You seem to know these books in and out so at the risk of sounding like a troll, I wanted to ask looking for a genuine answer what specifically makes you think that Loustat is end game? When I read the books, it ended on a dance between Louis and Lestat from what I can remember and I do recall they said they loved each other during that dance, but I don't recall them agreeing to be companions again or anything in the last book. I interpreted it as not so much an "endgame" but more open-ended. I think a post I read either here or on another blog also implied they were monogamous during the PL series, I genuinely don't remember that. Wasn't Lestat still taken with David and trying to find Louis a "friend" at court? Maybe it wasn't David but wasn't there someone else Lestat was in love with during the court besides Louis that he turned? I might be remembering wrong...
Anon, monogamy is not a thing and will never be a thing with these relationships. Their love transcends human notions or restrictions. What makes Loustat endgame is not a frilly little human promise to be monogamous. No, what makes them endgame is the fact they are it for each other and when I say that, I mean in the sense that they would not survive each other. Their love is fatal. Monogamy has zero to do with any of that.
For one, their relationship was not left open-ended. Their endgame was set up in Prince Lestat and fully established in Prince Lestat And The Realms Of Atlantis when Louis finally made peace with himself and accepted Lestatās invitation to be his consort. The definition of a consort is the spouse or companion of a ruling monarch. Loustat is shown to be a family unit with the addition of Viktor and Rose. It is their second chance at parenthood, coming full-circle after the tragedy with Claudia in which no one else shared that specific grief and guilt but them.
David fades to the background once Louis is at the Court. He is still around, acting as Lestatās friend and brother and also Louisā friend and brother. But no, I would not categorize Lestat as āstill takenā with him. That relationship became strained, to put it simply, after the events of Merrick. It was vaguely hinted as to why by Lestat in Prince Lestat and if you know what happens to Louis in Merrick while under Davidās care, you know what is happening there between the lines.
Trying to find Louis a friend? That would be Mitka aka Dmitri Fontayne. Mitka sent a letter from New Orleans in which he appeals to Lestat for help in ridding the territory of a group of rogue vampires. Those same vampires had also broken into Rue Royale and destroyed one of Louisā paintings. Lestat, furious when anyone hurts Louis and wishing to help Mitka, takes off for New Orleans to destroy the rogues and meet up with him. When Lestat meets Mitka, he immediately clocks that heās interested in the same books and authors as Louis and has the same intellectual thoughts as Louis, and Lestat says he wanted to tell him a great deal about Louis and knew Louis would love him. It was not a matter of Lestat ātrying to find Louis a friend.ā It was a matter of Lestat loving Louis enough to know his interests and likes/dislikes and knowing Louis would get along with him. It goes back to the fact Lestat always felt he was intellectually inferior to Louis. Lestat, who was kept illiterate by his family on purpose until vampirism granted him the ability to read and write, tells of a small moment in Blood Communion in which he lets it be known that Louis reads to him. Do you see the significance of that? In the past, Louis used books, like Gabrielle, to shut Lestat out. Now, Louis engages with Lestat about literature and actually shares his passions with Lestat. He reads to him. You see, thatās the sign of a truly bonded, heathy relationship. There is no jealousy, no competition, no threat to their love or what they mean to each other simply because they have friends.
You mentioned someone else Lestat was āin love withā? That would be his architect, Alain, and yes. Lestat turns him. However, that is not meant to replace Louis nor does it have any bearing on the fact Louis is still Lestatās consort. Louis is still the one sharing blood with Lestat. Louis is still the one sleeping in their chambers with Lestat. Louis is still the one who knows what Lestat canāt confide to anyone else. Louis is the one whom Lestat says he is closer to than any other visible being in existence. Louis is the one Rhoshamandes abducts, because he wants Lestat to feel the same pain he felt when his beloved Benedict was allowed to end himself before the Court. He sends Lestat a box of ashes containing Louisā emerald ring, and Lestat emotionally shuts down completely at that point. He literally says itās as if he no longer has a heart once Louis is gone. He pitifully asks Gregory āWhy didnāt he take me?ā He would lay down his life if it meant protecting Louis.
That is why they are endgame, Anon. It has nothing to do with being monogamous or cheating or jealousy or any of that crap. It is because Louis is Lestatās heart. Louis is Lestatās home. They are finally at peace with themselves, fully sharing their lives (and blood) together in a reunion Lestat calls āenduring.ā As both Sam and Jacob have reiterated, they are endgame. They are married by the end as blood spouses, eternal companions joined by a cord who always come home to each other. Itās not something we just āthink.ā It is literally whatās written in the books. They are feverishly and maniacally in love with each other and simply cannot exist without each other. Louis is Lestatās person, and Anne was very clear about that.
If you are interested in more, allow me to link you my Loustat masterlist:
Loustatās Transcendent Love
Louis Is Lestatās Consort
Lestat Seeking Out Louis
Loustatās Marriage
Loustatās Implied Marriage & The Emerald Ring
Loustat Is Endgame
Loustat Is Not Toxic
Louisā Love For Lestat
Loustatās Journey To Acceptance
It Was Always Louis
Loustat: One Depends Upon The Other
Loustat Fights For Each Other
Prince Lestat Era Loustat
Louis Is Lestatās Religion
Louis Is Lestatās Home
Lestatās Reaction When Louis Is Taken In Blood Communion
Lestatās Reaction Upon Finding Louis In Blood Communion
Lestatās Jealousy
Lestatās Amazement
Lestatās Strained Relationship With David
Why David Disappears In Prince Lestat Era
Lestatās Reaction To Louisā Suicide Attempt
Loustatās Separation After Merrick
Lestatās Love For Others
Loustatās Family Unit
Blood Communion Dance Foreshadowed In 1x07
ETA:
Lestatās Soulmate
Louis Wanted Lestat To Be His God
Lestat Feels He Failed In Protecting Louis
Louis Does Love Lestat
Why Lestat Loves Louis
āTheyāre each otherās endgame, arenāt they? In the books, they always come home to each other, and itās kind of telling that that seems to be sort of, like, the end of a lot of the novels is Louis and Lestat being petty and in love, you know?ā
Jacob Anderson, Sam Reid, and others talking about Jam Reiderson.
Here's a compilation of bits and pieces from various interviews about these two men's beautiful friendship. Will be updating as new promo for subsequent seasons comes out!
(Long post, so keep reading!
- there's SO MUCH good stuff)
Pride.com
Q: You guys have incredible chemistry. It hinges on that. Can you talk a little bit about how you built that kind of connection?
JA: I find it so difficult to talk about chemistry. Because me and Samā¦ like each other.
SR: Yeah. I think weāre very similar in a lot of ways, and that was a big relief. Itās a very bizarre job to do when youāre doing it, cause youāre shooting entirely at night, you have amazing costumes and contact lenses and accents and teeth and blood. The scenes, while they feel like they have a flow to them, thereās a lot of splitting up while we do it because weāve got to have special effects come in or the blood come in, or weāre on a rig of some kind. So itās a weird experience, and we also had these extraordinary lines of dialogue to say as well. And so to have somebody whoās similar, can process these things the same way as you and bounce off of and decompress with is vital.
JA: Yeah, and the first step is you just have a common language that you find, and sometimes it clicks and sometimes it doesnāt. And we were just lucky that we, you knowā¦
SR: Yeah. Yup.
Amc Talk
Q: The relationship between Louis and Lestat is rife with complications, but at its core there's obviously a real connection there. What was it like crafting this tumultuous relationship on screen with Sam Reid? You two are quite good friends having come out the other end of Season 1.
JA: Yeah, we were good friends when we were doing it and I think that's part of why it worked out for us! We didn't put too much emphasis on trying to figure everything out. The scripts are so beautiful, the writing is so dense and so full of life and detail that you don't need to discuss it too much. Obviously, we talked to the directors, and they'd have ideas and we'd have ideas, but I think, in terms of me and Sam finding it, I think we just paid attention to each other. We just trusted the writing, trusted each other, and it meant that weād already be prepared for whatever was going to come up. We felt comfortable with each other, so we could try things and it felt safe. It felt like we could play around with body language and with eye contact and all these things. But it was unspoken, I think. It wasn't something that we spent a lot of time discussing. Everything's intentional to a certain extent, but there's this other thing that is just about instinct and listening really.
