Spoiler Warning: The following article contains spoilers for Interview with the Vampire season 2.

Delainey Hayles is an up-and-coming actress who earned herself an important role in the AMC series Interview with the Vampire. Based on the Interview with the Vampire books by Anne Rice, the show premiered in 2022 as the third adaptation of the series after the 1994 movie with Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt and the 2002 film, Queen of the Damned, starring Stuart Townsend and Aaliyah. Unlike those first two films, Interview with the Vampire the series more readily embraces the queer ideas present in Rice's original texts and makes them a core part of the show.

Arriving in the cast in season 2 is Delainey Hayles, a British actress born on March 10, 1999. Hayles replaced Bailey Bass as Claudia in season 2 after a scheduling issue (via scenes from Disney Channel shows with her little sister, which soon evolved into them making short videos on photobooth, spurring Hayles' interest in acting (via TheNewsette). Even at a young age, Hayles has already had an impressive career.

Delainey Hayles Stars As Claudia In Interview With The Vampire

Hayles Replaces Bailey Bass From Season 1

Delainey Hayles appears in Interview with the Vampire as Claudia, a 14-year-old girl who Lestat de Lioncourt (Sam Reid) turns into a vampire when Louis de Pointe du Lac (Jacob Anderson) begs him to do so to save her life. Now damned to be a teenager forever, Claudia begins to see Louis and Lestat as parental figures, a relationship the trio has some difficulties managing. Hayles does an excellent job of bridging her performance and Bass' while still making the character her own. Her adherence to the book characterization ensures there's no awkwardness when the role is handed over.

Delainey Hayles Has Appeared In Too Soon And Holby City

Hayles' Biggest Role Is In Interview With The Vampire

Hayles began professionally acting on screen in 2019 with the short film, Something in the Closet, where she plays Asha. This role led to a one-episode part in the British miniseries, Too Close, as Billie. Her second-biggest role came in the 2022 TV show Holby City as Billie Faber. Holby City is a British medical TV drama about the lives of the staff at Holby City Hospital, and the show serves as a spinoff of the British series Casualty. Billie is a pregnant woman with a secret who comes to the hospital for six episodes in season 23.

In 2022, Hayles appeared in the short film Birds as Maya. Interview with the Vampire is by far Hayles' biggest role and the best chance most audiences have had to get a good sense of the young actor. Each of her parts has showcased a fearlessness in performing, particularly in regard to Claudia's death scene in Interview with the Vampire. She has to be in pain, be terrified, and also sing defiantly all at the same moment, and she does so with complete honesty and dedication to the performance.

Delainey Hayles Has Also Worked In The British Theater

Hayles Has Appeared On The West End Stage

Part of Hayles' willingness to play such a big character as Claudia, possibly stems from her background in the theater. She has performed with Trafalgar Entertainment and The Andrew Lloyd Webber Bridge Company. Delainey Hayles has played Keira in Sticky and Lucy Pevensie in The Lion, Witch and the Wardrobe (West End). It's fitting then that Claudia is so enamored with the Théâtre des Vampires in Interview with the Vampire and that a theater is where she meets her end.