{"id":2443249,"date":"2026-06-03T15:24:56","date_gmt":"2026-06-03T15:24:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/?p=2443249"},"modified":"2026-06-03T15:24:56","modified_gmt":"2026-06-03T15:24:56","slug":"interview-backstage-at-the-vampire-lestat-and-music-infused-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/interview-backstage-at-the-vampire-lestat-and-music-infused-season\/","title":{"rendered":"Interview: Backstage at ‘The Vampire Lestat’ and Music-Infused Season"},"content":{"rendered":"

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In a darkened room, 3,000 fans are chanting one name, and one name alone, in unison: \u201cLestat! Lestat! Lestat!\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Smoke fills the stage of New York\u2019s Beacon Theatre and the musicians enter, led by composer Daniel Hart, and begin playing the opening chords of the breakout hit for the self-named band The Vampire Lestat<\/a>, \u201cLong Face.\u201d That\u2019s when the chaotic vampire (or is he?) himself enters, strutting like a pussycat while pulling faces at the crowd, who, if possible, start cheering even louder than before.<\/p>\n

Carefully, purposefully, Lestat turns toward the audience, curling his fingers around the microphone, the scars he got from killing a pack of wolves in his youth (or did he?) visible on his mostly bare chest. \u201cOoh-ooh, wah-ahh,\u201d Lestat sings, the lyrics to the hit halfway between a come-on and the coo of a baby. If possible, the crowd erupts even bigger than before.<\/p>\n

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None of this is real, of course. Or maybe it is. <\/p>\n

What definitely happened on June 2 in New York City at the iconic Beacon, which once played host regularly to the Allman Brothers, Bob Dylan, and Steely Dan (among others), is that AMC\u2019s adaptation of Anne Rice\u2019s \u201cVampire Chronicles,\u201d<\/a> now titled \u201cThe Vampire Lestat\u201d premiered and then<\/em> followed it up with an in-character performance from star Sam Reid<\/a>, rocking out the songs that will appear in the upcoming seven-episode season.<\/p>\n

But that\u2019s just half of it. <\/p>\n

\u201cWell, the way that we\u2019ve been looking at it, because it\u2019s all been so meta<\/a>. \u2026 Lestat has a TV<\/a> show, and then he also has a band,\u201d Reid told IndieWire in advance of the performance. \u201cSo if he\u2019s out in the real world, this is him promoting his TV show, but also, this is his band. We\u2019re trying to have some sort of way to distinguish so we can play with that meta level. Otherwise, it can get a bit confusing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Admittedly, it still is a little confusing \u2014 par for the course for the purposefully conflicting narratives of the two seasons of \u201cInterview with The Vampire<\/a>\u201d that preceded \u201cThe Vampire Lestat,\u201d as well as the upcoming season itself. And the special, one-night only event was meta in the best sense, speaking to a series that repeatedly turns in on itself, providing conflicting narratives and crafting what showrunner Rolin Jones told IndieWire<\/a> is \u201cthe usual seven layer burrito that we build for ourselves.\u201d<\/p>\n

It started with fans packing the outside of the Beacon earlier in the night, surrounding the venue dressed in everything from corsets and black lipstick to shirts for \u201cThe Lost Boys\u201d (never wear the band shirt to the concert, don\u2019t you know). One fan packed in an enclosure by the stage door held a bloody rose, hoping to catch a glimpse of the cast of the critically acclaimed AMC hit.<\/p>\n

Inside, as the step and repeat cleared out and the cast entered, both the packed orchestra and two balconies screeched whenever a member of the cast entered. Could Eric Bogosian, who plays the interviewer-turned-vampire Daniel Molloy have imagined back in his Off-Broadway days that thousands of goth or goth-adjacent teens would be losing their minds when he entered a room? Probably not, but everyone from Bogosian to new star Sheila Atim, who plays Akasha, the Queen of the Damned, and even AMC execs got the same treatment.<\/p>\n

