'The Vampire Lestat's Sam Reid on Magnus, Claudia, Sofia, and more

What would Lestat think of Taylor Swift or like Chapel Rowan

I think he would love Chapel Rowan. I think she's fantastic. You know, I think one thing about Lestat is that he loves performance

He loves musicians. He loves artists. He is a creative being. You know, his whole way of expressing and operating through the world is through performance

You know, so there is that. I think, you know, even though in season one, you know, he kills the tenor, which, you know, he probably definitely did

You know, he definitely, he definitely, that guy was terrible in his mind

And, you know, he put him through some severe suffering. And he has a dark streak, a mean, mean dark streak to him

But for the majority part, I think he would give most artists the benefit of the doubt

He doesn't like Jefferson Starship. But other than that, there's most things that he liked

The Vampire Lestat, the book, came out at a time where, like, rock and roll was at a very different place

And the show has taken such incredible liberties for the first two seasons

It doesn't feel like you're bound to the conventions of the Vampire Lestat book, all that particularly anyway

So when creating what this Lestat looks like as a rock star and performs like as a rock star, what was that process like for you

It's really a sort of like portrait of an artist, I suppose. which was Roland's sort of point of direction and a constant point of reference

It was like how Lester is a creative being and how he kind of discovers himself

works himself out, kind of really nuts through his issues through his art

You know, that is sort of one of the main arcs of the season is that he's starting the music as a point of deflection from how he's portrayed in the book

So he's like, yeah, I'm a vampire. I'm going to sing about being a vampire and being an evil vampire

So the songs are sort of like set in a, they're sort of ironic in a way

And they're full of bitterness and there's sort of, there's a playfulness to it

And, you know, like in the way that he's sort of interacting with Malloy in the first couple of episodes

is he's sort of like, well, I'm going to do an interview and I'm going to talk about being a vampire

Like Louis talks about being a vampire, which is, you know, Obviously, in the greatest games of things

something kind of sacrilegious for him to do as a vampire. But it's also, that kind of feeds into his music

and he's playing this shtick, this sort of, like, in a way, like, you know, Ozzy Osbourne

drinking the Bat Blood. Like, he's doing the, he's doing the sort of, like

and that is generating some underground fans. And, you know, but I think deep down

he actually wants to be taken seriously as a musician, as an artist. Thousands of fans, Lennon

I want millions. Billions. And progressively, throughout the show, the music changes

and he's still looking for his sound. And particularly by the time you get to episode five

everything changes, and the music becomes much more adult, I suppose. Yeah, it's very exciting, because it's like

fictional pop songs, and by that I mean pop songs that are performed by characters, that it's supposed to be their song

they can be so good. and I think, you know, we've seen a lot of that recently

with like the K-pop Demon Hunters thing. It's been really exciting to watch you kind of

because I've seen the first three episodes, I've seen like Long Phase. The opening title track, All Fall Down

And then I forget the one that's called that they play in episode three, but Wolf Hunter, Wolf Killer

Wolf Killer, no, Biggest Fan is what that one's called. Biggest Fan. so in that episode

he references like the police says I be watching you yeah and then we get like a full like music video that feels very 80s Yeah Like it took me back I love that I curious like what is it like Because it so interesting

Because as you point out, this has always been a show about an unreliable narrator. But we are getting both him posturing for Daniel's camera

And then him, like, explaining himself in the Failures albums. And then him playing himself in, like, a music video understanding of his own legacy

Like, I guess, how do you translate all those variants? I mean, I think the thing is, like, he has, I think just in the way that his backstory was brought up or his transformation was brought up via Louis through Malloy, it was sort of hard to read

It's a very traumatizing transformation. And he's got a lot of unpacked baggage, you know, left because of that

And so the way that, you know, he chooses to talk about it in the real world is this guy was obsessed with me

And, you know, like he's a loser and here's his little fun ballad like Taylor Swift kind of like pop song to get a there you go, Magnus, you know, that you can have that

But he's not really able to shake it. And obviously the reality of it is not, you know, simple kind of like, you know, at your window ballad

It's much more complex. but he's trying to control his narrative at any point in time

And that's the thing, is like Louis is trying to get to the, he's actually actively seeking to get to the centre of himself

and Lestat is actively trying to obfuscate the situation and not expose himself, but he has no choice

