On this edition of SNAPSHOTS, we are going to sink our teeth into the sophomore season of Syfy’s fang-tastic series “Reginald the Vampire” which starts Wednesday May 8 at 10 pm EST
With its debut season making its way to cable’s number two scripted program in the 18-49 demographic, this season promises even more bite, more drama and more undead surprises. Our guest today returns as one of the centuries old vampire of great power and perhaps great responsibility. We’re looking forward to seeing her back as Angela next week.
Let’s welcome to SNAPSHOTS, Savannah Basley!
Thank you so much for having me.
Well, it’s so great to have you here. Wonderful freshman year. And I’m so glad that the show’s been renewed for a third season, congratulations!
Oh, yes. Thank you so much.
The first question I want to ask is for those who are not familiar with Reginald the Vampire and shame on them for not seeing the first season, can you give us a quick recap of what the show is all about?
Well, Reginald is based on the books by Johnny B. Truant called Fat Vampire but ours called Reginald the Vampire. Reginald is not exactly in our world. There’s a lot of beautiful, very shallow, shall you say, vampires and Reginald gets turned by Maurice. It’s all about his journey of what happens if someone, who’s just run of the mill, gets turned into a vampire.
What piqued your interest in playing the role of Angela?
I have always been a really big fan of vampire lore. I love it. All kinds of vampire lore, whether it was Anne Rice vampires, or those more demony vampires like in the movie, Priest. I just loved vampires growing up. So, I was very excited when Angela came across through my agent. I really liked the idea of playing a vampire. In my mind, I’ve always wanted to live up to an Aaliyah’s version of a vampire from Queen of the Damned. I was like “oh my gosh, I need to do this so much.” I just thought it would be really fun and a great thing to check off my bucket list.
I take it that the inspiration from Aaliyah’s Queen of the Damned was your homework for taking on Angela in a way?
Yes definitely! Aaliyah was a really big inspiration for me personally. She was so hypnotizing in that movie. I just wanted to be even just a fraction of that. For me, it was really the physicality that Aaliyah brought to that character. I’m not a dancer. So, I feel that came a little bit more naturally for Aaliyah, but I definitely brought in that physicality, a very cat like physicality. Then, just in terms of personality wise, there’s a little bit of me in there, not a whole lot. I’m not as terrible as Angela is but, definitely some sassiness I brought that in.
It definitely shows especially in your portrayal of Angela in the first season. Speaking of which, how has Angela evolved from the freshman season of this series to the upcoming sophomore year, which we’re about to see this month?
I personally feel like Angela has evolved quite a bit. I definitely feel Angela is the type of person since she’s been turned 300 years ago. For her, her whole thing of trying to gain control of the situation has always been to attain power and keep that power. For her, feeling powerful and controlling those people around her, really made her feel like she was in control of the situation. And in turn, she isolated herself a lot, which I think is why Angela was such an angry person in the first season.
Even when it came to like her minions, she wanted them around because she kind of missed. I don’t think she really realized it, but she missed having people around her. Even in the way that she treated them, she was still very controlling of them and did anything she could to push people away. Then when Maurice came into her life the first time, I think the reason that she kind of sabotage that because he reminded her of what it was like to be human and what it was like to have people around you that you cared about.
I think she’s just so afraid of being alone that she sabotages those relationships and tried to push and shove people away. By the end of the first season, and at the beginning of the second, I think she’s definitely come to appreciate and really crave those relationships again, and missed having a team around her. So definitely in this season, Angela seems kind of begrudgingly doing it, but she’s definitely warming up to the idea of having people around her and being a part of the team.
Now that we are about to embrace Season Two, what has been your favorite Angela moment from season one?
Whoo, that’s a good question. I would definitely say episode four – the flashback episode (All the Time in the World) with me and Maurice, that was a lot of fun for me to do. It’s so funny. I’m such a horror fan that I’m always trying to bring more horror into anything that I do that. I always forget that it’s also a comedy. It was funny when David Frazee who directed that episode, I kept trying to make her like more villainous, and he kept being “just a little bit lighter, just a little bit lighter.” Definitely the scene where Angela is chasing after Maurice’s mom, that was a really fun scene for me to play. I definitely wanted to bring in the most villainous side that I could of Angela. Just to show why there’s so much tension between her and Maurice.
