AMC!Claudia's Backstory (Bailey Bass' headcanons & Claudia's canonical Diaries)
[x] Claudia's dark & pessimistic outlook/behavior was shaped by the very dark backstory Bailey Bass gave her.
[x] Claudia is a 14yo Black Creole from Storyville.
[x] Claudia grew up DIRT poor--literally. She only owned 1 filthy outfit and no shoes; she ran around barefoot. No one spent money on her. She was filthy, and did not care; she ran around the neighborhood with the other street urchins.
[x] Claudia only owned 1-2 outfits that she alternated "every other day," and no shoes.
[1x4] Claudia's mother died in childbirth, and her biological father abandoned her, giving her away to an abusive aunt who beat her. ("Mom died, dad ran off, aunt didn't want me.")
[x] Claudia's aunt was a wino alcoholic (she directly connects her aunt drinking wine with the "Kill Juice" that she & Lestat call drinking blood). Claudia was a very playful child, who loved playing games and hanging out with other kids.
[x] Claudia never had a loving parental figure; she did not know her parents. Claudia's aunt was a mean woman who dehumanized her, only seeing her as a tool/servant to clean up & do all the chores; only to then belittle her. She quickly & readily accepts Loustat as her new parents because she never had any.
[x] Claudia's bottomless hunger as a vampire comes from the "hard trauma" of her "terrible, horrible backstory," as a girl who grew up with an "abusive" aunt in poverty. The reason she sees Loustat as saviors/angels is because she grew up with NOTHING.
[1x5] Toy stores shut down, abandoned stray cats in boxes, "I wasn't a a baby."
[x] Girls just wanna have fun~!
[x] The "destruction" of Loustat's dynamic when Claudia is created. AMC/Bailey apparently imply that CLAUDIA was the one who got to decide that Louis would be her Daddy and Lestat would be her Uncle. Which tracks ("We're a family? | This is my new house?" "It is if you want it to be!")
[x] Claudia is a product of her environment. Being raised by Loustat, she has obvious similarities to BOTH Louis AND Lestat.
[x] Claudia's relationship with Louis is central; he's her person (a la Delainey Hayles' words); "she chose him. That’s who she’s closer to. That’s who she will go to," when she's in trouble, feeling bad or needs help.
[x] Going through puberty was hard--Bass thought about her own hormonal & emotional fluctuations; going to her mom bursting with tears & crying and not knowing why; just overwhelmed with conflicting feelings.
[1x5] A perverted uncle at the rooming house would watch Claudia pee. (I'm not sure this was a blood uncle; since she was staying at a rooming house--this is more likely the Southern Black way of referring to older men as Uncle/Oncle, like Oncle Julien Mayfair or "Uncle Ruckus, no relation".)
[x] Claudia's relationship with fire comes from her dying in a fire and being reborn as a vampire; and the power that the fire/vampirism gave her to be free and have a new life. But it's also wrapped up in the trauma of being a vampire, trapped in the hormonal body of a hungry teen; and then Lestat ruining his relationship with her by physically restraining her & forcing her to watch her first love Charlie burn. ("A fire. Adopted. One of them was bad trouble.")
[x] "Claudia is very much like a kettle about to boil over," after having endured such a hard life as a Black girl in a man's world, especially with "her increasing rage at Lestat for how he treats the man who saved her [from the fire, Louis]."
[x] (Rolin Jones) Claudia is the most vampiric of them all--her hunger & bloodlust & violence is that much stronger; and that reflects both her power and her trauma as well.
[x x] The other vampires only have 2 fangs--but Claudia has 4; because she is the most "feral" vampire of them all.
[x] Madeleine gave Claudia the female connection she lacked with Loustat. She needed a woman to look up to; someone she could bond with who'd relate to her & understand her the way Loustat couldn't.
[x] Claudia's diaries are a character unto themselves. They're Claudia's best friends ["of last resort"], and they evolve/grow/mature alongside her.
[x] Despite the fact that this is a fantasy story about vampires, this is still a very human story about people with human pasts, experiences, feelings, traumas, and emotions.
Honorable Mention: Jacob Anderson on Louis & Claudia's Unapologetic Blackness
[x] To ignore Louis & Claudia's Black race "takes a lot away from that question of their humanity." Because you CANNOT separate a person from their race, especially not when they live in a racist society like Jim Crow America. To do so does a disservice to the entire story Rolin told by making them Black in the first place.
[x] Jacob encouraging Bailey to "never apologize" or feel like she's "being an inconvenience" for speaking up about wanting accurate & authentic representation about Black experiences.
[x] Bailey was excited to Claudia, "a complex character that’s very loud and unapologetic." (The interviewer misspoke and said Sam instead of Jacob.)
