Based on Anne Rice's iconic novel, Interview with The Vampire follows Louis de Pointe du Lac's (Jacob Anderson) epic tale of love, blood, and the perils of immortality. Louis’ maker and now ex-lover is none other than the vampire Lestat (Sam Reid), and although his presence has haunted all of Season 2 thus far, by the end of Episode 6 his presence is more palpable than ever before. We spoke to Reid about the complications of playing Dreamstat, donning the iconic wolf killer cloak, and what Lestat really thinks about Louis and Claudia’s impending trial. 
Q: In Episode 3 we see Lestat on stage in all his glory and boy is it amazing! Not only is it fantastic to learn more about his past and his connection to Armand via Magnus, but it was also so cool to see him in this incredibly buoyant time in his life soon after his transformation. I was giggling watching your joyful cocky dances on stage from Armand’s angle! As a theater actor by training, it must have been so much fun to take the stage in such a dramatic fashion!  
A: We shot that in the Mozart Theater where Don Giovanni premiered. It's a really beautiful space. I was absolutely blown away. It was a very, very fun couple of days when we shot that whole sequence. In terms of Lestat's story, it's definitely being told from Armand's point of view, and remember that key characters are missing from that retelling. So, after reading the script, I was like, "We can have a lot of creative license in the way that we're going to approach this." It just meant we could have fun with it, you know? We just messed around. He's more of a swashbuckling Lestat. We played around with the idea of "what is Armand's version of Lestat?" In his version, Lestat's more heroic, he's more swashbuckling, he's more glamorous. I don't necessarily know if that's totally accurate, but it was definitely fun to do!
Q: I was obsessed with your three-piece suits in Season 1 and talked to Carol Cutshall extensively about the tailoring we saw last season, but this season the costumes are going further back in time and are even more detailed and intricate. From that intense fur cloak you wear on walks with your lover, to tailored redingotes, to the costume for the play we just touched on, there were so many incredible costuming moments this season. Did they allow you to go deeper into Lestat’s skin this season?  
A: Well, I remember when I read Episode 3 and saw that there was going to be an opportunity to put that wolf killer cloak on I definitely put that request in. I said, "Hey, Carol, how about we put the wolf killer cloak on for these scenes?" I think if we don't ever go on, if the show ends here, I think everyone who has read the books needs to see that. So, I was like, "Let's make sure it's in there!"
Carol is so astonishing in the way that she approaches making costumes. I mean, dramaturgy is just so detailed. So of course, she came back with a real massive cloak, which was incredibly heavy. It was really fascinating actually. It was a really intense thing to put on. I thought, "Oh, well, this is not a little thing. This is a mega piece of clothing that this guy wore out in public, and for a long time." So as a character, this is a person who's always willing to be seen. When he gets turned into a vampire and meets Armand, and there's this push against being seen and a push for hiding in the shadows and not deserving to be in the light, that doesn’t work for him. You’ve got this guy who's walking around in red velvet and wolf fur, that is the crux of this character. That is who they are.
So, the costumes really helped. I was like, "This guy's never going to hide. So of course, he's going to find a way to let vampires be out in the open. He found the theater and found a way for them to be vampires in the public eye, being vampires pretending to be humans playing vampires. Of course, that's Lestat's idea!" Do you know what I mean? Of course, this guy wears these things!
I mean, it's kind of genius.
Yeah, it is. It is! I think his version of it was much more romantic. When he sees the theater, where it's gone, and how Armand has managed it, I don't think he's very impressed at all. He doesn’t like this trashy, back-alley version. He was much more into the plush velvet seats and the orchestra.
Q: Lestat exists as a looming presence throughout much of the courting that takes place between Louis and Armand — whether they’re walking along the Seine, or through the halls of a closed museum at night — he’s always there taking up space in Louis’ mind and tossing in a sassy retort. What was it like shooting those scenes with Jacob and Assad and were there any of those trio scenes in particular that stuck with you? I so loved that scene in Episode 3 where you end up being the pianist at the bar where they’re having a date and you’re singing the very words “Vient a moi” that Armand uttered to you when he first saw you on stage.  