So did the premiere episode of the series, which includes multiple musical numbers from The Vampire Lestat performed live. The main event was the nearly-30 minute live performance by Reid, backed up by Hart and a full rock band, as they ran down some of the music that has been blowing up online. <\/p>\n

As one of those wildly-popular-with-teens AMC execs touted before the screening, the songs have been getting \u201cmillions of streams.\u201d The set started with \u201cLong Face,\u201d before moving into the thus-far unreleased \u201cBig Bad Wolf,\u201d the soulful ballad \u201cYour Biggest Fan,\u201d \u201cThe Loneliness,\u201d another unidentified unreleased song, and finally \u201cButterscotch Bitch.\u201d <\/p>\n

In between, there was plenty of commentary throughout from \u201cLestat\u201d as he derided the publication of \u201cInterview with the Vampire\u201d \u2014 a big plot point that kicks off the action of this new season \u2014 went through multiple outfit changes, and basically proved that if Reid wants to tour as Lestat for real \u2026 he can.<\/p>\n

\"Sam
\u2018The Vampire Lestat\u2019Sophie Giraud\/AMC<\/cite><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cI\u2019m excited for people to hear [show composer] Daniel [Hart]\u2019s music, and he has songs that they\u2019ve not heard before,\u201d Reid said. \u201cI\u2019m excited also about showing people the way that we\u2019re going to do the set. It shows the progression of Lestat and his music and it does do a little mini arc of the show as well. \u2026 The way that the songs are getting released now, the way that marketing works, they\u2019re not necessarily fully supporting how we actually use them in the show. Doing the live [show] will actually give a bit more of a context to how the songs work in the context of the story.\u201d<\/p>\n

On the surface, \u201cInterview with the Vampire\u201d \u2014 now titled \u201cThe Vampire Lestat,\u201d though really it\u2019s very much Season 3 of the series \u2014 is \u201cjust\u201d another entry in the Immortal Universe, AMC\u2019s adaptations of Anne Rice\u2019s books that includes \u201cThe Mayfair Witches\u201d and \u201cTalamasca: The Secret Order.\u201d But what Jones and company did with the first two seasons was new, recontextualizing and reimagining the narrative Rice set down years ago of angsty vampire Louis de Pointe du Lac (Jacob Anderson) telling his story to interviewer Daniel Molloy. <\/p>\n

While staying faithful to the gothic tone and thrust of the story, the second book in the series once again turned the narrative in on itself by front-loading the perspective of chaos personified, Louis\u2019 tortured and torturous lover, Lestat de Lioncourt. Only this time, it\u2019s also<\/em> a rock musical, as Lestat aims to tell his side of the story recounted in the recently published book \u2026 by embarking on a North American rock and roll tour.<\/p>\n

Alongside original songs and covers, the new season also revamps (no pun intended) the visual language of the series to embrace the music video chaos of life on tour with Lestat. \u201cThere was this famous dissonance between Book One and Book Two, even when they were novels, and we wanted to be respectful of that,\u201d Jones said during a Zoom call. \u201cThere\u2019s a new person telling the story, and that should dictate not only the plot, but the form and how we do it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rather than this depicting Lestat\u2019s victory tour, \u201cThe Vampire Lestat\u201d takes the tact that while audiences are packed and hungry for what the rock vampire is dishing out, both in front of and behind the scenes he\u2019s becoming even more unhinged than usual. \u201cIt\u2019s not only [that it] should feel like Lestat is going through an absolute nervous breakdown, [but he\u2019s] having some really, really, even for him, bad, bad months, and then this detached retelling of it on top of it, too,\u201d Jones said.<\/p>\n

Seasons 1 and 2 were about Louis correcting the original interview he conducted with a younger Daniel, adding bits and ultimately coming to shocking realizations he had suppressed, thanks to the machinations of Louis\u2019 new lover, the jealous Armand (Assad Zaman). With a \u201cnew guy in charge,\u201d Jones explained, the story this season needed to be told in new ways.<\/p>\n

