[[BTW if you guys don’t want to see this in your dash, I tag articles like these as #VC news.]]
The fandom is currently dying of excitement or misery or something inbetween! It’s only been ONE DAY since Josh Boone tweeted that pic of Jared Leto with the caption “Lestat – there can be only one.” and I’ve already seen tons of support and tons of hate for this possible casting choice.
Let underscore that.
this possible casting choice.
From the article: “Well, he may very well have his next role already lined-up, as the new vampire Lestat.”
“Not only did Boone reveal the upcoming film, he Tweeted a photo of Leto with the caption “Lestat – there can only be one. #JaredLeto .” Leto will be starring in the role originally played by Tom Cruise in the 1994 classic.”
^Despite the last line thrown in there by the author, who has not provided any other evidence than the tweet, we don’t know if it’s official yet. @cloudsinvenice informs us that the pic is NOT Josh Boone playing dressup with Leto to make him into their version of Lestat; it was from Leto’s instagram, March 2015:
NOW, if I was Josh Boone, I wouldn’t tweet something like that with such a bold statement unless:
A. I had already been talking w/ Leto about it and he was interested, or
B. I wanted to get Leto’s attention on the project and see if he was into it.
EITHER WAY… Let’s all be cautiously optimistic. I’m not saying I’m 100% convinced yet but Leto has alot going for him:
He is currently very hot and he doesn’t age.
He is an actual rockstar and has all the singing and stage presence that goes with that.
Did you see him in Alexander?? Is this not what happened? He’s willing and able to bring the sensuality to the role that we could never have before *u*
As utterly repungant as I find his behavior on the set of Suicide Squad he does have a few traits that I had hoped for in an actor playing Lestat
He’s an older actor, but not old. Lestat is supposed to be around 20 years old physically, but really requires an actor of experience to play him well.
So we might actually get a soundtrack out of this, that might be decent. (Remember how despite its myriad of failings, Queen of the Damned had a fun record to go along with it, including a fake website for Lestat’s band?)
I mean he has the slimmer/lithe build that Lestat is often headcannon’ed to have?
I’m still scared, still worried, but then again….I mean Tom Fucking Cruise played Lestat and killed it. I don’t want to pass too much judgement until we know more
[[BTW if you guys don’t want to see this in your dash, I tag articles like these as #VC news.]]
The fandom is currently dying of excitement or misery or something inbetween! It’s only been ONE DAY since Josh Boone tweeted that pic of Jared Leto with the caption “Lestat – there can be only one.” and I’ve already seen tons of support and tons of hate for this possible casting choice.
Let underscore that.
this possible casting choice.
From the article: “Well, he may very well have his next role already lined-up, as the new vampire Lestat.”
“Not only did Boone reveal the upcoming film, he Tweeted a photo of Leto with the caption “Lestat – there can only be one. #JaredLeto .” Leto will be starring in the role originally played by Tom Cruise in the 1994 classic.”
^Despite the last line thrown in there by the author, who has not provided any other evidence than the tweet, we don’t know if it’s official yet. @cloudsinvenice informs us that the pic is NOT Josh Boone playing dressup with Leto to make him into their version of Lestat; it was from Leto’s instagram, March 2015:
NOW, if I was Josh Boone, I wouldn’t tweet something like that with such a bold statement unless:
A. I had already been talking w/ Leto about it and he was interested, or
B. I wanted to get Leto’s attention on the project and see if he was into it.
EITHER WAY… Let’s all be cautiously optimistic. I’m not saying I’m 100% convinced yet but Leto has alot going for him:
He is currently very hot and he doesn’t age.
He is an actual rockstar and has all the singing and stage presence that goes with that.
Did you see him in Alexander?? Is this not what happened? He’s willing and able to bring the sensuality to the role that we could never have before *u*
It changes over time, I have a place in my heart for all the main characters from earlier canon (mainly books 1-5).
My gateway character was Claudia, definitely my fave when I first read IWTV when I was 11. I could relate to her frustration at not being taken seriously as an adult. She was just the perfect mix of sweetness and icy screamy-ness and had Louis wrapped around her little finger (WHICH btw, I saw as a purely platonic relationship).
Of course I loved Louis after her. How could I not? For his dignified manner, his high tolerance for bullshit, his love for books, his ability to hold back, and his ability to break out a can of fiery whoopass when it’s called for. For his frayed sweaters and how he doesn’t really care about fashion but how good he looks when he lets Lestat or Claudia play dress up with him. Because he probably smells like beeswax candles and jasmine.
He’s also very pretty and his hair feels like silk.
