Sam Reid, Jacob Anderson, and more of the cast preview what to expect when Lestat enters his rock star era

Rock god:* Interview With the Vampire* takes its ‘biggest swing’ yet with The Vampire Lestat

Sam Reid, Jacob Anderson, and more of the cast preview what to expect when Lestat enters his rock star era

By Samantha Highfill

Samantha Highfill

Samantha Highfill is an executive editor at **, where she’s worked for more than 12 years covering television.

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May 12, 2026 12:00 p.m. ET

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Lestat de Lioncourt doesn’t want fans. He needs them. And quite frankly, he'd be offended by the mere 20 extras in attendance at the Music Hall of Williamsburg on this beautiful spring day in April. So it's a good thing that Lestat is nowhere to be found… at least not really.**** At **’s cover shoot, those background actors, dressed in all black, fill the stage of the Brooklyn venue as they wait for *The Vampire Lestat* leading man Sam Reid and his costars Eric Bogosian, Jennifer Ehle, and Jacob Anderson. Even though they all play vampires on the hit AMC series, they're* mostly* human today. There are no fangs, no crazy contacts. But Reid does manage to find a good pair of sunglasses. And that's all he needs to channel the 265-year-old vampire desperate for "billions" of fans.

As he puts on the glasses, you can see his body language change. Reid might exit through the doorway to his mark, but Lestat saunters back into the room. In a matter of seconds, the kind Australian actor is gone, his sweet demeanor replaced with Lestat's supernatural confidence. His chest is out, his arms swing as he becomes more fluid, his walk somehow telling everyone else just how unimportant they are compared to him. The fans grabbing for him? Yeah, he deserves them.

After all, as Lestat himself says in the upcoming season, "It's my era. I'm a rock star now."

When *Interview With the Vampire* returns for season 3 (June 7), it's now titled *The Vampire Lestat*. Named after the second book in Anne Rice's *The Vampire Chronicles* series, the show is switching perspectives. Long gone are the days of Louis' thoughtful, dramatic voiceover. Now, you're inside Lestat's head. And you better buckle up.

"It's tonal whiplash in the most intentional way," says Jacob Anderson, who plays Louis de Pointe du Lac.

Reid admits, "It was very overwhelming to read. I was anxious because it's such a huge departure."

Sam Reid photographed exclusively for .

For showrunner Rolin Jones, his philosophy is simple: "Adapt or die." It's been that way from the start.

"When I pitched the show, they wanted to know: What do five seasons look like? What do eight seasons look like? So this has been in my head for a little bit," Jones says.

But there was no guarantee that they'd get to tell this story.

The series is an adaptation of Rice's massively popular book series, which launched in 1976 with *Interview With the Vampire*, and has sold more than 150 million copies. Many know the 1994 film adaptation starring Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt, but would an AMC series that tap danced on the line between dramatic and cheesy find an audience?

Jacob Anderson as Louis on 'The Vampire Lestat'.

Sophie Giraud/AMC

"It's a very, very thin line. It could topple over at any second," Jones says. "We knew we were gonna write the show in a certain way and you needed actors who were confident enough to take this prose that could go horribly wrong and ground it and make it feel like it's everyday speech."

Those actors included Anderson and Reid, whose Louis and Lestat would be the love story at the center of all the madness.

"I had heard that they were going to make it again. I had hoped that I would get to audition for it, but I had no clue that it would be adapted in such a way," Reid recalls. "I had no thought that it would be done so eloquently, with such extraordinary writing."

Sam Reid and Jacob Anderson photographed exclusively for EW.

Anderson admits that it all clicked "as soon as me and Sam started to work together. Because the show is so much, particularly the first season, about their relationship."

And with a month of prep in New Orleans before filming began in December 2021**,** the actors were able to spend time together and build the foundation of the toxic (and intoxicating) relationship at the center of the show.

"The important thing was whatever they did before they got on camera," Jones says. "They did very smart work. Something special happened there. Whatever they complete in each other's lives in terms of friendship, that's the f---ing gas that makes this show go."

Jacob Anderson photographed exclusively for EW.

For two seasons, that relationship has fueled an unpredictable journey as Louis recounted his life to journalist Daniel Molloy (Eric Bogosian). There was love, heartbreak, death, rebirth, and so, so much blood as the show brought Rice's vampiric lovers to life (or, more accurately, death).

"I'd be looking online, or looking at what people were saying. There was just so much trepidation and anger about what people wanted, and what they were expecting. It became very overwhelming, because it was a new experience for me, to have that level of anticipation," Reid says. "When I watched episode 5, I remember that music and how traumatizing that episode was. I was like, 'Oh my God, this is quite an astonishing show.'"

Eric Bogosian as Daniel on 'The Vampire Lestat'.