And yes, there are characters you know, including Louis, Armand, and notably Daniel, who is now working as a filmmaker aiming to go to Cannes and\/or win an Academy Award off Lestat\u2019s tour doc. But Lestat gets his own cast and characters to support him. That packed burrito, along with the frenetic visuals of the season, are all for one purpose: to keep Lestat<\/em> watching. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe would say, if we\u2019re going to build seven episodes, Lestat has to watch them, and we have to prevent him from walking out and saying, \u2018You guys didn\u2019t understand me at all,\u2019 or \u2018You guys are boring,\u2019\u201d Jones said. In order to make sure \u201cLestat\u201d was enraptured, they looked to classic NYC club CBGB, and \u201call the tattered photos and graffiti. \u2026 There should be [this] grotty beauty to this year\u2019s thing. And it should slink like he does. It should move like a bipolar panther. It\u2019s not two guys sitting in a room going, \u2018You tell me, and then I\u2019ll tell you exactly what happened.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Sam
\u2018The Vampire Lestat\u2019Sophie Giraud\/AMC<\/cite><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

For Reid, moving from supporting Louis\u2019 story to anchoring his own has been a journey of five years \u2014 which has never stopped. The actor recalled how the show started during the COVID lockdown in Australia, with everything being done over Zoom, from the auditions to script reads. During the production of the first season, most of the New Orleans-based crew had masks on. \u201cI barely saw people\u2019s faces,\u201d Reid said. \u201cIt was a very mysterious time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Initially, Reid wasn\u2019t sure what to think of the innovative show (\u201cthis is crazy,\u201d is the exact phrase the actor used). But since then, Reid lauded \u201cconstant\u201d conversations he and the other cast have had with Jones and writer Hannah Moscovitch, as well as a near non-stop press tour that has made the whole unit extremely close. \u201cIn the early stages, it was sort of like we\u2019re still navigating what the show was, or trying to understand what their vision was for it, whereas now I\u2019m like \u2026 whatever you want to do, I believe in you,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

And this year? The show believes in Lestat \u2014 and believes<\/em> Lestat. <\/p>\n

Though Reid noted that there has to be some<\/em> accuracy in Louis\u2019 portrayal of Lestat in the first two seasons \u201cfor you to fully buy their love story,\u201d when we meet Louis in Season 1, \u201che\u2019s very angry. He\u2019s got a lot of misinformation. And there\u2019s a lot of violence in the way that he portrays Lestat\u2019s mega-love bombing that happens to him.\u201d<\/p>\n

Naturally, Anderson sees things a slightly different way. For him, \u201cLouis is a part of me now,\u201d and when Season 2 ended, the actor attempted to purge the character from his system by spending a day as himself in New Orleans, grabbing a few stones from the Bywater (a neighborhood in the city) and scattering them around town in a \u201cceremonial thing.\u201d That turned out to be helpful because, in Season 3, \u201cLouis, seen through the eyes of Lestat, is very different,\u201d Anderson explained. \u201cI got to say goodbye to Louis\u2019 version of Louis.\u201d<\/p>\n

When Louis is describing things in the first two seasons during his interviews<\/a> with Daniel Molloy, \u201cWhatever you\u2019re going to get [is] a deeply subjective angle,\u201d Anderson said. \u201cLestat is less eloquent, and that\u2019s reflected in the way that Louis speaks, for instance, in Season 3. You see this strange version of him \u2026 Lestat knows Louis. To an extent he might have a different interpretation of who he is, but he knows<\/em> him.\u201d<\/p>\n

Whichever part of the cast narrative you believe, Season 3 is Lestat getting to tell his side through a series of recordings, in his own words and voice. \u201cWhen he\u2019s telling his own story, he is also very capable of pointing out his own flaws and showing the uglier parts of himself, or the complicated parts of himself,\u201d Reid said. \u201cLestat has a bit more self-awareness and is aware of his own destructive nature on his own life.\u201d<\/p>\n

