Editor’s note: The below interview contains spoilers for The Vampire Lestat Episode 5.
AMC’s Interview with the Vampire has already released two brilliant seasons since its premiere back in 2022, but now that the show has officially turned into The Vampire Lestat, we’re finally getting a very different perspective on events both past and present. While Lestat de Lioncourt (Sam Reid) has initially agreed to let Daniel Molloy (Eric Bogosian) document him as a way to formally rebut any and all statements made in Dubai by his fledgling and on-again-off-again companion, Louis de Pointe du Lac (Jacob Anderson), it turns out that there are some parts to the Brat Prince’s story that even Louis doesn’t really know much about — like his fateful crossing with the Queen herself, Akasha (Sheila Atim).
As Episode 5, “New York,” reveals, Lestat’s immortal existence was forever changed after he was pulled out of his latest dirt nap by none other than Armand’s (Assad Zaman) maker, Marius de Romanus (Christopher Heyerdahl), and tasked with looking after Those Who Must Be Kept, the first two vampires to ever exist. Not only was Lestat’s new responsibility as immortal caregiver apparently orchestrated by Akasha herself, Atim reveals, but the connection the two forge through music could have consequences that carry over into the present day. Below, the actress behind the “mother” of all vampires discusses why Akasha is first drawn to Lestat, why Akasha’s big speech was surprisingly easy for her to learn, what she discusses most often with the show’s creative team about the future of her character, and more.
COLLIDER: We’re finally going to talk about the Queen! When Lestat first arrives, Marius has that line about how he’s been watching over Akasha and Enkil for 22 years, and then he leaves the room, and Akasha immediately corrects him — and in front of Lestat, which is interesting. Why do you think Akasha feels drawn to Lestat, to the point of it becoming a literal awakening for her in this episode?
SHEILA ATIM: I think, for whatever reason, she sees something in him. She chose him. It’s interesting the way Marius talks about it. He’s like, “Look, I don’t make the rules. She said, ‘Go pick this guy up,’ and she wants you to do it,” essentially. I think Akasha knows that she needs somebody who can be a match for her. Enkil is now destroyed, so she is very much one of one. There are now many vampires out in the wild, and actually, she can hear them all, and she’s aware of them all, but you’re looking for that special one. If there’s ever a chance of her waking up again, and also waking up and achieving the things that she wants to achieve again, or at least the conclusions that she comes to during her speech, she’s going to need to have someone who can hold their own.
Lestat just has such a natural kind of infectiousness about him, and a flair and a magnetism, I think. And yes, he’s also irascible and infantile at moments, and not easy, but for someone like Akasha, first of all, that’s probably fine. I’m sure she can find a way to handle that. But I think that those kinds of characters are the people that you want around you and by your side when you have big plans in store. So, I think that’s why she picks him.
And I think she just finds him interesting. He’s interesting. He’s curious. He’s creating this mad dinner party with loaves of bread and cabbage, and he’s learning to play the violin, and he’s just as excited about this music as she is. I think that passion for — I was going to say life, but obviously, they’re undead, but that passion for experience is something she shares.
‘The Vampire Lestat’s Sheila Atim Breaks Down Her “Come to Me” Scene With Sam Reid
“I think it’s important, as well, to see Lestat have some reticence — because he doesn’t, really.”
Talking about the dinner party and what it leads to, which is Akasha saying the first, “Come to me,” I love the way that Sam [Reid] plays that moment where he reaches out to take your hand, and there’s awe and terror. What did that interaction, leading to her feeding on him, confirm to you about how much power she has? We learn that she gives him her blood, too, so did you film anything else between them that was filmed and then cut?
ATIM: No, that was it. There is something about that pose. There were versions of it where I had a back support underneath me, but we also filmed versions where I sit up into that position. So on those takes, I would just hold that with, like, abs. I would just hold that position. And there’s something about the tension between his hesitation, but also her not being able to really move any further forward, because she is still partially stone; it’s almost like there’s an electricity there that is a kind of foreshadowing of what’s to come.