Sophie Giraud/AMC

As the series found its fandom, it launched its second season and gave viewers much more insight into the world of Louis and his longtime partner, Armand (Assad Zaman), building to the ultimate betrayal: After decades believing Lestat wished him dead, Louis realizes his former lover actually saved his life and that Armand had directed the very play that led to his surrogate daughter Claudia's (Delainey Hayles) death. As Louis enacted his revenge on the members of the Théâtre des Vampires, Armand made one more move: He turned Daniel into a vampire.

And that brings us to season 3, where Bogosian jokes, "I was just ready to start biting people."

Eric Bogosian photographed exclusively for EW.

*The Vampire Lestat* picks up following the success of Daniel's book. A very pissed off, very snotty Lestat is determined to share his side of the story and correct quite a few things. As the immortal says, he's doing a "rewrite," and he's doing it in the form of a documentary about his new tour — because, you know, he's a rock star now.

"We thought, 'What's the worst thing we could do to Lestat to put him through the ringer?' Force him to be a rock star in 2025 when no one gives a s--- about rock & roll," Jones says with a laugh.

Sam Reid as Lestat de Lioncourt on 'The Vampire Lestat'.

Sophie Giraud/AMC

The first surprising twist in Lestat's journey? Reid didn't sing in his initial audition.

"Rolin originally had envisioned that Lestat would be an orchestra conductor," Reid says. "When I was doing season 1, he was like, 'Start learning the piano, and you should start studying conducting, because that's where we're going with the character.' I was like, 'I really think he's got to be a singer.' That's what [series composer] Daniel Hart had always envisioned too. Then I think Rolin, I don't know when it happened for him, but it definitely clicked at a certain point. He went full in."

And he does mean full in. If the show is putting Lestat front and center, it "should feel like Lestat front and center. That dictates form. Honestly, it was rock & roll. Safety was not really an option," Jones says.

Sam Reid photograhped exclusively for EW.

So, they tossed safety out the window, grabbed some leather pants and lots of eyeliner, and started digging into all that is Lestat de Lioncourt. And there's *a lot*, starting with Lestat's human life.

"He never really got a life," Reid says. "He stayed at home. He didn't really do much. His mother took control of his life, made him become something. As soon as he has the glimmer of individual impetus, of being his own person, of working out what he might want in the world, he's ripped away and turned into this whole other thing. Then his whole life has been about justifying his existence as this creature of the night. I think, like so many people, he does just want to be loved."

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As Jones puts it, "If season 3 is sort of attacking the id of Lestat, we disassemble a lot of stuff that's inside him. That's what's exciting about the structure of it: It starts out with all the armor upfront, and then we just start smashing away. It definitely is the biggest swing of the three years, there's no doubt."

Jennifer Ehle as Gabriella on 'The Vampire Lestat'.

Sophie Giraud/AMC

The person really trying to disassemble Lestat's thoughts and get to, dare he say it, the truth? Daniel. But don't expect the two to have a pleasant chat over coffee.

Lestat and Daniel are like when "an irresistible force hits the immovable object," Bogosian says. “The very first time I sat and listened to Louis, it was mesmerizing. There was always this confluence that was happening as we went along and we learned things together. That never happens with Lestat. He considers Daniel an annoyance."

And then there's Lestat's mother, Gabriella (Gabrielle in the books). Ahead of her series debut, fans got a taste of Gabriella's relationship with her son in the trailer, when the two kiss. Yes, you read that correctly. Lestat and his mother (played by Jennifer Ehle) have a… special relationship.

Jennifer Ehle and Sam Reid photographed exclusively for EW.

"The first scene we shot together was Lestat covered in blood, and then we're making out," Reid says of adding Ehle to the cast. "It was a bit of a 'Hello.'"

But Jones assures fans they're not doing incest just to do it, because, as he says, that'd be "boring as s---."

Instead, "We thought she was a really fascinating, interesting character. She's not there just to plug in why Lestat is so messed up as he is. We made the challenge of like, 'Okay, we'll do that, but you're gonna understand it. Whether or not you like it, you're going to understand it.'"

Ehle believes that when Rolin Jones calls you, you say yes — especially when the role is as delicious as this one.

"Gabriella's unique in this world because she had absolutely no agency and no power whatsoever in her real life," Ehle says. "She was married so young, to a horrible man, and very isolated in a country where it wasn't even her first language. She's then liberated and given complete and utter freedom. It was interesting to play both sides, the abused woman who was deeply unhappy and then to become somebody completely liberated and ruthless. A monster, but a completely liberated monster."

Jennifer Ehle photographed exclusively for EW.

Reid adds, "She has a real cruelty to her. She just does it so beautifully. I think you really understand Lestat better. I think you feel like you get to know him so much more through his relationship with his mother."

As the show explores what makes Lestat tick, Louis will get a new story, one that strays from the source material. Jones felt he had to give Anderson more to do — and the same goes for Delainey Hayles, whose Claudia is back this season, though the "how" is being kept in a locked coffin. (Jones will say that the haunting of the muses is coming "like a f---ing freight train.")

