When is a monologue also a full body workout? When you’re Akasha, the ancient mother of all vampires who has just been roused from a long, long, long slumber by an overeager bloodsucking descendent named Lestat. Anne Rice‘s regal Queen of the Damned made her Immortal Universe debut in the fifth episode of The Vampire Lestat, “New York,” played by Olivier Award-winning stage and screen star Sheila Atim. And the Ugandan-British performer caps off her first appearance with a lengthy bit of oration that’s guaranteed to echo throughout across the two remaining episodes — and the next few seasons to come.
“My abs were shaking when I got to the end of that speech,” Atim tells Gold Derby, adding that Akasha’s seemingly free-flowing thoughts amounted to four carefully-written pages in the script, penned by the duo of executive producer Hannah Moscovitch and composer Daniel Hart. “A lot of it was just acting from the diaphragm. After the two takes we did of that speech, my abs were rock-hard.”
Akasha’s awakening also lifts Lestat’s spirits… literally. After she drinks from him — and he drinks from her — Sam Reid‘s vainglorious vamp levitates to the upper reaches of the crypt where the Queen has been kept for millennia, watched over by a series of guardians. Her current minder, Marius (Christopher Heyerdahl), brought Lestat into the fold after he buried himself deep underground following the cataclysmic events of Interview with a Vampire‘s second season, when he lost his lover, Louis (Jacob Anderson), and their daughter, Claudia (Delainey Hayles) in a trial orchestrated by the treacherous — and musically-challenged — Armand (Assad Zaman).
That act of mercy on Marius’s part turns out to be a major miscalculation when Lestat and Akasha take turns tasting each other. As book readers know — and show watches will come to learn — the Queen’s awakening has major implications for Earth’s vampire population that will play out as the TV adaptation of Rice’s Vampire Chronicles turns the page from The Vampire Lestat to Queen of the Damned. Given the current trajectory of this season, the fourth year appears set to tackle the back half of the second book and Season 5 will take us fully into Queen territory, potentially with another series title change.
Not that Atim can confirm any of that. “I’ve got no teases for you, darling,” she says with a smile when we ask her when and how we can expect to see Akasha again. “I can say that for my audition, I performed a scene between Akasha and Lestat that technically hasn’t been written yet. I don’t know if that was just written for the audition or if it would be part of Season 4. But it’s going to be super-fun to do either way.
“Something Sam has already said in interviews is that the first three seasons have been about watching these characters play out very domestic interactions about their relationships and feelings,” Atim adds. “But then along comes Akasha who is just such a massive umbrella over this whole saga. Now, everyone gets to zoom out and go, ‘Oh, this is actually what we’re dealing with.’ We’re going to be dealing with the potential destruction of humanking and vampirekind as opposed to, ‘I love you, but you cheated on me with this person.’ So I think that’s what we can expect going forward.”
We spoke with Atim about crafting Akasha’s regal voice, why her big monologue feels almost like a song, and paying “huge respect” to the late singer-actress, Aliyah, who played the role in the 2002 feature film version of Queen of the Damned, opposite Stuart Townsend‘s Lestat.
Gold Derby: Since Akasha is largely immobile in this episode, much of the power of your performance comes from your voice. How did you arrive at what a millennia-old vampire queen would sound like — and is that all you or did they sweeten it in post?
Sheila Atim: As far as I’m aware, that’s all me! [Laughs] I really wanted to lean into Akasha as a very ancient woman from somewhere between Kemet, Egypt, and Sumeria — that part of the world. I blended some East African twang with some Middle Eastern twang, and tried to create something that feels unique or at least not specific to a modern day country as we understand it. So it was the accent and then just projection, really.
What’s great about hearing her voice is that Lestat is usually the loquacious one, but she completely stuns him into silence.
That was especially wonderful because Sam and I worked together many years ago in the West End production of [the Bob Dylan jukebox musical] Girl From the North Country. I was beside myself knowing that we’d get act together again in a very different context. When I arrived to set in Toronto, there had been huge amount of anticipation for Akasha among the creative team because they were at the very end of the shoot. So our scenes happened in the last couple of days, and it really did feel like the culmination of what the series had been about as it tees up this new story. I felt that pressure, but it also helped me understand the gravity of what she means to this world. She’s the builder of this world and we needed to feel that.