Q: And having the right scene partner where that happens.
JA: Yeah, I felt really lucky! Sam gives you so much. There's so much to play off and I hope that I did the same for him. Our first day of shooting we did the opera house stuff, and I was so excited. It's the scene where he talks about loneliness, and I remember thinking even though I'd got to know him a little bit and we'd done a bit of rehearsal and we'd become friends by that point, I was like, "Oh wow, this is going to be really special! I'm going to get to do this every day. I'm going to get to watch this character come to life and respond to it." That's a gift. Sam Reid is a gift!
Q: The relationship between Louis and Lestat is rife with complications, but at its core thereās a real connection there. What was it like crafting this tumultuous relationship on screen with Jacob Anderson? You two are quite good friends having come out the other side of Season 1 so if anything, Iām sure the experience brought you closer together?Ā
SR: Yeah, definitely. It definitely brought us closer together. It was really crazy this stuff that we were doing together. We'd have these massive scenes, and it would be just him and I in the middle of the night playing opposite each other, not really being able to see each other all the time with the contact lenses. You just rely so heavily on one another. You also rely on each other because you're like, "Have we pushed it too far? Is it too much? Is it enough? Like, do we believe each other?" Because it's this very intense relationship but weāre also supernatural beings. So, you're constantly having to reframe the way that you look at a relationship and say, "Well, hang on, my character has all this power." Like in Episode 4, I remember saying, when all the police are coming over to the house, I was like, "Why are we even worried about this? I don't understand why I would be even concerned about this at all." But you're negotiating with someone who's going, "Yeah, but my desire to have a connection to humanity makes this important," and so you're like, "Oh, okay." We managed to balance off each other in that way, because my character's way past any connection to humanity and Jacob's character is holding onto those last threads of his humanity. When we'd both be examining a scene, we'd both be coming at it from different angles. Because of the love between the two characters, there's always that negotiation and blunting of the other's real intention. I couldn't really imagine doing it with anybody else! We did all of it, everything, together, really.
Gold Derby Daniel Hart Interview
Q: In what ways does the showās really rich visual palette and then of course Sam and Jacobās lightning-in-a-bottle chemistry on screen influence some of the choices that you made on the score throughout your process?
DH: Thereās a theme that I would call their love theme, and itās sprinkled throughout the first episode but it played in full over the end credits in a piece called āIn Throes of Increasing Wonderā. And that theme appears in almost every episode, I think, in some form or another. I donāt think that theme was possible before I had seen some of that interaction between Jacob and Sam as Lestat and Louis. Itās born of their emotional reactions to each other.
IWTV Podcast
Ep2
Q: You and Jacob did your chemistry tests over Zoom? Which, I mean, does anyone have chemistry over Zoom?
SR: Yeah, I donāt really know what they were looking for or how youāre supposed to gauge chemistry from that, because it was really glitchy and we were all speaking on top of each other and trying really hard to act into the camera, which just wasnāt working. But look, I reallyā¦ Jacob is such a lovely person, such a really fantastic actor and so easy to be around. And I could see that he was going to be a very easy person to fall in love with. So it was fun. In fact I just came from having ice cream with Jacob and he says hello.
Q: Oh my God, Iām obsessed. I want these moments. Give me that footage, okay? I want ice cream footage, I want strolling the streets of downtown New Orleans footage.
SR (laughs): Yeah, I mean we hang out all the time and weāve become very, very good friends. Cause it is a crazy journey that weāre on and it was a crazy job, so itās really lovely to have such a good friend.
Ep3
Q: Talking about Sam, how much time did yāall get before you started actually shooting? Itās like āOkay, weāre in love now and itās going to be very tortured and complicatedā ā Rolling!
JA: Yeah. I donāt know if I completely believe in luck, but I think thereās like a weird cosmic luck in this whole thing. It is a huge roll of the dice. The first day we met each other, obviously we both had our masks on, and we had a hug and we were like āOh hiā. And then we just spent the next day walking around New Orleans and getting to know each other. And I truly love that man, so much. Like, we connected so quickly and just found likeā¦ And I think part of that as well is that thereās a level of trust that we had to have, otherwise we werenāt going to be able to do this at those hours, and those scenes, and the intimacy of their relationship, and also the toxicity and the fire in it. We had to really hold each other and be like āAll right, have we got each otherās back?ā And we did, we were just like āWeāre in this together. Letās listen to each other and try and have fun.ā And we did, we had a lot of fun. I thought that taking on this role would be quite triggering for me in lots of different ways. I thought it was going to force me to have to reconcile with lots of feelings that I had. I thought it was going to be just a guilt and shame and despair fest for six months. And actually I just found it really, really cathartic being Louis, and Louis has helped me a lot. I think thereās something about acceptance in Louis and acceptance of self, and like āThis is who I am, this is who Iāve been, and Iām enduring, Iām choosing to keep going. Iām choosing to accept who I am.ā And that was really helpful for me. So rather than feeling tortured, I think I ended up just feeling veryā¦ held, very comforted by the whole thing, in a weird sort of way.
Ep7
Q: Iām wondering what you guys would do or how you would hang out on set. Is there hanging out or are you more like āOkay, theyāre setting up a light, I gotta go lay down, I canāt with you right now.ā
JA: No, we were pretty inseparable, to be fair. There wasnāt really any hanging out. We just were. At a certain point, we just were. We didnāt share a trailer, but it was like, a wall separating us. And weād just end up sitting on the stairs or texting each other through the wall.
SR (laughs): Through the wall, just texting all the time.
JA: We became a hive mind.
SR: We did, yeah.
Q: Were you still a hive mind once you wrapped? Would you still text and stuff?
JA: Yeah.
SR: Yeah.
JA: Weāre going to the theatre tonight. Weāve seen each other every day for the last week. Weāre still choosing to spend time together. Itās probably not very healthy. Very co-dependent (laughs).
Ep8
Q: Obviously viewers are in love with Jacob and Sam. People are tweeting me photos of them eating ice cream. We call ourselves #icecreamhive. The fandom is strong. Can you tell me about how you found Jacob and Sam, and the process of deciding they were Louis and Lestat?
Rolin Jones: Well, obviously 9 billion people auditioned. You kind of get down to ten actors that you like on both sides. The simple math of it is the second those two got into their Zoom rooms together, it was very clear something very dynamic was happening. On Jacobās side, thereās this sort of genuine warmth, kindness, humanity. Youāre like āOkay, for a character whoās going to make a number of questionable choices, how do you make them want to love him?ā And on Sam: I saw his face and I said āNo fucking way! No fucking way that guy, this chiselled, stupid chiselled, with his locks and his dreamy eyes. I was like no, no, no, no. And then I pressed play, and he really knew how big we were going to go. He was wildly specific and subtle. It was in his voice. There was something a little Jeff Bridges/Starman about it, and I was like āOh, this guy feels like an alien and he feels other than usā. They both won the audition, thatās basically what happened. Although Iāll tell you, hereās a dirty secret: ready for this? Sam bought this piece of technology, that you can do a push-in close-up right when the scene is getting a little juicy. And I just started laughing my ass off. I was like āOh my God, this guy wants this so hard.ā
Mark Johnson: You called me the first time you had seen Sam, and you were just so excited about the potential of this guy and you basically said: āHeās going to be next to impossible to beat.ā And sure enough, nobody could really touch him. But from the very first time you saw his audition you were pretty convinced that we had our Lestat.
Keep It Podcast
JA: Sam is just like myā¦ partner-in-crime, and I feel so lucky that I got to spend every day with him. We had to do a lot of stuff in this show and when I say a lot of stuff I mean, those nights are no joke. Knowing those scenes and working on those scenes together at that hour ā you can only do that with somebody that you like, even if the scene calls for tension. I think you would just kill each other if you didnāt like each other.
New York Post (October '22)
JA: For anything I got to do with Sam, that relationship is so fun to play. You bond in a really particular way when you're working nights and dealing with these lofty themes. The feelings are huge in every scene. If you don't have that common language and find that chemistry... I don't think me and Sam needed to find it, there was something natural that we found together. It would be rough if we didn't like each other an awful lot.
PaleyFest
Q: Jacob and Sam, I feel like the show wouldnāt work unless the chemistryās there between Louis and Lestat. Thereās a lot riding on that. So how did you two form this immortal bond, if you will, during filming, knowing how important it was?