A: The fun thing about that is there are multiple things happening there. It's like I'm not playing Lestat. I'm actually playing Louis. So those sassy retorts that you see are really Louis. So that's some stuff that he's got to deal with, regardless of the relationship he's got going on with Armand.  
When we were first looking at it, I was like, "Oh, Lestat's there kind of just ruining their vibe." And then the more we spoke about it, the more I realized it's not Lestat, it's Louis. Louis is putting Lestat there, and Louis is using Lestat to speak to a different side of him that maybe he doesn't really necessarily want to voice.
The fact that Armand says, "Come to me", and this is a big theme throughout the whole show, the, "Come to me" and the song, and then Lestat saying, "Come to me." I think transplanted memory, real memory, fake memory, somebody else's memory, who said what to who, it all gets very muddled between the three of them. I mean, you're seeing Louis and Armand talk about it. You're never seeing Lestat talk about it. I think that’s the genius of Rolin [Jones; creator]. He's creating a show that you can watch multiple times and you can be like, "Wait, what? No. Oh, that happened? F*ck."
Q: At the end of Episode 4, we do see Louis say goodbye to his visions of Lestat as he falls deeper for Armand and the scene is just heart-breaking. That he pictures him in his favorite suit and his image slowly washes away like colors of an oil painting with his voice echoing into the distance without even finishing his sentence. It was a beautiful way to delight the eyes while using CGI to elevate the moment and tug at our heart strings. Did you have a sense of how that scene was going to turn out once the CGI was added?
A: I knew because I also had to do that entire scene also in a motion capture cage! So, I knew how they were going to do it. I really liked that scene. Louis obviously needs to move on so he can adapt to this harder kind of personality that he wants to take on. He wants to have more control, or however he sees his relationship with Armand, but he has to let go of this thing that he's holding onto, this dream Lestat.
I always thought it was interesting that Louis's dream Lestat is so sweet. He was so easy going. Like, "Oh, you don't want to hunt? Oh, okay. You want to sit down? Sure. Okay. Yeah." Whether or not Lestat had Louis' initials engraved on that suit, I don't know. It does sound like something he would do, but it's also Louis putting that into Lestat's mouth. It's very fun to play that. It's very satisfying. It's giggle inducing.
Well, it's like the meta upon meta upon meta.
Yeah. It's a lot of meta! It does get confusing at times, but it also just means that you have a lot of freedom because I'm really playing Louis when I'm playing that dream Lestat.
Q: The reveal of Lestat at the end of Episode 6 is just so perfect. He’s of course dressed impeccably, smoking and mumbling under his breath about 10 minutes to curtain. What can you tease out about this theatrical trial that is about to go down in the final two episodes? 
A: Louis and Claudia are on trial. Lestat told them, well he told Claudia, "The vampires out there are vicious. The vampires in Europe are much, much worse." She received that information when she was quite a young child, and also at a time when she was really not liking her parent. And like so many children, she didn’t want to listen to her parent at the time. Also, Lestat is chaotic and was probably saying it in a way that she couldn't hear properly. But here they are!
He's going to witness it no matter what.
No matter what, he would be there. No matter what. He's got a really complex relationship with Armand and a really complex relationship with that theater. Very, very complex. It's not a place that he wants to be. So, he's already pissed off. I know it's in the trailer, but he's so pissed off that he can't even keep his jacket on! [Laughs] He's getting so hot and bothered even walking onto the stage. It's a stressful place for him to be. He's really not happy about being there.
You've got Louis and Armand sitting there telling the story and recounting the events. What I always like to do with the show — because you can't always just count on somebody else's version — you still need to look for clues. And what I would say is that I do put in a few little clues for really astute avid watchers. If you watch the next episode, you might get a few clues about how he really feels about what the hell's going on.
Interview with the Vampire airs on Sundays at 9/8c on AMC. Episodes are available to stream on amc.com (with a cable provider login), and the AMC apps for mobile and devices. You can also watch episodes via AMC+ at amcplus.com or through the new AMC+ app available on iPhone, iPad, Android, Fire TV, Apple TV, and Roku plus Samsung and Vizio smart TVs. AMC+ can also be streamed through a variety of providers, including AppleTV, Prime Video Channels, DirectTV, Dish, Roku Channel, Sling, and Xfinity. Sign up for AMC+ now.