Oh, absolutely. I’ve heard a lot of actors say, myself included, it’s always fun to play the villain instead of the good guy. I got to ask you, do you agree with that statement?
100% I love playing villainous characters, or even just morally ambiguous characters. They’re a lot of fun to play. I feel like there’s so many more. It’s such more of a wide spectrum of emotions and kind of options that you can play without worrying that the character is going to become disliked because it doesn’t matter if the character is disliked or not.
You’ve mentioned moments ago that you like horror, what type of horror movies/TV series do you enjoy?
That is so hard to narrow down because horror is such a broad spectrum and that’s why I love it. There’re so many genres that fall under the horror genre which for me, that’s one of the things that I love about it. You can get into that kind of the emotional & psychological horror. Things like Hereditary or The Babadook. And then there’s also the creature horror, body horror that can come into it. It’s so hard to pinpoint.
But recently, I really liked When Evil Lurks which I found really great. I like tiptoeing into different countries’ horror because I find that they always bring a lore or nods to different historical things that I may not think of right away. There’s always more of a twist or a surprise for me, because I’m so used to the same lore that American or Canadian horror movies have. They always relate to the certain same themes. It’s always fun and exciting to tiptoe into a different country who are around because I may not be as aware of their themes. So, it will it’ll surprise me a little bit more.
Is there a specific country’s horror genre that you grasp towards or want to explore more?
I’ve always been a really big fan of Guillermo del Toro. So, a lot of Spanish horror, I feel like I tend to delve into, they’re all really great. I also like a lot of Korean horrors. It’s really fun as well, because it is so different from like I said, the lore are a lot more different than what I’m used to. So, it’s really great. They also have some really great directors coming out of there as well.
Korean horror has really stepped up a notch for the last 20 years and really scared us to death for a few years. I saw that you are going to do a convention this month in Niagara Falls celebrating Wynonna Earp, the Earp Division Expo. Is that correct?
Yeah, yeah. I’m so excited to get to go meet all the fans.
Is this your very first convention by any chance?
No, this will be my second convention. Well, this will be my second Earp convention, but I was very grateful and very lucky for the first season of Reginald. I also got to go two Comic Cons, one in New York and then the San Diego Comic Con as well. So that was really cool.
Well, since you’re new to attending conventions, and meeting the fans, how has been the overall feel of meeting your fans who have seen you in Wynonna Earp and Reginald?
Oh, it’s really great and overwhelming at times. I’m not used to it as much but it is. amazing. I’m always surprised how excited people are to meet me. I’m still taking it in where I’m like “me, oh, okay. Yeah, let’s take a picture.” I’m just I’m so grateful for all of the fans and everyone’s support.
I’m so glad to hear it. Since you’ve done a convention in New York & San Diego and going to do one in Niagara Falls soon, would you ever consider doing one in the DC or Baltimore area?
Yeah. If it came up, I would definitely do one there. That’d be great.
We’re gonna welcome you. What would you like to say to anyone who has not seen your series yet but they need to start watching it especially since season two is about to start?
Yeah, I would definitely say it’s a great time. It’s a lot of fun. It has elements of fun camp in there. There’s definitely a lot of heart that’s in it as well. It’s great especially if you’re someone who’s not really into horror, but you want to be in horror, it’s definitely a good stepping stone to get yourself in there.
If you can describe three words for this upcoming season, what three words would you use?
Bloody action-packed!
Be sure to see Savannah as Angela when Season 2 of Reginald the Vampire premieres this Wednesday May 8th at 10 pm EST on SYFY. Also, if you’re going to be in the Niagara Falls area – she will be one of the guests at the Earp Division Expo – May 16th – 19th 2024 at the Niagara Falls Convention Center. For tickets and more information, go to https://www.earpdivisionexpo.com/
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