Yes, we always want screen adaptations to honor source material, especially when that source material is an iconic Anne Rice novel. But, one of the most exciting things about seeing such a story brought to screen multiple times is it gives artists the opportunity to bring their own unique voices to it. That’s what we can expect from the team behind the upcoming Interview with the Vampire series over at AMC.
Based on Rice’s 1976 novel, the show stars Jacob Anderson and Sam Reid as Louis de Pointe du Lac and Lestat de Lioncourt, the roles played by Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise in the 1994 film. As the show’s official synopsis explains, Louis is struggling with the limitations of life as a black man in 1900s New Orleans so becomes tempted by Lestat’s offer of the ultimate escape — becoming a vampire. Louis accepts, but his new powers spark violence and also great responsibility in the form of child vampire Claudia (Bailey Bass).
With the Interview with the Vampire series heading towards an October 2nd debut on AMC with the series’ first two episodes available on AMC+ that same night, Anderson, Reid, Bass, and Eric Bogosian who steps in as journalist Daniel Molloy all visited the Collider interview studio at San Diego Comic-Con to discuss their experience working on the show and how it differs from previous versions of the story.
Anderson began by highlighting how his Louis is a little more willing to snap back at Lestat initially:
“I love how much Louis aches in the book. 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.”
Bass jumped in next to discuss the additional relationship element she’ll be exploring while playing Claudia:
“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.”
As for Reid, he revealed that his Lestat will incorporate qualities of the character featured in subsequent novels in Rice’s Vampire Chronicles series:
“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. Not too much because he keeps his cards to himself, but you understand him a bit more I think.”
Bogosian opted for a more personal approach when explaining what makes this version of Daniel stand out from past iterations of the character — and also from all other past characters he’s played for that matter:
“Me and Daniel, we’re on the same arc. 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. I’ve played some very broad characters in my day and now I’m playing a guy who’s actually kind of driving along the next lane just over from me and it’s interesting.”
Want to hear more from the cast of Interview with the Vampire the series? You can check out our full SDCC 2022 interview in the video at the top of this article!