JA: We just spent a lot of time together even when we didnāt need to (laughs). I donāt know, like, how do you put that kind of thing into words? Itās just, likeā¦ I really love Sam. I like spending time with him. I like working with him. I find the way that we talk about what weāre doingā¦ Well, weāre not talking about what weāre doing all the time but I think we have a similar language. I dunno, itās ki(smet?)ā¦ Itās, like, how do you describe a vibe? (laughs)
Q: Sam, how do you describe the vibe?
SR: I think the work, the world and the characters are so extreme and itās a very intense thing to do. And I think we leant on each other a lot throughout the process and we were very grateful for the friendship that we had built to be able to get through six months of night and some pretty intense scenes. And to have someone that you can look across the room and have a private giggle with and get on with the job and debrief with at the end of the day is invaluable. Chemistry with actors is a complicated beast because it is our job to manufacture it, but when you donāt have to and it just comes naturally it makes everything so much more easy and enjoyable, particularly when youāre nude and bleeding (laughs). Youāre really happy you have a buddy (unintelligible).
Q: I was in the Entertainment Weekly suite when all you guys came through for Comic Con at the Hard Rock Hotel and, I mean, I was watching you all interact. Bailey, break it down for me: these two, do they have like a super-bromance going on? Like, what is happening?
Bailey Bass: Theyāre best friends! They really are, itās really precious. (Delighted grin from Jacob) Look at Jacobās face! (laughs)
JA: Are we best friends, Sam?
SR: Yeah, youāre my best friend.
Eric Bogosian: I have to say, I have to throw in: I have two sons who are roughly the age of these guys, and we all went over to Comic Con, us three. And walking around was like being with my kids. The two of them are just like together (clasps hands together) getting into everything and Iām following them around, like āWait a second, wait a second! Let me catch up with you there!ā I didnāt really get it when I first got to set, I didnāt understand what was going on with these two guys, because they were so happy and they were so tired and they were so bonded and I was like āWhat dimension have I entered here?ā
Reddit AMA (2022)
Q: Many of the scenes in the show are very emotionally demanding for even just a viewer of the series [ā¦] Is it taxing on yourselves as people or is it something you can simply switch off?
JA: It really helped having Sam there. We just went and sat on a bench and checked on each other. Without Sam I think I might have found it a lot harder.
Rotten Tomatoes
About the casting process:
JA: I asked (Alan Taylor): āHow did you guys decide that it was the right thing?ā And he was like: āTo be honest, by that pointā ā cause we did like eight rounds of auditions ā āit was more about the way that you interacted when you werenāt doing the scenes. It was about how you listened to each other.ā Itās just that we got on, we were pretty comfortable between the things.
Schƶn magazine
Q: Tell me more about the dynamic between Jacob and you who plays Louis, your love interest?
SR: Jacob and I get on well, we have a close friendship. We bonded strongly throughout the making of this show. Heās one of my favourite scene partners Iāve ever had because itās just such an easy working relationship. Thereās a lot of trust between the two of us. You know, itās a fucked up toxic relationship. Itās messed up. But at the core of it is like this intense, inescapable love. So, we have to play out a very morbid, obsessive, passionate relationship. I think it would be really hard to do if you hated the person opposite. Iām so grateful that we get on.
ScreenRant at SDCC 2022
Q: Louis and Lestat have an iconic relationship: epic, spanning years and continents, lives ruined, bloodshed. What is it like bringing that to the screen and working together to really establish that immortal bond?
JA: Itās been the greatest partnership ā creative partnership ā in my life.
SR: Awww.
JA: No, Iām not joking, it really has!
SR: Iād agree, actually. Itās very hard, itās a very intense relationship that they have, and you have to believe in that relationship. The things they do to each other are so extreme and painful and hurtful. And itās been fun to have a real buddy to go through that and debrief with at the end of the day.
JA: Iām not sure how we couldāve done everything that weāve done if we didnāt really trust each other.
SR: Yeah, it wouldāve been awful if we hated each other.
JA: And itās one of the greatā¦ you know, in the books, when they join together again ā even when you know how awful theyāve been to each other ā itās just like youāre home, and I think thatās something that we always subconsciously tried to make sure was in there. They are kind of like home to each other, particularly after Louisā human attachments start to fall away.
Eric Bogosian: I just want to say, these two guys (pointing to Jacob and Sam), itās great watching them, their bonding and everything. The only difference between them and the guys in the fictional world: Iāve never seen them fight.
Bailey Bass: They were walking together alongside the San Diego beach. (To Jacob and Sam) You were! I mean, how adorable is that?
JA: Weāre quite co-dependent. I donāt know if thatās a problem (laughs).
SDCC 2022 Panel
SR: Itās the greatest gift that Iāve ever been given, really. And then of course (pointing to Jacob) this guy.
JA: Awww!
SDCC 2022 Press Conference
Eric Bogosian: As a witness to what was going on, watching the way these guys (pointing to JA & SR) interacted was amazing. They had a chemistry that Iāve actually never seen before, and it continues even as weāve been here for Comic Con. Itās wonderful to watch. I wonāt get into it too much, I donāt want to characterise what goes on between them, but there was a great feeling on our set.
TV Insider at SDCC
Q: The level of intimacy that you two have to establish early on is really impressive. Did you know each other? Did you get to spend time hanging out before you got to be these immortal entwined characters?
JA (to SR): What did we do? We had like one Facetime callā¦
SR: Yeah, we had a Facetime call and then we were texting. We texted a lot, so we go to know each other via text.
JA: Me and Sam talk to each other every day, by the way. We couldnāt cut the cord.
TV Insiderās Trivia Night
SR & JA: Hi, weāre Jam Reiderson and weāre from Anne Riceās Interview with the Vampire!
Holding up boards that say:
SR: [I won!]
JA: [But I won (really) at life]
SR: Bastard!
JA: Because I get to be with you, Sam, all the time! Thatās the twist.
TV I Say Podcast
JA: Me and Sam spent 40 minutes yesterday in a sticker shop. Like, just looking at stickers and buying stickers. Thatās not a thing that you ever really talk about. You donāt go like āAre you into stickers?ā, you know? (ā¦) I feel like Sam and I end up mentioning things in passing like āDo you wanna go do this or do you wanna do this?ā and the other personās like āYeah!ā But then, we haveā¦ There are so many crossovers. You wouldnāt expect it because we grew up in very different ways in very different countries. But we have crossovers of weird things or very niche things that weād never discussed, really, right up until the point of promoting this show and doing press, that weāre like, āGreat!ā Like weāre going to go to Universal today. And I thought āOh, is it a bit of a weird thing to ask?ā Like, I donāt know if itās awkward toā¦ Normally, I wouldnāt ask a friend if they just wanted to go to Universal. But with Sam, Iāll be like āShould we go to Universal Studios?ā, and heās like āYeah! Letās do it!ā Do you know what I mean? Itās just, I dunno, we just have similarities that we couldnāt have reallyā¦ We couldnāt have known that we were so similar, but it really helped us when we were working, even if we didnāt know it at the time.
W Magazine (Oct ā22)
Q: Is there anything specific that you read first thing in the morning?
JA: Realistically, text messages. In the last few months itās been texts from Sam Reid, who plays Lestat in the show, because heās in Australia and Iām in the UK. So thereās always some kind of really nice conversation waiting in the morning.
Young Hollywood
JA: I donāt know, we just liked each other straight away. We just had similar thoughts about what this was, about what we were doing. Heās one of my favourite people Iāve ever met in my life, let alone worked with. We just work well together. I canāt even really pinpoint exactly why. Weāre going to hang out now, like after this weāre going to go to the Groveā¦
Q: Oh heās in LA?
JA: Yeah!
Q: Oh my God, thatās perfect! I was going to say when was the last time you talked to him?
JA: Like half an hour ago.
Q: Whatās the best thing that came from IWTV for you?
JA: Thatās hard toā¦ Sam Reid. Letās say Sam Reid.
