‘Chilling, Tragic, and Profoundly Touching’: The Vampire Lestat’s Joseph Potter & Damien Atkins on Nicki, Magnus, and Influencing Lestat’s Past

Nicolas de Lenfent and Magnus are two people from Lestat’s past who had a profound impact on his future.

While Nicki was his first love, their bond, formed by mutual desire and connection, would break down over time, leaving Lestat with a crippling sense of grief and failure that would continue to define the elder vampire.

Their love story is often defined by its ending, which doesn’t do enough justice to the invaluable lessons Lestat learned over the course of their union.

The Vampire Lestat Season 1 Episode 3 takes us back to Nicki and Lestat’s first meeting and the early days of their relationship, before Lestat was forcibly ripped from his bed by Magnus, a vampire obsessed with and twistedly devoted to Lestat.

We see that Nicki was a pivotal person in Lestat’s life, and that’s something we’ve understood since his introduction in Interview with the Vampire Season 2, but this hour takes great strides to highlight the significance of their love affair in Lestat’s story.

Joseph Potter, who reprises his role from the previous season, is magnificent as Lestat’s paramour, delivering a performance that is chilling, tragic, and profoundly touching.

Upon joining the series, which is incredibly popular thanks to the classic Anne Rice novels and the ardent fanbases of both the film and television adaptations, Potter was blown away by the reception he received.

Nicki is a popular character in The Vampire Chronicles, and Potter told us he was “so honored” to step into the role.

He further explained, “I really didn’t realize it until just coming on and doing a little bit in season two, kind of how much people love him. I mean, I feel so honored as the first person to ever play him, which is amazing.

“It is just the greatest pleasure ever, and the love that this fandom gives you is so incredible. I just feel like it’s such a great honor. Playing the extremities of just that kind of sheer feeling he has, through the lens of this vampirism that just amps everything up, is a real gift.”

Beyond sharing his excitement about joining the series and embracing the role, Potter also opened up about Nicki’s pivotal relationship with Lestat and why this hour is so important to understanding the vampire’s journey.

“We see the different kinds of pinpoints and the arc of their relationship,” Potter explained. “Although it jumps, we see these big cataclysmic moments in their relationship.

“So, you get that first meet-cute, which is you see them both as humans, you see the tenderness, that’s why they met each other, and then you see the beginning of it kind of unfolding as they carry on through Paris. I feel like a big part of it is Nicki’s music.”

And we see how that relates to the rest of it, and that kind of form of expression that then carries us through the rest of the show, and how the mistakes of Lestat’s past through Nicki.

Whether it be the deceit and the lies of not telling him and then ultimately making that kind of era of turning him into a vampire that then kind of consumes Nicki and just brings out that further darkness that was already there.

“I think Nicki feels so much that it just becomes all-encompassing in the end and too much. And then turning Nicki into a vampire is the last thing that tips them over the edge, which I think informs Lestat’s future turnings and the Louis-and-Lestat dynamic we’re still seeing today.”

Of course, the dynamics between Lestat and Nicki are fundamentally changed once Lestat is turned into a vampire, and the hour introduces Lestat’s maker, Magnus, as an obsessive, abusive vampire who preys on Lestat from afar and then eventually up close.

Damien Atkins joins the series as the haunting vampire, and when asked about Magnus’s role in Lestat’s emotional journey, he was quick to admit that Magnus was a central source of Lestat’s trauma.

“Ooh, that’s a good question,” Atkins remarked. “I mean, he’s the original offender. He’s the abuser. I think Magnus thinks he’s giving him a gift, right? But he’s a true villain in that way. He doesn’t think he’s doing the wrong thing.

“But Lestat has a father. He has a biological father, but this is the kind of dark father that, on some level, is the origin of all the pain, unfortunately.

“I guess he’s not quite the first person, but this is a real scar that he keeps returning to over and over and over and over.”

From Lestat’s perspective, Magnus is first portrayed as a man in the shadows, then as a devastating figure who inflicts pain that lingers with Lestat long after Magnus’s death.

At one point, Magnus sings “Your Biggest Fan” to Lestat while lingering outside his window, watching him amass adulation from the shadows, before returning home to stare at Lestat’s picture, surrounded by the bodies of dead Lestat lookalikes.

Magnus’s introduction is creepy, morbid, and unsettling, but for Atkins, the appeal of Magnus’s story lay in some of its absurdity.

“What stood out to me was that the show was completely bananas, in the best and smartest way,” Atkins shared with us. “There is an emotional truthfulness to Lestat’s journey, but it is not soft or sentimental.

“It’s harsh and funny and sharp as a knife. So the depiction of his origins as a vampire with Magnus has the same qualities. The scenes are unhinged, and that’s fun to play.”

Gaining greater insight into Lestat’s past has dominated much of the early hours of The Vampire Lestat, and discovering more about his background allows the audience to see sides of the vampire we’ve never seen before.

When Lestat describes Nicki as his first love, but not a great love, it doesn’t feel like a dismissal. Instead, Potter viewed it as an acknowledgment of the tragedy that ultimately drove them apart.

“Other than his mother, he’s the only one who’s seen the difference,” Potter explained. “I mean, in the book, there’s something about the two of them being these really kind of down-on-their-luck people, and that when Nicki first meets Lestat, Lestat feels just as tragic as Nicki.

“And now, when they go to Paris, that tragedy ultimately isn’t quite matched, and Lestat has this profound light in him that Nicki feels drawn to, which, in the end, just becomes slightly too much for Nicki, and it consumes him.”

At the end of the hour, Lestat performs “The Loneliness.”

It’s a song that invites some of the tragic characters from his past to appear in the crowded audience as he lets the music wash over him, drowning him in a sense of peace only music can bring.

It’s a small win for him, a reason to persevere. And when Magnus and Gabriella turn their backs, Lestat’s vulnerability helps him begin to heal.

In an hour full of incredibly moving moments, it was the final concert scene that Atkins adored, sharing that there were “so many standout moments” in the episode.

But when narrowing it down, he said, “Maybe I will pick this one: watching Sam/Lestat perform his song, standing in the crowd, and then quietly walking out the door.

“A significant moment for me. A little letting go. Maybe.”

As Nicki shares a cheeky smile with the tortured vampire rockstar while he performs his gripping ballad, there’s a real sense of closure between them.

The moment suggests that, despite everything that transpired between them, the bitterness and pain that once defined their relationship may have finally given way to something inherently softer.

When asked what Nicki might say if he had one final chance to speak to Lestat, Potter imagined it would come from a place of love rather than bitterness.

“I don’t know. I feel like it wouldn’t be fueled with hatred. I feel like it would be tender. I think in Nicki’s death, there’s a kind of sobering realization, and actually, it’s not fueled by jealousy, but there is that real love there. I’m not sure exactly what the words are.

“I don’t think Nicki’s still cursing him in the afterlife.”

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Stay tuned for more The Vampire Lestat coverage, interviews, and episode reviews.

You can watch The Vampire Lestat on Sundays at 9/8c on AMC and AMC+.