[Caution, spoilers about Season 1 of Interview with the Vampire ahead. Read at your own risk!]

As Interview with the Vampire, AMC’s bloody good adaptation of the Anne Rice novel, wraps its first highly acclaimed season, the show left us with a lot to unpack ahead of Season 2. First and foremost, there’s the toxic and at times shocking relationship between the almost 200-year-old Lestat (Sam Reid) and Louis –– Lestat’s oft-tormented lover/brother/homie friend played by  Jacob Anderson. Bound by an eternal damned curse and what at least looks like love, their relationship has been full of so much drama, tears, yelling, and even physical violence. Add in their makeshift daughter/sister Claudia (Bailey Bass) and the fact that Louis is Black and Lestat is white, Interview with the Vampire offered up a lot to think about and sink your teeth into. But as intense as watching IWTV was, watching was nothing compared to playing him.

“I stopped reading the script halfway through because my heart was pounding,” Anderson says of his first read of the material. He’d gone through eight rounds of auditions before landing the part. “I was just struck by it. The way that Louis processes his grief, his shame, his guilt, and his lack of acceptance of himself, are things that I really relate to and have throughout my life. I felt a little bit violated initially, like, somebody was shining a torch into my brain.”

Related: Exclusive: 'Interview With The Vampire' Star Bailey Bass Reveals How Character Helped Her Connect with her Roots

Of course, this imagining of the IWTV story makes Louis both Black and queer (whether he’s explicitly gay or bisexual isn’t totally clear but besides the point; he definitely likes dudes)––forcing Louis to deal with a double dose of bigotry and discrimination, sometimes within his own family. Though the Jazz Era New Orleans setting in which Season 1 takes place is depicted as a kind of boozy, bawdy anything-goes hedonistic capital, its liberalism does not exclude racism or homophobia. And while Lestat loves Louis, it’s very clear to both of them that Lestat’s wealth and whiteness allow Louis to live in a protective bubble that is penetrated several times in the season. Through Lestat, Louis enjoys a lot of privilege, but it’s a kind of prison too. Anderson, who saw the 1994 film as a teen and read Rice’s novels as he was preparing to become Louis, says that the character takes on a whole new level of significance as a Black man.

“You understand why this person, who has been so disempowered in his human existence, to be offered the chance of power [takes it]. It feels like something that would be too good to be true,” he says. “And then the realization that these vampire powers cannot actually buy you out of society's image of you, I think that creates an even deeper turmoil than the one that [Louis] has in the book.”

The on-screen chemistry between Anderson and Reid is amazing, making for richly complex and exhilarating material. Anderson says that he and Reid made a pact very early on to have each others’ backs and be supportive in playing these parts, which require a lot of emotional exertion but physical demands too, from running to jumping and, yes, that epic fight in Episode 5. Marking an apogee in Louis and Lestat’s twisted romance, that scorched earth fight had Lestat nearly beat the Black off Louis, then drop him from the heavens back down to the ground. It was brutal and hard to watch, though it symbolized the flawed power dynamic between them, and set up what was to follow: Claudia’s plot to kill Lestat and be free of him for good.

“It’s very difficult to explain what that connection is,” Anderson says. “But I think there has to be love there. There has to be something that is at least adjacent to love.” He’s careful to point out that, while their relationship bears similarities with human love, theirs exists in a different context because they are not human but immortals. “I don't think there's any denying that it is an abusive relationship. The way that Lestat treats Louie is not acceptable. But the actual reason why they love each other comes down to acceptance. Louis has lived a life having to hide who he really is, and this person really understands him and says, I love you, I accept you, and I see you. I think that's the thing that binds him to Lestat.”

For now, at least, these two are on hiatus; going into Season 2, Lestat is, unbeknownst to Louis and Claudia, recovering from their assassination attempt, with Louis and Claudia escaping New Orleans for parts unknown. Yet we can be sure their wretched romance is far from over, meaning there’s much more to explore and unpack both for Louis and for Anderson himself.

“I feel like it's some of the best character writing on TV at the moment,” says Anderson. “Whilst it is absolutely a show about a queer relationship, it's not defined by the tragedy in that relationship. Their sexuality is not the point of the show. It's more about the relationship itself. And Louis is kind of stuck in this version of human existence, and it's something that specifically relates to race.”