SFX Magazine ā May 2024
That being said, [Rolin] Jones admits that it was a tough adjustment for Anderson and Reid to navigate this season. āItās very clear, theyāre very, very good friends,ā Jones observes. āThey really do talk every day together. So generally speaking last year, they had each other. They would get off the scene, theyād go to the bench and they would talk.ā
92NY Season 2 Advance screening
JA: [Working with Sam on S02] was like slipping on a glove. Like, a glove that fits really well, wasnāt it? (laughs) Wait, is that dirty? (laughs)... An old sock!
Eric Bogosian: I have to say, Iāve never seen two actors in a company behave the way these two guys do. When I got to set and I first met them, they were already as if they were stuck to each other like brothers. (ā¦) And then I watched them justā¦ They follow each other around, like, whenever theyāre not in scenes theyāre like two puppies playing together.
Instinct Magazine (May ā24)
JA: I think the chemistry between Sam and I is based on a similarity in approach, and the way I think about these characters. Also, we just get on ā I think that translates in a way.
AMC Talk (May ā24)
Re working with Sam on āDreamStatā
JA: We didnāt work on it too much ahead of time. Sam and I really trust each other. So, weād just show up and be like, āweāll be fine. Weāll just figure it out as we go.ā We really listen to each other. (ā¦) [Louis and Lestatās] dynamic this season is very different. Theyāre not fighting. Theyāre not shouting at each other. That kind of intensity has gone a bit, which was fun! That was a new thing for me and Sam to play, this kind of companionship thing. It was fun and I was just glad that Sam was there, and that I was going to get to work with him.
JA: Sam and I have talked about how nice it wouldāve been to have had a little mini-series where you just see Lestat and Louis just hanging out in New Orleans. (ā¦) And not necessarily hunting, just like walking, sitting on a bench, chatting, really like the norm.
People Magazine Interview ā24
Q: Whatās a headline youād use to describe your friendship in real life?
JA & SR: Sam and Jacob go to the movies (laughs)ā¦
JA: ā¦ and walk around the cityā¦
SR: ā¦ sit in a park and chat for hours.
Sam Reid answers fan questions (AMC)
Q: Who makes you laugh the most on set?
SR: Jacob.
Question from Jacob š (SR reaction: Jacob Anderson? Who's that? š): Why is Jacob Anderson your favourite person to work with?
SR: He is very talented and he does some extraordinary work in this season. I feel very lucky to work with himā¦ aside from the fact that heās a dick. š„°
Salon (May ā24)
SR: Theyāre trauma bonded, Louis and Lestatā¦
JA: ā¦ And Jake and Sam also trauma bonded!
Roxane Duran interviewed by Autumn Brown (June ā24)
RD: When I first met Jacob and Samā¦ Theyāre just the kindest souls and they really, really take care of each other and of everyone around. [ā¦] Jacob and Sam really have that sort of really beautiful friendship, and you see them and theyāve got a huge joy being around each other and also being around everybody else.
Vanity Fair / Little Gold Men Podcast (June ā24)
Q: Can you talk a bit more about Sam as a scene partner, the connection you two have developed over the years?
JA: The key thing that Sam and I have is complete and utter trust. We trust each other. We know that wherever the scene goes, itās going to be safe. We also know that weāre going to surprise each other. [ā¦] Sam always does things with his chest and that is also how I like to work. Say it with your chest; mean it. I donāt think heās ever doing anything out of a sense of vanity. Itās like, you exhaust as many possibilities as you possibly can and youāre unafraid to look silly or to go to a really heightened place. I think we hopefully see that in each other. When Sam and I are in a room together and weāre about to shoot a scene as these characters, itās exciting. You donāt always find that, where you just have a symbiotic, or completely common language in the way that we work together. Even though weāre quite different. I think thatās what it is. I think we speak the same language in the way that we relate to these characters and this story.
Variety (June ā24)
JA, about filming the S2E8 reunion scene with SR:
āWe held each otherās hands, and we just fucking jumped.ā
TV Guide (June ā24)
Rolin Jones about shooting the S2E8 reunion scene:
They arguably did not get enough takes to do that scene. Itās just one of those things that when we turned on the camera, you could feel three years of their friendship. I knew on this side of the camera I needed two takes. I was like, āJesus, what just happened?ā But they wanted to stay there forever.
About the unheard words in the scene:
I donāt know, to this day, I donāt know, nobody knows, except those two, what they said. We wrote it in. That was the gift, to say, āYou guys, not only your friendship, but where youāve taken the characters, you should have something private for the rest of your lives. And go ahead, have it.ā
AMC āInside IWTV S2ā Special
SR: I speak to Jacob every day, nonstop, all the time.
JA: Any day where Sam is there is a good day for me.
Den of Geek at SDCC ā24
Q: How do you go about building such rippling chemistry with another human being, with Jacob? And I know the answer is āchemistry is chemistryā, but how? How do you do it?
SR: Well, I donāt ābuildā anything. Unfortunately Iām going to give you that same answer. But weāre very good friends. Weāre really close. I donāt know if that chemistry happens before you become friends or after, but thereās a lot of trust and we just have a lot of fun making this show. I think chemistry isnāt just two actors or two people together: itās the whole group, itās everyone who makes the show. Itās the space, itās the feeling when you come on set, and you feel like you can do things, try things, be experimental, push the boundaries a little bit. And that creates a sense of play and trust. You might think that itās just Louis and Lestatās chemistry, but itās actually the whole chemistry of every cast member and every creative and every director, every piece of beautiful dialogue we have, the design, down to every crew member. Everyone puts a lot of chemistry into it, so itās a pot ā a big, bubbly pot.
Rolin Jones: Bowling, too. They do a lot of bowling.
SR: We go bowling, yeah. I shouldāve said that.
Assad Zaman: Ice cream.
SR: Yeah, we eat a lot of ice cream. And we do sticker play (laughs).
Q: Care to elaborate on sticker play?
SR: Make it up.
Q: A lot of bowling alleys in Prague?
SR: They build them for us on set. Itās contractual.
Deadline Contenders Panel (April 2025)
SR: Iāve had the great fortune to work pretty much 95 percent of this entire show with one other actor. Itās an extraordinary gift to have that, because you can build a rapport. Working with Jacob throughout the whole series meant that when we decided to do this Dreamstat, Ghost Lestat, Hallucinestat, however you want to call it, I was basically just providing a sounding board for my friend, and my fellow actor, and the extraordinary lead of this show to have a soliloquy with himself.
SAG-AFTRA Conversations (April 2025)
Q: The scene when Lestat and Louis are reunited [ā¦] is one of the most riveting and beautiful scenes I feel like Iāve ever watched [ā¦]. Tell me about filming that scene.
SR: [ā¦] We had probably about an hour and a half left of the day to shoot the actual scene. So we shot two takes each on either side, and that was it. But the thing is, when youāve worked with someone for as longā¦ I shot the whole show with Jacob, Iāve constantly worked with Jacob the whole time. You donāt really get that opportunity as an actor to build a relationship with someone who you call a dear friend, but also an actual partner, somebody you work with and youāve learnt from. And, you know, we just kind of looked at each other and went āOh well, here we goā, and did it. And whatever we got and whatever we did is the scene. And that doesnāt always work, but I think you just kind of have to trust the show, you have to trust your scene partner. [ā¦] Itās the dynamic with your scene partner that creates the show.
Q: Now that youāve played these characters for two seasons, is there something that you have much more of a handle on now than you did, even if you didnāt realise that when you started?
SR: Iāve learnt a lot about acting, [ā¦] mostly because this show I have done with the same person. Iāve done all of the scenes with one person. And you justā¦ You canātā¦ Itās the most extraordinary working experience for me to learn that much from one single person. And I wish he was here, and he sends his love. But Iāve learnt a lot about myself doing that as well, yeah.
AMC Upfronts Event (April 2025)
SR: Jacob and I really trust each other and Jacob is just so extraordinary in this role. Itās so easy to just kind of disappear when youāre working with him that you can do really silly stuff. You wake up in the morning and you think: āOh my God, what did I do yesterday?ā But in the moment, you can just go there and feel uninhibited.
Awards Focus interview (May 2025)
About filming the 2x08 reunion scene with Sam:
JA: By the end of the day, we hadn't shot any coverage of the conversation. We had two takes to do it, and because we've built this trust with each other from the beginning, we have done some crazy things, like being suspended from the ceiling. These were really literary, beautifully written, and elegant pieces of writing. We have just built this trust where I implicitly trust him with whatever we must do. I hope that he feels the same way. It felt symbolic that all we built together meant that we could handle that reunion. I've never had a work partnership like that, like you could throw us into anything together and we would be fine. We'll figure it out and we'll have fun doing it.
