“Dammit. An hour ago when I woke up, I was in a good mood. Maybe a lil annoyed that I couldnt fall back to sleep, but still, happy and anxious to jump into Interview. And then I tried activating my phone because my old one isnt working and I dont have the password, dont have a second phone in the apt, mom doesnt know the password, account is in my dead father’s name, and the verizon customer service rep was a bitch. Now that means I need to squeeze a hectic trip down to the verizon store into what was supposta be a lazy Saturday with a couple movies.
Anyways, I’ll try to get back to the topic at hand. Interview with the Vampire. Its no big secret that I’m quite the fangbanger. I love vampires. My cats are named Lestat and Nosferatu. They have a coffin bed I made for my stagecraft class. I know every episode of Buffy and Angel. I’ve read every True Blood book, and have thought about Eric in the shower. I saw Lestat on broadway. As long as the vamps dont freaking sparkle, Im all in.
My vampire obsession started with Angel. I wont recount the story of my siring again. I did that when I wrote up Masterminds. But Anne Rice was the next logical step. I’d actually caught Interview on tv first, and my vampire obsession was sealed. I’ve read most of The Vampire Chronicles (got as far as Vampire Armand, although I never finished Memnoch the Devil), and while I may not care for Rice’s overly wordy style, I do love her stories. Not unlike how I feel about Tolkien, actually.
Lestat to me is the ultimate vampire. Sorry, Angel. Sorry, Spike. As the series protagonist, he is the very definition of the antihero–the character you root for despite their, shall we say, moral shortcomings. He is dynamic and cunning and sexy and smart and everything you want in your creature of the night. Tom Cruise did a mighty fine job portraying him. Cruise nailed the attitude. Stuart Townsend nailed the look, especially for Lestat’s rock star phase in Queen of the Damned. But it was Broadway’s Hugh Panaro who nailed both. Anne Rice was even said to have gone up to him after opening night and told him that he WAS Lestat.
If Interview only had Lestat, that would be enough. But oh it doesnt. There’s the child vamp Claudia, probably my favorite female fanger. Such pure and pint sized evil, with more wits than any of her adversaries. We can’t forget the sultry Armand with his leadership and wisdom. Let’s not forget Louis, the Anne Rice equivalent of Angel, the conflicted vampire.
Im still torn about how I feel towards the whole vampire craze. Pre-Twilight and True Blood, I felt like vamps were my thing, a random quirk (of which I have many) that was different. At first I loved having so many fang induced things around me: more books, more movies, various trinkets and paraphernalia. But the whole thing has also been cheapened too. Nowadays, someone says the word vampire, and anyone other than me rolls their eyes. Notice how quick I am to justify my obsession by pointing out that I only care about vampires that don’t sparkle. I mean, I’m all for new and unique vampire mythologies. You kinda hafta add your own twists to it. But A) sparkling is a really dumb way to handle the sunlight thing and 2) Twilight (and Im only basing off the movies because I’ve seen those and refuse to read the books) is barely vampire. It’s basically Dawson’s Creek with fangs. There’s nothing inherently wrong with that, but I dont feel you can be a true fan of vampires if that’s your only exposure to them. There are so many bigger and better ones out there.”