The book Interview with the Vampire written by Anne Rice was published in 1976 and spawned a generation of vampire novels and movies and the 1994 film adaptation was beautifully done. However, after reading the book for the first time I noticed some glaring differences between them. Let’s start with the movie synopsis: After the death of his wife and daughter, Spanish lord Louis is turned into a vampire by Lestat de Lioncourt. To keep Louis by his side, Lestat converts a plague-ridden girl.
First off, Louis doesn’t become a vampire after the death of his wife and daughter, it is his brother Paul’s death that sparks Louis’ spiral into depression that ultimately leads to him becoming a vampire, and neither is he a Spanish Lord, Louis is French by birth and was raised mainly in New Orleans. The final thing the synopsis gets wrong is that Lestat coverts a plague-ridden girl to keep Louis at his side, there is some truth in this, but Louis is the one who coverts Claudia and kills her, Lestat merely makes her into a vampire and takes advantage of Louis’ love for the girl to keep him at his side. Now that’s out of the way we can delve into the movie as a whole beginning with the characters. There are four main characters in this novel disregarding the side characters and the boy who for the most part remains silent, recording Louis’ life story.
Louis
Louis is the character who overall remains the same, apart from the difference in his origin story that I previously mentioned apart from this Louis’ personality and mannerisms remain the same that is until he meets Armand. In the movie, Louis is captivated by Armand which he is in the book, but he is portrayed as someone who Louis feels a kinship within the movie whereas in the book Louis loves Armand. Louis’ relationships with Lestat and Claudia is also strikingly different from the books, Louis hates Lestat from the very beginning except for a brief moment when he is turned that he feels drawn to the beautiful creature. Louis and Lestat’s relationship is strained for most of the books, with the pair having frequent arguments and often not speaking to each other for long periods of time. Now, this wouldn’t work in a movie adaptation, so it had to be changed but it changes the feel of the movie compared to the novel. In terms of appearance, I felt Brad Pitt was a good fit for Louis, although Rice wanted Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise to switch roles after she had doubts over whether Cruise could actually portray Lestat but ultimately Pitt was used. Pitt’s portrayal of Louis is very faithful, he comes across as passive, quiet and most of the time indifferent which Louis is. After Claudia enters the picture he becomes a bit more animated but not massively changed until her death at the end of the movie where he becomes grief-stricken and then cold and closed off. These transitions are fairly faithful to the book but there are some keys scenes and dialogue that was drastically changed from the book.
Lestat
Now, this was the biggest problem I had with the adaptation of the book; the casting of Lestat. Although Tom Cruise was wonderful in the role and even Rice herself stated she was wrong about him, I felt personally there were other candidates who could have portrayed a more faithful vision of Lestat namely Jeremy Irons. If you have seen the adaptation of Lolita where Irons starred as Humbert Humbert you understand why this choice was better. Irons had the classic ability to portray dark and deviant characters with a wild animation that completely sucks you into the performance as he did with Humbert. Irons would have portrayed the cold, calloused and cruel Lestat whereas Cruise portrays an animated, vibrant, almost child-like version of Lestat. While both of these sides of Lestat exist in the book by far we see more of his cruel side, in the book, for example, he completely ignores his aging father, forces Louis into positions he has no desire to be in for his own amusement, he is jealous over Louis’ love for Claudia and plays a key role in her death and much more that didn’t come across in Cruise’s portray at all. Even after Lestat’s supposed death and subsequent return he still projects Lestat as quite a jovial person, having him play the piano while he discusses his death with Louis and Claudia. In the book, this scene plays out quite differently as he and his new creation attack the pair forcing Louis to burn the townhouse down believing he has truly killed Lestat, an event that causes a drastic change in Louis after meeting Armand. While the appearance Cruise wears during the movie is accurate, the personality is not.
