Interview With the Vampire Stars Talk Bringing Anne Rice's Queer Themes to Life
Anne Rice's Interview With the Vampire officially premiered Sunday night on AMC and AMC+ — the premiere episode also dropped early for AMC+ subscribers last week — and brought to life on the small screen the eagerly anticipated, critically acclaimed adaptation of Rice's iconic novel of the same name. For many fans of Rice's work, one of the biggest things that they've been looking forward to is the exploration of the romantic relationship between the two vampires, Lestat de Lioncourt and Louis de Pointe du Lac. The queer themes and subtext in Rice's work has long been something fans have longed to see in live action and the first episode of AMC's adaptation delivered and for series stars Jacob Anderson and Sam Reid, bringing them to life was incredibly important.
"You kind of can't talk about it without… for one, I think we have to acknowledge that the books are very queer," Anderson, who plays Louis, told ComicBook.com. "I think that Interview With the Vampire, Louis is not talking about it. Well, at least in terms of Lestat."
Reid went a bit deeper, explaining how Rice incorporated the themes in the various novels of the Vampire Chronicles series, which for him means that the television series wouldn't be doing the source material justice if it didn't delve into the queerness of things.
"Until you get to the second half of the book, I think," Reid, who plays Lestat, said. "And then I think by the second half of the book, Louis sort of does start to acknowledge that it was something more, which I think is cool. And I was reading Anne Rice last night, and you get to a sort of typical chapter, Anne Rice chapter where she's gone and retells the whole Chronicles again in one chapter from a different character's point of view. Or she'll just start talking about the books themselves because obviously they exist as real thing sin her universe, which gives you the ability to go, 'Well this character was seeing it this way at that time.'"
He continued, "So, she can always reevaluate and change her mind on how things were perceived. So yeah, the relationship, the way that Louis describes it in the beginning is subtext, or has he acknowledged it or is he just angry with the way it worked out? But I really feel like as we go on, the text is the text. I mean, it's very clear that they're in love and it's very, they're in a romantic relationship, and I don't think we would be doing the Anne Rice universe or doing the Vampire Chronicles if that wasn't the case. I think it would be something else and it would be a waste of time for us too because the fun stuff comes from the complexities of the relationship with the dynamics and all the detail and the nuance that they have."
Interview With the Vampire stars Sam Reid as Lestat de Lioncourt, Jacob Anderson as Louis de Pointe du Lac, Bailey Bass as Claudia, and Eric Bogosian as Daniel Molloy. The series also stars Kalyne Coleman as Grace, Christian Robinson as Levi, Assad Zaman as Rashid, and Maura Grace Athari as Antoinette.
"Developing this series carries great pressure and responsibility," series executive producer Mark Johnson has previously said about the adaptation. "What Anne Rice created and what her fans have been transfixed by forces us to take this book-to-television show transition with a great deal of responsibility. It is imperative that we do not disappoint her fans and yet we need to make sure that this story, these characters sing for a modern audience."
He added, "We are hoping that this series compels the Anne Rice fan to rediscover her works. We are also hoping that those viewers who have never read an Anne Rice novel go running to the bookstore eager to understand what all the fuss is about."
Interview With the Vampire airs Sundays on AMC and AMC+.
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