Interview with the Vampires: Sam Reid & Jacob Anderson on AMC's Reimagining of Anne Rice Novels

AMC's television series version of the 1975 Anne Rice classic "Interview with the Vampire" substantially reimagines the beloved vampiric characters at the heart of the story, none more so than Louis de Pointe du Lac, played here by "Game of Thrones" actor Jacob Anderson. Whereas Louis was originally a slave-owning white plantation owner, in this reimagined version (written by creator and executive producer Rolin Jones), he's an African-American man who has turned to the shady side, running a brothel to keep up his family's income as their sugar business fails.

That single change brings huge ramifications to how Louis is portrayed and what his story is, opening the way for the series to examine issues of race in early 20^th century America. As the interviewer (Eric Bogosian) – who is given a name, a backstory, and a face here – summarizes at one point, the show takes a Black man in America, gives him the lethal gifts of a vampire, and then watches what happens when agents of institutional racism push him too far.

Another character who's been reimaged is Claudia (Bailey Bass), the orphan that Lestat and Louis change into a vampire and then adopt. The disconnect between Claudia's physiological age – 14 – and the maturation of her mind and identity as time goes on becomes a source of intense frustration, with her developing sexuality a major issue.

Indeed, for dead (or undead) people, these vampires are unapologetically sexual and, in the case of Louis and his lover and creator Lestat (Sam Reid), gay. When they aren't chewing on the necks of their victims, Louis and Lestat are chewing on domestic dissatisfactions that are mundane in kind but amplified by the heightened reality of their vampiric existence. As played by Reid, Lestat is a force of nature: Charming, deadly, and radiant by turns, this version of Lestat makes it possible to believe that a vampire could contain so many human frailties alongside such terrifying reserves of supernatural capability. Anderson, in turn, palpably suppresses Louis' newly acquired abilities, and his monstrous thirst, in an effort to keep hold of some semblance of his fading humanity.

The family saga of Louis, Lestat, and Claudia unfolds in the early years of the 20th century, and is told in flashback, as Louis narrates his history to Bogosian's interviewer, a journalist named Daniel. This isn't their first interview; in a brilliant move, the series takes its retconning of the story and leans into it, relegating the original text to a conversation that took place between Louis and Daniel almost 50 years ago. Now living in Dubai, and shielded from the sun in his high-tech apartment, Louis is ready to tell a more honest version of his story, while Daniel, now an older man – and ill with Parkinson's disease – is more clear-headed and less willing to tolerate Louis glossing anything over or presenting lame excuses. The blend of time periods and intense character dynamics makes for a slow-burning narrative that... if you'll pardon the pun... grips the viewer by the throat.

EDGE caught up with Jacob Anderson and Sam Reid to ask about their thoughts on the show's reinvention and the savage (and sometimes comic) chemistry that the two share onscreen. A little of that chemistry was on display during the interview with these two screen vampires, who often gazed at one another raptly, as if in silent communion about the ways in which they were going to answer the questions put to them.

EDGE: Were you fans of the Anne Rice novel or the 1994 Neil Jordan film before you signed on to this series?

Sam Reid: I was, yeah. I mean, I had read the books when I was a teenager and enjoyed the film a lot. So yeah, I was very aware of the material.

Jacob Anderson: I came to the books through Rolin Jones's script. I only read the first two books before we started, [but] I instantly fell in love with [them]. Since that, I'm very deep in.

EDGE: This has been such a beloved property across the decades; did you have any apprehension about how significantly it's been reinvented? Or was it more a matter of excitement around being able to participate in such a beautifully done update?

Sam Reid: When I read the script for the first time, it just felt exactly like the books to me. Obviously, it's an adaptation, so there are going to be some changes, but I thought it evoked the core essence of those books incredibly well. And I was really excited to see the characters so fleshed out beyond just the first book. You really felt like they were so many more elements coming in from the later books. I thought [Rolin Jones] has done a really great job. I was super excited.

Jacob Anderson: Like Sam, I think the feeling, the essence of it, is the same. I think that like there are a few aesthetic or cosmetic differences, but I was more struck with the interpretation of those things. 

Sam Reid: And Rolin's done this amazing thing: The first season is the first half of the book "Interview with the Vampire." You can sort of go through the book episode by episode, and there are bits in it that are written in one way in the book, and then they're translated and expanded upon in the show. You can almost read the book while watching the show and see how he's brought in these other elements. It's an amazing task that he's managed. 

Jacob Anderson: Seeing the time that Rolin put into making sure that you really understood what Louie was losing from his human existence was [gratifying]. And also, I was so excited to see the Lestat from "The Vampire Lestat" [was the reading of the character they went with here]. There's something really fun and exciting about how Lestat is described in the first book when you get the context, but he's a bit of a goblin in the first book; he's kind of this evil, scratchy voice.

Sam Reid:: Whining, yeah.

EDGE:: Whereas here, Lestat has a real joie de vivre.

Sam Reid: Yeah, well he's brought in more because Anne Rice sort of changed the way that she talked about Lestat. He's slightly different. He's more fleshed out. I think Rolin felt it was important to keep that side of the character as opposed to, like, having two polar opposite versions.

EDGE: Jacob, your Louis is very different in 1910 New Orleans and 2022 Dubai (and there's a hint also of him from 1973 in Los Angeles). Louis is very different in those various times and settings, but also the same in certain essential ways. What was it like to play him at those different junctures?

Jacob Anderson: That is an amazing challenge. You couldn't ask for anything more exciting in terms of a role. But it's also kind of evolving as you go on you. You do things in the past that then inform how you behave in the future. At first I was like, "This is gonna be a bit scary, doing all of [the] Dubai [scenes] at the same time," but we shot the interview segments at the very end, so I had these memories to play with and to respond to, and that really helped. You pick and choose what you want to do, and sometimes you do things in the past that you're like, "Oh, this will be a fun thing to echo in a few months."

EDGE: This version has absolutely placed the gay romance front and center, and there's so much fire and complexity in the relationship you portray. What process did you go through together to define your onscreen chemistry?

Sam Reid:: I don't think that chemistry is something that you can really plan. 

Jacob Anderson: No, you can't plan it. No, it's either there or it's not. Sam and I listened to each other from the beginning, and I think we figured each other out and saw that were coming at things in the same way, [and figured out] the ways that were different. It was like, "Okay, let's use that as a strength to back each other."

Sam Reid: Yeah. And we discussed different points of view, and that works because that creates a dynamic between the characters. We're lucky. 

Jacob Anderson: We like each other.

Sam Reid: Yeah.

EDGE: You mentioned this is Season One, so hopefully there'll be a Season Two. What other projects you might be working on now? 

Sam Reid: We are going into Season Two. I just finished the second season of an Australian television show that I did called "The Newsreader," which I love, but it is a pretty full-time job being an Anne Rice vampire. 

Jacob Anderson: We've got like a little window of time. I'm about to go and shoot a film, which is amazing – it's very funny, very grotesque. I've never seen anything like it before. It's a film called "Time Stalker," from Alice Lowe, who is incredible. Look Alice Lowe up! But then we're back at it. We're never that far away from Louis and Lestat.

Season One of "Interview with the Vampire" is streaming now at AMC.

Watch the trailer: