OMG! I just found behind the scenes footage of Interview with the Vampire. It shows mostly Tom Cruise, a little bit of Anne Rice and a little bit of Brad Pitt. The video was uploaded by WalrusRider and the video is called Tom Cruise – “Interview With a Vampire” On Set Footage. Not sure if you’ve seen it already but if you haven’t check it out.

I HAD NOT SEEN IT THANK U! 

It’s so fun to see at least this shot from the other side of the door, lol…

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I’ll transcribe it somewhat for y’all:

The narrator is all about the *~secrecy~* like of course Tom Cruise wanted to keep the secrecy of his costumes and makeup and whatever, so as not to spoil the surprise! We have closed sets all the time these days and back then. I don’t think that was just Tom, I think everyone involved in making the movie wanted that secrecy.

  • The narrator pronounces his name the way AR prefers, not the way it’s pronounced in the movie
  • Claudia at 0:15!
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  • Makeup touch up!

^X Bruh. 

Hit the jump for more, cut for length.

  • AR wasn’t pleased about the casting at the time of this video, but when she saw the movie, she was thrilled with Tom’s performance.
  • Tom said: “The negative criticism? When it starts out, it kind of hurts your feelings and then I just go, well, I can’t help myself, y’know? I wanna play this character.”
  • Other actors AR had preferred to see in the role: Daniel Day-Lewis (he turned it down), Jeremy Irons, John Malkovich. She named River Phoenix, but I don’t think she meant as Lestat. But he had died by the time this video was made, and Christian Slater had taken his role as Daniel.
  • In the video John Preston (Anne’s friend, and therefore an authority?) said, “Tom Cruise will not allow himself to be photographed kissing a man,… he’s evidently very upset that Brad Pitt of all people looks taller than he does and we’re told that he’s wearing risers.” Yeah well Lestat is supposed to be a little taller than Louis. Heels were in fashion for men then, anyway.
  • Narrator: “There is word that Tom has insisted that a makeup person be on the set at all times” Well yeah, those contacts are uncomfortable, apparently, and with all that action the fragile prosthetics and fangs probably needed to be put back in place every few minutes, “to make sure his eyebrows look right.”  Well that’s a valid concern! They actually weren’t all that happy with his makeup at first, as far as I know, some scenes were cut bc they changed his makeup, made the hair darker.
  • Narrator:

    “But some insiders say this behavior is just another example of Tom Cruise’s well-known perfectionism, a perfectionism that proved wrong those critics who thought he was too light-weight to star in Born on the Fourth of July. He ended up getting an Oscar nomination for it.”

  • Tom Cruise: “I’ve gotta wake up every day and play this role. Is it going to be exciting? And I want to commit six months of my life playing the character.”
  • Narrator: “In the end it all comes down to this: with a [the audio sorta hiccups but I think it was a $40 million dollar] budget at stake, the fate of Interview with the Vampire is going to depend on Tom Cruise, his looks, his acting ability, and his demands.” Like they’re such unreasonable demands and he’s carrying the whole movie himself? He’s not even the vampire that gets interviewed!

It’s been a while since I’ve read the VC books (the older ones) and I’m blanking on Lestat and Armand having sex in a chapel. When did that happen??

Well, not “sex” in the way we usually think of it. Armand did bite Lestat and drink from him in The Vampire Armand, when Lestat was in a coma in the chapel of a former convent (St. Elizabeth’s) in NOLA (even in that unconscious state, he had been defending himself, but allowed Armand that brief intimacy). 

According to AR, blood sharing is the Ricean vampiry equivalent of sex:

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It’s described as being more intimate than human sex, feeding and being fed from is not just about the physical liquid, it’s an all-consuming experience.

When things seem to be accepted as canon/fanon, we get a little playful with word usage… if blood sharing = sex, then we sometimes just use the word “sex” when it doesn’t mean the penetrative sex we usually associate with the word for humans. Keep in mind that there are humans in relationships who are unable (or do not want) to experience genitally-penetrative sex, and they can still be sexually intimate with each other in other ways. So it’s partly in how you define sex and intimacy.

For more on Ricean vampire sex talk, I have these tags: #asexuality, #asexual, #sex, #sexuality, #lets talk about sex.

