Yessss, that was Tom Hardy. This should explain why, for a while, I thought he’d be a great choice for playing Lestat.
I see what you mean @gothiccharmschool! He’s great in these gifs, looks perf in period costume. He’s a great actor. Yeah, too old now for Lestat but he could be cast in another VC role… Maybe age him up further, and he can play the Marquis?
I’ve never made a film that I didn’t believe in, you know? However the picture turns out, I’ve always given everything to it. That’s kind of how I approach life. I can’t help it. There’s no part-way with me on anything in any area of my life.
*hugs* Sorry this casting stuff is stressing you out, Anon. I feel ya, some of the POTP’s suggestions are really so out there I wonder how they read the same books I/we did. Some of their headcanons are also… laughable at best and downright offensive at worst, but I’m not going there.
TL;DR: I don’t think AR and CR are that easily influenced by the suggestions they ask for on FB. They’re probably trying to generate and maintain the hype so that as they make their rounds looking for a producer/showrunner/etc., they can point at the fanbase that wants it! I think they also like the attention and enthusiasm (who wouldn’t??!).
As with her writing, AR will cater a VC adaptation to her own tastes primarily, but thankfully she’s been very public about standing her ground re: making the current adaptation as faithful to canon as possible.
Anon: “I see [Lestat as] much less masculine than a lot of ppl want, I think a part of this is all the part on tumblr makes them all a lot more feminine and beautiful which I really like.”
IMO, this is more feminine: (gonna post a little bit of fanart here and if the original artists want it removed, I’ll remove it, just illustrating a point.)
^X L/L by @claquesous, kind of androgynous to me, but one could say more feminine than masculine, too.
^X L/L by @icestorming. Also what I would consider feminine.
And this is more masculine:
^X Lestat by @jodeeeart, to me, this is more heavily masculine, but there’s still some feminine elements.
Keep in mind that finding someone who looks like fanart is asking a lot; we’ll have to give the actors a chance to prove that they can ACT like the characters, and hopefully their talent will overcome whatever physical limitations some of us are bound to disagree on (I probably have the WHAT DOES LOUIS’ HAIR REALLY LOOK LIKE??!! Debate 1-2x/month, most recently w/ @wicked-felina lol).
Anon: “AR is suggesting these big hairy guys and FB and I just think.. nooo.”
I haven’t seen her suggesting “big hairy guys”… I know she liked Chris Hemsworth at one point or another, and he’s big, not really that hairy to me? But he’s bulked up as Thor right now. He seemed less built up in Ghostbusters, but you make a fair point. My headcanon of Lestat is not a huge mountain of dudebro, so to speak.
You should read @monstersinthecosmos‘s post about the VC series bc it’s got some very good points about more than the casting aspect that are worth keeping in mind. I asked permission to post a few snippets here, my emphasis added in bold:
I think the posts on FB are mostly just to get everyone excited; I’m sure they’re taking the general temperature of everyone into consideration but LIKE THE IDEA THAT MAJOR CASTING DECISIONS ARE GOING TO BE MADE FROM FACEBOOK IS JUST REALLY NAIVE AND STUPID AND IMO NOT EVEN WORTH DISCUSSING BECAUSE IT’S COMPLETELY PREPOSTEROUS.
^See, this is why I don’t go on AR’s or the OVCFB pages* that often bc it would take too much time for me to attempt to keep up with all the posts and comments, and tbh yeah, I think @monstersinthecosmos is right!
(*ppl submit links/screencaps of posts that seem to be newsworthy to me, which I really appreciate bc if it’s really something TRULY newsworthyand not just hype, I do share it here.)
BASICALLY the thing everyone needs to keep in mind is that for this to get greenlighted there has to be a viable expectation of profit.
^YES, they’re trying to generate hype and excitement in the fandom bc that’s a good thing to do when you want producers, etc., to get on board w/ your project (”Look, our audience is SCREAMING for this TV series, we have the audience READY!”) and also I think CR and AR like the attention (who wouldn’t??!).
… this has to please and appeal to like MAINSTREAM REGULAR MORTALS who haven’t read these books. It can’t only be fanservice.
^EXACTLY.
I’m kinda cautiously optimistic about all of this. I’m obviously super paranoid that it’s gonna suck and I would hate for it to be on some shit network, and I would also hate if they had to change it SO much that the core themes of the story are unrecognizable, but I’m also personally open to changes if it’s gonna make for a compelling show.
^AGREED.
Hit the jump for more, cut for length.
But to return to the casting thing briefly, there are ppl suggesting Brad and Tom currently when that is TOTALLY ridiculous, HELLO? they are both 50+ yrs old, not gonna happen but I would take them in cameo roles, or have Tom as the Marquis de Lioncourt *begging the universe*
Anon: “Also, is she really catering her audience to fb? Does she know the amount of young ppl that read vc?”
We are getting an influx of new VC fans from the recent books, and some of them are young ppl, and some of them find her FB page, so idk that you can divide those groups; (a) young ppl and (b) her POTP, bc there is probably some overlap. I personally couldn’t make a blanket statement like “All the POTP want X; and all the young ppl want Y” bc of that overlap and that there are plenty of other factors at play. Cultural and personal tastes in beauty being one of them.
Eva Green for which character? I confess I haven’t done a whole lot of consideration for this bc genderswapping is very hard if you’re doing it for serious, but I threw some together for fun *u*
^Louise de Pointe du Lac maybe? She has death-glares down to a science, she has the right kind of delicate but strong features, and a lot of dignity about her.
