Do we like Claudia?
A character from Interview with the Vampire (1994)
Our score: 4 out of 10. We feel for her, because she never chose this life. But she kills freely and turns on her own family, so we'd back her only from a safe distance.
Claudia is the child vampire at the centre of Anne Rice's gothic story, which began as the 1976 novel and returned in the 1994 film and AMC's TV series. She is made a vampire while still a young girl by Lestat, who wants to keep his companion Louis close. She then lives as the strange adopted daughter in their household. Kirsten Dunst played her in the film, and Bailey Bass and Delainey Hayles play her in the series.
As the decades pass, her mind matures while her body never does. She is clever, well read and endlessly curious, and she is also furious. She loves Louis as both a father and something more. She resents Lestat for what he did to her. She hunts without guilt and manipulates the people around her to get what she wants. Critics describe her as an angry, sorrowful woman trapped in a teenager's body. That is why she is so hard to judge: she is a villain and a victim at once.
Her score reflects that split. The mistake that made her was never hers, and her wish for freedom and the truth about what she is gets our sympathy. But her answer is violence and scheming. She drags Louis into her plans, including a plot against Lestat and a search for a replacement companion for herself. We understand her, but we wouldn't trust her with our secrets.