Delainey Hayles for Awards Focus (June 2025)
DH: The chemistry that Jacob and Sam share is something that is just between them, and itās so wholesome, and you can see the support for each other.
ATX TV Festival Immortal Universe Panel (June 2025)
Rolin Jones (about shooting the reunion scene in 2x08): Jacob and Sam had been sitting there the whole day going āWe have to make this decision. Maybe we should move this to the next day because I donāt know if weāre going to have enough time. Itās a lot of pressure.ā But we let them loose and they got two takes at it. And to be perfectly honest, afterwards when we wrapped, they were pissed. They were like āWeāve been working on this show for a long time!ā. But what they didnāt know at that moment and what me and Levan saw in that thing was that there were two seasons, two years of that very intimate friendship ā and I donāt mean professional, theyāre very, very close friends. And they had it. Everybody was weeping their ass off. The part that youāre talking about [the unheard words spoken between Jacob and Sam] was scripted. It was a gift. They had done such relentless work, and I knew that they had developed this great friendship outside of it, because of the show. And I thought it would be important just to give them something. So in the script it just switches from stage directions for Lestat and Louis to Sam Reid and Jacob Anderson: āJacob Anderson says something to Sam that only he will know and Sam says something to Jacob that only he will knowā. And we took the mics off and let them run. And we didnāt know when to cut because they kept talking, kept going on. We actually cut too early on the first take, and then second take they got to do it again. It missed a little bit of spontaneity because each other didnāt know what the other one was going to say to the other. Youāre really capturing something very, very raw and personal, which I think was cool!
Entertainment Weekly Short for SDCC 2025
SR: So, Jacob, my favourite day on set with you wasā¦ Thereās quite a lot, actually, itās a lot of choices. Iām going to say, and youāre probably going to say the same thingā¦ Maybe not, maybe not. You know, actually my favourite say on set with you was ā as traumatising as it was ā in season 1, watching you spin around and around (Jacob bursts out laughing) and around, you know, when were like, suspended in air. That was just a really fun, wild day. And I was very impressed with how well you spun. You spun so well.
JA: Thank you. (ā¦) Sam, I admire you because you are a very supportive friend. You are very talented at what you do. And in particular at the moment, I really admire your natural ability to be a rock star (Sam bursts out laughing). Itās insane, and I feel like I canāt tell you very often, because youāre like āOh, shut up.ā
SR: Youāre a natural at making everybody feel comfortable.
JA: Awww, thatās nice! (ā¦) Sam, I love that youāre so passionate about Lestat de Lioncourt (Sam and Jacob burst out laughingā¦ again) and acting, and dedicated.
There's a healthy alternative to being informed about current events.
Want to know what it is?
Being informed about local events.
Not ālocalā in the sense of town hall meetings or city politics--I mean truly local: the people you pass in the hallway, talk to in line, sit beside, or live with.
Everyone is quietly carrying somethingāgoals, griefs, small victories. And in a world that feels more isolated and divided by the day, small human acts matter more than ever.
You donāt need to pry or play therapist. But offering encouragement, sharing a moment of real presence, or simply recognizing someoneās effort goes much further than another round of doomscrolling.
So if youāre fed up with the newsāexhausted from reading about things you feel powerless to changeāmaybe try giving your attention to the people in your life instead.
This isn't to say you should bury your head in the sand or retreat into toxic positivity.
Itās about remembering that your energy is a resource. And youāre allowed to use it to cultivate care and connection right where you are.
If you want to help build a better world instead of just waiting for oneāthis is a great place to start.
At a Clois perspective this scene is so special. She went there (broke into his apartment more aptly put) to break up with him but found herself instead opening up to him and reaching out to him emotionally, letting him know she is there for him. Before she knew it she flung herself to the deep end of love and commitment (scary shit I salute you ma'am) and resigned herself to saving him no matter what before she even stepped foot in the Justice Building to talk shit about Guy Gardner's hair because he refused to save her alien situationship. This clois is so special to me in this landscape of male gaze infested portrayals of mf relationships where the woman is mainly there as a hot sidepiece and/or the moral compass for the man. Here, their are simply two people working out there differences against relatively mundane odds of commitment in the grand scheme of things
Jacob Anderson, Sam Reid, and others talking about Jam Reiderson.
Here's a compilation of bits and pieces from various interviews about these two men's beautiful friendship. Will be updating as new promo for subsequent seasons comes out!
(Long post, so keep reading!
- there's SO MUCH good stuff)
Pride.com
Q: You guys have incredible chemistry. It hinges on that. Can you talk a little bit about how you built that kind of connection?
JA: I find it so difficult to talk about chemistry. Because me and Samā¦ like each other.
SR: Yeah. I think weāre very similar in a lot of ways, and that was a big relief. Itās a very bizarre job to do when youāre doing it, cause youāre shooting entirely at night, you have amazing costumes and contact lenses and accents and teeth and blood. The scenes, while they feel like they have a flow to them, thereās a lot of splitting up while we do it because weāve got to have special effects come in or the blood come in, or weāre on a rig of some kind. So itās a weird experience, and we also had these extraordinary lines of dialogue to say as well. And so to have somebody whoās similar, can process these things the same way as you and bounce off of and decompress with is vital.
JA: Yeah, and the first step is you just have a common language that you find, and sometimes it clicks and sometimes it doesnāt. And we were just lucky that we, you knowā¦
SR: Yeah. Yup.
Amc Talk
Q: The relationship between Louis and Lestat is rife with complications, but at its core there's obviously a real connection there. What was it like crafting this tumultuous relationship on screen with Sam Reid? You two are quite good friends having come out the other end of Season 1.
JA: Yeah, we were good friends when we were doing it and I think that's part of why it worked out for us! We didn't put too much emphasis on trying to figure everything out. The scripts are so beautiful, the writing is so dense and so full of life and detail that you don't need to discuss it too much. Obviously, we talked to the directors, and they'd have ideas and we'd have ideas, but I think, in terms of me and Sam finding it, I think we just paid attention to each other. We just trusted the writing, trusted each other, and it meant that weād already be prepared for whatever was going to come up. We felt comfortable with each other, so we could try things and it felt safe. It felt like we could play around with body language and with eye contact and all these things. But it was unspoken, I think. It wasn't something that we spent a lot of time discussing. Everything's intentional to a certain extent, but there's this other thing that is just about instinct and listening really.
Q: And having the right scene partner where that happens.
JA: Yeah, I felt really lucky! Sam gives you so much. There's so much to play off and I hope that I did the same for him. Our first day of shooting we did the opera house stuff, and I was so excited. It's the scene where he talks about loneliness, and I remember thinking even though I'd got to know him a little bit and we'd done a bit of rehearsal and we'd become friends by that point, I was like, "Oh wow, this is going to be really special! I'm going to get to do this every day. I'm going to get to watch this character come to life and respond to it." That's a gift. Sam Reid is a gift!
Q: The relationship between Louis and Lestat is rife with complications, but at its core thereās a real connection there. What was it like crafting this tumultuous relationship on screen with Jacob Anderson? You two are quite good friends having come out the other side of Season 1 so if anything, Iām sure the experience brought you closer together?Ā
SR: Yeah, definitely. It definitely brought us closer together. It was really crazy this stuff that we were doing together. We'd have these massive scenes, and it would be just him and I in the middle of the night playing opposite each other, not really being able to see each other all the time with the contact lenses. You just rely so heavily on one another. You also rely on each other because you're like, "Have we pushed it too far? Is it too much? Is it enough? Like, do we believe each other?" Because it's this very intense relationship but weāre also supernatural beings. So, you're constantly having to reframe the way that you look at a relationship and say, "Well, hang on, my character has all this power." Like in Episode 4, I remember saying, when all the police are coming over to the house, I was like, "Why are we even worried about this? I don't understand why I would be even concerned about this at all." But you're negotiating with someone who's going, "Yeah, but my desire to have a connection to humanity makes this important," and so you're like, "Oh, okay." We managed to balance off each other in that way, because my character's way past any connection to humanity and Jacob's character is holding onto those last threads of his humanity. When we'd both be examining a scene, we'd both be coming at it from different angles. Because of the love between the two characters, there's always that negotiation and blunting of the other's real intention. I couldn't really imagine doing it with anybody else! We did all of it, everything, together, really.
