[Warning: The following contains MAJOR spoilers for Talamasca: The Secret Order Season 1 Episode 2.]
Here’s a weird fact: Partying/dancing scenes in TV and movies rarely have actual music playing when being filmed. This is so the crew can record clear audio from the actors, which means that everyone on camera has to pretend they’re all dancing to music that’s not really there. That was the case on the set of Anne Rice’s Talamasca: The Secret Order Episode 2, which features a club scene that star Nicholas Denton reveals was full of Anne Rice fans as extras — some of whom thought they might be on the set of Interview With the Vampire, according to the actor.
Talamasca debuted on Sunday, October 26, on AMC and AMC+ with two episodes. Maisie Richardson-Sellers‘ Olive, a Talamasca handler, is introduced on the dance floor of a club while Guy (Denton) is dancing with and kissing a woman named Kevis. The three of them go at it a bit before Olive ominously says to Guy, “You’re in so much trouble.”
“That was a crazy scene to film,” Denton tells TV Insider in the video above, adding that they “didn’t know where the cameras were, and we had probably 80 different [supporting artists] on there as well, just dancing.”
“We were in Oldham in England, north of England,” he says. “They’d locked down this club, and they’d brought in 80 to 100 extras, and they were just heaving. I didn’t know where the close-ups were coming from. I didn’t know where the mid-shots were coming from.”
The hidden cameras made things feel “very real,” but only when you’re ignoring the weird silent disco part of it all.
“It’s so weird, man,” Denton says with a smile. There’s “lots of grunts, lots of panting,” but no music, he recalls, and they all just had to stay in the moment of the steamy scene. This dance floor was also full of people who were eager to be part of AMC’s Immortal Universe. Because the show had to keep filming details under wraps during production, the extras weren’t quite sure which Rice show they were working on until they got to set.
“All those [supporting artists] that came on for that were huge Anne Rice fans,” Denton reveals. “So when they put the casting call out, people came in droves to just get onto that set. And I remember some of them were like, ‘This is for Interview [With the Vampire]?’ I’m like, ‘Nah, this is for Talamaca. This is a different one, but it’s in the same universe.’”
Denton wasn’t phased that the fans thought they were on the set of Interview With the Vampire (now called The Vampire Lestat for Season 3). The Australian actor was just happy they were excited. He says that fans said back to him, “If it’s in the universe, I’m happy to be here.”
Denton also addresses Eric Bogosian‘s cameo as Daniel Molloy in Talamasca Episode 1 in the full video above. He says the writers’ room handled writing the pages of Molloy’s memoir seen in the episode, but that the show’s creators worked out some details with Interview With the Vampire boss Rolin Jones.
Talamasca: The Secret Order, Sundays, 9/8c, AMC, Streaming on AMC+