Interview With The Vampire Series Will Suck More Blood Out Of Its Source Material Than The Film
Anytime Hollywood chooses to adapt Anne Rice's "The Vampire Chronicles," there is a tremendous amount of source material to draw from. The first book in the series, "Interview with the Vampire," sets the proverbial stakes of the series, as it follows a young and wealthy Frenchman known as Louis de Pointe du Lac recounting his living life, his eventual turn to vampirism, and the interactions with his vampire family — which include his maker, Lestat de Lioncourt, and the childlike Claudia.
Between 15 books (to say nothing of crossovers with the "Live of the Mayfair Witches" books) there is plenty of background information, plot twists, and characters to draw from for AMC's upcoming series, "Interview with the Vampire." This has not been the first time an adaptation of Rice's famous works has come to fruition, of course — we all remember the 1994 movie, "Interview with the Vampire," which starred Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise, as well as "Queen of the Damned," which starred Stuart Townsend and Aaliyah (though Cher was at one point considered).
Thankfully for fans, the actors starring in the newest AMC adaptation claim the show will draw closer to the source material than prior adaptations.
The main cast has discussed the source material
During an interview with Collider, several of the main cast members for AMC's "Interview with the Vampire" were asked how their characters will be different than previous adaptations. Jacob Anderson, who plays Louis, was the first to answer. "I love how much Louis aches in the book," he said. "I love that he is mourning his past existence, and our Louis is very much that as well. But I'd say our Louis has a little bit more punch to him. I think he's more inclined to go at Lestat. Initially, he's slightly less brooding, but we get there! We get there, but I'd say he's got a little more bite in him."
For those who have read the books, this rings relatively true, as Louis spends most of his time brooding about his former life, and struggles with his newfound status as a vampire, going so far to attempt avoiding feeding on humans entirely, which results in him consuming all sorts of beasts.
The next to answer was Bailey Bass, who plays the exceptionally young vampire Claudia, who added, "We dive deeper into how much Claudia wants love, not just from Louis and Lestat, but also from other people, to find her companion the way Louis and Lestat have each other. She wants that so we dive deeper into that."
Within Anne Rice's series, Claudia is "rescued" by being transformed into a vampire, after Louis finds her pleading with her mother's corpse: Instead of living as an orphan, she is given the Dark Gift. Unfortunately, vampires have a strict edict on transforming children into vampires, because they will mentally grow, but remain trapped in a child's body, which often leads to a fair amount of depression and erratic personalities.
Lestat's actor has teased his development
Of course, the de facto protagonist of the entire "Vampire Chronicles" franchise is Lestat, the aptly nicknamed "Brat Prince." Played by Sam Reid, Lestat is a dynamic character with his fair share of allies and enemies. Reid spoke about what we might expect by saying, "For our version of Lestat, what we get to do is go into the subsequent books that the film didn't get the chance to necessarily do, and we take that second edition that Anne sort of went on with and bring him into our story. So he's a more complex character and you get to learn a bit more about his backstory."
For fans of the novels, this sounds absolutely perfect, because whereas "Interview with the Vampire" casts Lestat as unfeeling and flippant, the character was vastly deepened by its follow-up, "The Vampire Lestat," gives him much more depth, which set the stage for his later adventures involving body thieves and devils. Using the later books as inspiration for crafting the TV show's Lestat is exactly what most fans would hope for.
Considering the title of the show, "Interview with the Vampire" would not be complete without the interviewer. Eric Bogosian, who plays Daniel Molloy, said of his character, "I'm in the same place in my life that Daniel is. And I've had my ups and downs, and now I'm a curmudgeon as I become this older character in my real life and it's kind of like who he is. And for me, that's actually a challenge."
Ultimately, it seems as if the actors involved with AMC's "Interview with the Vampire" are taking their respective roles very seriously, and it looks like this new adaptation will draw heavily from the source material in all the right ways.