{"id":562139,"date":"2026-07-22T07:38:11","date_gmt":"2026-07-22T07:38:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/562139\/"},"modified":"2026-07-22T07:38:11","modified_gmt":"2026-07-22T07:38:11","slug":"sam-reid-talks-the-vampire-lestat-finale-billboard-charts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/562139\/","title":{"rendered":"Sam Reid Talks ‘The Vampire Lestat’ Finale & Billboard Charts"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tIn the season finale of AMC\u2019s The Vampire Lestat, our main vamp is reckoning with some of his life\u2019s greatest failures, including an inability to take over the in-universe Billboard Hot 100<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n\tThat failure notwithstanding, it was quite an undertaking<\/a> for creator Rolin Jones, music writer Daniel Hart and actor Sam Reid to bring Anne Rice\u2019s beloved vampire rock star to the small screen \u2014 even if, in their retelling, Lestat\u2019s massive fandom becomes a modest cult following (and his album ends up as a fictional chart flop, bested by Drake).<\/p>\n

\n\tYet the character refresh didn\u2019t stop there. While Reid modeled some onstage physicality after rock \u2018n\u2019 roll greats, he was careful about not pulling too much. \u201cI looked at a lot of glam rock,\u201d the Aussie tells Billboard over a video call from his home country, where he\u2019s starring in a Sydney production of the play Doubt. \u201cBut I was a little bit concerned about him feeling too nostalgic, so I didn\u2019t try and lean too much into that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tPreparing for the immortal theater kid\u2019s latest musical adventure instead led Reid down a YouTube rabbit hole about\u2026 lions. \u201cLestat\u2019s got big cat energy,\u201d he laughs. \u201cThat\u2019s how I always operate with him. It was like that, just on steroids.\u201d In front of an audience, the vampire is feline and cocky, embracing a genre-typical androgyny (but put a pin in that for now).<\/p>\n

\n\tAs we find out, any built-up fa\u00e7ade is just as easily torn down. The finale, picking up after the double beheadings \u2014\u00a0debilitating, but not a sure death sentence \u2014 of Lestat and his partner Louis (Jacob Anderson), strips away the unflappable posturing; our Brat Prince spends the episode being roasted by his inner demons. Adding to that choir of critics? Completely brutal pans<\/a> of his posthumous LP from Pitchfork and Stereogum.<\/p>\n

\n\tRejected by the arts and the charts, \u201cHe\u2019s not succeeding in anything that he tries to do, even in telling his story,\u201d Reid says. Below, he further breaks down what went into playing rock star Lestat\u2019s rock bottom.<\/p>\n

\n\tHow did you prepare to embody Lestat as a rock star?<\/p>\n

\n\tYou know, it\u2019s weird to say, but I didn\u2019t really think about it too much. Lestat\u2019s always been a performer. He\u2019s always naturally taken on this role of a larger-than-life character. So when I was thinking about the rock performances, I just leaned into the work that we had already done. Trying to overly craft it was a bit of a concern to me because I wanted it to feel natural. I didn\u2019t want it to feel overly choreographed or anything like that.<\/p>\n

\n\tI did look a lot at some bootleg David Bowie recordings of one of his concerts in Los Angeles. But I was never really trying to emulate David Bowie. It was just always trying to maintain that alien quality. Even though he\u2019s trying to be very raw and express himself in an honest way, he does feel very alien and otherworldly. Throughout the season, I could let that disappear a bit because he was no longer trying to perform.<\/p>\n

\n\tI was also told<\/a> you watched Montage of Heck while preparing. What else was on the watch list?<\/p>\n

\n\tMontage of Heck came very early because Daniel Hart had given me the reference of Kurt Cobain, and I did find that a little bit jarring. I couldn\u2019t quite work out what he meant. I had seen [the documentary] before, but looking at it from the perspective of Lestat was a bit of an eye-opener because the character is so misunderstood. His music was so far-reaching, but there was still this very vulnerable soul that was at the center of it.<\/p>\n

\n\tI always start with Anne Rice interviews [when playing Lestat]. There are a lot of Jim Morrison references in the book, so I did look at Jim Morrison, trying to work out what she meant. She also has the reference of Jon Bon Jovi. I didn\u2019t find that reference so helpful. [Laughs.] But I did look there.<\/p>\n

\n\tRolin, very early, had also said that Lestat is a Fiona Apple-esque kind of id-first musician, so it was fun to go back and examine her music. Saint Vincent was always an inspiration for me for Lestat, as well.<\/p>\n

\n\tOn the topic of female rock stars, what did you think of Lestat saying he wishes he were a woman, too, sometimes?<\/p>\n

\n\tI don\u2019t know whether that\u2019s him trying to say anything beyond that. I think Lestat isn\u2019t in a gender crisis at all, and it would be wrong to say that\u2019s how we\u2019re portraying him.<\/p>\n

\n\tBut I feel like it does give a nod to \u2014 potentially \u2014 where he might be going in terms of acknowledging that there is a toxicity that exists within him that might be connected to his maleness, more than anything else.<\/p>\n

