Season 3 of AMC’s “Interview With the Vampire” will be based on “The Vampire Lestat,” the second novel in Anne Rise’s “Vampire Chronicles” that among other things sees the title character become a world famous rockstar.
But that novel was published in 1985 and suffice to say, the musical landscape of 2020s is very different from the 1980s. And one of the more amusing conversations among fans of the show and the books concerns just how Lestat’s music will be updated for the present day.
During San Diego Comic-Con 2024, TheWrap sat down with “Interview With the Vampire” showrunner Rolin Jones and stars Sam Reid (who plays Lestat), Assad Zaman (Armand) and Delainey Hayles (Claudia) on the IMDBoat, and naturally we had to ask about it.
“We’re going to be very, very coy here. I would say imagine Lestat with an iPad or whatever, going through the last 80 years of music,” Jones said. “And ‘yes, yes, yes. No, no, yes, yes, this this this.’ He doesn’t have to be a man of 2026. He’s a man of the last 300 years, he has exquisite taste. And I think he knows how to deliver it.”
“Look, he’s the vampire Lestat,” Reid added. “So like, you know, he’s the thing to be revered, he’s the thing to be feared. He’s the thing to be loved, he’s the thing to be hated. And, you know, in a time of extreme discourse, how do you stand out? I think, Lestat is one of those figures who is quite capable of making an impact without trying very hard.”
“I think it’s a bit there’s a very big and musical imagination that will actually probably build over time,” Jones elaborated. We had to know, does this mean fans can expect a lot more music in Season 3? Without spoiling anything, Jones coyly suggested the answer is a big yes.
“I think there’s probably secretly, in our hearts, the attempt to make an absolutely incredible double album that stands with everybody.” Yeah, we can’t wait.
We also got to talk to Hayles about her portrayal of Claudia, a decades-old vampire who was turned when she was just 14, and struggles with being forever locked in that form and with having any control over her nature. She’s a tragic but nevertheless terrifying monster, one Hayles manages to play with powerful vulnerability.
“I just felt a lot of empathy for her. Because she doesn’t entirely know who she is. She doesn’t know, this world that she’s all she knows. She likes it. But it’s been forced upon her,” Hayles explained when we asked her about that. “So I think yeah, I had a lot. Empathy was the thing that I wanted to explore. Because I just feel like her circumstances are so hard. That way to just be. [She’s] angry all the time, but it’s like she’s fierce, she’s also extremely vulnerable. And I wanted to show that in a way.”
Zaman also had interesting insight into his character, Armand, a 500 year old Vampire still very much behaving in many ways like an angry teenager. Asked if he saw his character as, essentially, a child pretending to be a grownup, Zaman told TheWrap, “I think that’s ultimately what we were kind of going for. And what I didn’t realize is, I think that’s kind of what living in my life as an actor for 10 years is like.”
“I think often felt like the teenager or the kid who doesn’t really know but pretending to put this mask of someone who does know what they’re doing. And I think we all do that. I think we all sort of trudge along and pretend the role until it fits us, until we find a calmness in it. So yeah, most of most of the shooting process of season two was me trying to pretend like I know what I’m doing. And I guess that kind of comes into harmony.”
Head here for all TheWrap’s coverage of San Diego Comic-Con 2024.