Anne Rice Describes Ideal Actor to Play Lestat in Vampire Chronicles TV Series

“Don’t be afraid. I’m going to give you the choice I never had.”

In May, when The Fault In Our Stars director Josh Boone was working on Universal Pictures and Imagine Entertainment’s (now-defunct) remake of Interview With The Vampire, he posted an image of Oscar-winning actor Jared Leto (Dallas Buyers Club, Suicide Squad) and the caption read, “Lestat – there can be only one.” Since that project is dead and the rights are now with Anne Rice again, we’ll never know if Leto would have been the right-choice to play vain, sensual, and cunning vampire.

After watching Lestat de Lioncourt come to life on the big screen twice already, being played by Tom Cruise in 1994’s Interview with the Vampire and Stuart Townsend in 2002’s The Queen of the Damned, Rice knows exactly what she’s looking for in the actor that will bring Lestat to life in The Vampire Chronicles television series she’s working on with her son, Christopher Rice.

“I think with this character it’s very important that the actor look like the character,” Anne Rice told EW. Because this character’s looks are so much a part of who he is: He’s six feet tall, he has blonde hair and blue eyes, and he’s known for those particular traits. So it would be very nice to have an actor that truly does fit that profile. And after that, I think it’s a matter of a character with a wild sense of humor, maybe an impish quality to him, and then athletic grace and strength.”

Since the immortal Lestat is originally from 18th century, it’s important for Rice to find an actor —known or unknown — that can caputure the diction of the time period. “This is an age in which fantasy film and fantasy TV have done so well, that there are all kinds of actors – in Australia, in England, and in America, and coming from other countries as well – that can play these kinds of characters, and can do period very, very effectively,” she shared. “And they can do the kind of diction that you need when you’re dealing with 18th century characters. I don’t think there will be any trouble finding an actor, at this point. Maybe it will be an unknown, maybe it will be somebody that’s already working and I just haven’t seen him yet. I honestly don’t know. Again, I don’t think it’s going to be a problem.”

Interview with the Vampire (1994) – Academy Award-nominee and Golden Globe-winner Tom Cruise, Academy Award-nominee and Golden Globe-winner Brad Pitt and Golden Globe-nominee Kirsten Dunst are among the undead in this spellbinding adaptation of Anne Rice’s (Queen of the Damned, Exit to Eden) bestselling horror novel. When an ambitious reporter agrees to interview a man who claims to have been a vampire since the 18th century, he hears a hypnotic, shocking, violent, moving and erotically charged tale, detailing what it was like existing for the past two-hundred years as one of the living dead. The powerhouse cast also includes Golden Globe and Emmy Award-nominee Antonio Banderas; Academy Award, Golden Globe and Emmy Award-nominee Stephen Rea (V for Vendetta, The Reaping); Christian Slater; and Thandie Newton (The Pursuit of Happyness, Crash).

The film was directed by Academy Award-winner Neil Jordan (The Crying Game, The End of the Affair), written by Anne Rice, and produced by David Geffen (Little Shop of Horrors, Personal Best).

Interview with the Vampire was released in November 1994 and went on to earn $223.7 million at the worldwide box office and two Academy Award nominations (Best Art Direction, Best Original Score).