\n\tWe see The Vampire Lestat\u2019s album getting negative reviews, including a particularly harsh one from Billboard. How did you feel about the role of music criticism in this season?<\/p>\n

\n\tIt was a great framing device to not make Lestat this global megastar, the way that he is in the books. I think there\u2019s been a big misdirect in the way that this season has intentionally presented itself. Lestat is very powerful, but his whole modus operandi is to try to feel genuine love and appreciation. He might say that he doesn\u2019t need validation, that he\u2019s above the validation. But, actually, deep down, he really does.<\/p>\n

\n\tLestat can just be completely burnt down or hit a brick wall time and time again. But he gets up and brushes himself off again. Even in his failure, as he\u2019s dying, he\u2019s unable to form a coherent, beautiful sentence. He can\u2019t even structure one. The grammar trips him up. But he does acknowledge that, even if he didn\u2019t succeed, even if he has failed, even if everybody who he loves thinks he is a failure, at least he tried something.<\/p>\n

\n\tI think that there\u2019s an important lesson in criticism in that too, because even if everybody says, \u201cNot good enough\u201d or \u201cI don\u2019t appreciate your work,\u201d it\u2019s up to you as the artist to turn around and say, \u201cDo I take that as a full stop? Or do I take that as a semicolon?\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tIt made me laugh that the prediction of Drake releasing 50 songs and inundating the Billboard charts basically came true<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n\tThat was trippy. Props to Rolin, because I was like, \u201cI don\u2019t think this is very realistic. Why is it Drake that releases all of these songs?\u201d And he was adamant that it had to be that. Even me saying that line, I sort of, like, imbued it with so much confusion. Then it turns out Drake does drop all of those songs at once. So props to the oracle Rolin Jones. That just blew my mind. I only just found out that happened.<\/p>\n

\n\tBased on the release date, Lestat would have actually<\/a> been behind Taylor Swift.<\/p>\n

\n\tSee, that would have been more realistic for me at the time. [Laughs.]<\/p>\n

\n\tWe don\u2019t quite get to the big concert that brings about the end of the world in this season. Instead, in the finale, he\u2019s imagining himself onstage as he\u2019s about to die, with Louis\u2019 brother, Paul.<\/p>\n

\n\tIt\u2019s quite a beautiful way to finish the season, even though it\u2019s a cliffhanger. What he learns is that Louis does love him. He\u2019s not able to tell him in the clear and concise way that he probably wanted to hear, because the last time Louis said \u201cI love you\u201d to somebody, they committed suicide.<\/p>\n

\n\tWhether this is the specter of Paul, or just an illusion that he\u2019s conjured up in his dying mind, he hears that Louis loves him and, in that context, understands that he doesn\u2019t need Louis to say it anymore. Because he probably understands Louis on a level that he\u2019s never really fully been able to before. He\u2019s been so self-absorbed and wrapped up in his own need to be loved and fear of abandonment.<\/p>\n

\n\tYou see them separately acknowledge their love for each other and their enduring capacity to be true soulmates. And they will remain so. I think that leads them off into a totally new, different trajectory going forward, if we go forward. We have a new state to exist in.<\/p>\n

\n\tI think it\u2019s interesting that, even in his own mind, he\u2019s performing.<\/p>\n

\n\tI mean, he\u2019s trying to. He sits there and is told by those he loves the most, or are the most influential in his life, how much he failed and how awful he is. And his response to that is, \u201cGood show. A bit s\u2014t, but that\u2019s why you\u2019re opening, and I\u2019m headlining.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tBut he\u2019s trying to perform, and he can\u2019t get to it. He can\u2019t actually get to the song. He can\u2019t even get to the performance in the way that he wants to. The armor of the rock star just slips away.<\/p>\n

\n\tYou\u2019ve been very modest, but how do you feel about your abilities as a singer now, having gone through this process?<\/p>\n

\n\tI guess it\u2019s not really part of my DNA to sit there and be like, \u201cYeah!\u201d [Laughs.] But a few months ago, I sat down and listened to all of the recordings that we did, and it was sort of an astonishing moment where I thought, \u201cMy God, look how much work this is.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tI\u2019m super grateful for the opportunity to be able to explore that part of me as a performer. I\u2019ve always sung. I always had it as part of my life. I just never really had the opportunity to explore it in this capacity, which is the kind of capacity that I would like to explore it in. I like to do it in a theatrical context where I\u2019m playing a character, or the songs have a direct correlation to a story that I\u2019d be telling, as opposed to just making music.<\/p>\n

\n\tDoing the concert was so much fun. I have never done a live concert before. Obviously, I\u2019m playing a character, so, for me, it felt more like doing a play than doing a concert as Sam Reid. There was a level of security in that space. I hope that we, one day, do more. If anything, just to be able to share the amount of work that was put into those songs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In the season finale of AMC\u2019s The Vampire Lestat, our main vamp is reckoning with some of his…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":562140,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[321,93,61,60,633,4609],"class_list":["post-562139","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-celebrities","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-music-news","tag-tv-film"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/562139","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=562139"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/562139\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/562140"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=562139"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=562139"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=562139"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}