The character from the AMC gothic horror drama Interview with the Vampire (2023-), NOT the movie. Portrayed by Sam Reid, and one of the main characters from the show, and seemingly the primary antagonist/“big evil” up until the reveal of Lestat's innocence/sacrifice and essentially being Armand's scapegoat at the end of season 2, where it's also revealed that Lestat was actually the one to save Louis, and that Louis and Claudia were deceived and mentally manipulated by Armand.
Season 2 finale finally reveals the real Lestat after two seasons of portraying him through other characters' perspectives. The finale reveals that Lestat, haunted by Claudia's death, is a more complex and broken figure than previously thought. Once Season 2, Episode 7 arrives, the existing cracks in Louis's story split wide open. Louis admits that he either misremembered or lied about pivotal Season 1 events. The confession casts doubt on Lestat's culpability in those tremendously influential moments. Viewers already know Louis has obfuscated the truth and shifted blame onto others, but Season 2 forces us to recontextualize our assumptions by emphasizing that no one's account is trustworthy; Lestat is still an unknown.
Interview with the Vampire's finale reveals that Lestat is more deeply broken than anyone could imagine. He knew the consequences of loving Claudia and did so anyway, a feeling Louis and Claudia’s stories hinted at but buried beneath their growing contempt. When Lestat agrees to turn her for Louis, he warns his lover that "you will regret this for the rest of your life." The prophecy comes back on Lestat as much as Louis. Her betrayal didn't matter once she was burned alive; Claudia will always be the daughter Lestat failed to protect.
Earlier in the finale, Louis — fresh off murdering the entire coven — corners Lestat inside a tower that once belonged to Magnus, Lestat's sire. Infamously, Magnus had chained Lestat to the wall for days before forcibly turning him into a vampire. Months after Claudia's death, Lestat crouches against Magnus's wall, talking to himself and reflecting on what made him the way he is. The real Lestat isn't glamorous. He loves too deeply and clings too hard, his trauma manifesting via profoundly toxic and destructive means. "It's a story of love, not butchery," Lestat insists during Episode 7's trial, correcting one of Santiago's (Ben Daniels) falsehoods. The truth's been there all along. Since no other character could see it through their respective pains, neither could we.
Lestat was a 31-year-old man when he was turned by a vampire named Magnus in 1791. He took Lestat from his room in Paris and kept him for a week, locked in a room full of corpses. Some freshly killed, some bloated and black. But they all resembled Lestat's physique. Magnus fed on him every night. And then he put Lestat back in the tower with the look-alike corpses, where Lestat thought for sure he'd be one of them, but instead Magnus turned him before setting himself on fire.[
Prior to meeting Louis, Lestat's first love was a man named Nicolas, who passed after he and Lestat parted ways.
