If you want TV audiences to forgive a fictional man for absolutely anything, just sharpen his fangs and stick him in velvet. The horny musical drama The Vampire Lestat, which became a cult hit in the US earlier this year. The show has now arrived in the UK and Sam Reid’s searing performance as Lestat has fans on their knees.
The first two seasons, which went by the title Interview With the Vampire, were about the “interview” in which Louis (Jacob Anderson) tells a journalist about his toxic relationship with Lestat. Now, the focus has shifted to Lestat – hence the new title and new narrator – as the golden-locked prince of darkness swaps centuries of secrecy for glam-rock stardom. Reid turned to bootlegs of David Bowie’s 1974 Cracked Actor tour for inspiration on the “showmanship, magic and mystery” needed to hypnotise an arena, with the result that Lestat now embodies a magnificent “dandy of the underworld” energy.
He writhes, growls and grinds on stage as he plays the fiddle and belts out ridiculously campy songs. He wears glittery eyeshadow, his hair is in ribboned pigtails. He appears to have lost his shirt permanently and bares his scarred chest to adoring fans, while singing “Don’t wanna learn another TikTok dance/Wanna stay in bed, eating black liquorice” and “You can’t fuck away the loneliness / It’ll wait til you’re done / Til you come / Like a vampire”.
Off-stage he is in a sexual relationship with his mother, gets high off LSD-laced blood and comes out with phrases such as: “I carry with me an immortal erection.” It’s not the first time a vampire has sucked in audiences. Eric Northman’s full-frontal glory as he lounges on an ice peak reading a book in True Blood was Alexander Skarsgård’s breakthrough role, while Lady Gaga’s The Countess in season five of American Horror Story proved that bloodlust is the ultimate couture accessory. Endlessly seductive vamps show up, too, in The Vampire Diaries, Supernatural and the entire cast of What We Do in the Shadows, who are somehow ridiculously hot despite being total buffoons (Matt Berry has ruined normal men for me).
Claes Bang in the BBC’s otherwise chaotic Dracula was undeniably easy on the eye, and even Jeff’s fleeting stint as a vampire in Community’s Horror Fiction in Seven Spooky Steps episode sees Annie swoon over her tame bloodsucker, breathlessly sighing, “Look how much I’ve changed you!” when he begins quoting literature at her. Vampires embody absolute freedom, power, immortality, beauty and often forbidden love. They can also tap directly into our shadow selves, serving as the ultimate canvas for the toxic romantic tropes we secretly indulge in on screen. (Think about it: pop culture has long conditioned us to desire the romcom hero who relentlessly pursues a female lead despite being told no until he wears her down, such as Joe Fox (Tom Hanks) in You’ve Got Mail or Joe Goldberg (Penn Badgeley) in You.) When it comes to vampires as romantic figures, we’re leaning heavily into the ultimate “I can fix him” trope.
What is more intoxicating than a dangerous immortal who wipes out entire towns, yet kneels at your feet? Just look at Spike in Buffy the Vampire Slayer – the ultimate leather-bound bad boy who is quite literally “changed” by the love of a good slayer. On the flipside, you have Angel, whose curse dictates that one night of mindblowing sex with Buffy literally breaks his brain, shatters his morality and turns him back into a psychopathic monster.
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