Art request: Lestat and Armand side by side, seemingly nothing going on, until you realize that each is trying very, very hard to push the other one over.

We can always use more of this kind of fanart, I don’t fill requests, but I’ll put it out there: #fanart request!

There’s some fanart already of them knocking each other off the tower, there are two scenes in canon, one where Armand knocks Lestat off the tower and the other, Lestat knocks Armand off

(a partial or

complete

hallucination)(both were in TVL). I’ll try to find and post what I have, here’s one:

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^by @garama

Mon chere lestat! *buries face in your waistcoat* getting a bit overwhelmed with stupid ableist stuff, would you be interested in biting (or maybe just threatening) people that have been making me feel insecure recently with their pitying/ignorant remarks about disability? This girl is also worried that it may get worse when a partner comes into the picture, but I’m sure you could handle some ignorant people in that situation too!

♛”Ma petite!” *pets anon* “You know, I wish I could fight off every one of the bullies out there, but there are just too damn many of them and only one of me. There’s also the scheduling issue; my days are sacrosanct.”


//ooc; my Lestat is very out of touch with these issues, and he tried to continue with this answer, but it kept coming off as insensitive or flippant, so I decided not to let him finish.

He’s more often insensitive and cruel, even when he’s trying to be good.

He

intentionally AND unintentionally bullies Louis,

the person he loves most in the whole world, through his first and very difficult years as a vampire, and Lestat continues to bully him, even now. Lestat bullies a lot of other characters. My Lestat has a somewhat short fuse and really not enough patience for anything that’s delicate, he’s not very good at thinking before he acts/speaks, especially to people who deserve more consideration. Introspection is more for when he’s talking about himself or someone he knows very well, and even then, he has a lot of trouble truly understanding other people outside of what he wants them to be.

So I’m going to answer for him. TL;DR: Lestat’s general motto would probably be: F*ck the haters.

Ignorance and pity well… Sometimes people make these statements without meaning to hurt you. I’ve mistakenly made ignorant or pitying statements about people and I’m glad when someone corrects me. Some of your antagonists may not be trying to make you feel insecure.

HOWEVER, some of them really are trolls/bullies/whatever and they DO want to belittle you to make themselves feel bigger. The thing with bullies is that they will bully anyone for any reason. If not for your physical appearance or capabilities, then for your name or where you live, there are endless things for them to criticize, you’ll never scrub yourself free of something to be commented on. Even Mother Theresa had haters!

While we can’t change others opinions of us, as much as we’d like to, we can decide how we react to it. Basically: Don’t. 

You wrote, “people that have been making me feel insecure recently…” No. NO. Stop. Don’t let them. Don’t give them permission to make you feel anything. Comments about you that seem pitying or ignorant? To adapt a quote Lestat from TOBT: They are like many silk banners unfurled around you. That weak. (He was referring to smtg else but still it’s applicable here)

Lestat has a partner and it doesn’t stop the bullies from attacking them separately or together, I think it makes them more of a target when they purposely go out hunting for homophobes. One of the benefits of having a partner is that Lestat can just wrap his arm around Louis a little tighter and they pick up the pace and go where they can enjoy each other together without any bullies trying to interfere *winks*

What if everyone in the movie was Brad Pitt?? (Tbh that’d probably make for a melancholy boring ass movie lol)

Um, might not be a totally melancholy boring ass movie!

As Claudia: Actual pic of baby Brad! His kids are clones, I’m convinced.

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Louis: well this is the same.

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Lestat: you know he’d sit like this if he was wearing anything resembling a skirt. YOU KNOW HE WOULD.

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Daniel: demonstrating how to use a hairdryer ❤

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Armand: has some ideas for the bedroom that require protective gloves…

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Marius: has some rules for the Brad!Lestat to abide by…

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David version 1.0:

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Santiago: with the guyliner bc theatre vampire

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OMG YOUR TAGS. Like excuse u but now I need more vampires explaining memes to Armand (Like he gets them he just does not find them funny)

(You mean this post? wow u were digging deep!) Yes plz I also want vampires explaining memes to Armand. 

