‘The Vampire Lestat’ Stars Break Down a Cathartic, Climactic Episode 6 — and What’s Next for Lestat and Louis

Editor’s Note: The following story contains spoilers for “The Vampire Lestat,” Episode 6.

Over the last few months, “The Vampire Lestat” — AMC’s latest lusty Anne Rice adaptation starring Sam Reid and Jacob Anderson as Lestat and Louis — has given fans everything from an original album of yearning ballads to a blood-splattered fashion collaboration and an extravagant watch-party at New York’s Beacon Theatre. But one thing that the rebranded, rock-centric iteration of Rolin Jones’ “Interview With the Vampire” series hasn’t delivered is a surplus of electric onscreen moments between its two stars.

On Sunday, the action-packed penultimate episode changed that fact with a cathartic reunion between Reid’s Lestat and Anderson’s Louis that features the best moments in a pleasurably chaotic Season 3. Unfurling over a whirlwind Halloween night in Montreal, Episode 6 sees the on-again, off-again lovers rendezvousing with various characters from their past, and one who could play a big part in their future, ahead of Lestat staging a performance for an unprecedented gathering of undead. And yet, they only have eyes for each other, oozing chemistry as they navigate an evening of betrayal, scandal, and supernatural occurrences — all leading up to a final, gasp-worthy moment where the two vampires literally lose their heads.

After spending much of the season apart, filming the rollercoaster episode felt like a homecoming of sorts for Reid and Anderson — who said that, even though they’ve gotten used to making large chunks of the show separately, their time as scene partners has shaped how they approach Jones and cowriter Hannah Moscovitch’s maximalist series.

“This is what the show always was, from the beginning, for us. We started together, we started with all of these insane scenes that go off in these crazy directions, and we set the tone of how we were going to work,” Reid told me via a video call with his costar, describing how they encourage each other to lean in, especially when the scenes feel particularly “mad.”

“It’s always lovely to return to that — what the show is for us and how we work in it,” he said, comparing their dynamic to the one between Lestat and Louis, whose relationship is the beating heart of the series, even when the vampires are apart.

There’s certainly no lack of “insane scenes” in the season — based on Rice’s second Vampire Chronicles book — during which Lestat narrates his life story, revealing, among other things, his incestous relationship with his now-immortal mother, Gabriella (Jennifer Ehle). But given that, up until Sunday night, most of those scenes aren’t shared by the central protagonists, I was curious whether the “Interview With the Vampire” team was apprehensive about how the new chapter might go over with fans. After all, while AMC has proved it’s willing to bet big on Rice adaptations, it’s also already canceled one Immortal Universe series. And although Reid and Anderson may be used to spending time apart on set, for many of their show’s avid viewers, seeing them together on screen has been the big draw from Season 1’s levitating sex scene.

‘The Vampire Lestat’Sophie Giraud/AMC

“I think the wonderful thing in the way that Rolin and Hannah create this show is that they are aware of the fan expectation. But I don’t think people really know what they want until they see it,” Reid said when I asked him and Anderson whether they were worried fans might be put off by the overall lack of cozy moments between their characters. The actor then suggested that, this season, what viewers may not have known they wanted — but indeed did — was uncertainty about whether they’d ever get to see Lestat and Louis back in each other’s arms. 

“There was a lot of colliding together in Season 2: Even if it was in a dream or just holding each other [during their] reunion, there was still a lot of crashing into each other. But now, we’re in a much wider reverberation space, where they’re kind of hovering around each other, and trying to find a way that’s potentially more healthy back to each other. And you want to be kept on the edge of your seat in that regard,” Reid said, praising Jones and Moscovitch for having the foresight to keep audiences wanting more in the first five episodes.

“Particularly with those two, you want to feel the ache of them being apart,” because it raises the stakes when they are back together “and trying to figure each other out,” Anderson added. The English charmer, previously best known for “Game of Thrones,” then contrasted the tension surrounding the characters’ romance with, let’s say, less nuanced relationships in other shows. “I feel like it’s something I see quite a lot now, but you don’t want it to feel like people just kind of mushing their action figures together,” he said, chuckling at the analogy. 

Although we spoke well ahead of Season 3’s splashy climax, the stars of “Interview With the Vampire” and “The Vampire Lestat” were unwaveringly confident about how the new season’s trajectory would go down with fans — and the network. At one point, Reid said that the arc of Lestat and Louis’ relationship “has got a long way to go,” referring to how the immortal soulmates weave in and out of each other’s lives for lifetimes in Rice’s books, but also seeming to allude to the longevity of the show. And if indeed the stars are certain that there are more chapters in store for the megalomaniacal blonde vampire and his morbid Louisianan, it makes sense that they would want to string fans along a bit.  

