Look, let’s just get the joke out of the way. This is, for all intents and purposes, an interview with a vampire. Lunch with a vampire. In broad daylight (although the cloud cover probably helps).I’m at Palazzo Salato, a swishy Italian joint in Sydney’s CBD, with Sam Reid. You probably know him from playing Dale Jennings in the critically acclaimed ABC drama The Newsreader. You might know he is about to star in the Sydney Theatre Company’s production of Doubt: A Parable, in which he plays a Catholic priest accused of inappropriately dealing with a student.What you probably don’t know (and looking at the businessy lunch crowd here, I’m guessing they definitely don’t know) is that about four weeks ago, Reid was in New York – shirtless and in tight pants – crawling across the stage at the Beacon Theatre, performing as Anne Rice’s high-camp vampire Lestat de Lioncourt to a screaming crowd, many of whom had been in line for hours to secure a spot. It was, if you were to believe all the breathless descriptions spread across social media, quite the show.Sam Reid as Anne Rice’s lusted after vampire Lestat De Lioncourt in the The Vampire Lestat.“I mean, it is my job,” says Reid, laughing. “So it’s a joyful thing to be able to do my job.”But still, it must be pretty extraordinary to see himself all done up – hair, teeth, abs, scars. Surely, a part of him thinks, “Yeah, I look hot!”“Well, that’s what you see,” he says. “You see the photographs that we release, the ones that I’ve approved. I just see myself, really. I’ve got 101 photographs on my phone where I don’t look like that, with all the same costume on. It’s all a matter of who you are and where you are at the time, it’s a construct.”Sam Reid at Palazzo Salato in Sydney’s CBD.Sam MooyHe is more low key than his vampire character.Sam MooyIt can take a while for him to unwind.Sam MooyWe are sitting at a large round table in the front corner of the restaurant, which seems exactly the kind of place attention-seeking Lestat would hold court. Reid, though, is altogether different. He’s quiet and serious, almost shy, with a deep voice that is built for the stage and screen and summoning great gusts of emotion. I have interviewed him twice before for The Newsreader, so I know it can take a moment for him to unwind, but once he gets going he is absolutely lovely – a bit of a dork with a big laugh.For lunch, we have settled on hand-rolled pasta – the restaurant’s speciality – and after we work out what scarpinocc is (a shoe-shaped folded and stuffed pasta from Lombardy), we order that with pumpkin, hazelnuts, Pecorino and crispy sage and the mafaldine (a thick pasta with wavy edges) with spanner crab and chili. Throw in a green salad to share, plus an iced long black coffee for Reid, and we’re good to go.“I didn’t pick this place,” he admits. “I have no idea about restaurants in Sydney, unfortunately. I don’t really get to be here very much and when I am here, I spend a lot of time at home.”To backtrack a bit, Reid, 39, has had an eventful few weeks: he’s been in the US launching season three of Interview with a Vampire (which has been renamed The Vampire Lestat), hence the concert, and then back home to Sydney to dig into Doubt.At lunch with Louise Rugendyke at Palazzo Salato. Sam MooyThe scarpinocc (front), with the mafaldine (back left) and green salad.Sam Mooy“I had my nails done this morning,” he says, showing me the new set of neat (fake) nails that just peep over his fingertips. They are not the longer claw-like things he wears in The Vampire Lestat. In fact, they’re barely noticeable at all – they’ll be a bonus for anyone sitting in the front row, he jokes – but because he is a biter (nails, not necks) a new set was required for Father Flynn, a role made famous by Philip Seymour Hoffman in the 2008 film adaptation of John Patrick Shanley’s Pulitzer Prize-winning play.Unsurprisingly, his whole look as Father Flynn – all clerical collar and heavy vestments – is the the opposite of Lestat, a character unburdened by mortal concerns and, mostly, shirts. It was the role made famous by Tom Cruise in the 1994 film adaptation of the book, and it’s a role that has delivered Reid a very enthusiastic and somewhat obsessive fan base. You don’t have to dive too deep to find Reddit threads, multiple fan clubs, memes, GIFs and even a detailed cross stitch artwork of his face.For a kid who grew up on a farm outside of Canberra, it must be pretty weird.“Weird is a strong word,” he says. “I don’t find it weird, really, no, I think it’s actually really lovely. When you are in the arts, and you’re making something, you’re always in the back of your head [thinking], ‘I hope this connects with somebody’, I hope what we’re doing is not just a very weird self-pleasurable experience that no one else gets to engage with.Sam Reid: with Anna Torv in season two of The Newsreader.Sam Reid as Lestat de Lioncourt in Interview With The Vampire.Larry HorricksSam Reid as Father Flynn in Doubt: A Parable. “Also, for me, a lot of the time I was always a bit worried about making sure the work was seen how I wanted it to be seen. I felt very controlling over my work, and what I wanted to present and, actually, what this whole experience has taught me, with Interview with the Vampire, is that you actually give over the work, and then it just becomes this whole other thing for these people, and it’s amazing to watch. I feel very disassociated from it sometimes. I can just sit back and watch it, and see how they engage with it. And it’s really lovely, mostly.”Still, he’s had a few “small security issues” with fans that have “been handled”, and has resigned himself to the fact there “are very intense internet sleuths … [who] are gonna believe what they want to believe”.