In Anne Rice’s The Vampire Lestat, Lestat de Lioncourt has reinvented himself as The Vampire Lestat, a rock musician keen on telling his side of the story. While on tour and being haunted by the “muses” from his past, his band’s popularity grows and so does Lestat’s influence over vampires and humans alike. We sat down with Sam Reid (aka Lestat), Jacob Anderson (aka Louis de Pointe du Lac), and showrunner/creator Rolin Jones to discuss the incredible experience of the one night only Lestat performance at the Beacon Theatre in NYC, the fun of plopping Lestat into the modern world, and the music that moves them (quite literally). 

At this point you’ve felt the amazing energy of the fans at a variety of cons, but the insanity of last night... I mean the way the crowd erupted whenever anyone went to their seat. And then when the show began and Sam sauntered out — that was Beatlemania-level screaming! I’m sure it’s wonderful being on the receiving end of that but also maybe a bit out of body? How are you all feeling after last night? 

Jacob Anderson: It's pretty weird. It's not normal! [Laughs] 

Sam Reid: I didn't really see that much of it because I did the photographs at the beginning [on the red carpet] and it was nice to see people there. Then I went up to get changed and while I was getting ready I kept hearing rumbles. I was like, "What's going on? What's happening out there?” But I really had no idea. I just kept imagining Eric running up and down the barricade riling fans up. [Laughs] I was like, "Are they giving out tickets or something? What's going on?!" 

JA: Are they shooting t-shirts from t-shirt canons? [Laughs] 

SR: I didn't really hear much of the reactions from the episode screening either. I did hear the reaction to Eric’s line when he steps off the elevator! With his one liner – “I heard there was an after-party on the asshole floor!” I heard that eruption! I was like, "Wow, that's fun!" I had the in-ear monitors, so the crowd to me sounded very quiet. 

I was thinking to myself when I was upstairs getting ready, I was like, "This is a fucking TV show. This is a TV show!” And it’s wonderful to be a part of that. I mean, it's wild. It's so cool that it can touch people in that way. That it can take on their personality and their vibe, and they can come dressed as something and then meet their people — it's so special. 

I was eating around the corner, and I could see the red-carpet arrivals. Rolin, I could see you interacting with the fans and really hanging with them. They love you! They love chatting with you. 

Rolin Jones: Well, I mean, some of them had flown in from crazy places and they didn’t even have a ticket! People from Brazil, Italy, France. I was trying to think about things that when I was a young person I would have camped out and done that for. And it's crazy that we're that thing! It was very gratifying. 

The book is such an in depth and absolutely delicious read. We learn so much about Lestat and we really see so many of these iconic moments from the book on screen this season. But there is a lot. Did you have a short list of things from the book that you absolutely had to include this season? How does one set about to whittle down such a giant oak?! 

RJ: Yeah, there's a lot that goes into it. First and foremost, you start like, "Oh, we can do anything!" And I think the first things to go were things or beats that I thought we had done through Louis' story, whether it was in Season 1 or Season 2. Just thinking about the real estate of it all. 

Almost all the Gabriella stuff was really important to us, and we made decisions there about whether we would keep all that. For instance, when Lestat first goes out with Gabriella, that is our version. It's in Toledo in the here and now, and they haven't seen each other for a while. So, it's more about figuring out what's it like to be with those two? How’s it different than when he went out hunting with Louis — all those details. So much of the challenge of a third season is that we’ve got to top what we did in previous seasons and we've got to make you reengage with all of that stuff too. 

The idea of Lestat in 2025 is just so great. He seems really into his phone which tracks. It’s fun and exciting to see him sort of Boomer his way through our modern world. When it comes to artistic and fashion influences, Lestat has his feet firmly planted in some of the coolest decades of the past. I immediately thought Marc Bolan, Elvis, Bowie, but Scott Weiland of Stone Temple Pilots and Gavin Rossdale in those early Bush years also came to mind. How did you sort out vibe, look, and aesthetics for this version of Lestat? 

RJ: Well, we have a book that's set beautifully in the '80s where a lot of his choices make perfect sense. So, the fun part here was taking those choices and moving them to 2025… and seeing what not a great choice that would be at this time. So aesthetically, yeah, Marc Bolan's always been a thing from the beginning. We were trying to consider that Lestat has pretty good taste for 250 years of existence and the things that he pulls out reflect that. Sometimes he maybe mentions things for snotty reasons, but for the most part I think he has pretty excellent taste. 

I think we kind of land him in an early Gen X spot which means that in 2025 he’s already behind the times and that's what felt exciting and fun for all of us. We would drop some really great references in there and be like, "we should make that a little nerdier to make that joke land for 1800 less people.” It felt like we were creating a character that has a Venn diagram of like four people in the world, literally. 

One last question for everyone with Lestat in mind. If you're walking down the streets of your favorite city with your headphones on, what do you put on to strut your stuff? 

SR: Ooooh I don't know, because it would change all the time, but since we're in New York, I have an answer. That first Black Keys album is very nostalgic to me. I would just listen to it over and over and over on repeat walking around New York City when I was 19. I don't know, I would love to relive that time again just because here we are in New York City, 20 years later doing something that guy would never have dreamt would have possibly happened! 

JA: I listen to Death Grips quite a lot and there's a song called ‘Guillotine.’ This is too long an answer to go fully into, but there's a beautiful film I just saw called Is God Is. There's a scene in it where they're driving in a car listening to ‘Guillotine,’ which was a crazy moment for me because that's what I do! I drive around London and I like crank up Death Grips when I'm on my own. 

RJ: There’s one song by this very young, very attractive British pop artist off of his album that he’s working on right now... [Looks over to Jacob]. The artist's is named Raleigh Ritchie. Can I say the name of the song? 

JA: You can, yeah. 

RJ: ‘Run Run…’ and I’ve played it over and over and over again.

The Vampire Lestat airs on Sundays at 9/8c on AMC. Episodes are available to stream on amc.com (with a cable provider login), and the AMC apps for mobile and devices. You can also watch episodes via AMC+ at amcplus.com or through the new AMC+ app available on iPhone, iPad, Android, Fire TV, Apple TV, and Roku plus Samsung and Vizio smart TVs. AMC+ can also be streamed through a variety of providers, including AppleTV, Prime Video Channels, DirectTV, Dish, Roku Channel, Sling, and Xfinity. Sign up for AMC+ now.