Sam

Everyone’s heard about rock star Lestat (Sam Reid) in The Vampire Lestat, the third season of Interview With the Vampire. The bigger mystery is what the new Louis (Jacob Anderson) will be like as the AMC series continues to give him a new story that’s not found in Anne Rice‘s books.

While Louis is still a “vampire capitalist” in the present day, as executive producer and writer Hannah Moscovitch describes, it’s the fact that he’s commodifying vampirism that’s noteworthy. In the video interview above, filmed in TV Insider and TV Guide Magazine’s New York Comic Con 2025 studio, Anderson, Reid, and Moscovitch tell viewers what to expect from Louis and Lestat’s wildly new lives now that the human world knows that vampires exist.

“He knows what he’s good at now,” Anderson says, adding that Louis learned in Season 2 that he’s “not an artist,” but he understands art and knows “how to maximize it and make something out of it and build.”

“There was a point in the writing room where we were talking about Louis selling vampire souvenirs,” Moscovitch reveals. “It’s not quite that in the show.”

“But it’s not a million miles away from that,” Anderson notes.

Reid grimaces at the thought of vampire souvenirs. “I hear souvenirs, I think of Claudia,” he says.

Lestat’s going to be thinking about Claudia (Delainey Hayles) a lot in Season 3. He’s emotionally haunted by her death from Season 2, and the memories of everyone he’s ever loved are occupying his every thought, whether he wants them to or not.

Louis and Armand’s (Assad Zaman) depictions of Lestat in the first two seasons highlight his performative nature, a trait that remains true about this troubled vampire, no matter how his exes paint him. His rock-star persona is equally performative (and its own form of vampire commodification), but his artistic process now pushes him to be more “revealing,” according to Reid.

“He’s searching for perfectionism,” Reid explains of Lestat’s music, but “he manages to express everything and nothing through his art.”

“He’s like a really sincere troll,” Anderson teases.

The actor, who’s a successful musician himself (he writes music and performs under the name Raleigh Ritchie), is sincere in his praise of Reid’s musical performances during filming. Reid struggles to accept the compliments, but Anderson and Moscovitch insist on giving them.

“Sam’s being modest, but it’s really special and I’ve not really seen anything like it,” Anderson shares. “People are involuntarily clapping at the end of takes.”

“The crew [cries] often over the beauty of the music,” Moscovitch adds of Daniel Hart’s songs he’s written for Lestat’s band.

Learn more about The Vampire Lestat in the full video interview above.

— Reporting by Damian Holbrook

The Vampire Lestat, Season 3 Premiere, 2026, AMC, Streaming on AMC+