She’s still stuck on the slab in the episode, and there’s something about performing a speech like that when you are incapacitated to some degree. I practiced my lines by pacing up and down my hotel room, before realizing that I should do it in bed with one leg up — the position I’m in during the show. It really helps you channel your rage when you’re fixed to a point. That helped with the voice and also stunning people like Sam into silence! [Laughs]
What kind of makeup regimen was required?
It was three hours of hair, makeup, and prosthetics, plus a lot of body paint. There was also a mask that I wore for some of the scene. In the earlier stages when she’s lying on her back, I had a mask on that was stuck to my shoulders and my back, so I couldn’t take it off until shooting was done. It was quite intense, but it looked incredible. They also had different versions of the costume; one had this fake skirt that looked like stone, but would just lay on top of me so I could get on and off the slab. There was so much incredible craftsmanship among the creative team. I could see how hard they all worked to make this moment as epic as they could. All I had to do was turn up, sit still, and do my speech. My goal was to be a good dress-up doll for their wonderful work.
To my ears, Akasha’s speech almost sounds like one of this season’s songs — it even builds to that crescendo where you’re belting, “I am the answer!” at top volume. Did you think of it that way as well?
That’s interesting that you say that. The one thing I was really aware of was the sense of rhythm the speech needed to have. On the page, there were no full stops, and that told me that I couldn’t be taking any long, indulgent pauses. And if you focus on what she’s saying, sometimes she’s speaking in half-thoughts and sometimes she circles back to thoughts she was having before. Trying to navigate the architecture was really important; as I was learning the lines, I was also asking myself, “What is she asking in this moment.” As long as everything was a genuine inquiry on her part then the shape of the piece would reveal itself naturally.
There are moments in the speech where things become softer and more internal, and there are moments where the rage is ebbing back and forth. I wanted to make sure it wouldn’t just be four pages of her just shouting, but it also needed momentum to get to that place at the end. You can’t get to that last line unless you’ve given yourself the road beforehand to really build to it.
What’s the key line of her speech for you?
The part where she goes, “Why is her tongue cut out, and why is her death prolonged, and when will it stop, and who will stop it?” That’s ultimately the question she answers at the end. “Who will stop it? Oh, it’s me!” She’s going to put a stop to it, because no one else is.
The first person to play Akasha onscreen was Aaliyah in the Queen of the Damned film. Did you look back at that movie as part of your preparation?
I saw one tiny clip on YouTube, and I was like, “That’s enough.” I love Aaliyah; I was a huge fan of hers when I was younger, and still am. And I also knew that this was going to be a very different thing; this TV show has already adapted the books in such different ways, and I’m different from Aaliyah as well. I wanted to make sure I wasn’t influenced too much by what came before. But who knows? Maybe when I explore more of Akasha in the future, I’ll think about a rewatch. But it’s good to have distance from these things; if an homage doesn’t make sense within the world that the series has constructed, it will crash up against what’s already there. But I have huge respect for Aaliyah and what she did, and I know there’s so much love out there for her performance and rightly so. I hope fans embrace my new take on it, and that these two Akashas can co-exist.
Do you hope you get an actual song next season?
I would never say no to a song! Sam and I never got to duet in a Girl From the North Country, so that would be nice. It would have to serve the story, and not just be for my own vanity. But the way they’ve executed the music this season is really brilliant. It’s not easy to put music onscreen and I always love to see projects that integrate music more imaginatively. If I was to do any music in Season 4, I would want it to be in service of what they’ve already managed to achieve.
Akasha will likely be more mobile when we see her again. Have you thought about how you plan to move as the Queen of the Damned?
I’ve had some thoughts about it, I keep changing my mind! [Laughs] I’ll definitely be asking our movement director, because my aim is to make it unique and I don’t have all the answers. What’s interesting is that we’ve already seen so much power coming from the vampires we know, but now I have to level that up. Not for the sake of outdoing them, but to properly tell the story of the original vampire. I’m excited to see the writers’ ideas for what Akasha can do and maybe I’ll reverse-engineer her movements from there.
Finally, I have to ask about the hilarious moment where Sam goes airborne after he drinks from Akasha. Was it funny to see him twisting around on those wires?
My favorite part of that was whenever they yelled, “Cut!” and he’d just go limp. Whenever the cameras were rolling, he’d be spinning in the air while I’m lying there as this half-stone creature. He’s incredible at that kind of physical stuff. Performing together again after all these years was wonderful, and so was watching him lead this show. Sam’s a brilliant leader, and leads with so much grace and talent. I was really happy and proud to be the final piece of that scene’s puzzle.