“That’s not something you necessarily sign up for when you go to be an actor,” he says. “Like, there’s a bit of a surprise in the way, I suppose it is, but we are dream machines. You’re operating in a very sensitive part of people’s subconscious all the time, and it would be naive to say that the larger your work becomes, and the more people watch it, that you don’t expect some level of encroachment between their perceived reality of you and your genuine reality.”It’s not just him, though, there is something about vampires that sends fans a little doolally, just ask Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart, who were hounded for years over Twilight.“They’re monsters, but they are seductive,” says Reid of the undead. “So there is a dynamic there, which is danger, which people find enticing. But they’re also just a very good metaphor, and you can use them for anything. The love stories that exist around vampires, which is an Anne Rice construct, really, are very intense. Bram Stoker’s Dracula has it as well. It gets to be on this operatic scale because I [as Lestat] live for forever, it’s very enticing for people to become a part of that. I read the Vampire books when I was a kid, and I’ve always been into Dracula, but I never really understood that level of obsession.”Sam Reid.Sam MooyThat Reid is even here at all is testament to the vagaries of acting. It was only seven or so years ago that he nearly chucked it all in. He wanted to move back to the country and take up farming, like his dad. He was insecure, anxious and tired of the itinerant lifestyle that comes with being a young actor. He had left home at 19 to study at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art, where he was constantly referred to as “the Antipodean”.Then, after he graduated, his then agent told him he would never get hired if he used his Australian accent. “I was walking into auditions with an English accent from when I was 23 years old,” he says. “And it was boring and after a while, it was difficult … I was playing a character on top of a character.”The same thing happened when he went to the US. He was told during drama class at the Atlantic Theatre Company in New York that they couldn’t understand him, and he must answer in a US accent.“There was always a level of not feeling like you could …” he says.Be you!“Yeah,” he says, laughing. “You’re having to try and reconform, restructurise your day-to-day existence. And as you progress through your 20s, you’re trying to work out who you are, and all those kind of things, and that informs your work and your work ends up being wooden because you’re not able to access yourself.”At one point, he was so worried about a film role that he broke his teeth because he was grinding so hard in his sleep. “I was very anxious about things. I probably took myself way too seriously.”What changed? “The Newsreader,” he says. “It was just one of the most creatively liberating experiences I had ever had.”Ironically, it was the very uptight and closeted Dale Jennings in the ABC drama who finally allowed Reid to access the emotions he had been struggling to release. “For the first time, I really had a big character to explore in Australia, with my own accent,” he says. “And even though he had his own kind of weird accent, it was still incredibly liberating.”The bill, please.It was about that time that The Vampire Lestat came knocking. Dale Jennings had given him the keys to that kingdom. And now Lestat has given him the keys to Father Flynn.“I’m hesitant to say what I really think about him,” he says of his Doubt character. “I actually think he’s quite an inspirational character, not inspirational, that’s a poor choice of word, but I think he’s quite a unique character in the fact that he is approaching religious fervour with very modern mindset. How do you make Catholicism exciting? How do you make it interesting?”That’s probably a topic too big for lunch, and Doubt is a story best approached with an open mind, he reckons.“Because of your preconceived conceptions about sexual assault within the Catholic Church, it means we have to be very, very specific about what we’re feeding to an audience,” he says. “And so everything that Sister Aloysius [played by Pamela Rabe] is saying, you completely agree with it. I’m very hesitant to dive into it, but it’s a really fascinating conversation.”As for what’s next, Reid is not sure. It’s most definitely dog walks with his blue heeler Rani, time at home with his actor partner Philippa Northeast (he doesn’t mention her by name, just says “our” a lot, so yes, I’ve been one of those annoying internet sleuths) and days on the family farm.“I genuinely don’t know [what’s next],” he says. “I need to give Lestat a break, and I’m not quite exactly sure what the best way to go about doing that is.”Doubt: A Parable is at Roslyn Packer Theatre until August 2. The Vampire Lestat is now streaming on AMC+ and premieres in August on SBS2. Read more great conversations over lunchJacqueline Maley explores loss with Bob Carr: Bob Carr on marriage, grief and finally learning how to do a load of laundryStephen Brook asks Michael Rowland about his future: In the space of 14 months, Michael Rowland upended his ABC life. There’s more upheaval to comeMargot Saville laughs with Kathy Lette: Kathy Lette on ageing fabulously … and giving cheek to the KingDavid Wenham bares his scars to Louise Rugendyke: David Wenham on cancer, getting older and being lusted afterStart the day with a summary of the day’s most important and interesting stories, analysis and insights. Sign up for our Morning Edition newsletter.