'Interview with Vampire' star Sam Reid: Claudia, Louis will always be family to Lestat

NEW YORK, July 1 (UPI) -- Interview with the Vampire star Sam Reid says his character Lestat will forever feel bonded to Claudia and Louis, even as they all attempt to destroy each other.

"They're his family, regardless of what's happened," Reid, 37, told UPI in a recent Zoom interview. "I think it's just pure, pure love."

Season 2 of the decades-spanning, horror-romance wrapped up Sunday on AMC, but the adaptation of the late Anne Rice 's best-selling novels has already been renewed for a third season.

The show follows on-off vampire lovers Lestat and Louis (Jacob Anderson) and their adopted, eternal teen daughter Claudia (Delainey Hayles) as they feed on humans and enjoy high society life in New Orleans, starting in the early 20th century.

Eric Bogosian plays Daniel, the modern-day biographer in San Francisco to whom Louis recounts the events of his life.

The cast also includes Assad Zaman as Louis' current partner Armand and Ben Daniels as Santiago, an undead theater actor who sees Louis as an abomination for trying to kill Lestat and making a child immortal.

"I'm always excited to explore anything that Rolin writes," Reid said of show-runner Rolin Jones.

"It's always wonderful when the scripts come out and you see how he's wrapping things up and I think the conclusion of this season is just so beautiful," he added. "I just love Episode 8 and I was excited to see how it unfolded, really."

Editor's note: Spoilers ahead.

Episode 7 of Season 2 saw Louis and Claudia tortured as they were tried in Paris for their alleged crimes in front of a vampire council and a human audience that thinks it is watching a play.

The episode also featured the long-awaited return of Lestat, newly restored and thirsty for revenge after Louis and Claudia poisoned him, slit his throat and locked him in a trunk.

After Claudia is sentenced to death, she threatens to haunt and kill everyone in attendance, then is executed by sunlight exposure.

Louis' punishment was to be placed in a morgue drawer and starved to death.

Episode 8 shows Lestat rescuing Louis, Louis burning down Santiago's theater with a coven of vampires dying inside and Lestat reflecting on how his erratic demeanor drove Louis into Armand's arms.

It also depicts Daniel -- who is revealed to be a vampire sired by Armand and whose book becomes a best-seller -- telling Louis that Armand has been lying to him for more than 75 years about Lestat's role in saving his life.

Louis then heads to New Orleans to reunite with Lestat, who is just about to go on tour as a rock musician.

The vampires emotionally mourn Claudia's death, but part ways in the end.

"They're both obsessed with each other, I suppose," Reid said of Lestat and Louis.

"Being a vampire is hard and Lestat sees Louis as someone who could really do this," he added.

"It's not easy to live like this. You can either become more horrendous or you go insane. I think [Lestat] saw potential in Louis, as well as falling in love with him, but they ended up hurting each other more than helping each other. It's kind of soulmate stuff. They both know, deep down, it could be amazing -- if they could just get their act together."

Reid -- who is also known for his roles in Belle and The Astronaut Wives Club -- has inhabited Lestat for nearly three years now, but he acknowledges it's still challenging to wrap his head around who the manipulative vampire is and why he does what he does.

"i love him as a character and I love what Rice wrote, but I think it would be a mistake to fully understand and to fully rationalize every decision that he makes because they are supernatural beings and monsters," Reid said.

"There's a level of chaos that comes with being a supernatural being that I don't think you can ever fully empathize with as a human."

Luckily, Reid has Rice's texts to consult as he is creating his performance.

"To be able to go back to source material and a primary reference, to continue to interrogate and discover who [the characters] are is extraordinary," Reid said. "I go back [to the books] a lot, very regularly."

Amazing locations, sets and costumes also help Reid do his work.

"You put the costumes on, the contact lenses on and you're forced to walk a specific way, to move in a specific way," he said. "The show is incredibly transporting."

Although the series is filmed in and around Prague, native Australian Reid didn't get much free time to check out the Czech city.

"I didn't spend a huge amount of time outside because we live on these weird, night-time schedules," Reid said.

"You don't spend too much time exploring because you mostly sleep during the day and then everything is closed by the time you wake up."

AMC is also the home of such adaptations as Anne Rice's Mayfair Witches and the upcoming Anne Rice's The Talamasca .