Over the course of this season, you will see Lestat \u201cdeal with the repercussions of that, and he also makes the audience sit there with the more uncomfortable parts of his of his existence, because he\u2019s unpacking his centuries old life, coming from a catalyst of sexual trauma, which then in turn [makes] him into a hyper-sexual being,\u201d Reid said.<\/p>\n

As music infuses every moment of the new season, regular show composer Hart was part of the writing staff, working hand in hand with Jones and company to help craft the story of the season. \u201dHe joined in,\u201d Jones said, \u201cbut he also had free power to get up and walk out the room, and we wrote it in a house. And he had a garage space over here, and he would just go, the muse would hit him, and he would walk off. And then two days later, he\u2019d have a song. \u2026 A couple of times, we ended up structuring episodes around it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Adding that there was \u201ca lot more road mapping with these scripts than usual,\u201d Jones explained how they would have \u201cgiant holes in some places\u201d that would eventually be filled with songs that helped bridge the emotional gaps, while allowing things to be \u201ccontradictory\u201d and \u201cmessy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Once the scripts and music were in place, it was time to hit the stage, and that brought massive challenges of its own particularly as Reid and his band actually performed the songs in front of live audiences, in real music spaces, often for hours at a time \u2014 something that more than likely set the stage for the live gig at the New York premiere. But during production, Jones had to make some \u201cpainful choices. \u2026 There\u2019s a couple things that we didn\u2019t get to shoot because, you know, here\u2019s the calendar, here\u2019s how many days you can shoot. You have to be generous on these musical days, because they\u2019re really, really involved.\u201d<\/p>\n

For example: you can\u2019t just \u201cpoint a camera at Mr. 26-inch waist the whole time,\u201d Jones quipped. Instead, they\u2019re trying to tell a story through the song, and through the scene, meaning beyond getting the live performance in a club atmosphere, they needed to be both \u201csuccinct\u201d with the story and \u201call over the place\u201d with the camera. <\/p>\n

\"Sam
\u2018The Vampire Lestat\u2019Sophie Giraud\/AMC<\/cite><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

One other important aspect was crafting Lestat\u2019s stage presence. Though he did look at many rock stars for inspiration, Lestat is very much his \u201cown thing, physicality-wise. But what I kept coming back to was David Bowie. \u2026 Bowie had this alien presence,\u201d Reid said. \u201cIt\u2019s such an overwhelming experience to watch, because you\u2019re aware that you\u2019re in the presence of this other being.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bowie helped lay a foundation, but as Reid noted, Lestat on stage is his own thing<\/em>. \u201cHe\u2019s performing how he thinks the world sees him,\u201d Reid said. \u201cI wanted him to feel like he was performing<\/em> a rock star; what he thought a rock star should be. \u2026 He\u2019s a proud monster, and he won\u2019t manipulate an audience into loving him or liking him. He wants to earn that for himself.\u201d<\/p>\n

As for the actual logistics of performing, the production would attempt a song or two a day, depending on the schedule and the venue. There was a real audience of extras who \u2014 given the amount of times the song would be played \u2014 would often learn the whole song. \u201cThe band rehearsed their asses off every single week or in production,\u201d Reid said. \u201cThey were rehearsing, rehearsing, rehearsing, and I could go to them when I could fit them in around my schedule so we could do the whole song. We would shoot the whole song, with the actual crowd, mostly in a real theater.\u201d<\/p>\n

While Reid called it a \u201cfun, wild experience,\u201d the extra wrinkle is that Lestat is a vampire<\/em>. So, in addition to the performance from a live band, the audience full of extras, cameras on them, as well as cameras from Molloy\u2019s documentary film crew on stage and in the audience, \u201cthere\u2019s flying and there\u2019s stunts, and there\u2019s points of view, sweeping, swooshing around, and I\u2019ve got to be looking at different points and marks and and there\u2019s rigs.\u201d<\/p>\n

