After seven episodes of blood, betrayal, and baroque drama, The Vampire Lestat has finally dropped its curtain—but not without leaving fans with a few more surprises. The finale picks up right where the penultimate episode left off: Lestat (Sam Reid) and Louis (Jacob Anderson) are literally headless, thanks to Armand (Assad Zaman) and Daniel (Eric Bogosian) finally airing centuries of grievances. But the real shocker comes when Louis discovers that Armand has been pulling strings in his connection with Regina (Delainey Hayles) far more than anyone realized.
Collider sat down with Hayles ahead of the finale to unpack the episode's most crucial moments. She opened up about acting opposite two different heads—yes, really—and what it was like to build a completely different onscreen dynamic with Zaman than her previous character Claudia ever had.
The Head Game: Acting Opposite Jacob Anderson's Animatronic Double
Hayles revealed that the production team went all out to make the surreal dinner scene feel as real as possible. “There was an animatronic head, like an uncanny valley head of Jacob's head,” she said. “Sometimes I'd be acting towards the head, and then there'd be Jacob's body at the end of the table.” On other takes, a hole in the table allowed Anderson to pop his real head through—a setup that Hayles found much easier to work with. “When I was acting to the animatronic head, something was so off about it, but it was so perfect. Everything looked like Jacob, but then it looked nothing like Jacob at the same time.”
The actress also shared the story behind Regina's blood-curdling scream when she first sees Louis' severed head. “We did a take where I screamed until I couldn't scream anymore, and I don't think it made it into the episode,” she laughed. “But it was fun to do. I think we did it around three or four times.”
A Very Different Dynamic With Assad Zaman
For fans who remember Hayles' previous role as Claudia—a character who loathed Armand with every fiber of her being—the Regina-Armand dynamic is a refreshing change. “It was nice to finally get to act with Assad and it not be Claudia and Armand hating each other,” Hayles said. “There was the subtext of, 'I know something's up with you.'” She praised Zaman's ability to command a room, noting that even in a scene as heavy as one with a head on the table, the energy felt lighter.
Hayles also revealed that she knew something was off about Regina from the start. In an earlier diner scene (Episode 5), she was told to “dabble in this and see if this kind of sticks.” The result: a subtle moment where Regina seems to leave her body for a split second—a clue that Armand was manipulating her all along. “She knew what she was getting herself into, but she didn't know the degree of it,” Hayles explained. “In the beginning, it was a lot of fun earning money just from pretending to be this book character. Then she gets introduced to Lestat, and there's a shift where she's like, 'Actually, these people, they're not just weird, they're a little bit scary.'”
Louis and Regina's Complicated Bond
Despite the manipulation, Hayles believes Louis genuinely cares for Regina. “He has a connection with her, whatever the connection is, so he does care for her,” she said. That emotional complexity is what makes the finale's revelations so devastating—and what makes a rewatch so rewarding. For more on the episode's surreal ending and what's next, check out our interview with creator Rolin Jones. And if you're craving more spin-off chatter, Eric Bogosian and Assad Zaman have already pitched a Devil's Minion series.
As for that one quiet moment that changes everything on a rewatch? Hayles hints it's the diner scene—a blink-and-you'll-miss-it beat that, once you know the truth, recontextualizes the entire season. The Vampire Lestat is streaming now on AMC+.