While not all viewers may appreciate the delayed gratification, based on online reactions, there are plenty who agree with Reid’s assessment that what makes Lestat and Louis’ relationship one for the ages, on the page or screen, is that there are such extreme obstacles in their way — never  more true than in the final episodes of Season 3. On Sunday night, the pair faced Lestat and Gabriella’s incest being broadcast online by Daniel Molloy (Eric Bogosian), the vindictive ghost of Claudia (Delainey Hayles) cursing their names, and a spurned Armand (Assad Zaman) exacting his revenge with a very large sword. And after a season of following Lestat across the centuries with different romantic interests, including the groupies he picks up in the near-present, the dizzying reunion made for a thoroughly engrossing watch.

Given Jones’ flair for the dramatic, this week’s upcoming finale should deliver even more attention-grabbing moments, even after the last episode ended with the main characters getting decapitated. Following a now well-established formula, the series creator has managed to keep audiences guessing this season by pulling in threads from various Vampire Chronicles books, in addition to delivering the big moments from 1985’s “The Vampire Lestat.” (In Episode 6 alone, in addition to a major storyline from the seventh novel, “Merrick,” there are plot points and Easter eggs from “Queen of the Damned,” “The Tale of the Body Thief,” “The Vampire Armand,” and on and on.) And while that sometimes makes for more story than one can reasonably keep up with, it’s also a big reason for the show’s popularity and for its stars’ enthusiasm.

“I totally trust Roland and Hannah in their ability to adapt, like, nearly impossible books,” said Reid, referring to Rice’s dense vampire novels, which he’s somewhat of an authority on. “It’s a very rare skill set to be able to encapsulate the emotions of a book onscreen and still be very, very truthful to those storylines.” 

‘The Vampire Lestat’Sophie Giraud/AMC

Using as an example the incestuous relationship between Lestat and Gabriella — which is merely subtext in Rice’s series, since her immortals don’t have sex — Reid praised Jones and Moscovitch’s adeptness at drawing from the books and then making certain elements more explicit or diving in deeper to character analysis when needed.

“The two of us just feel so blessed to be able to be working with this level of writers on [what] is fundamentally a genre vampire show. They are using the metaphor to the most extreme degree to explore all of these amazing aspects of humanity, while honoring the source material that has a built-in fanbase and giving them this iconography that they want to see,” he said of the show’s creative team.

“They take us to some crazy, crazy, and sometimes terrifying places. Sometimes, [I’m] like, ‘Are you sure you want to do that?’” Reid added, laughing to himself as he thought about occasions when he’s told Jones, “This is so full on.” “And, you know, Rolin always says to me, ‘Don’t worry about making people angry now. You’ll look back at this in 10 years and be proud.’”

Anderson then added his praise for the writing, which the actors said they follow to the word, and the fact that every decision made by Jones and his collaborators is meticulously thought out. “People that really know the books and know the characters in the books, [can see] how something is taken from one era or from one character and put into a new era or into a different character,” Anderson said, adding that it’s just a matter of time before other viewers will catch on to the brilliance of the show’s amalgamated plot. “With Louis, for instance, there are pieces of adaptation that have already happened that might not be immediately recognizable, but will all come together.”

Reid and Anderson have been thirsted over on Reddit, regularly attended Comic Cons, and signed on for junket after junket for nearly four years now, but they somehow sound more enthusiastic about Jones’ “Interview With the Vampire” project than ever. The way they talk about working on the series and with each other, it’s clear that they see both as a long-term commitment — which is welcome news for viewers expecting an exciting “Queen of the Damned” adaptation starring series newcomer Sheila Atim, who appears briefly in Season 3 as the queen herself.

With this “The Vampire Lestat” nearly put to rest, I couldn’t help but ask the stars whether they’d discussed how many seasons they might actually be up for, but they just smiled knowingly and said that they “discuss most things.” They revealed that they’ve talked “in length” about Season 4, though they wouldn’t offer up any specific details. When asked before it was time to sign off if they were fans of Michael Rymer’s “Queen of the Damned” — the 2002 feature adaptation known for Aaliyah’s head-turning performance as Queen Akasha — Reid did roundaboutly provide some insight into just how far into the conversation they may be.

“I have a nostalgic love of that film. That’s what got me into reading the [Vampire Chronicles] books in the first place, because they shot it in Australia,” the New South Wales native said of Rymer’s take on the third book in Rice’s series. “I was a kid at the time, and I was always interested in what they were shooting in Australia. So I read the books, and I ended up loving them because of that.”

Clarifying that he was also a fan of the title because of its lead, he said, “And I love Aaliyah. I think she was amazing. But Sheila Atim is incredible, and she’s very much the Akasha of our show, and I’m really excited about that.” Then, laughing, he added, “And yeah, that’s all I have to say about that film.”

“The Vampire Lestat” finale airs Sunday, July 19.