… All that said, Lestat was my real spirit animal in adolescence, and he’s the one that I keep coming back to as my true fave.
Lestat was someone I needed as I confronted the usual bullying in school, the usual seeking my own way into this world and the obstacles that go along with that. He taught me so many things. Most importantly, to have faith in yourself and not be afraid to try new things, meet new ppl. Some ppl will reject you just for being new. Some may reject you because you don’t have good chemistry with them. That’s all fine. You might become very close with some, and fail each other in some way, or just end up growing apart. It happens.
How could I not love him with this combination (and more!) of character traits: Charismatic, mixing silly with sinister, mysteriously hinting at a rich and traumatic backstory in IWTV (which we definitely got later), and of course, lastly, pretty damn good-looking.
And he does make mistakes, tons of them! If you really read the books, that’s where he lays out his mistakes and apologizes in the way he’s better able to do than verbally.
I’ve always loved mean characters, antagonists, monsters… those who were written off as “just mean,” “just evil,” or “just crazy,” these are the ones I want to know more about. Why are they this way? Is this a shield they put up to protect themselves from further hurt?
My grandmother was like this. I broke through her tough exterior and found a kindred spirit. She’s gone now, and I think my radical empathy for antagonists is kind of a search to find her in other ppl, fictional and real alike.
I actually did think of this connection when I saw him as Denethor in LOTR.
For starters: his whole hair and makeup was perfect in LOTR, and the acting, too!
He even sets himself on fire like Magnus!
BUT I imagine Magnus as being scarily skinny, more spindly. He almost seems like a spider:
“…Rather
he leaned to rest, it seemed, upon the thick stone frame of the window,
one knee bent a little towards it, the other long spindly leg sprawled
out to the other side…
his thin, gangly limbs found animation ail at once.” – TVL
Look at John Noble outside of his LOTR makeup tho:
^This looks like the ID card pic for Raglan James to me ;D
A man who, yes, has some solid weight on him because he enjoys fancy food, and not extra physical exertion, he’s older but still got a lot of life in him yet, and a kind of scheming default expression.
♛Do NOT address me with that title. It died with my father.
Before you go pointing it out, yes, I own the castle. I don’t own the people around it the way that that title did. And I wouldn’t want to.
There is obviously a reason that the scientists’ pursuit of vampires is worth their effort, otherwise I wouldn’t mention it in the first place in my books. And worth the risk of their reputations. Obviously my own concept of what we are has changed as I’ve learned more about what we are.
One reason I mention it is to remind our own kind to be careful about who they reveal themselves to, so as not to become imprisoned in such a manner.
I don’t know what the scientists’ reasons to pursue us would be, but the first thing that comes to mind would be the possibility that they might have an authentic specimen to display and finally prove everyone wrong who scoffed at them! That’s one kind of motivation. That would probably be my own reason, if I were a mortal scientist.
I’ve described our blood as having curative properties. What might that mean to the human race? Distilling out whatever gives it this healing ability could save countless lives from some of the most lethal causes of mortal death. Cancer, for one. AIDS. Other degenerative diseases like Multiple Sclerosis.
The fact of the matter is that mortal scientists die in pursuit of all kinds of study. They die in pursuit of the cure for cancer. They die in pursuit of the Loch Ness monster. Witches. Bigfoot. Fairies. Sirens. The supernatural is just one area of study, and within it are many subsets, some of which even overlap.
They seek answers when others tell them "there is truly nothing there.“
I was told many times to many questions throughout my life that there were no answers. I found answers. Answers which delighted me, deeply disturbed me, answers that I do not necessarily believe. It’s part of this journey that we call life, asking questions, seeking answers, considering them, choosing what we want to keep and what we must discard, and sharing that knowledge with others. That’s why I bother to write my books at all, a record for myself and my loved ones. Hopefully someone can learn from my experiences and not have to suffer as much as I have.
♛I think they are very real and they cause suffering for those who carry them.
Depression is a familiar emotion for me. I saw it in my Nicolas and ignored the signs, thinking I could fill the void he carried within him because he meant absolutely everything to me. He might have even led me to believe I was helping him, but when he could no longer play along, well… that was the end of us.
I’ve known depression. I wouldn’t know if it’s the “normal” amount we’re meant to experience as opposed to the deeper kind Science has discovered; more to do with brain chemistry than anything else… but mine was a sludge that seeped out to greet me whenever I returned home as a mortal boy, to a family that ignored me at best, and physically beat me on a regular basis at worst. A terrible, sinking feeling.
I felt it when I found out about Nicolas’ death.
I felt it when my mother, my only companion, disappeared one night without leaving any way to contact her again.
