I ran this through a transcriber:
NE: I was gonna make Jacob compliment the interview with the Vampire podcast on recorded media. And then we were gonna into it! You know, people came at the DMs and they said: where’s the podcast?! I said: I don’t know. I don’t know. And they just felt like, you know–and so I’m just trying to still engage with the community.
It’s an active, loving community. Okay, you really have a show that has a very beautiful, active, loving fanbase; and I even got a bit of that runoff, in a way that I didn’t know would happen! And I thought that was interesting for me.
JA: No, you were a big part of that, you know? You didn’t get runoff. But also, like, the thing that I really enjoyed as well about it is I think, like, you engaged with the show in the same way that I do. Like, it was really nice to talk to somebody who was, like, enjoying it in the same way that like it wasn’t like, I don’t know, you understood the weight of the show, and the storytelling and it’s all very like–it’s all very grandiose and beautifully written. But at the same time, it is hilarious. Like, it’s a funny show! And it’s a funny show by design as well. Yeah, I thought you did a beautiful job, and I wouldn’t have come back the second time if I didn’t.
NE: I know, I know! I know, it was so funny that one point they were like, before, like, the first time where it was like: okay, PLEASE don’t ask Jacob about race! And like, PLEASE, like, there was like all this stuff, and I go: Jacob and I gon’ be fine! Like, I literally say, you know, that’s like–we gon’ be fine! I said: he has been hurt in the past, I can imagine! But we will be fine.
JA: I mean, the thing is, as I was like: Don’t ask me, like, about race and Game of Thrones. Like, that’s very different. We could talk about race, when we’re talking about interview with a vampire. I can stand with it.
AB: Sometimes I forget about certain things. I think about the insanity that you like–like the number of questions like: oh, gray worm~! Now, in this season, in this episode what were you thinking when you were playing this? Like, the number of those kinds of questions you’ve had to have been asked are like insane. You had to like, like anyone who’s been part of like a giant, a giant thing has had to weather probably some of the worst questions in the world with a smile.
JA: I had pretty bad, bad interviews. Yeah. But like, again, I just feel like as I get a little bit older, and also like, and again, just to caveat, like, I’m not, I’m not someone that thinks like everybody needs to have children. I don’t like that for me personally, and I think as well, because my childhood was interesting. I’m like, I, having children is really put a lot of things in perspective for me. And I just like, I’m reaching a point with, with interviews–like, we’re hanging out with chatting. This is different. This doesn’t feel like like question answer thing. But with those question answer things, I’m like, it doesn’t matter. So I’m kind of going to just say what I want! Like I told you. Like I think that like, AMC and, and anybody else that I work with probably just like slightly butt clenched every time I sit down to do an interview because I’ve just like run out of that sort of self censorship that you need to do those things. And I don’t think anybody really wants that anyway. It’s boring. I hate when you hear the same answer. Yeah. Like I engage with, I love podcasts. I love like, I love learning everything I can about films when I watch them. And so I watch interviews sometimes. And I hate seeing the same interview. And it’s like it is boring and a nightmare getting asked the same question again and again and again and again. But I feel like then you could just answer a different way. Even if it comes to like–I haven’t got to this point yet, but I know Michael Gambon used to just lie. Like he just changes answers.
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Ok, so it seems that Jacob is 100% on board with talking about race, but AMC “butt-clenches” every time it comes up, and THEY told interviewers not to ask him about race, cuz Jacob’s prone to go off and be uncensored & candid, and might say something people don’t like. Which is par for the frikkin course with Hollywood. The racist white money machine gon’ do what the racist white money machine gon’ do.
Even when they literally have Rolin Jones talking candidly about race
they’ll still dance around it and act like race isn’t being discussed, bull effing crap, that is an effing LIE, and I don’t GAF what they told Delainey to say, that white fans just love to quote to gaslight everyone into believing that this show and every effing FRAME isn’t about a BLACK vampire’s experiences. (Esp. when DELAINEY’s the one with TWO lines about race: Armand being darker-skinned than Lou, and Madeleine being a “weird white woman!”) Passive aggressively shading us whenever “that sector” of the fandom starts “looking too deeply into” the show, and telling people to just block liberally to “curate safe spaces” in the fandom for your fragile white feelings when ROLIN is the one who’s BEEN saying that RACE EFFING MATTERS.
I was so bummed when they got the producers to do the insider interviews in S2, cuz I missed how forthright RJ was, even when he put his foot in his mouth. He wrote this show with a Black lead and a Black Claudia and an Asian Armand for a effing reason, and it is so disappointing that journalists are so effing passe and like Jacob said: BORING. We’re not effing stupid.