^Taylor Swift for Lestelle de Lioncourt [bc of this post right here] – I’m sorry @queenofthesavagegarden, Margot Robbie is beautiful and a great second option, but for me, Taylor is also a singer and that’s a big part of the requirement for me! ;A;
^Kristen Stewart as Nicola de Lenfent if she would be willing to play another vampire! A sassy one, this time. In a lesbian ship.
Hit the jump for moar.
^Gillian Anderson as the cruel bully Marquise Valerie de Lioncourt.
^David Bowie as Gabriel de Lioncourt (hey you didn’t say they had to be available ;A;) CAN U IMAGINE if Taylor!Lestat got to turn her dad, Bowie!Gabrielle?? How magical??!
^Sendhil Ramamurthy as Akashad, King of the Damned.
^We have fanart of Mariella de Romanus and Andrea? Hmmm? [Source unknown]
♛Alright, accepted. It was unintentional on your part, but when you invoke him, well… it’s still prodding at sensitive scar tissue. I had a complicated relationship with that man. And anyway, he was stripped of that title during the French Revolution. Neither he nor I ever told Louis to address him that way.
What do I prefer? The title I’ve earned started out as something Marius had to use in order not to beat me to a pulp, then it was gentle derision, and has gradually become a job title *sigh* People seem to expect me to be equal parts “Brat” and “Prince” at this point.
Monsieur is sufficient if you address me by title.
“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.
“They know about us. They see us drink from empty glasses and eat from empty plates.”
Louis means it sort of metaphorically in the movie, although why they bothered to pretend to have dinner night after night is a question in itself. Maybe Louis clung to it as a human activity. But what’s so extra funny about that quote is that in the book they actually did have to simulate “dining” sounds for Lestat’s BLIND dad, who was there w/ them!
“Meantime, Lestat and I sat down to dinner each night with the old man and made nice noises with our knives and forks, while he told us to eat everything on our plates and not to drink our wine too fast.” – Louis de Pointe du Lac, Interview with the Vampire
(At this point, Lestat is over 30 mortal yrs old, and Louis is over 24, they’re grown men, but Lestat’s dad is not known for treating anyone with the respect they deserve at their age.)
First of all, omg you are one of my fave VC fanartists *appreciative flailing* thank u so much for asking my opinion on this!
You guys, this is one of @muirin007’s fanarts [X] and still one of my absolute faves, from when I began this blog:
Yes, I have been asked this before but my opinions do change over time, and it’s always worth taking a fresh stab at it *,….,*
Some of this is a dreamcast for obvious reasons, and I’m limiting it to The Vampire Lestat, since it looks like that’s the focus of the new adaptation (And I’m also giving myself the difficulty of not recasting anyone from movie!IWTV bc u all know how attached I am to all of those actors by now). And I tried to pick ppl that would mesh well together as a set. Some characters get alot of commentary and some get none. These are the ppl that give me that “THAT’s exactly how I picture Lestat/Louis/Armand etc.?” feeling.
There are alot more options in the #VC casting tag, if you have some time to kill!
Lestat de Lioncourt: Brett Scallions from Fuel, circa the 90′s.
His singing voice is close to my headcanon of Lestat’s. Yes, somewhat nasal, vocal growl, some range. IMO, he has the perfect build, and yeah, he’s attractive, but what makes him so magnetic and not just another slab of manflesh are his huge soulful eyes and that generous mouth, which really can look cruel at times. He just needs a little dental work and a quality hairstylist. [Some more of my fave pics of him here]
Runner ups: Taylor Hanson circa the 90′s (VERY CLOSE SECOND CHOICE), Gaspard Ulliel,
I’ve only seen him recently in The Walking Dead, and you have to see him in that, bc he’s as sweet and tender and intense and depressive as Nicolas needs to be. Physically, these full lips and dark brooding eyes, the wide smile that’s
almost manic and the frown that speaks to a deeper well of misery
that no one can hope to touch. Am I praising him too much? PROBABLY BUT I DO WHAT I WANT. [I wax on poetic about him a little more here]
Actually I haven’t found my perfect headcanon of Louis yet, but for now, he’s a placeholder. While Louis isn’t a ~starring~ character in TVL, he is mentioned, and what with being compared to Nicolas, I have to include him.
I feel like Miles has the slender build, the soulfulness to his expression, and he looks great dressed up w/ disheveled hair. [X]
Marquis Valère de Lioncourt: Timothy Omundson, 2016
I can’t explain. JUST WANT. He is a very likable bully in Galavant and tbh I imagine Lestat’s Dad would have a sense of humor, and that’s partially where Lestat got it from. Unfortunately, that wasn’t all he got from his father. [Moar gifs and pics I’ve gathered of him here]
Marius de Romanus: Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, 2016
I can’t explain. JUST WANT. A better father-figure for Lestat, one he would have given just about anything to stay with for awhile.
And that’s just my opinion, you guys are free to disagree, but please do so w/ respect bc this took alot of guts and alot of time and ALOT of effort to put together!
That’s a really long answer, we don’t know ALL that much about his backstory, just that he was a Marquis (never named) in a little rural village in France, so he has some local power/respect in title, but he’s really poor, is not a particularly good husband or father, he’s blind by the time Lestat is 21… and we know that he treated Lestat BADLY during his childhood. Louis described a little of his time living at Pointe du Lac in book!IWTV.
In short:
For more, read The Vampire Lestat (the Marquis is in the beginning)(gif below used for humor, not intended to be rude!) The Marquis is not mentioned again in any later book. He does not get to vampire.
There is some fanon that the Marquis’ physical abuse of Lestat extended further, but that’s not in canon. If that were true, it could be part of Lestat issues with relationships and consent.