunday's episode that we finally learned how the two first met in 1940's Paris, after Louis and Claudia (Delainey Hayles) arrive in the city in search of other "good" vampires like them. At first, they're unaware that Armand's Théâtre des Vampires coven is growing increasingly frustrated by the two American vampires living in their city without paying their respects or introducing themselves to the locals. Five months of stalking later, Armand finally approaches Louis in the park to introduce himself and invite him and Claudia to the theater.

But when Louis and Claudia meet the coven, they're shocked to learn that Lestat (Sam Reid) was the co-founder — a coincidence that Daniel Molloy (Eric Bogosian) finds hilarious in the present-day timeline. Louis and Claudia promise each other that they'll keep their own history with Lestat a secret from their new acquaintances, especially because Claudia feels like she's finally found a home and family with the coven. But Armand knows the truth, adding another complicated layer to his new flirtation with Louis.

"I definitely wanted to get that right, and also it had to have a different feel to Louis and Lestat's first meeting, which is so adversarial and sizzling," Anderson tells Entertainment Weekly of filming Louis and Armand's first interaction. "This is all obviously in the writing, but Louis and Armand's first meeting had to have that trepidation and almost like a fear thing that's coming in, seemingly for both of them. 'Do we dare get closer to each other?'"

Anderson reveals that they actually shot episode 5 first this season, which will feature a pivotal turning point for Louis and Armand, as well as a lot of present-day Dubai scenes, so the actors had to "reverse-engineer" their dynamic to portray this moment.

"All the Dubai stuff is 70 years into their relationship, and there's a lot of tension, so we knew how to make it jarring by the time they meet for the first time," Anderson says. "Because then you're like, 'How did they get here from there?' It seems so delicate, and now it's become so tense and awkward between them."

While Louis is treading carefully around Armand for a whole host of reasons, Claudia is living her best life now that she's finally met an entire coven of vampires who seem to be welcoming her with open arms. She joins them for a massacre at a sprawling mansion outside the city, and Hayles tells EW that Claudia is "on a vampire high" at the end of the episode.

"This is everything that she's hoped for, the most euphoric feelings she's ever felt," Hayles says. "This is something that she's longed for, vampires to do it with, to be there by her side, and they're all doing it together, and they've all got the same goal. They're all bloodthirsty and hungry. Louis' kind of held that back in her in a way, so it's complete euphoria for her."

Filming the mansion massacre scene was "so beautiful," Hayles adds. "It might've been one of my favorite days filming, other than my first day. We had stunt doubles that were acting like victims in the house, and it was kept a surprise that when the coven run in the house, they were screaming and running around, so we were so confused."

Hayles laughs as she continues, "We had to remember, 'Oh yeah, we're the vampires. We need to eat them.' They were running and screaming everywhere, and we were chasing after them. It was a big playground game of chase. It was one of the best nights of filming, I had so much fun. And to do it with the other coven members, it really did feel like we're a big unit attacking and eating the rich."

But even with the secret of Lestat's fate and connection to them is looming over her and Louis, Hayles says that Claudia is feeling totally at ease with their new vampire friends.

"She's got it. She knows how to hide her thoughts," Hayles explains. "She knows how to play it out. She is a grown woman and knows how to do that. I think it's Louis who she needs to worry about — she's better at concealing things than him, so in the beginning, she's not worried about that."

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And since Louis is now officially in his tourist era by developing a new passion for photography while in Paris, check out more of EW's exclusive photos from episode 2 below:

New episodes of Interview With the Vampire air Sundays on AMC.