A few minor spoilers in this interview of TVGuide with Valentina Cervi, the Italian actress who portrays Salome.
Valentina Cervi: She is the right hand of Roman at the beginning. She shares a very special intimacy with him, so they have a layered relationship. Every vampire has a different agenda in The Authority, and of course, we’re all next to Roman, but the interesting thing is that everybody has his or her own way of thinking, and when the season goes on, you will find out where everybody stands, and who everybody stands next to. Of course there’s a lot of Biblical and historical references because they have inspired Salome from the biblical Salome. She’s been a victim since she was a kid. She was sold by her mother when she was a kid, so she has a lot of hate in her, and she brings that hate and that need of love with her in the season.
How is this Salome different from what we know of the Bible?
Cervi: Talking with the writers, we all agree on the fact that she has been betrayed as a kid. So today, she has this very complicated and sexual relationship with human beings. She can’t trust them. That’s why when she became a vampire, she could, in some way, stand up for her rights, and that’s where all her anger, her fear and also her pain comes from, from the betrayal that she received when she was a kid.
What do Salome and The Authority want from Bill and Eric?
Cervi: There’s an apparent reason and it is to bring them on her side. She wants people to be on her side, and she understands who people are. At the beginning, she can’t really trust Eric. She knows Eric, she knows everything from his past, and she knows about Godric and Nora. With Bill, she feels that he is someone she can, in some way, manipulate more. At the same time, she respects Bill more because she sees his heart and she knows that he has a good heart. She’s really intrigued by him. She will have feelings for both of them during the season. It’s not that she wants something; she’s a loving character, even if it doesn’t seem like it. She’s full of love and needs to be loved. It’s complicated.
I hear we’ll actually meet Lilith this season. How does Salome feel about this person coming in and saying she’s the original vampire?
Cervi: Salome really believes that Lilith is The Goddess, that Lilith is the God that we have to trust, and follow, and believe everything that is written in the Bible is true.
What kind of vampire is Lilith? Is she everything that Salome imagined?
Cervi: Yes. She is the mother of everybody and people will see that in a different way. Vampires will perceive her in a different way. When Lilith appears, she’s everything that we all think she is. She’s this beautiful, seducing, motherly goddess, and then a lot of things are going to happen. I can’t reveal too much, but it’s not what it seems, and even we will be very surprised. You believe in something and then suddenly things change, then you find yourself in a crisis, but it’s great fun. It’s great fun because it really leaves all the doors open for the characters to explore different sides of their personality and different sides of life, if you can call that life.
Read the complete interview on TVGuide
