'Vampire' series gives Sam Reid plenty to bite into (2024)

LOS ANGELES – When it comes to playing vampires, more is more, says “Interview with the Vampire’s” Sam Reid.

“It’s very operatic,” he says of the Anne Rice saga. “You’re given license to go to the extreme. And then you have moments when you go quiet and you’re more grounded and realistic. It’s wonderful.”

In the AMC series, which just completed its second season and is renewed for a third, Reid gets to dig into the nuances of the vampire Lestat, a role Tom Cruise played in the 1994 film. Cruise, though, didn’t get the luxury of a series, where he could explore plenty of subtext in Rice’s character. In season two, Reid says, “there’s a lot less interaction with humanity. A character like Lestat is always about escaping vampire world because vampires are complex monsters that have laws and rules and are quite archaic.”

To find that world, Reid says he consults Rice’s book, the series’ scripts and – get this – the fans.

“A lot of the fans of our show are fans of the book,” he says. “They’re the best to talk to because they understand the source material. Sometimes, they pick up on things I’ve missed and give me good ideas.”

Sometimes, those fans understand what Reid is referencing. “Then, you think ‘Oh, that wasn’t wasted.’ It’s fantastic.”

As the series progresses, Reid hopes it can delve into other areas. “This is a comedy in my mind. It’s absurd and operatic and silly. It’s also violent and sexy. It’s a lot of genres rolled into one.”

While others have complained about the fangs and contact lenses that go into playing a vampire, Reid takes a different approach. “I wish we wore them all the time. We don’t talk that much (when we’re wearing) the teeth and they retract.”

But the vampire nails have been a challenge. “We have acrylic nails,” the Australian actor says. “There’s also glue-on, stick-on ones that you can get but they always seem to pop off, so I usually spend six months of the year with an acrylic set of nails. This year, it ripped off one of my real fingernails, which was pretty painful. Then, we moved on to gel nails, which is a revelation – very light. So that’s how we’re probably going to move forward.”

A new Claudia

In the second season, Delainey Hayles replaced Bailey Bass as Claudia, the 14-year-old girl whom Lestat turns into a vampire.

“As Claudia ages, she knows what she likes and what she doesn’t like,” Hayles says.

Switching from one actress to another wasn’t a problem, according to Jacob Anderson, who plays Louis de Pointe du Lac. “Delainey makes this completely her own in a way that enriches the show so beautifully,” he says. “She’s like the MVP of the season for me.”

Other vampires

Now as they enter a third season of “Interview,” Reid says there’s an opportunity to add to the lore of vampires.

“When I saw ‘Bram Stoker’s Dracula,’ I was blown away,” he explains. “I loved what Gary Oldman did. You really get the sense of a very Anne Rice-ian version of Bram Stoker. You really get the sense of yearning. You’re seduced by him.”

That’s where Reid would like to take his Lestat. “He’s lived a long time and seen a lot of things.

“I don’t believe in vampires, but I’m a vampire to my work…which is pretty fun.”

"Interview with the Vampire" airs on AMC.