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#armand needed Louis to ‘make contact’ with the age    #he sets himself up as someone who likes having someone explain him a thing   

Lestat, my beautiful blonde angel, kiss me in the light of a thounsands stars ♡ drain every drop of my blood till i die in your arms… ♡

I just need a number and location…

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Without appropriate papers or permissions
I’m known to bite in tight situations
And I head into your french windows
I thought there was a big connection
I only got my name I only got my situation
I just need my number and location…” 

Radiohead – Skip Divided

As we’re on Botticelli, I have to say that I always associate Armand with Botticelli’s St. Sebastian! Fits with his backstory & there’s something inhumane (preternatural, to use anne’s word, lol) about that Seb, calmly flirting with the viewer while bleeding to death.

That’s a good one for Armand, too! Yeah, he seems preternaturally chill considering he’s riddled with arrows…how does he not feel them??! (I mean yes he’s an illustration but still)

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Sandro Botticelli: Saint Sebastian, 1474. 

With his martyrdom in progress, the young saint fixes the viewer with a firm, serene gaze. The facial expression, conveying belief in victory over Death, underscores the trust placed at the time in Saint Sebastian that he would protect people from the Bubonic plague.

[X]

There are many depictions of this subject, apparently! I really like Reni’s here.

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Guido Reni’s Saint Sebastian, “probably one of the most famous, probably because the martyr’s placid expression conveys the idea that he’s already halfway in Heaven. [X] This looks more angelic to me, more like my headcanon of Armand. BTW, who shoots a guy in the armpit?? Gross. RUDE. Gross and rude.

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^And I knew that looked familiar, the Reni version was used for the cover of Violin! Which I didn’t read… but I should, right? 

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^[X] Similarly, here’s one by Andrea Mantegna. Who shoots a guy in the head like this??? Like, at first I thought it was one arrow going thru his face, but there are two arrows there, a forehead arrow and an under-the-chin arrow, it’s just awkward, gross, and rude.

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^[X] Sculpture of Saint Sebastian by Antonio Giorgetti (1672). One of my faaaave fanfic writers used this re: their Lestat, and I hope they write more, as they’ve said they are trying to! But anyway, this reminds me of when Lestat was in a coma ;A;

There’s a painting that looks like this and they used it for the cover of Blood & Gold and I know I’m going to have to post about that.

Full shot of Botticelli’s St. Seb under the cut, cut for length.

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^He doesn’t look like he’s in any pain at all, really. More like he’s really proud of himself. Very Armand. #CONCEAL DONT FEEL.

what’s your cure for a broken heart? Should I just kill him??

♛Did he break your heart? I assume you didn’t break his and are asking about putting him out of his misery, but if you did break his heart physically beyond repair, by all means finish the job. It won’t cure him, but it will make him dead. I prefer not to extend physical suffering in my victims unless they’re truly evil and I’m really offended… or really bored that night.

It’s terrible when we trust people with our hearts and they fail us so badly. It’s happened to me. And I’ve broken hearts, too. Love is truly a battlefield, but it’s worth the fight.

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Be glad he did it now rather than string you along for any longer, wasting more of your precious time. There are worse punishments than death, and ignoring him, just cutting him right out of your life, should be a living punishment for him. You’re not his plaything to break when he feels like it.

You’re free. Pick up the pieces and mend them yourself, don’t rush into having someone else take his place. You have to love yourself before you can love anyone else. At least, that’s how it’s been for me. I still don’t have that first part down completely, but I break all the rules, even my own…

Cure for a broken heart – what they call “self-care” these days, which is specific to each person, do whatever gives you life again, and confidence in yourself. 

I wish you the best, but as you know, this could happen again. Emotionally, hearts can break and heal, over and over again, I know from experience. It’s a durable little thing! The love I’ve shared with others has been worth the heartbreak. If it’s worth it to you, don’t be afraid to put your heart out there again, when you’re ready *hugs*

do you know of any good VC mafia fics out there? thanks

I don’t know any mafia-specific VC fics out there… 😛

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[^X 

“Gorgeous…vamps?“ by Endymiasyzygy]

The only fic that comes to mind is 

The Hostile Takeover by StellaMachiavelli (@stellamachiavelliici​):

Lestat de Lioncourt is a high-flying businessman out for revenge on ruthless boss Santino, with the help of his best friend David Talbot. There’s just one complication: on Santino’s side is Lestat’s ex, Louis de Pointe du Lac.

…but I don’t remember if it’s mafia-related or all legal business.