What we can say is that Louis isn't quite done grieving his daughter just yet.

"Claudia is playing on Louis' mind a lot, and that's something he'll never heal from," Hayles says. "The grief is part of him."

Jacob Anderson photographed exclusively for EW.

It was a concept that Anderson wasn't sure about sinking his teeth into when Jones first mentioned it.

"I feel like they so beautifully encapsulated Louis and Claudia's relationship [in season 2,] and I felt like I and Louis got a really definitive sense of closure. And Rolin kept saying to me, even while we were shooting season 2, he was like, 'No, no, there's more there.' And I was like, 'I don't think there is, Rolin.' It took some convincing to get me on board."

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Jones understood the trepidation.

"It could be a real reboot," he says. "But when we looked at the last image of season 2, we said, 'Seems kinda cute and cuddly, doesn't it? It seems very neat.' We were always looking for, 'How do we drive him back to Lestat?' So we had to put him through something."

What exactly they put him through, we can't reveal. But as Anderson adds, "I was shocked. He's having a really, really rough time."

Sam Reid and Jacob Anderson photographed exclusively for EW.

As for Louis' relationship with Lestat, the two aren't on good terms when the season starts, because as we mentioned, Lestat is pretty pissed about the book. ("It would be weird if he's not,: Reid says.) But the thing about vampires? They have all the time in the world.

"In terms of Louis and Lestat, they're definitely on separate tracks at this point. But I would say that nobody will guess what's gonna happen next," Anderson says.

After all, this entire season has been a surprise to everyone involved.

"The day I arrived, they were on location and I snuck in," Assad Zaman recalls. "I met the band that day and got to watch a little and I was like, 'Oh my God, this is a completely different world. This is so bizarre. Brilliant, but bizarre.' It did feel like a new show, but that's exciting."

Assad Zaman as Armand on 'The Vampire Lestat'.

Sophie Giraud/AMC

Speaking of Zaman, fans will get to see his Armand through Lestat's lens this time around.

"It's fun to play the more irritated gremlin Armand that Lestat knows rather than the very put together, charming Armand that you see in season 2," Zaman says. "I think Lestat's Armand is a little more desperate and empathetic and slightly irritating."

If it's not clear at this point, everyone and everything has a bit more of an edge this time around.

"It has that third album flavor to it," Anderson says of the season. "We did the debut, we showed all our tricks and everything that we'd learned up to this point in our life. Second album was, 'We better really show up now.' And then third album's like, 'Anything goes.'"

Eric Bogosian, Sam Reid, Jennifer Ehle, and Jacob Anderson photographed exclusively for EW.

In some ways, the risk taking has been built into the fabric of the show.

"The borderline cheesiness, or the thing that could go too big, helps us be singular," Jones says, noting that the show lives in a world where "there's some really dumb s--- next to some really smart s---."

Plus, there's freedom in knowing nothing — besides Lestat, of course — is perfect.

"There's no season where everybody loves 100 percent of our choices," Jones says. "It is built, actually, for this sort of unease and unsettlement."

But the one guarantee?

"They’ll never think we were boring."

*Directed by Alison Wild + Kristen Harding*

*Photography by Taiye Godbody*

*Motion - DP: Cory Fraiman-Lott; 1st AC: Austin Smoak; Steadicam Op: Kyle Derry; Gaffer: Eli Freireich; Best Electric: Peter Steininger; Krey Grip: Forest Erwin; Best Grip: Jared Diaw; Swing: Drew Christen*

*Production - Producer: Jose Maldonado; Production Coordinator: Marissa Eisa; Stylist: Dolly Pratt/Forward Artists; Stylist Assistant: Natalie Negron, Bronson Johnson; Sam Grooming: Melissa DeZarate/A-Frame Agency; Jacob Grooming: Jessica Ortiz/Kalpana; Eric Grooming: Sarah Wood; Jennifer Hair: Riad Azar/Art Department; Jennifer Makeup: Christopher Ardoff/Art Department*

*Prop Styling - Art Director: Olga Turka*

*Photo - 1st Assistant: Stanley Ligon; 2nd Assistant: Chykeem Nichols; Digital Tech: Daveed Turek*

*Post-Production - Color Correction: Nate Seymour/TRAFIK; VFX: Derek Viramontes; Design: Alex Sandoval*

*Extras - Paul Bentsen, Dylan Bickel, Samuel Billman, Isaiah Brown, Carolyn Ciccatelli, Kely Dao, Dove Eleanor Degeorge, Yuqian Huang, Ashanti Jacobs, Nicholas Johnston, Toriano Lockhart, Kyla Madigan, Ksenia Novikova, Stephen Raynolds, Suhmer Vanise Robinson, Ryan Thomas, Tabatha Thomas, Katherine Elizabeth Vasquez, Mosiah Whyte, Elijah Williams*

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