So I normally don’t play the casting game, but I just watched the first two episodes of Will on TNT — a glam/punk telling of Shakespeare’s early career — and Christopher Marlow is so VERY Lestat to me. I don’t know if you’ve seen it, and maybe it’s just me, but wow. The actor is Jamie Campbell Bower. I’d send you a link but it won’t let me.

FIRST and foremost, one of the Lestat RPers who still uses JCB as a face claim, @cdf-archive​ (now known as @couer-de-feu, tumblr isn’t hyperlinking it OH WELL) wrote up a gr9 post about JCB as Lestat [X], excerpt under the cut.  

I feel ya, I find that playing the casting game is hard bc ppl can be really dismissive of actors, pointing out what they think are physical limitations of the actors, or whatever, it’s easy to nitpick based on our own ideals of beauty.

A great performance is more than just the actor’s looks, it’s the harmony of every film crew member’s job done well, from the grips, to the sound ppl, to the costume ppl, to the director, and so on, not just the actors. But talking VC casting can be fun to see which of our choices are shared by others ❤ 

So YEAH, JCB was a somewhat popular FC for Lestat RPers at one time, so your opinion is/was shared by others! I’m gonna reblog a few pieces of fanart after I post this that are basically JCB as Lestat, so stay tuned 😉 EDIT: I have fanart of Paul Boche as Lestat, not JCB! I’ll reblog those. But can someone send me some Lestat fanart based on JCB? I feel like I’ve seen it but can’t remember where…

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^I don’t have a joke to go with this, I’d made it

aaaages ago

for @coeur-de-feu. Maybe it’s Lestat reacting to coming home to a Louis dressed only in a sheer green scarf, surrounded by piles of red roses, for Lestat’s birthday or smtg, lol. 

I haven’t seen Will yet but it looks like an intriguing and snazzy take on Shakespeare! Admittedly, I have not been a huge fan of Jamie Campbell Bower, bc I haven’t seen the stuff he’s been in, I’m not a YA fan… from the pics I’ve seen of JCB he has seemed too skinny/bony for my own headcanon of Lestat (and I admit that’s based on my own ideals of beauty)-

BUT BUT BUT, these pics of him from Will are looking, actually, very #Lestatuesque to me!

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^Like, maybe it’s the hair*, the lighting, the expression, etc., (a combination probably) idk what it is, but his face seems less HELLO CHEEKBONE now for some reason? He’s very Lestat here, to me. Like he’s in thrall, listening to Nicki playing violin music. 

*The hair would need SOME more styling and highlights but JCB being a natural blond (I think?) should make it easier to brighten his hair up than it was for Tom, who has never been able to pull off a really bright blond in any movie I can remember (even the silver looked kinda strange in Collateral but I digress…)

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[^X from @foreverjamiecampbellbower] ^Even here, yes, JCB has cheekbones you could slice your hand open on, but maybe the stubble is also just, giving that jawline and generous mouth the attention they deserve? IDK it’s working for me!

I think JCB has enough of the physical part nailed down that the rest can be built on his performance. Tom had limitations appearance-wise, too, but the acting won ppl over who don’t even like him in any other roles. 

This is already a long-ish post so for more of my thoughts on him, hit up my #jamie campbell bower tag.

Also, hit the jump for a quote from @cdf-archive/@coeur-de-feu that I think is relevant here.


The fact is, we all have our own ideals of beauty and our own headcanon of these characters. It’s highly unlikely that one actor will satisfy all of our expectations, and @cdf-archive wrote up a great post about JCB as Lestat [X], excerpt below:

“There will always be inconsistencies, everywhere you look. But it’s not really even whether or not I find him perfect. It’s his imperfections that make him perfect, to me. And perhaps that’s what Magnus found in Lestat – his imperfections gave him an indescribable yet authentic beauty and Magnus wanted to immortalize those features by turning Lestat into a vampire, even though Lestat did not want it. It was okay with Magnus that Lestat had a few things here and there that weren’t completely perfect; he found him extraordinarily beautiful, regardless.”

#Eloquent eloquence

(btw you can send links like this: www(.)website(.)com/www[.]website[.]com, any variation that hides the “.”, while it won’t come through as a /clickable/ link, it’s still a link for reference)

What do you think about Jamie Campbell Bower to play Lestat? I think he’s somewhat perfect – and he can sing! He’s got the hair too (sometimes!).

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JCB was a somewhat popular FC for Lestat RPers at one time, so your opinion is/was shared by others!

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^He already played a vampire in Twilight, but I didn’t see that… Idk if he’d be willing to play another vampire. He looks good in period costume, I’ll admit that, and the makeup/hair team really transformed him. This is 100% better vampiry appearance than QOTD!Lestat (but that’s setting the bar preeeetty low, ROFL).

Personally, I find JCB too thin, so bony, such angular features… but I haven’t seen his acting so it’s unfair to judge him just superficially. He has a lot of theatre experience and he seems quite charming from his quotes on his IMDB page. He might be great! I would definitely screen-test him if I was in charge of things.

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[^X I will say that these are some excellent silly faces and our Lestat has to be able to pull of his easy sense of humor, too!] 

The fact is, we all have our own ideals of beauty and our own headcanon of these characters. It’s highly unlikely that one actor will satisfy all of our expectations, and @cdf-archive (now @coeur-de-feu) was a Lestat RPer who used JCB as a FC, and they wrote up a great post about JCB as Lestat [X], excerpt below: 

“There will always be inconsistencies, everywhere you look. But it’s not really even whether or not I find him perfect. It’s his imperfections that make him perfect, to me. And perhaps that’s what Magnus found in Lestat – his imperfections gave him an indescribable yet authentic beauty and Magnus wanted to immortalize those features by turning Lestat into a vampire, even though Lestat did not want it. It was okay with Magnus that Lestat had a few things here and there that weren’t completely perfect; he found him extraordinarily beautiful, regardless.”

#Eloquent eloquence

Also, check out @cdf-archive’s actual archive to see more pics of JCB, some of them are good promos in a VC-aesthetic which you might like!