It's constantly being thrown back in his face, thrown back in his face until he's forced to deal with it

And that's what the failures is, is we're now seeing somebody go through something that, you know

actually leads us through into future seasons, or a few seasons, but, you know, like, that he's had time to process

And that's when he can have some more self-reflection. Whereas where he is in the story, he doesn't want to have any self-reflection

Talking to you now, I'm like, oh, right, because that song is essentially attempting to, like, defang his abuser

Yeah, yeah, he's like, it was nothing. He's like, you know, he transformed, like, I wanted it to happen

And, yeah, he abandoned me, but it was pathetic. Like, I would be so annoyed if he was following me

throughout the centuries. And, you know, like, he liberated me. He made me who I am

And look how fantastic I am. Like, this is amazing. Like, it's not a big deal. Yeah

And actually, it's a huge deal. And he doesn't want to make it a..

Very rightfully, he says to Malloy, like, who wants another sob story

Like, I'm not going to present you my life as some big abuse narrative

I'm not going to sit here and wallow like Louis did and just talk about how painful my existence is

and suffer when there are so many positive things about the situation that I'm in

But actually, he does have a lot of darkness and a lot of things that not just

he's got two makers, you know, he's got his mother and he's got Magnus. And both of those figures are very, very influential

in, I mean, what forms him as a character and are, you know, abusive

Like he's a highly sexualized character because he's been sexualized from the beginning

from whether it's his mother wanting to, kind of love him to the point of being with him because she wants to live vicariously through him

or whether it's his maker wanting that that he sees on stage that kind of that performer that

spark um and and kind of eroticizing him and and making him this kind of perfect immortal being

uh you know it's it's and and then all he knows the only way he knows how to express himself is by

by thrusting around on stage and writhing around. And so we do ask the audience to come with him on the journey Maybe you don understand it at first but it a slow unraveling that he begins to unravel too I mean totally At the end of episode three when that moment with Magnus is parallel

with Louis reading the four pages from Claudia's diary, Claudia and Lestat have always had things in common

that seem to make him... It's that thing where you're like, I don't like this person, and you realize the reason you don't like that person

is because they have aspects of them that make you uncomfortable about yourself. It feels like that moment

And the end of episode three just had me so caught up in that again

because we've seen the parallels across the first two seasons of what Lestat and Claudia do have in common

but it's also this moment of abuse that they've both endured. Yeah, and I think the interesting thing about that

is it's not something that either of them really need to talk about or address

or they have a mutual understanding, Claudia and Lestat where they're kind of loggerheads

They sort of hate each other but they have a lot of mutual respect between the two of them

And Louis does get involved in some of that stuff. And, you know, it's complex even in the sense that he's kind of taken those words and reading them himself

It is complex. And the writers never shy away from making these issues as complex and as truthful as possible

They want to keep presenting the questions. But, yeah, it does highlight the transformation of Lestat and Claudia's experience

You know, they are similar. They have a shared experience. I love seeing the reversals in the show that we think we understand the thing

And in episode one, he gets really worked up about the train scene

And then episode two, they confirm through another scene that is like, he's not in

So it's his perception of what would happen. But it's like, it makes sense that he'd be so upset about the train scene where it seems like he's threatening her

Yeah. And I think it's, you know, you find out more about that throughout the season, like what actually happened

So I won't spoil it for you. But yeah, I think there it's it's it's he's blindsided by that

I think it's a very painful thing. you understand why it's there in the book later on um but he's blindsided about because he actually

wouldn't do that because i think he has he's because some of his other gripes are like i know

what infinitesimal means yeah like that kind of so like when someone's like talking like when someone's subtweeting you on the line you're like yeah i don't want to dignify this with the

for the record yeah yeah and that's the thing is a lot of his grievances with the book are petty

yeah you know he's not necessarily like everything that louis said is wrong he's not necessarily

saying that there are a few fundamental things my hair was longer I have a scar yeah like you like

didn't ever talk about all the wolf's killing scars that I have all over my body that I've

always had why am I harlequin and why did I play Arlequino in the Commedia dell'arte like

there's these things that don't why is Armand so like magnetic and alluring like why obviously

it's like you got to think about who wrote it obviously which is important because Louis didn't really write that book it was Malloy but it's a lot of things that are very confronting and

