Top 19 Moments from The Vampire Lestat: After Dark Episode “After Detroit”

Now that The Vampire Lestat has finally arrived and The Vampire Lestat: After Dark celebrated the season premiere with a new episode, “After Detroit.” Hosted by Lizzie Bassett, the first official episode of the companion series featured Sam Reid (Lestat), Jacob Anderson (Louis), showrunner Rolin Jones and executive producer Mark Johnson, with a special appearance from director Craig Zisk. Here are our top 19 moments from the show.

1. 1. On Lestat’s relationship with Gabriella, his mother, Reid said that once you’re a vampire, “things are kind of different” and it’s not taboo. “When you’re an immortal creature, I suppose that’s sort of the last frontier.”
   2. Johnson askes Bassett if she knew who was coming through the door. Bassett said she thought Lestat was talking to Louis the whole episode.
   3. Reid said the conversation about Lestat being a rockstar went all the way back to season 1 and Jones wanted Lestat to be a conductor. Reid wanted to be a rockstar, but then he had to do the work to bring it all to life.
   4. Reid got all of the songs before he saw any scripts. He learned how to play the instruments so it looks real on camera, but we don’t hear it. All of the musical sequences were filmed all the way through, even if only part of it was used.
   5. On the subject of the origins of the “Beautiful Unwell,” Jones has been using it long before the show’s premiere. Jones thinks it goes back to the piece he wrote for the LA Times, but he was also writing scripts at the time, too.
   6. At the auction, people are missing things… Louis is missing a leg and Armand is missing an eye.
   7. Bassett notes that Lestat looks different; he has scars and longer hair than he did in Interview with the Vampire. When asked about what it means for Louis, Anderson said that hair and makeup and costume decisions that “they” made (i.e. Reid and Jones) made him look like an unreliable narrator. He adds that it gives him license to play around more because he’s a different Louis than before.
   8. Johnson said nothing ever made sense, but it sets the stage for “so much” because it’s a “radically different show.”
   9. On the humor of the season, Reid said he always felt that the show was funny and Lestat was always a funny character whom we can laugh at. But upon watching the first season, he realized how dramatic the show was. He loves the “gallows humor” of the season. The concept of drinking blood is “absurd” but also erotic.
   10. Johnson asks Jones if this is the “funniest season” and Jones agrees.
   11. On “The Failures,” the voice narrating it is director Guy Maddin. In the book, Lestat says he’s writing a book. The recordings are like a “weird art project.”
   12. Lighting the tapes on fire at the auction is a nod to Banksy shredding the painting. And Lestat has a habit of doing one recording and destroying it.
   13. Reid said Jones wanted to get Lestat’s relationship with Gabriella out of the way early. He adds that it’s hard to forget that she’s always his mom. “It’s a weird one,” he adds.
   14. On the Fang Gang, a “regional coven,” Jones says this expands the coven. Before, it was just Dubai and Paris. He says Fang Gang was built into season 1 with Killer, and they always knew the Fang Gang would show up later. It could be a caste system, or it’s Lestat looking down at them.
   15. Jones reveals that Interview with the Vampire was originally going to be the first season, but they ended up splitting it between two seasons.
   16. Lestat can’t use a phone very well, Reid reveals. “He’s a one-finger typer.”
   17. Director Craig Zisk, who directed the first two episodes , joins on Zoom. Bassett asks if Blade was an inspiration for the fight sequence. Zisk says he looked at lots of hallway fights, like Old Boy, for inspiration.
   18. On the look and feel of Daniel’s documentary, switching to black and white, Zisk said they filmed on handheld cameras and wanted the footage to stand out. They filmed in color and took out the color in post-production.
   19. They are going to talk about Jarda in the next episode, but Bassett admits at the very end of the show that she didn’t realize it was Reid.

The Vampire Lestat: After Dark streams every Sunday on AMC+.