One person who isn\u2019t<\/em> singing those songs back, at least not initially? Louis, who attends one of Lestat\u2019s concerts in the earlier episodes, but purposefully does not react to it. Or, at least, not outwardly reacting. <\/p>\n

However, for Anderson in real life, it was a joy to watch. \u201cSam was just Sam and the band are performing live so they could do the whole song, or they could do sections of the song [so] you could just jump in and out,\u201d Anderson recalled, \u201c[and] some of these songs in particular are like heavy bangers that I sing to myself now. It\u2019s a free show I just get to watch.\u201d<\/p>\n

All this adds up to an extremely<\/em> complicated season of television to film. One way of potentially simplifying the season that never happened? Filming the whole thing on phones. \u201cRolin, at one point, he was like, \u2018The whole thing is gonna be filmed on an iPhone, which we didn\u2019t do,\u201d Reid recalled, adding, \u201cThank God.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou look at the budget, and you look at the scale of what Anne wrote, and it\u2019s really large,\u201d Jones said. \u201cMy first suggestion was, well, you know, we\u2019ll just do it like \u2018Cloverfield\u2019 or something like that. \u2026 There wasn\u2019t an appetite for that at the good old AMC.\u201d<\/p>\n

Instead (probably rightfully so), AMC wanted to make sure that \u201cThe Vampire Lestat\u201d wasn\u2019t hiding the good stuff, but rather showing it. \u201cIn theory, at that point, if we had done it that way, we might have been able to sell arena rock and we could have maybe gotten the large, Taylor Swift version of this,\u201d Jones said. <\/p>\n

But with phones nixed, another interesting story idea presented itself: That Lestat is maybe<\/em> not that popular. Or at least, not as popular as he would like to be, or thinks he is. \u201cThe reality of is, if you wanted to start a rock n\u2019 roll band in 2025, you\u2019ve got no fucking shot,\u201d Jones said. \u201cThe meditation on failure became the thing that we were most interested in.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s eating a lot of humble pie,\u201d Reid added, \u201cbecause it\u2019s not like he\u2019s selling out stadiums or anything like that. He\u2019s actually playing small, scrappy gigs in weird regional towns, which is a humbling and surprising place to put The Vampire Lestat. \u2026 this figure who, in everyone else\u2019s version of him, is operating at this massive scale.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Jacob
\u2018The Vampire Lestat\u2019Sophie Giraud\/AMC<\/cite><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Even though Lestat is maxing out at 2,000 seat venues (when we pointed out that Reid filling the 3,000-seat Beacon in real life is bigger than Lestat on the show, he laughed), he\u2019s still got a massive tour bus for his band, complete with an enormous gold bedroom area with an open shower in the middle (and yes, it gets used. A lot.) That bus, beyond being a fun setting, was also utilitarian. <\/p>\n

Since most of the season takes place with Lestat\u2019s band on tour, if you want to sell a band going from Toronto to other cities in North America, \u201cyou can\u2019t reuse sets because there are different cities over the time. So [the bus is] our one set that we could write multiple scenes in,\u201d Jones explained.<\/p>\n

For inspiration, they looked at Mariah Carey\u2019s tour bus and others, then imagined that Lestat gave the front half a massive makeover and didn\u2019t spend a lot of time worrying about the \u201cdownstairs,\u201d where the rest of his band lives. The look reflects that, with \u201cmostly chaos and grime and grunginess on the bottom and primary colors on the top.\u201d The whole bus was built out with a combination of LED screens and \u201csome really, really smart programming\u201d to make it look like it was traveling to various locations, but led to something Jones feels is \u201cvery singular.\u201d <\/p>\n

For diehard fans, Jones highly recommends \u201cdoing still frames and seeing how much detail is in it. There\u2019s a lot of very strange shit on that bus that doesn\u2019t necessarily get talked about.\u201d<\/p>\n

