Lestat is a diva. He wants to be great. He wants to be adored. And we don’t blame him for that. But, ultimately, in The Vampire Lestat‘s finale, Lestat comes to realize one majorly important thing: nothing matters to him as much as Louis’ love. In The Vampire Lestat, we see Lestat come to realize that to have Louis’ love is to be great. And we feel like that is one of the most profound realizations the vampire could have come to. In our conversation with Sam Reid about The Vampire Lestat‘s finale, Reid shares more about what Louis’ love means to Lestat and discusses how knowing that he holds it means that Lestat doesn’t care whether or not he is a “failure.”
Reid shares:
A fundamental core of Lestat is that no matter how many walls he hits, no matter how many traumatic events happen to him, he’s still always going to be crawling out of the burning rubble, brushing off his shoulders, and keep going. But he says that, “I was pretty fucking great. Even if I failed, even if I significantly fail in my life, at least I tried. At least I’m trying to do something different. At least I am actively trying to get out of this.” But he says that, and then he fails. That does not save him.
And so I think he actually remembers multiple things happening in that speech, but after he says that, he remembers that there was a moment of love with Louis. And then his life flashes in front of his eyes, and he cannot structure a correct sentence. Even in his final death moment, he’s tripped up on grammar. And he can’t really win. And he really isn’t “that fucking great” in the end. He’s not. But he is loved regardless. He is loved. And to find out that he is loved by Louis, I think, allows him to have some closure. It allows him to accept death. Because that love from Louis, that’s the one thing that Lestat’s wanted.
Lestat isn’t great, but he is loved. What a monumental sentiment. May we all be so lucky as to come to the peace of knowing that even if we do fail, even if we are not as spectacular as we could be in all cases, we remain loved. And we are getting emotional at the thought that Lestat was okay with his life coming to an end, so long as he believed that Louis truly loved him. Excuse us while we weep. Thank you, Sam Reid, for making us even more emotional over Louis and Lestat than we already were.
Ultimately, this idea extends beyond the world of The Vampire Lestat into each of our lives. And I hope that we are able to hold onto it, whatever happens next with Louis, Lestat, and their love.
The Vampire Lestat is now streaming on AMC and AMC+ in full. You can snag The Vampire Lestat by Anne Rice to read, if you’d like to know a little bit more about what’s going on.
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