I felt it when I looked into my daughter’s crystal blue eyes and no longer recognized her.
I felt it when I had been essentially murdered and left for dead. More than once. Physically and psychologically broken, cocooned in a derelict old shelter, barely able to feed, embracing the dust and the moldy floorboards for months at a time. Self-imposed solitary confinement. Prisoners at least have their meals delivered to them.
The road to recovery from all those and more has not been easy. I am still drawn back down that spiral by a phantom Vaudeville hook, always hovering just off-stage for me. Being alone, well, no one can hurt you, no one can leave you. So I understand those who choose to suffer alone.
I’m doing well now. Others in the coven tease me for my materialistic ways, and yes, this is a new pair of sunglasses. It’s less about the ownership of things and more about the ease in going out and interacting with the salespeople, the moving men, the accountants. Being out there amongst people.
Being there when Louis wants to curl up on the Italian silk couch with me under a cashmere throw. The flat screen showing us so much detail that it’s as though we truly are outside in a gondola at the magic hour, when the sunlight slants in diagonally. The waters are blue.
Life, in almost any form, is worth living, as bad as it can seem. It’s worth the effort.
If they’re causing a pointless mind-fuck, I think it’s unintentional. They leak these pics and talk about the project now and then bc we’re all so frickin’ thirsty for it! I doubt they’re aiming to provoke any negativity towards an enormous and complex project that’s in its fetal stages.
[I’m not sure if you saw my thoughts on this very issue recently, if so, sorry to repeat myself, but this is what I wrote before re: the title, and I added a little extra]
First though, it’s possible that Josh Boone & Co. don’t want people to confuse this project with the musical!TVL. And IWTV is the more recognizable title to sell it on. They intend to make a trilogy and spinoff series, and in order to do that, they need to at least include some of the first book.
Just bc the cover of the script had “Interview with the Vampire” as the title for this project, that doesn’t mean he’s redoing that movie exactly.
I think we’ll be getting the Interview with the Vampire Lestat, this time around. What a twist!
Boone has to incorporate at least some of Louis’ story, and then get the ending of it back on canon track, bc movie!IWTV ended w/ Lestat and Daniel driving off into the sunrise*. Lestat was basically giving Daniel the choice to join him.
Keep an eye on my #VC News tag, that’s where I keep updates on this.
*If that ship (Lestat/Daniel) were to sail, then alot of canon after that would have to be reworked.
Also, as a side note, I’ve been seeing a lot of ppl commenting on these posts about the original movie!IWTV casting for Armand, hopeful that he’ll be more accurate to canon in this new installment.
I initially felt the same way about movie!IWTV’s Banderas!Armand, that he was so very wrong. But then I considered it further and came up w/ a lot of reasons (#Defending Antonio) to justify that casting, the biggest one being that I think AR merged Santino and Armand for that movie, for a number of reasons, to make the film more palatable to mainstream audiences in the 90’s. Keep in mind that this was a time when even discussing the AIDS crisis was a very controversial topic, and portraying “taboo” things like homosexuality had to be done carefully. Topics like that still require special handling, but they’re at least more prevalent in the media 20 yrs later.
Back to Banderas!Armand (or rather, Banderas!Santino) Another major reason might have been that if they had a teenage redhead seduce Louis, it could make Louis come across as a pedophile. Another taboo topic and even less acceptable to portray in the 90’s. In the book, Louis is seduced into leaving his beloved, who looked like a child, for another underage-looking character, despite his actual age being over 90 yrs old, and these two “love-interests” actual ages being around 65 and 400 yrs old, respectively. Claudia is his daughter in a way, and more than that, in a way… one instance was sort of passable but a second relationship like that in one film (the 100 yr sail of the Louis/Armand ship) might just be too much for mainstream audiences outside the fandom.
Hopefully, in the new movie, Boone & Co. can find a way to keep Armand canon-accurate, and not need to merge him w/ another character for mainstream audience acceptance.
So really, in movie!IWTV, it’s Santino you’re seeing there, with Armand’s name and job title ;]
For my birthday this year, the lovely @gairid sent me this spectacularly appropriate Dark Gift of the full set of the Adagio tea VC fandom blends [source], designed by @underhyll*. I had pined for the set but couldn’t choose which characters I wanted to drink from (hehehe), but having the whole set now, well, THEY ARE ALL DELICIOUS.
And if you think I saved Lestat’s flavor for last, you are very wrong. He was up first, and his sweetness and bite were exactly right, very in character ^,….,^
@gairid informs us that “Marius makes a lovely iced tea sweetened with honey,” I shall have to try that. He sounds like an ideal spring/summer flavor. Also, that “Louis is just gorgeous (which makes sense).” It does make sense! He very much is. “I agree about Lestat, too…crisp with a little snap to it!”