While the bus is the major new set of the season, another vitally important aspect is the addition of Gabriella (Jennifer Ehle), Lestat\u2019s mother. Fans of the books have long wondered about their disturbing relationship, which has the subtext of incest. \u201cThere\u2019s a very explicit and confusing scene in the books very early on when they\u2019re human, which we show,\u201d Reid said. \u201cIt\u2019s been expanded upon and made more appropriate for filming, but it\u2019s there in the books.\u201d<\/p>\n

When asked about that, Jones laughed. \u201cWhen I read it, I was like, \u2018Well, I know what\u2019s going on,\u2019\u201d he recalled. \u201cIt didn\u2019t seem like subtext to me. It seemed quite like text when I read it, and the responsible way to do it is to get out in front of it. Because if it\u2019s a reveal, and that\u2019s everything it is, then it is just for shock value. \u2026 That\u2019s the given circumstances of this relationship. Now get in there and see how multi-layered, effed up that is.\u201d<\/p>\n

The show has long dealt with the complicated relationship between Lestat\u2019s abuse in the past \u2014 from his mother, as well as Magnus (Damien Atkins), the vampire who turned him \u2014 and his own abusive behavior in the present of the TV series, notably towards Louis. And with Gabriella present, yes, that\u2019s certainly something the show will deal with, as well as Lestat\u2019s confusing memories around what happened.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can narrate one thing, but you can also feel something different,\u201d Reid explained. \u201cThat\u2019s the joy of having unreliable narrators. \u2026 You understand Lestat a lot better when you get to understand his relationship with his mother. He<\/em> doesn\u2019t fully understand his relationship with his mother. It\u2019s a very, very complex and messy thing that has set him up for a lot of failure in his life.\u201d<\/p>\n

Thankfully for Reid, he had Ehle to work off. \u201cShe\u2019s an extraordinary actor,\u201d Reid said. \u201cShe was so fearless, and she came in and we did a lot of our stuff early together. \u2026 We got to really spend the first couple of weeks on the show developing that relationship and trying to work out what it is. For me, it\u2019s really fun to have a character who can destabilize Lestat in the way that Gabriella can. It\u2019s different [from] his relationship with Louis. There\u2019s a darkness to it that he even hides it from himself. \u2026 We\u2019re definitely deep, deep into incest territory, but there\u2019s quite an interesting commentary about it that we get to by the end of the show, which I think will feel earned.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Jennifer
\u2018The Vampire Lestat\u2019Sophie Giraud\/AMC<\/cite><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not three hours of intense therapy with everybody. It\u2019s given circumstances, what can be provocative. And how do you find beauty out of all of it? And how do you find levity?,\u201d Jones added. \u201cIt\u2019s really important this year, levity, because that\u2019s how [Lestat] deals with life. It\u2019s not only that he\u2019s producing laughs, but he has this uncontrollable laughter that Anne wrote in as part of the character that I think he sees, whether it\u2019s the landscape of America or whether it\u2019s the Molloy in front of him \u2026 the absurdity of it is very visceral for him.\u201d<\/p>\n

(Of note, perhaps, during the live show, \u201cLestat\u201d paused to laugh between songs, which drew some of the most appreciative audience screams of the night.)<\/p>\n

So, what about Louis and Lestat?<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are operating in tandem,\u201d Reid said of the duo, who spend significant amounts of time apart in the series, but always feel connected. \u201cThe heart of the show is this love story, and how these two characters will find their way back to each other. As the show expands and expands and expands, it\u2019s, how is this love story dealing with the repercussions of the events previously, and the previous seasons?\u201d<\/p>\n

Noting that he and Anderson are good friends with an \u201ceasy rapport,\u201d Reid added that while they have a joyful experience together, flipping to Lestat in lead \u2014 versus previous seasons in which nearly every scene Lestat appeared in also featured Anderson\u2019s Louis \u2014 allowed him to discover new things about his character as he interacted with new characters. \u201cLouis and Lestat give each other a certain dynamic, and then you add new dynamics, and then we come back to each other having learned those dynamics, working with the other actors,\u201d he said. \u201cThe show is a gift that keeps giving.\u201d<\/p>\n