Gold Derby Daniel Hart Interview
Q: In what ways does the showās really rich visual palette and then of course Sam and Jacobās lightning-in-a-bottle chemistry on screen influence some of the choices that you made on the score throughout your process?
DH: Thereās a theme that I would call their love theme, and itās sprinkled throughout the first episode but it played in full over the end credits in a piece called āIn Throes of Increasing Wonderā. And that theme appears in almost every episode, I think, in some form or another. I donāt think that theme was possible before I had seen some of that interaction between Jacob and Sam as Lestat and Louis. Itās born of their emotional reactions to each other.
IWTV Podcast
Ep2
Q: You and Jacob did your chemistry tests over Zoom? Which, I mean, does anyone have chemistry over Zoom?
SR: Yeah, I donāt really know what they were looking for or how youāre supposed to gauge chemistry from that, because it was really glitchy and we were all speaking on top of each other and trying really hard to act into the camera, which just wasnāt working. But look, I reallyā¦ Jacob is such a lovely person, such a really fantastic actor and so easy to be around. And I could see that he was going to be a very easy person to fall in love with. So it was fun. In fact I just came from having ice cream with Jacob and he says hello.
Q: Oh my God, Iām obsessed. I want these moments. Give me that footage, okay? I want ice cream footage, I want strolling the streets of downtown New Orleans footage.
SR (laughs): Yeah, I mean we hang out all the time and weāve become very, very good friends. Cause it is a crazy journey that weāre on and it was a crazy job, so itās really lovely to have such a good friend.
Ep3
Q: Talking about Sam, how much time did yāall get before you started actually shooting? Itās like āOkay, weāre in love now and itās going to be very tortured and complicatedā ā Rolling!
JA: Yeah. I donāt know if I completely believe in luck, but I think thereās like a weird cosmic luck in this whole thing. It is a huge roll of the dice. The first day we met each other, obviously we both had our masks on, and we had a hug and we were like āOh hiā. And then we just spent the next day walking around New Orleans and getting to know each other. And I truly love that man, so much. Like, we connected so quickly and just found likeā¦ And I think part of that as well is that thereās a level of trust that we had to have, otherwise we werenāt going to be able to do this at those hours, and those scenes, and the intimacy of their relationship, and also the toxicity and the fire in it. We had to really hold each other and be like āAll right, have we got each otherās back?ā And we did, we were just like āWeāre in this together. Letās listen to each other and try and have fun.ā And we did, we had a lot of fun. I thought that taking on this role would be quite triggering for me in lots of different ways. I thought it was going to force me to have to reconcile with lots of feelings that I had. I thought it was going to be just a guilt and shame and despair fest for six months. And actually I just found it really, really cathartic being Louis, and Louis has helped me a lot. I think thereās something about acceptance in Louis and acceptance of self, and like āThis is who I am, this is who Iāve been, and Iām enduring, Iām choosing to keep going. Iām choosing to accept who I am.ā And that was really helpful for me. So rather than feeling tortured, I think I ended up just feeling veryā¦ held, very comforted by the whole thing, in a weird sort of way.
Ep7
Q: Iām wondering what you guys would do or how you would hang out on set. Is there hanging out or are you more like āOkay, theyāre setting up a light, I gotta go lay down, I canāt with you right now.ā
JA: No, we were pretty inseparable, to be fair. There wasnāt really any hanging out. We just were. At a certain point, we just were. We didnāt share a trailer, but it was like, a wall separating us. And weād just end up sitting on the stairs or texting each other through the wall.
SR (laughs): Through the wall, just texting all the time.
JA: We became a hive mind.
SR: We did, yeah.
Q: Were you still a hive mind once you wrapped? Would you still text and stuff?
JA: Yeah.
SR: Yeah.
JA: Weāre going to the theatre tonight. Weāve seen each other every day for the last week. Weāre still choosing to spend time together. Itās probably not very healthy. Very co-dependent (laughs).
Ep8
Q: Obviously viewers are in love with Jacob and Sam. People are tweeting me photos of them eating ice cream. We call ourselves #icecreamhive. The fandom is strong. Can you tell me about how you found Jacob and Sam, and the process of deciding they were Louis and Lestat?
Rolin Jones: Well, obviously 9 billion people auditioned. You kind of get down to ten actors that you like on both sides. The simple math of it is the second those two got into their Zoom rooms together, it was very clear something very dynamic was happening. On Jacobās side, thereās this sort of genuine warmth, kindness, humanity. Youāre like āOkay, for a character whoās going to make a number of questionable choices, how do you make them want to love him?ā And on Sam: I saw his face and I said āNo fucking way! No fucking way that guy, this chiselled, stupid chiselled, with his locks and his dreamy eyes. I was like no, no, no, no. And then I pressed play, and he really knew how big we were going to go. He was wildly specific and subtle. It was in his voice. There was something a little Jeff Bridges/Starman about it, and I was like āOh, this guy feels like an alien and he feels other than usā. They both won the audition, thatās basically what happened. Although Iāll tell you, hereās a dirty secret: ready for this? Sam bought this piece of technology, that you can do a push-in close-up right when the scene is getting a little juicy. And I just started laughing my ass off. I was like āOh my God, this guy wants this so hard.ā
Mark Johnson: You called me the first time you had seen Sam, and you were just so excited about the potential of this guy and you basically said: āHeās going to be next to impossible to beat.ā And sure enough, nobody could really touch him. But from the very first time you saw his audition you were pretty convinced that we had our Lestat.
Keep It Podcast
JA: Sam is just like myā¦ partner-in-crime, and I feel so lucky that I got to spend every day with him. We had to do a lot of stuff in this show and when I say a lot of stuff I mean, those nights are no joke. Knowing those scenes and working on those scenes together at that hour ā you can only do that with somebody that you like, even if the scene calls for tension. I think you would just kill each other if you didnāt like each other.
New York Post (October '22)
JA: For anything I got to do with Sam, that relationship is so fun to play. You bond in a really particular way when you're working nights and dealing with these lofty themes. The feelings are huge in every scene. If you don't have that common language and find that chemistry... I don't think me and Sam needed to find it, there was something natural that we found together. It would be rough if we didn't like each other an awful lot.
PaleyFest
Q: Jacob and Sam, I feel like the show wouldnāt work unless the chemistryās there between Louis and Lestat. Thereās a lot riding on that. So how did you two form this immortal bond, if you will, during filming, knowing how important it was?
JA: We just spent a lot of time together even when we didnāt need to (laughs). I donāt know, like, how do you put that kind of thing into words? Itās just, likeā¦ I really love Sam. I like spending time with him. I like working with him. I find the way that we talk about what weāre doingā¦ Well, weāre not talking about what weāre doing all the time but I think we have a similar language. I dunno, itās ki(smet?)ā¦ Itās, like, how do you describe a vibe? (laughs)
Q: Sam, how do you describe the vibe?
SR: I think the work, the world and the characters are so extreme and itās a very intense thing to do. And I think we leant on each other a lot throughout the process and we were very grateful for the friendship that we had built to be able to get through six months of night and some pretty intense scenes. And to have someone that you can look across the room and have a private giggle with and get on with the job and debrief with at the end of the day is invaluable. Chemistry with actors is a complicated beast because it is our job to manufacture it, but when you donāt have to and it just comes naturally it makes everything so much more easy and enjoyable, particularly when youāre nude and bleeding (laughs). Youāre really happy you have a buddy (unintelligible).
Q: I was in the Entertainment Weekly suite when all you guys came through for Comic Con at the Hard Rock Hotel and, I mean, I was watching you all interact. Bailey, break it down for me: these two, do they have like a super-bromance going on? Like, what is happening?
Bailey Bass: Theyāre best friends! They really are, itās really precious. (Delighted grin from Jacob) Look at Jacobās face! (laughs)
JA: Are we best friends, Sam?
SR: Yeah, youāre my best friend.