So far though, Louis is my favorite. Early grey, blackberry, and lavender. It’s smooth, wholesome with a touch of sweetness, almost like caramel. Must drink w/ a candle nearby, optional: while wearing Lestat’s thumb ring**
The contents in the tins are artful in their own natural way, so I took pics of mine. I love how the Louis blend is dark, the Lestat and Claudia blends flanking his are basically blonde!
I’ll be posting reviews of the other flavors later 😉
*They may or may not be developing more character blends… !
**I’m looking for a jeweler who can make more of these thumb rings; I got mine at Hot Topic in the 90′s and it is pretty fragile, so I rarely wear it. Would love to redesign it out of more durable metal…
“I was the seventh son and the youngest of the three who had lived to manhood.” – TVL (all the quotes going forward are from TVL, too)
^Yep, he’s the 7th son. We can assume that the other two de Lioncourt men had kids, so in some combination they had fathered at least four kids, (hence the plural “nieces and nephews”) and whether that was bc one of them had all four or they had two each, etc., Lestat doesn’t specify, so we don’t know.
¯_(ツ)_/¯
I don’t think the de Lioncourts had access to any young and wealthy women, if they couldn’t find one for the eldest son, they probably wouldn’t be able to find one for the youngest, either :-
The short answer:
Attitude issues :[ – Lestat’s dad (and alot of others) thought Lestat was bonkers (didn’t seem to connect that beating him up practically every other Thursday had anything to do with that!)
Lestat was broke af.
And the family relied on Lestat for hunting their dinner. They couldn’t afford to lose him or let him burden himself w/ more mouths to feed bc u know he would have had like 17 kids let’s be real.
As for Lestat’s marriageability:
1. Attitude issues :[
Lestat also had something of a major attitude going on about his existential crisis, so he wasn’t really on the best of terms w/ his father, who probably would have been the one to set in motion any plans to marry Lestat off.
“And in this unbearable state of agitation I commenced to do something I’d never done before. I turned to those around me and questioned them relentlessly.
‘But do you believe in God?” I asked my brother Augustin. “How can you live if you don’t!’ ”
… “You’re mad, you’ve always been mad!” [the Marquis] shouted. “Get out of this house! You’ll drive us all crazy.”
The village families probably thought Lestat was something of a bad egg, too, what w/ his trying to enter the priesthood at 12, and then doing a complete 180° by running off with the actor troupe at 17, and the crazy way he was acting, and harassing ppl. It probably didn’t go unnoticed in such a little town.
For more, hit the jump.
2. He’s broke af:
“I had no claim to the title or the land, and no prospects. Even in a rich family, it might have been that way for a younger boy, but our wealth had been used up long ago. My eldest brother, Augustin, who was the rightful heir to all we possessed, had spent his wife’s small dowry as soon as he married her.”
^Lestat is broke af. Augustin was the eldest and would be the one to get the title when the Marquis kicked the bucket.
Lestat has $0 to bring to a marriage, no title, no land, and no prospects (? I guess this is the word for assets of any kind). He doesn’t have much to sell himself ;n;
3. On the plus side… he was hot and he could hunt!
All Lestat really has are his Devastatingly Good Looks™
(he probably got the LION’S SHARE lol!), and his Particular Set of Skills™
(”I was the lord and the only lord anymore who could sit a horse and fire a gun,”).
Lestat was the family’s bread meat-winner:
“I had become the hunter. I brought in the pheasant, the venison, and the trout from the mountain streams – whatever was needed and could be got – to feed the family.” ^I forgot that he fished, too! I also remember him saying he talked w/ the villagers re: ideas he had for better crop productivity but I can’t find it.
…BUT REALLY, they all just wanted him shut up and kill stuff.
What his family needed him for was putting literal food on the table, which might have abruptly stopped if he was married off and moved out, or worse, moved his wife in. Another mouth to feed, and possibly more if they had had kids.
And the Marquis probably didn’t want any little crazy mini-Lestats running around, either!
(If Lestat had not run away to Paris, maybe shown that he could calm down in the next few years, we might have seen him married off by 25.)
[^ X] So Lestat spent most of his time out in the field, or eventually w/ Nicolas, seeking ppl who would really love him for him, and not just what he could do FOR them. He lived as much off the Marquis’ radar as possible.
And THAT’s why I think Lestat never even mentioned arranged marriage or forced courtship.
I-want-my-IWTV 