Two of Lestat’s Biggest Ghosts “Haunt the Narrative” in ‘The Vampire Lestat’ Episode 3

Editor’s note: The below interview contains spoilers for The Vampire Lestat Episode 3.

AMC’s Interview with the Vampire set a distinct tone when it premiered back in 2022, but with the show’s official transformation (and retitling) into The Vampire Lestat, there’s also the sense that a completely different perspective has taken over the story. Lestat de Lioncourt’s (Sam Reid) decision to finally sit down with journalist and newly-made vampire Daniel Molloy (Eric Bogosian) for his own on-camera interview starts more straightforwardly than you’d expect, with Daniel attempting to wring out the truth through a series of increasingly provocative questions and Lestat deftly evading honesty at every turn.

Yet the real story, as we’ve seen, always lies somewhere between public performance and what goes completely unspoken. When it comes to the tragic culmination of Lestat’s relationship with his first love, musician Nicolas “Nicki” de Lenfent (Joseph Potter), as well as his own traumatic turning by the vampire Magnus (Damien Atkins), “Toronto” is as close to an instance of soul-baring as viewers have ever earned before — even if, as Potter reflected on in our interview ahead of the episode’s premiere, it’s delivered through a “lens of deceit.” Below, Potter and Atkins discuss Episode 3’s emotional Nicki and Magnus flashbacks, how manipulation and betrayal shape their characters’ narratives in the series, the experience of playing ghosts who literally haunt Lestat’s story, and more.

COLLIDER: Joseph, Nicki is one of the few characters who actually knows Lestat before he’s turned into a vampire. How did that unique foundational knowledge impact your and Sam [Reid]’s approach to their relationship?

JOSEPH POTTER: It’s interesting because, obviously, we meet them when they’re in Paris for the first time. There’s a level of, like, “Oh, how much did they know about each other in Auvergne?” It was such a privilege to have that little meet-cute in that scene. I think when Nicki and Lestat first meet each other, they’re very down on their luck. They are poor. They’re both these tragic souls, which, for Nicki, really unites them, which makes the difference when they get to Paris, and Lestat starts flying high. That makes the change just that much more devastating. So, that kind of shift was really fun to toy with.

‘The Vampire Lestat’s Damien Atkins Reveals Magnus’ True Motivation for Turning Lestat

“He was an alchemist. He’s looking for gold.”

Image via AMC

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Damien, we’ve known very little about Magnus until this season apart from what Lestat has divulged, per Louis’ recollection. “Your Biggest Fan” paints him as this twisted fanboy, but from your perspective, what do you think really drew Magnus to Lestat and drove him to want to turn Lestat into a vampire?

DAMIEN ATKINS: Oh, my book is upstairs, because I was just looking at it yesterday. I mean, he says, “brave little wolfkiller.” What we see in the book is that he has killed dozens or hundreds of blonde men. It’s a really strange Aryan something, like he’s looking for the perfect heir, and then he finds one that has spunk and bravery. You know what I mean? He’s looking for the perfect son. It’s twisted.

Magnus does know [Lestat] before he’s turned, as well, but from a distance, so it’s probably distorted, not real knowledge of him. But he does see that Lestat has got an effect on people. I will say, when you think about the arc of the universe of it, I think Magnus is looking for the chosen one. He’s looking for the guy to lead the revolution. Somebody who has something very special, which has to do with bravery and charisma, I think, as well as beauty — which, all of that is nasty and gross, but I do think that’s where he’s coming from. He was an alchemist. He’s looking for gold.

Joseph, it feels like Nicki’s decline in this episode, mentally and emotionally, doesn’t happen overnight. Do you feel that there was any major tipping point for him, or was it really a series of lies, omissions, things that Lestat was clearly telling him before doing the exact opposite?

POTTER: In Lestat’s recounting of events, we track it from Season 2, Episode 3, when Nicki’s turning happens with the coven and Armand. Then we get to the moment where he snaps. In our episode, when I say “a month ago,” we’re tracking back from there. Like you said, it’s this gradual building of deceit. You never know what’s real and what’s not in this show sometimes — memory’s a monster. But I feel like we see the gaslighting happen, and we’re watching that, and so Lestat is kind of honest in how he’s betrayed Nicki in that way, which is why he still carries that music box with him.