And yeah, Lestat didn't threaten Claudia with rape on a train. I mean, he just didn't do that

You know, he was difficult. He was a . But he didn't do that

And there's this very specific reason why he didn't do that. On TikTok, I'm sure you're aware there are a million fan edits

But it's also interesting what songs people are drawn to. Because just yesterday, I was, for research, looking at fan edits

And it's like people are using Mitski and Olivia Rodrigo's Brutal. I wrote down some of the other ones

It was Radiohead and Aqua. Somebody Barbie Girl. Really? Yeah, there was a Barbie Girl edit

Iconopop, the one of, like, I Don't Care, Panic at the Disco

People are pulling all these different song inspirations, not necessarily saying that there's something that Scott would like or not

but they are songs that, to them, speak to him. Yeah, interesting. I mean, that's fascinating

I mean, I think that's the nature of the show. I mean, you know, Malloy says it

Like, I think it's in season one. He's talking about Claudia. like you know you put it out there and everyone else decides and there nothing you can do about it and I think that the show in a way I mean we just you know for us it you know we have a great time making it there a lot of love put into it we work very hard on it we have so much fun doing it um and it

is the one singular experience for us and then it goes out into the world and and and it goes

other places and you know I think for me like yeah the fact that people can make a fan video

or put music to it. But, you know, I try and not engage too much

and see all that stuff. But I think when I'm interacting, like we had an amazing experience at New York Comic Con

where there was like a bootleg version of the argument between Louis and Lestat, which had come out earlier

which happens in episode two. And then they played it for real at the New York Comic Con

and the whole crowd was like sort of shouting the lines. I bet, I bet

you know, very specific detail to pluck out of thin air. I bet

I bet! Come on. Very specific detail to pluck out of thin air

What did they vote? And it was, you know, we had only just shot that a few months ago

and it was a kind of extraordinary experience. You just felt like, wow, it was just absorbed so quickly

and it is fun. It's a fun role to play, and I love to see, I love to see Drag Kings perform him

I just love to see people, you know, like, take it on themselves and have the opportunity to kind of, like, get into it, too

because it's a fun experience. Well, speaking of that, because that must have felt like a real rock star moment

to, like, be like, we just shot this and people already know all the words

Yeah. I don't know if I felt like, I don't really know what a rock star feels like

apart from, you know, through my experience. But it felt very communal

It felt really lovely, yeah. I love that. Is that something you'd be interested in? Because, like, I mean, K-pop Demon Hunters

Hundrix is effectively now an actual band because the performers people love that song so much

Well, I am doing some performances, or our performance, yeah, coming up. So, you know, I feel like, you know

Daniel Hart's done a really great job of writing these songs. There are some absolute bangers in there

that will be slowly, you know, eked out throughout the season. It's a really fun thing to do, you know

to share in a live capacity kind of to... We've been very sort of meta in the way this season

has been kind of like presented. And so it's kind of fun to crack open the meta

even more a little bit and like put put the vampire Lister out in the real world and see

how he operates. I'm so excited because like one I'm a glam rock fan and the songs that we've heard

at this point in the season are very kind of T-Rex a little Bowie but with I would say like a little

more aggression and a little more like a little more sex appeal like a little more like oof to it

Yes violence I mean he's he's he is you know and look a really key thing to the start

is that he is so powerful that he could go into an audience

he could go into a performance and, you know, like make them all love him. Yeah

Make them all, he could melt, you know. Like he does, he only does it once, which is in the trial in season two

He completely manipulates the audience to give him the response he wants

which is to release Louis. But everything else he's doing is to elicit a genuine, like, love for him

He's not controlling them. He wants them to love him. He wants to connect with the audience

He wants them to respond to him in a way that is truthful

that he feels like he's earned. And that's why, you know, he's kind of playing to small crowds

He's not necessarily like this big megastar, you know, where he's kind of completely glamoured the whole world into turning

He's like, you know, plugging away, trying to find his sound, trying to find his audience, trying to find his beat

And progressively, I think it goes into more what he truthfully is, which is an emotional being

He's a very sort of big emotional power ballad sort of style kind of person

And I think we kind of get more towards that space