Eric Bogosian: I have to say, I have to throw in: I have two sons who are roughly the age of these guys, and we all went over to Comic Con, us three. And walking around was like being with my kids. The two of them are just like together (clasps hands together) getting into everything and Iām following them around, like āWait a second, wait a second! Let me catch up with you there!ā I didnāt really get it when I first got to set, I didnāt understand what was going on with these two guys, because they were so happy and they were so tired and they were so bonded and I was like āWhat dimension have I entered here?ā
Reddit AMA (2022)
Q: Many of the scenes in the show are very emotionally demanding for even just a viewer of the series [ā¦] Is it taxing on yourselves as people or is it something you can simply switch off?
JA: It really helped having Sam there. We just went and sat on a bench and checked on each other. Without Sam I think I might have found it a lot harder.
Rotten Tomatoes
About the casting process:
JA: I asked (Alan Taylor): āHow did you guys decide that it was the right thing?ā And he was like: āTo be honest, by that pointā ā cause we did like eight rounds of auditions ā āit was more about the way that you interacted when you werenāt doing the scenes. It was about how you listened to each other.ā Itās just that we got on, we were pretty comfortable between the things.
Schƶn magazine
Q: Tell me more about the dynamic between Jacob and you who plays Louis, your love interest?
SR: Jacob and I get on well, we have a close friendship. We bonded strongly throughout the making of this show. Heās one of my favourite scene partners Iāve ever had because itās just such an easy working relationship. Thereās a lot of trust between the two of us. You know, itās a fucked up toxic relationship. Itās messed up. But at the core of it is like this intense, inescapable love. So, we have to play out a very morbid, obsessive, passionate relationship. I think it would be really hard to do if you hated the person opposite. Iām so grateful that we get on.
ScreenRant at SDCC 2022
Q: Louis and Lestat have an iconic relationship: epic, spanning years and continents, lives ruined, bloodshed. What is it like bringing that to the screen and working together to really establish that immortal bond?
JA: Itās been the greatest partnership ā creative partnership ā in my life.
SR: Awww.
JA: No, Iām not joking, it really has!
SR: Iād agree, actually. Itās very hard, itās a very intense relationship that they have, and you have to believe in that relationship. The things they do to each other are so extreme and painful and hurtful. And itās been fun to have a real buddy to go through that and debrief with at the end of the day.
JA: Iām not sure how we couldāve done everything that weāve done if we didnāt really trust each other.
SR: Yeah, it wouldāve been awful if we hated each other.
JA: And itās one of the greatā¦ you know, in the books, when they join together again ā even when you know how awful theyāve been to each other ā itās just like youāre home, and I think thatās something that we always subconsciously tried to make sure was in there. They are kind of like home to each other, particularly after Louisā human attachments start to fall away.
Eric Bogosian: I just want to say, these two guys (pointing to Jacob and Sam), itās great watching them, their bonding and everything. The only difference between them and the guys in the fictional world: Iāve never seen them fight.
Bailey Bass: They were walking together alongside the San Diego beach. (To Jacob and Sam) You were! I mean, how adorable is that?
JA: Weāre quite co-dependent. I donāt know if thatās a problem (laughs).
SDCC 2022 Panel
SR: Itās the greatest gift that Iāve ever been given, really. And then of course (pointing to Jacob) this guy.
JA: Awww!
SDCC 2022 Press Conference
Eric Bogosian: As a witness to what was going on, watching the way these guys (pointing to JA & SR) interacted was amazing. They had a chemistry that Iāve actually never seen before, and it continues even as weāve been here for Comic Con. Itās wonderful to watch. I wonāt get into it too much, I donāt want to characterise what goes on between them, but there was a great feeling on our set.
TV Insider at SDCC
Q: The level of intimacy that you two have to establish early on is really impressive. Did you know each other? Did you get to spend time hanging out before you got to be these immortal entwined characters?
JA (to SR): What did we do? We had like one Facetime callā¦
SR: Yeah, we had a Facetime call and then we were texting. We texted a lot, so we go to know each other via text.
JA: Me and Sam talk to each other every day, by the way. We couldnāt cut the cord.
TV Insiderās Trivia Night
SR & JA: Hi, weāre Jam Reiderson and weāre from Anne Riceās Interview with the Vampire!
Holding up boards that say:
SR: [I won!]
JA: [But I won (really) at life]
SR: Bastard!
JA: Because I get to be with you, Sam, all the time! Thatās the twist.
TV I Say Podcast
JA: Me and Sam spent 40 minutes yesterday in a sticker shop. Like, just looking at stickers and buying stickers. Thatās not a thing that you ever really talk about. You donāt go like āAre you into stickers?ā, you know? (ā¦) I feel like Sam and I end up mentioning things in passing like āDo you wanna go do this or do you wanna do this?ā and the other personās like āYeah!ā But then, we haveā¦ There are so many crossovers. You wouldnāt expect it because we grew up in very different ways in very different countries. But we have crossovers of weird things or very niche things that weād never discussed, really, right up until the point of promoting this show and doing press, that weāre like, āGreat!ā Like weāre going to go to Universal today. And I thought āOh, is it a bit of a weird thing to ask?ā Like, I donāt know if itās awkward toā¦ Normally, I wouldnāt ask a friend if they just wanted to go to Universal. But with Sam, Iāll be like āShould we go to Universal Studios?ā, and heās like āYeah! Letās do it!ā Do you know what I mean? Itās just, I dunno, we just have similarities that we couldnāt have reallyā¦ We couldnāt have known that we were so similar, but it really helped us when we were working, even if we didnāt know it at the time.
W Magazine (Oct ā22)
Q: Is there anything specific that you read first thing in the morning?
JA: Realistically, text messages. In the last few months itās been texts from Sam Reid, who plays Lestat in the show, because heās in Australia and Iām in the UK. So thereās always some kind of really nice conversation waiting in the morning.
Young Hollywood
JA: I donāt know, we just liked each other straight away. We just had similar thoughts about what this was, about what we were doing. Heās one of my favourite people Iāve ever met in my life, let alone worked with. We just work well together. I canāt even really pinpoint exactly why. Weāre going to hang out now, like after this weāre going to go to the Groveā¦
Q: Oh heās in LA?
JA: Yeah!
Q: Oh my God, thatās perfect! I was going to say when was the last time you talked to him?
JA: Like half an hour ago.
Q: Whatās the best thing that came from IWTV for you?
JA: Thatās hard toā¦ Sam Reid. Letās say Sam Reid.
SFX Magazine ā May 2024
That being said, [Rolin] Jones admits that it was a tough adjustment for Anderson and Reid to navigate this season. āItās very clear, theyāre very, very good friends,ā Jones observes. āThey really do talk every day together. So generally speaking last year, they had each other. They would get off the scene, theyād go to the bench and they would talk.ā
92NY Season 2 Advance screening
JA: [Working with Sam on S02] was like slipping on a glove. Like, a glove that fits really well, wasnāt it? (laughs) Wait, is that dirty? (laughs)... An old sock!
Eric Bogosian: I have to say, Iāve never seen two actors in a company behave the way these two guys do. When I got to set and I first met them, they were already as if they were stuck to each other like brothers. (ā¦) And then I watched them justā¦ They follow each other around, like, whenever theyāre not in scenes theyāre like two puppies playing together.
Instinct Magazine (May ā24)
JA: I think the chemistry between Sam and I is based on a similarity in approach, and the way I think about these characters. Also, we just get on ā I think that translates in a way.
AMC Talk (May ā24)
Re working with Sam on āDreamStatā
JA: We didnāt work on it too much ahead of time. Sam and I really trust each other. So, weād just show up and be like, āweāll be fine. Weāll just figure it out as we go.ā We really listen to each other. (ā¦) [Louis and Lestatās] dynamic this season is very different. Theyāre not fighting. Theyāre not shouting at each other. That kind of intensity has gone a bit, which was fun! That was a new thing for me and Sam to play, this kind of companionship thing. It was fun and I was just glad that Sam was there, and that I was going to get to work with him.
JA: Sam and I have talked about how nice it wouldāve been to have had a little mini-series where you just see Lestat and Louis just hanging out in New Orleans. (ā¦) And not necessarily hunting, just like walking, sitting on a bench, chatting, really like the norm.
People Magazine Interview ā24
Q: Whatās a headline youād use to describe your friendship in real life?
JA & SR: Sam and Jacob go to the movies (laughs)ā¦
JA: ā¦ and walk around the cityā¦
SR: ā¦ sit in a park and chat for hours.
