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| Claudia the Vampire | |
| Aliases: | Claudia |
| Continuity: | The Vampire Chronicles |
| Notability: | Main character |
| Type: | Child |
| Gender: | Female |
| Race: | Vampire |
| Location: | New Orleans, Louisiana |
| Relatives: | Lestat de Lioncourt [1] Louis de Pointe du Lac [2] Madeleine [3] |
| Status: | Deceased |
| Born: | 1789 |
| Died: | 1854 |
| Actor: | Kirsten Dunst Bailey Bass |
Claudia is a fictional child and a vampire and one of the central characters featured in "The Vampire Chronicles" line of novels. He was created by author Anne Rice and first appeared in the 1976 novel Interview with the Vampire, published by Knopf. The character was brought to unlife on the big screen in the Interview with the Vampire: The Vampire Chronicles feature film by director Neil Jordan. She was played by actress Kirsten Dunst in the film. Claudia the Vampire was also a main character on the Interview with the Vampire television series on AMC and was played by actress Bailey Bass. The character was also featured in the Interview with the Vampire comic book limited series published by Innovation Comics in 1991.
Biography[]
Kirsten Dunst as Claudia.
Claudia was a young girl from New Orleans, Louisiana born in the year 1789. When she was five-years-old, her parents had died of plague, leaving Claudia to mourn over their corpses. The vampire known as Louis de Pointe du Lac - starved for blood, came upon her. Unable to resist temptation any longer, he attacked Claudia and drank her blood near to the point of death. Louis' maker, Lestat de Lioncourt, fed the dying Claudia some of his own blood, turning her into a vampire.
Claudia was now immortally trapped in the body of a child for the remainder of her years, even though her mind and personality would age as a normal person. She lived with Louis and Lestat and posed as their daughter. Bereft of the memory of her own making, Claudia was unaware of exactly who it was that had given her the so-called "dark gift".
As the decades passed, Claudia formed a stronger bond with Louis than she did with Lestat, who found her to be increasingly irritating. One evening, in a fit of rage, she demanded to know who it was that had turned her. Lestat rudely revealed her origins to her, and made a cruel point to showcase how she would always be a child, and never strong enough to produce vampire progeny of her own.
Claudia decided to take matters into her own hands. She approached Lestat one evening under the premise of a peace offering. She showed him the unconscious bodies of two boys, whom she had abducted and knocked out with a thimble full of wine. Lestat drank from the boys, and immediately began to feel ill. Claudia revealed that the boys were in fact dead. She had actually fed them absinthe and laudanum. Consumption of the blood of the dead had adverse affects on a vampire, and Lestat collapsed as the poisonous blood took hold of him. Claudia then slit his throat and stabbed him in the chest. Believing Lestat dead, she coaxed Louis into helping her dump his body into the nearby swamps.
Kirsten Dunst as Claudia.
Claudia and Louis left America and traveled the world in search of others like them. They ended up in Paris, France and came upon the Théâtre des Vampires on Temple du Boulevard. The theater was operated by a coven of vampires who lived in catacombs beneath the building and were led by a vampire named Armand. Claudia immediately perceived the attraction that Louis shared with Armand and feared that he would soon leave her. As she could not procreate a vampire progeny herself, she begged Louis to give her a companion by turning a dollmaker named Madeleine into a vampire. Reluctantly, Louis did as was asked.
Armand and the other vampires at the theater learned that Claudia had attempted to kill her maker, Lestat. This was a severe violation of the code that vampires adhered to, and it carried with it a punishment of death. Additionally, vampires were also prohibited from turning children, and a vampire child was always put to death. Without Armand's knowledge, the theater vampires locked Louis away, then captured Claudia and Madeleine. They locked them away in a deep cistern, and as the sun came up, they both burned until their bodies turned to ash.
When Louis escaped from his confinement, he learned what the other vampires had done. Out of revenge for destroying Claudia, he trapped all of the vampires but for Armand inside of their crypts and set the entire area ablaze, killing them all.
Abilities[]
- Vampirism: In addition to the various mental and physical benefits that vampires are heir to, they also possess the ability to turn others into vampires as well. Each new vampire is traditionally subservient to the one who "turned" them, but some strong-willed vampires have been known to rebel against their masters.
- Enhanced senses: Vampires have improved several times higher than those of any human being of course these skills can vary depending on each person they will have some other stronger senses of his companions always given the dedication and training that each set to improve ways. Among the main ways that vampires have improved we find the following:
- Immortality: So long as vampires continue to consume blood, they will not age beyond the physical state they were in when they first became a vampire.
- Invulnerability: Vampires are invulnerable to most forms of injury (certain exceptions apply). Bullets, blades and blunt objects do little to no damage to a vampire's body.
- Regeneration: In addition to being virtually indestructible, whatever damage a vampire does in fact suffer can be healed through the consumption of human blood.
- Superhuman strength: A vampire's strength level is several times that of a normal human being and they are considered superhuman.
- Superhuman stamina: So long as they continue to consume human blood, a vampire can function tirelessly without rest or relaxation. However, a vampire's stamina wanes the closer it is to sunrise.
- Psychokinesis: Most vampires possess some form of psychokinesis. Some are clairvoyant, others can communicate telepathically, some possess mind control. Particularly powerful vampires can control the minds of several people at once.
- Hypnosis: Vampires possess the ability to hypnotize or mesmerize human targets. This may become difficult against opponents with an extremely high will power. It often doesn't work against other supernatural creatures. In some cases, vampire mesmerism may be referred to as "glamouring".
- Transformation: Vampires often possess the ability to transform into a variety of creatures or effects such as bats, wolves, rats or even mist. While their physical attributes may fluctuate during such states, a vampire's mental acuity is the same as that when they are in their human shape. A vampire who transforms into an animal may also benefit from that particular animal's attributes including razor-sharp claws, fangs or the ability to fly.
- Metamorphosis: Only vampires with a more advanced powers Control demonstrate the ability of altering either its appearance to imitate other people or in such cases selective transformation for creating claws to increase the lethal capability of its attacks in extreme cases and only vampires with a capacity of very advanced monitoring capabilities such change would show how elements, elasticity and other capabilities which vary depending on their ability, imagination and control, because as you know some vampires are stronger than others.
- Claws: Vampires can often turn their fingernails into sharpened claws, which are extremely durable and sharp. They are ideal for rending and tearing through flesh, though they are not as effective as the claws possessed by a werewolf.
- Fangs: A vampire's most often-used weapon are her fangs. They are enlarged sharpened canine teeth, which are often retractable so as to allow a vampire the ability to pose as a normal human. The primary purpose of fangs is for feeding, which they use to puncture the jugular vein of a victim in order to get to their blood.
Notes & Trivia[]
- The character of Claudia the Vampire was created by writer Anne Rice.
- Actress Kirsten Dunst was 11-years-old when she played Claudia in Neil Jordan's Interview with the Vampire: The Vampire Chronicles.
- Actress Bailey Bass was 19-years-old when she started playing Claudia in AMC's Interview with the Vampire.