Interview With the Vampire Star Sam Reid on the "Fun" of Playing Lestat, Bringing Anne Rice's Beloved Character to Life

AMC's Interview With the Vampire is finally here, bringing to the small screen the eagerly anticipated adaptation of Anne Rice's iconic gothic horror novel of the same name and giving fans a fresh take on the source material as well as one of its most beloved characters — vampire Lestat de Lioncourt. Played by Sam Reid in the series, Lestat isn't the titular vampire being interviewed (that would be Louis de Pointe du Lac, played by Jacob Anderson), but he's very much a larger-than-life figure and one that has a major role in the rest of the books in Rice's Vampire Chronicles series. And for Reid, playing Lestat has proven to be the most fun thing to do.

Speaking with ComicBook.com, Reid spoke about how much fun he's had playing Lestat, particularly because of the lines he gets to say in the series — lines lifted straight from Rice's prose.

"It really is the most fun thing to do. I can't tell you," Reid said. "It's so much fun because he's so complicated a character. And it's like a gift, the dialogue that we get to say is extraordinary. And it is so gratifying playing this character and, in this world, saying direct Anne Rice lines. It's incredible, because when you read it, it's very different to how it sounds in your mouth, I mean how it sound sin your head when you have to put the words in your mouth and you actually go, 'Holy sh-t, these people speak like this.' Because there's a lot of exclamation points and there's a lot of love. There's a lot of very extreme emotions in the book that when you translate it, they remain extreme, but you also have to put them in a sense of reality as well, which is a bit of a minefield to navigate. So, it's really, really fun. And the fangs are fun, and the contact lenses are fun, and everything is great."

Reid previously told us that he is also a huge fan of Rice's books and that, for him, it's a huge privilege to be a part of this new adaptation.

"Super familiar. Huge fan of the books, huge fan," Reid said. "When I read that it was going to be made into a TV show I was just really hopeful that I had the opportunity to audition for it. So yeah, huge amounts of pressure because you feel that pressure to make sure that you live up to the character in the world that you love so much. I mean, there's a huge amount of pressure because they're so loved these books and this world that she created but also the pressure that you put on yourself to live up to them as well is full on. But what an extraordinary opportunity and gift and privilege to be able to be a part of it."

Interview With the Vampire stars Sam Reid as Lestat de Lioncourt, Jacob Anderson as Louis de Pointe du Lac, Bailey Bass as Claudia, and Eric Bogosian as Daniel Molloy. The series also stars Kalyne Coleman as Grace, Christian Robinson as Levi, Assad Zaman as Rashid, and Maura Grace Athari as Antoinette.

Interview With the Vampire airs Sundays on AMC and AMC+.

What do you think about AMC's Interview With the Vampire? Let us know your thoughts in the comments or hit me up on Twitter @lifeinpolaroid

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