There’s always huge power in stillness. All the roles I’ve had to play on stage or on screen have often had to embody a huge amount of stillness, and something really intensely magical can come from that. So, I think it’s important, as well, to see Lestat have some reticence — because he doesn’t, really. In Seasons 1 and 2, and mostly 3, yes, he has his moments where you see complexity in him, but he’s not really somebody who takes too much time to see visions.
Earlier in the episode, you see [Lestat] running out into the sun to get the take of the vocal recording. He’s pretty committed to what he wants to be about. So, to see him on the precipice of maybe unleashing, or at least interacting with, a power that he’s heard about but doesn’t actually have a full grasp of its scale and its magnitude, it already sets up that we’re now stepping through a door to something else.
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That monologue really does feel like a stream of consciousness. It just keeps building on itself in terms of intensity, but then there are references to a tongue being cut out and a prolonged death. In reading through that scene, preparing to deliver it, what did it confirm to you about Akasha’s feelings with regard to being one who is kept? It seems like there’s a bit of resentment there about being confined.
ATIM: Absolutely. She talks about why must she be kept, and why is she cast out of Uruk, the land that she’s from, and why, for millennia, “Why am I here?” and “Why Amel?” What’s also interesting is she merges that with images that are universal when you’re thinking about the subjugation of women. It’s her, but it’s also all of us, which is why she says, “I am the girl. I am all of these things. We are all the women who have all suffered, past, present, and future.”
What I love about that speech and what Hannah [Moscovitch]’s done so beautifully is she’s woven in some very visceral imagery into something that simultaneously has quite a natural flow. It was a long speech, but I found it remarkably easy to learn, considering. And that’s always the case with good writing. It’s very easy. It just sticks. It goes in. I had to put some work into getting it in there, but once you’ve got the potency of those images through that storytelling, it all naturally builds itself — images of women being curled on the ground and stoned, and left on the side of a road in a forest, and told to lower their eyes and told not to speak, and told how they must speak. That is all stuff that we can relate to, and we can point to many references of that throughout human history. So, that, alongside the actual rhythm and the construction of the text, gives the speech its own momentum and carries it all the way through to the end.
‘The Vampire Lestat’s Sheila Atim Teases Akasha’s Reaction to Lestat’s Rock Star Era
“That already is like the perfect tinderbox for something very, very exciting…”
Given what we’ve seen so far with Akasha’s love for music, her clear fondness for Lestat, is she going to have some kind of reaction to the tour, the album, the attention he’s bringing to vampires? Where does she land on all of that, and what can you set up?
ATIM: I can’t say much because there’s still a lot to be worked out and discovered there between us as a team. I probably think a bit of all of those things. They connect over music. Yes, she senses him and wants him to come and be the keeper, but the thing that really wakes her up is his music, his love of music, his passion for wanting to learn instruments. Then, here we are, all these hundreds of years later, and now he’s a rock star, and not only is he a rock star, but he’s singing about her.
That already is like the perfect tinderbox for something very, very exciting in terms of how she feels about that, [and] why she comes back into his life. It’s also painful, but I think it’s going to be fun. I hope the music continues in some way — not in the same way necessarily, but in some way, because it’s so at the heart of their connection, and it’s just a very potent, emotive… Everyone can connect to that. Through song, you can tell similar stories. So, I’m excited about that.
I need to know how Akasha’s doing in the current century — what she’s up to, what her fashion looks like.
ATIM: The fashion, I’m telling you right now, I’ve got thoughts and ideas, and I will be making them heard because I’m very excited. I think this whole show looks brilliant, always. Everyone looks fantastic. If I’m honest, this is the thing I talk about the most when it comes to Akasha. What does she wear? How does she look? Expect some interesting fits, for sure.
New episodes of The Vampire Lestat premiere Sundays on AMC.
