Claudia (The Vampire Chronicles)

Claudia
The Vampire Chronicles character
Kirsten Dunst as Claudia in the 1994 film Interview with the Vampire
First appearance	Interview with the Vampire
Last appearance	Merrick
Created by	Anne Rice
Portrayed by	Kirsten Dunst (Interview with the Vampire)
Information
Species	Vampire
Gender	Female
Family	Agatha (mother) Unnamed Father Lestat de Lioncourt (maker/adoptive father) Louis de Pointe du Lac (adoptive father) Madeleine (adoptive mother)
Nationality	American

Claudia is a fictional character in Anne Rice's The Vampire Chronicles series. She is one of the main characters in Interview with the Vampire (1976), the first novel in the series. She also features in The Vampire Lestat, The Queen of the Damned, The Tale of the Body Thief, The Vampire Armand and Merrick.

Claudia (her last name is never given) was a young girl who lived in the very poor, plague-ravaged quarters of 18th century New Orleans. She lost both of her parents to the plague, and is first introduced as a crying child of five years old in her abandoned house, next to her dead mother's rotting, disease-ridden body. She is described as being very petite in size and delicately shaped, with long golden ringlets for hair and porcelain white skin. She is found by Louis de Pointe du Lac, the protagonist of Interview with the Vampire, and begs him to “wake” her mother. Louis instead feeds on Claudia, much to his self-disgust, and leaves her for dead. However, her life is saved by Lestat de Lioncourt, Louis's maker.

Claudia is taken to the vampires' wealthy townhouse in the heart of New Orleans, and there she is turned into a vampire by Lestat. Lestat tells her that she is his and Louis's "daughter" and that now that she is in their family, Louis can not leave them. Though Louis is at first horrified at the thought of a vampire child (and indeed he accuses Lestat of condemning Claudia to hell), he and Claudia become very attached and the three form a close relationship and live a “family” lifestyle for the next several decades.

Although the three vampires spend many years in happiness, luxury and comfort, Claudia slowly but surely begins to grow more and more detached, insisting on self-sufficiency and even gaining her own miniature coffin so that she does not have to sleep with either Lestat or Louis during the daylight hours. Claudia becomes highly self-educated and philosophical under Louis's tutelage. She also becomes an indiscriminate murderer under Lestat's guidance. She would "appear to her victims as a little angel" and lure them to their deaths.