I keep getting angry again about the way amc is handling Armand and what that means to Assad.
I’m prepared to accept that maybe Assad doesn’t gaf and I’m projecting my own experiences of the workplace onto this. Only he could say for certain.
- Assad was a successful actor but little-known outside of theatre when he auditioned
- he auditioned to play the role of Louis’s servant Rashid, for which he had to break into a theatre at one point
- show runners let him know during the audition process that Rashid was secretly Armand and put him through several more rounds of auditions
- Assad took the initiative to read TVA & other books to become an Armand expert
- he also took the initiative to learn French for the role
- one of his character’s major plot lines (of being the first vampire capitalist/ art dealer/ pilot) was given to another character (Louis) to make that character more interesting and give him more screen time
- amc barely promoted him or his character for S2, despite him being a central character of S2 and having been the plot twist for S1&2
- amc excluded him from promotion again in S3; they did do a “funny” red carpet interview where he had to read a comment from a fan asking where he was in the promo
- showrunner reassured us that Armand was doing a lot behind the scenes and they couldn’t spoil it
- S3 has another character (Lestat) experiencing grooming & parental abuse that just isn’t there in the book, mirroring Armand’s abuse right down to the icy blonde hair Gabriella has (she’s also more Italian in the TV show). Meanwhile, scenes where Armand shares his back story with Lestat & Gabrielle are entirely absent from the show.
- In fact, all of Armand’s canonical scenes are eliminated and instead he is going to AA, stalking Daniel pathetically, starting a new cult, beheading his exes, and doing other total nonsense the show runner invented for no real reason other than to avoid adapting the actual book
- s3 also gave Armand’s charming Halloween moments from QotD to Lestat
- after this baffling season was fully out, amc decides to send the Dubai trio to SDCC (notably absent were the two actors who had the most screentime and had been heavily promoted). This was the first time audiences got to see Jacob & Assad do interviews together.
- new post-season interviews reveal that Assad still doesn’t know how Daniel’s turning will be written, whether Armand and Daniel are doomed, or whether Armand will ever have a story beyond being in love with Daniel and being every season’s plot twist. What’s extra nefarious is that it seems Assad has been told Daniel’s turning will look like David’s turning by Lestat, which means his character has lost his charming and sympathetic plot beats to other characters, but he will be given the heinous and unforgivable actions of a white character to play. Just let that sink in.
- latest interview from TV insider reveals Assad wasn’t even told what Armand’s arc was and what would happen in the finale. He DIDN’T GET TOLD WHAT HIS CHARACTER WOULD BE DOING IN THE FINALE UNTIL RIGHT BEFORE FILMING IT, which means no time to negotiate, just act the scenes. It also means he was unaware during previously filmed scenes where they were going
- post-season interviews with writers have them doubling down on their poor choices and never addressing the “hey, isn’t that racist?” commentary
- In a post-season interview with Men’s Health, Sam Reid reveals the actors are “trapped” in multi-season contracts
- in another interview, the finale director said Assad was doing the best acting he’s ever seen in a single long shot, which the show runner re-cut and broke up to include more shots of Louis’ decapitated head
This show and this role SHOULD BE Assad’s breakthrough moment. He has done everything an actor can do to learn the character, delivered incredible performances, and been gracious about everything.
To see him get robbed of scenes and character lore, and be excluded from promo is bad enough - to know he is trapped in a contract and has to play this racist caricature of the character he signed up to play is horrific.
Even worse is knowing that a lot of Armand fans are so sickened by the show at this point that we might not stick around for another season. Where does it leave Assad if his character just keeps getting less likable and the only fans left are the Armand haters?
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