Yeah, it’s a consistent repetition of lies, is how we’ve got to where we’ve got to, but the way in which we see it, it feels like it happens quick, and that he dives into mania quite quickly. I love Nicki, and I think he was hard done by at times. [Laughs]

Damien, I was so compelled by how this episode frames Magnus, and there are two very different lenses through which we see him. The first time he shows up, it’s the music video, the version that Lestat is publicly telling in “Your Biggest Fan,” but then later on, there’s a very different version of events, set against the voiceover of Louis reading from Claudia’s diary. Which version did you film first, and did one sequence unexpectedly inform the other?

ATKINS: Oh, that’s such a good question. We did the music video stuff late. So, on some level, it was very considerate, a sort of organic process of trying to start with the… It’s not really a small reality, it’s quite already a pungent reality, but a kind of vulnerability, which I think is what you’re referring to. Certainly, that was my experience, of love. You’ve got to go inside, without judging [Magnus], to this sort of tremulous love, and then let it kind of explode through. There’s violence, and there’s all that stuff, too, and we did the music video quite late, so it felt like a natural blooming, a ridiculous blooming of what had been quite a small, tender thing.

Honestly, this is one of those questions where my perspective will be entirely different from everyone else’s, because for me, it’s all of a piece. That was an awful night, shooting that scene. You have to keep grounding yourself in, “I think I’m doing the right thing. I think I’m doing the loving thing,” and letting the show and letting Sam make it into what is the real story for people who are watching, and what is Lestat’s story. For me, I’ve got to insulate myself from all of that, so I did. The car, that scene, the music video, it was all a kind of expression of love — twisted love, but you know.

‘The Vampire Lestat’s Joseph Potter on Whether Lestat Is Being Honest About Nicki’s Death

“It’s telling that we get the truth through this lens of deceit.”

Image via AMC

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Before, Joseph, you brought up the “memory is a monster” tagline, and that was something I wanted to mention pertaining to Lestat’s very emotional confession to Daniel about Nicki’s death — followed by the twist that it’s a telepathic prank, and Daniel’s the only one who’s made privy to that story. How honest do you think Lestat is being about what really happened?

POTTER: This is a question for Sam, this is a question for Rolin [Jones], this is a question for Hannah [Moscovitch]. [Laughs] It is interesting, because when I read it, and upon watching it, the recounting of how Nicki dies, of Armand holding him down in the fire, it’s so open. It feels so profoundly there and present. Then, when you hear that it’s a trick, you just feel like the rug has been pulled out from under you. That kind of juxtaposition is exactly what Lestat is all about, for me.

I think it’s telling that it does happen. I think there’s a level of vulnerability within Lestat that hasn’t quite fully dealt with, regarding his place or position in Nicki’s betrayal or descent. So, it’s telling that we get the truth through this lens of deceit. And who knows? Maybe one day we’ll get the whole truth. Maybe he chopped off his own hand. I have no idea.

What do you both remember most about the experience of getting to literally haunt the narrative, especially at the end of this episode when we see the two of you in the crowd, among all of those screaming fans, during the “Loneliness” sequence?

ATKINS: It’s so fun. It’s so tricky to talk about because it made me feel powerful. It made me feel important. So gross, right? So gross. But shooting that concert scene, everybody’s sort of rocking out around me, and I’m standing there very still, feeling fatherly. [Laughs] It’s so gross. It was wild. It was great.

POTTER: On the other side of that, that scene was the first time that I’d seen Sam in the band, so I’ve got two things running through my head: “Haunt the narrative, haunt the narrative,” and also, “Holy shit, that’s so good!” [Laughs] But it’s interesting being the muse or a ghost, and I was trying to ask Rolin wherever I could, because without spoiling anything going on, there are a couple more moments where things pop up, and Muse Nicki or Ghost Nicki is different to who he actually is. It’s that kind of provocateur, and a way of guiding Lestat’s dealing with his trauma. It’s a different beast altogether.

New episodes of The Vampire Lestat premiere Sundays on AMC.