There’s a New Claudia? ‘Interview With the Vampire’ Replaces Bailey Bass With Delainey Hayles

When fans of Interview With the Vampire tune into the Season 2 premiere tonight on AMC, they might be in for something of a disturbing shock. Interview With the Vampire Season 2 has replaced Season 1’s Claudia, Bailey Bass, with new Claudia, Delainey Hayles. The recasting is handled with a title card up top that reads, “THE ROLE OF CLAUDIA WILL NOW BE PLAYED BY DELAINEY HAYLES.”

So what happened? Why did Interview With the Vampire replace Bailey Bass? Was Bailey Bass fired from Interview With the Vampire? Was Delainey Hayles a better Claudia?? Why did Bailey Bass leave? WHAT IS GOING ON WITH THE NEW CLAUDIA IN INTERVIEW WITH THE VAMPIRE SEASON 2???

Wondering why the child vampire of Interview With the Vampire looks a whole lot different in Season 2? Dying to know what happened to Bailey Bass? Curious about how Delainey Hayles got the part? Here’s everything we know about why Interview With the Vampire replaced Bailey Bass with Delainey Hayles as Claudia…

Why Did Interview With the Vampire Season 2 Replace Bailey Bass With Delainey Hayles?

As it happens, no one has officially shared what exactly happened behind-the-scenes. All AMC has ever revealed is that “due to unforeseen circumstances,” the role of Claudia had to be recast for Season 2…and in a very tight timespan. In an interview with EW.com, Delainey Hayles reveals nothing but love for Bailey Bass and that her casting process was exceptionally speedy for an industry known for putting actors through their paces. It was crazy. “Now looking at it, I’m like, ‘Whoa.’ But doing it, I was literally having the time of my life, so it went really quickly,” Hayles told the outlet.

According to EW.com, after sending in a self-tape, Hayles was invited to audition in person the next day. Hayles explained to Decider at Winter 2024 TCA that meeting Interview With the Vampire co-star Jacob Anderson in the bathroom right before their audition together put her at ease.

“I opened the door and Jacob was coming in and I just went, ‘Oh!’ And Jacob went, ‘Hi,’ and it was like the nicest ‘hi’ ever and I was like, ‘Oh, thank you,’” Hayles said, prompting Anderson to giggle. “And that’s when I knew he’s really sweet.”

EW.com fills in the rest, revealing that the next day she was told the part was hers and she had to fly to Prague the next day to work on nailing Claudia’s look.

Given this timeline and some other industry news stories, we have a working theory for why Bailey Bass left Interview With the Vampire and Delainey Hayles was given the role of Claudia in Season 2…and it has to do with the Avatar movies.

Before she worked on Interview With the Vampire, Bailey Bass had played Tsireya in Avatar: The Way of Water. When that film became a massive success, James Cameron forged ahead on its sequels…which also star Bass. So our guess is she had to leave abruptly when her contract with Cameron superseded her commitment to her Interview With the Vampire gig. Just drawing conclusions here!

Who is Delainey Hayles? Meet the New Claudia

Delainey Hayles is an English actress who was best known for stage work in London before landing the part of Claudia in Interview With the Vampire Season 2. Her past television credits include Holby City and Too Close. You can follow her on Instagram @delaineyhayles.