Also giving? The fans. It\u2019s not entirely a coincidence that Jones sees a connection between the diehard fans following Lestat on tour, the fanbase for Anne Rice\u2019s world as a whole, and the AMC shows in particular.<\/p>\n

Reid compared the intense fanbase for the TV show with the one Lestat has, to the point that Lestat in the show calls his fans \u201cThe Beautiful Unwell,\u201d something real fans have taken on in real life. And of those extras at the concert scenes this season, some were already fans of the series, adding an extra layer of meta-commentary.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the beginning, it was very nerve-wracking, because you didn\u2019t want to damage these dreams that people had connected to the source material,\u201d Reid said. \u201cBut as the show has evolved, and as people have \u2026 found a new appreciation for the Anne Rice world through our show, or just the show, and not the books at all. \u2026 There has been a lot of cross-contamination and it\u2019s an amazing thing to feel so connected to.\u201d<\/p>\n

Anderson agreed, noting that fans having \u201ccomplicated feelings through this show\u201d and turning those feelings into \u201csomething positive, turn it into something artistic and creative\u201d is a nice parallel to what he and the rest of the cast and crew are trying to do themselves: create \u201cbeautiful art.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve had a conversation with fans right from the beginning, because they have this book that a lot of our fans have memorized to the comma,\u201d Jones said. \u201cAnd our job is to try to make something that would keep this fresh and keep them not ahead of it. Otherwise they\u2019re just going, \u2018How do they cast this?\u2019 \u2018How do they do this?\u2019 And that would be a very dull experience. So this year, having that conversation, it\u2019s an extension of what we did. \u2026 They have the book. They already read the book for the first time or the twelfth time. They have expectations about what should be there. And it\u2019s not that we don\u2019t deliver that stuff. We just deliver it sometimes in a different way.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe writers never do fan service, but they\u2019re aware of the psychology of the online generation, and it means that they can, particularly with this season, talk to them directly, and start making more direct commentary about the contemporary age,\u201d Reid added. \u201cBecause now we\u2019re in the modern times, and it\u2019s why Lestat is quite a nihilistic figure; because we are living in this nihilistic time.\u201d<\/p>\n

There are hints in the first few episodes of the new season that the scope and scale of the narrative may blow far past where one might expect from Lestat\u2019s little rock show. And, yes, the books get bigger as they go, including more ghosts, and witches and monsters beyond vampires. \u201cBut actually, even in the absurdity and the grandness of the scale, Rolin and Hannah have an incredible way of bringing it back down to a human experience, and that\u2019s why it\u2019s actually very relatable,\u201d Reid said.<\/p>\n

Anderson agreed, adding that \u201cin true Anne Rice fashion, the epic is the intimate. The intimate is the epic. This is a very intimate season of television. We\u2019re very much in Lestat\u2019s mind.\u201d<\/p>\n

Added Reid, \u201cLestat\u2019s world is chaotic, but at the core of it is a shared human experience, and it\u2019s very, very moving.\u201d That\u2019s music to our ears.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Vampire Lestat\u201d premieres Sunday, June 7 on AMC and AMC+.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n

\u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.indiewire.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In a darkened room, 3,000 fans are chanting one name, and one name alone, in unison: \u201cLestat! Lestat! Lestat!\u201d Smoke fills the stage of New York\u2019s Beacon Theatre and the musicians enter, led by composer Daniel Hart, and begin playing the opening chords of the breakout hit for the self-named band The Vampire Lestat, \u201cLong […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2443250,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25179],"tags":[348167,32215,409866,348169,360802,21913],"class_list":["post-2443249","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-music","tag-interview-with-the-vampire","tag-interviews","tag-rolin-jones","tag-sam-reid","tag-the-vampire-lestat","tag-tv"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Interview-Backstage-at-The-Vampire-Lestat-and-Music-Infused-Season.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2443249","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2443249"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2443249\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2443251,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2443249\/revisions\/2443251"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2443250"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2443249"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2443249"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2443249"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}