Sam Reid answers fan questions (AMC)
Q: Who makes you laugh the most on set?
SR: Jacob.
Question from Jacob š (SR reaction: Jacob Anderson? Who's that? š): Why is Jacob Anderson your favourite person to work with?
SR: He is very talented and he does some extraordinary work in this season. I feel very lucky to work with himā¦ aside from the fact that heās a dick. š„°
Salon (May ā24)
SR: Theyāre trauma bonded, Louis and Lestatā¦
JA: ā¦ And Jake and Sam also trauma bonded!
Roxane Duran interviewed by Autumn Brown (June ā24)
RD: When I first met Jacob and Samā¦ Theyāre just the kindest souls and they really, really take care of each other and of everyone around. [ā¦] Jacob and Sam really have that sort of really beautiful friendship, and you see them and theyāve got a huge joy being around each other and also being around everybody else.
Vanity Fair / Little Gold Men Podcast (June ā24)
Q: Can you talk a bit more about Sam as a scene partner, the connection you two have developed over the years?
JA: The key thing that Sam and I have is complete and utter trust. We trust each other. We know that wherever the scene goes, itās going to be safe. We also know that weāre going to surprise each other. [ā¦] Sam always does things with his chest and that is also how I like to work. Say it with your chest; mean it. I donāt think heās ever doing anything out of a sense of vanity. Itās like, you exhaust as many possibilities as you possibly can and youāre unafraid to look silly or to go to a really heightened place. I think we hopefully see that in each other. When Sam and I are in a room together and weāre about to shoot a scene as these characters, itās exciting. You donāt always find that, where you just have a symbiotic, or completely common language in the way that we work together. Even though weāre quite different. I think thatās what it is. I think we speak the same language in the way that we relate to these characters and this story.
Variety (June ā24)
JA, about filming the S2E8 reunion scene with SR:
āWe held each otherās hands, and we just fucking jumped.ā
TV Guide (June ā24)
Rolin Jones about shooting the S2E8 reunion scene:
They arguably did not get enough takes to do that scene. Itās just one of those things that when we turned on the camera, you could feel three years of their friendship. I knew on this side of the camera I needed two takes. I was like, āJesus, what just happened?ā But they wanted to stay there forever.
About the unheard words in the scene:
I donāt know, to this day, I donāt know, nobody knows, except those two, what they said. We wrote it in. That was the gift, to say, āYou guys, not only your friendship, but where youāve taken the characters, you should have something private for the rest of your lives. And go ahead, have it.ā
AMC āInside IWTV S2ā Special
SR: I speak to Jacob every day, nonstop, all the time.
JA: Any day where Sam is there is a good day for me.
Den of Geek at SDCC ā24
Q: How do you go about building such rippling chemistry with another human being, with Jacob? And I know the answer is āchemistry is chemistryā, but how? How do you do it?
SR: Well, I donāt ābuildā anything. Unfortunately Iām going to give you that same answer. But weāre very good friends. Weāre really close. I donāt know if that chemistry happens before you become friends or after, but thereās a lot of trust and we just have a lot of fun making this show. I think chemistry isnāt just two actors or two people together: itās the whole group, itās everyone who makes the show. Itās the space, itās the feeling when you come on set, and you feel like you can do things, try things, be experimental, push the boundaries a little bit. And that creates a sense of play and trust. You might think that itās just Louis and Lestatās chemistry, but itās actually the whole chemistry of every cast member and every creative and every director, every piece of beautiful dialogue we have, the design, down to every crew member. Everyone puts a lot of chemistry into it, so itās a pot ā a big, bubbly pot.
Rolin Jones: Bowling, too. They do a lot of bowling.
SR: We go bowling, yeah. I shouldāve said that.
Assad Zaman: Ice cream.
SR: Yeah, we eat a lot of ice cream. And we do sticker play (laughs).
Q: Care to elaborate on sticker play?
SR: Make it up.
Q: A lot of bowling alleys in Prague?
SR: They build them for us on set. Itās contractual.
Deadline Contenders Panel (April 2025)
SR: Iāve had the great fortune to work pretty much 95 percent of this entire show with one other actor. Itās an extraordinary gift to have that, because you can build a rapport. Working with Jacob throughout the whole series meant that when we decided to do this Dreamstat, Ghost Lestat, Hallucinestat, however you want to call it, I was basically just providing a sounding board for my friend, and my fellow actor, and the extraordinary lead of this show to have a soliloquy with himself.
SAG-AFTRA Conversations (April 2025)
Q: The scene when Lestat and Louis are reunited [ā¦] is one of the most riveting and beautiful scenes I feel like Iāve ever watched [ā¦]. Tell me about filming that scene.
SR: [ā¦] We had probably about an hour and a half left of the day to shoot the actual scene. So we shot two takes each on either side, and that was it. But the thing is, when youāve worked with someone for as longā¦ I shot the whole show with Jacob, Iāve constantly worked with Jacob the whole time. You donāt really get that opportunity as an actor to build a relationship with someone who you call a dear friend, but also an actual partner, somebody you work with and youāve learnt from. And, you know, we just kind of looked at each other and went āOh well, here we goā, and did it. And whatever we got and whatever we did is the scene. And that doesnāt always work, but I think you just kind of have to trust the show, you have to trust your scene partner. [ā¦] Itās the dynamic with your scene partner that creates the show.
Q: Now that youāve played these characters for two seasons, is there something that you have much more of a handle on now than you did, even if you didnāt realise that when you started?
SR: Iāve learnt a lot about acting, [ā¦] mostly because this show I have done with the same person. Iāve done all of the scenes with one person. And you justā¦ You canātā¦ Itās the most extraordinary working experience for me to learn that much from one single person. And I wish he was here, and he sends his love. But Iāve learnt a lot about myself doing that as well, yeah.
AMC Upfronts Event (April 2025)
SR: Jacob and I really trust each other and Jacob is just so extraordinary in this role. Itās so easy to just kind of disappear when youāre working with him that you can do really silly stuff. You wake up in the morning and you think: āOh my God, what did I do yesterday?ā But in the moment, you can just go there and feel uninhibited.
Awards Focus interview (May 2025)
About filming the 2x08 reunion scene with Sam:
JA: By the end of the day, we hadn't shot any coverage of the conversation. We had two takes to do it, and because we've built this trust with each other from the beginning, we have done some crazy things, like being suspended from the ceiling. These were really literary, beautifully written, and elegant pieces of writing. We have just built this trust where I implicitly trust him with whatever we must do. I hope that he feels the same way. It felt symbolic that all we built together meant that we could handle that reunion. I've never had a work partnership like that, like you could throw us into anything together and we would be fine. We'll figure it out and we'll have fun doing it.
Delainey Hayles for Awards Focus (June 2025)
DH: The chemistry that Jacob and Sam share is something that is just between them, and itās so wholesome, and you can see the support for each other.
ATX TV Festival Immortal Universe Panel (June 2025)
Rolin Jones (about shooting the reunion scene in 2x08): Jacob and Sam had been sitting there the whole day going āWe have to make this decision. Maybe we should move this to the next day because I donāt know if weāre going to have enough time. Itās a lot of pressure.ā But we let them loose and they got two takes at it. And to be perfectly honest, afterwards when we wrapped, they were pissed. They were like āWeāve been working on this show for a long time!ā. But what they didnāt know at that moment and what me and Levan saw in that thing was that there were two seasons, two years of that very intimate friendship ā and I donāt mean professional, theyāre very, very close friends. And they had it. Everybody was weeping their ass off. The part that youāre talking about [the unheard words spoken between Jacob and Sam] was scripted. It was a gift. They had done such relentless work, and I knew that they had developed this great friendship outside of it, because of the show. And I thought it would be important just to give them something. So in the script it just switches from stage directions for Lestat and Louis to Sam Reid and Jacob Anderson: āJacob Anderson says something to Sam that only he will know and Sam says something to Jacob that only he will knowā. And we took the mics off and let them run. And we didnāt know when to cut because they kept talking, kept going on. We actually cut too early on the first take, and then second take they got to do it again. It missed a little bit of spontaneity because each other didnāt know what the other one was going to say to the other. Youāre really capturing something very, very raw and personal, which I think was cool!
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