Claudia
Now, this is the character and portrayal I had the most difficulty in describing. In the book, Claudia is only 5 years old when she was changed by Lestat but is played by the 11-year-old Kristin Dunce. Dunce captured the creature in Claudia perfectly but hasn’t quite mastered the art of silence that Claudia has in the book. In the book, Claudia often uses silence as a weapon and frequently ignores Lestat to enrage him whereas in the movie Lestat is shown to be a teacher to Claudia. This is true in the book but only briefly when he teaches her to hunt, but very quickly she becomes Louis pupil as he teaches much more about humanity, life, and art, things that Lestat has no interest in. Lestat and Claudia’s relationship is the most complex in the book next to the relationship between Louis and Armand. Claudia is the one who convinces Louis that they are slaves to Lestat and need to be free of him. She is the one that plans and carries out the murder of Lestat alone while Louis is just a bystander. She is a master manipulator and uses her talent to great effect in killing and convincing Louis to break the promise he made to himself not to turn another person (he does with Madeleine to give Claudia what she wants.)
While Dunce looks older than 5 in the movie her physical appearance is very similar to that of Claudia in the book, and the way she portrays Claudia’s temper and violent tendencies are sublime. However, the way in which she dies in the movie is very different from the book. Claudia in the book manages to escape the initial ambush where Louis and Madeleine are captured and taken to the Vampire Theatre. Madeleine is left behind with the other vampires while Louis is sealed in the walls and at some point in the night, Claudia is captured and killed along with Madeleine all before Armand frees Louis. In the movie, the scene is changed slightly so they are all captured at the same time, Louis is sealed in the walls while the girls are taken away and before Armand can free Louis they are killed. We also don’t see Lestat at all during this scene and the key orchestrator is Santiago when in reality it was Armand and Lestat, Santiago just did as he was told with an element of his own personal revenge added to it. Dunce does steal a lot of the limelight from Cruise and Pitt, and this is most likely because of her young age in a movie that had an 18 age rating.
Armand
Armand was the character in the movie I was most disappointed with since he was such a magnetic and complex character in the book. Armand in the movie is played by Antonio Banderas and he is my ideal Armand, the only issue I have with his physical appearance in the movie is that his hair is black when in the book it is auburn. Now, this may seem trivial, but it actually serve a purpose in the book as the Paris vampires all dye their hair black, as they see black as the colour of vampires and Armand stands out with his auburn hair as he refuses to conform. The other issue I had with Armand in the movie is he plays such a small role and only appears on screen for a very small period of time, whereas in the book from the moment Louis and Claudia find them in Paris, Armand is a constant in Louis’ life and for many years after where the movie ends.
Armand’s relationship with Louis is so complex and is totally dependent on their personalities. Louis loves Armand because he is the oldest and wisest vampire but also the only vampire he has met that is like himself, sensitive. The role Armand plays at the end of the novel is critical to the story as he forces Louis to accept what he is and inadvertently destroys everything in Louis he claimed to love.
Plot
For this section, I am going to run through the plot of the movie and point out the areas of the movie that differ greatly from the book.
In modern-day San Francisco, reporter Daniel Molloy interviews Louis de Pointe du Lac, who claims to be a vampire. Louis describes his human life as a wealthy plantation owner in 1791 Spanish Louisiana. Despondent following the death of his wife and unborn child, one night he is attacked by the vampire Lestat de Lioncourt while drunkenly wandering the waterfront of New Orleans. Lestat senses Louis’s dissatisfaction with life and offers to turn him into a vampire, which Louis accepts. However, he quickly comes to regret it. While Lestat revels in the hunt and killing of humans, Louis resists killing them, drinking animal blood to sustain himself. He is disgusted by Lestat’s pleasure in killing and comes to suffer tremendously as a vampire.
I have already pointed out inaccuracies with the opening of the movie and Lestat does sense Louis’ grief but in the book Lestat doesn’t turn him straight away, he drains Louis to the point of death and leaves him there to return several nights later to turn him. Also in the book there isn’t any of the supernatural floating/flying that Lestat does in the movie. The way the movie portrays Louis reluctance to kill humans is also inaccurate as he does kill humans in the book until he learns he can live off animals which he does for a while. However, this doesn’t satisfy him which directly leads him to drain Claudia.
Wandering the streets of New Orleans, amid an outbreak of plague, Louis can resist his hunger no more and feeds on a little girl whose mother has died in the plague. To entice Louis to stay with him, Lestat turns the dying girl, Claudia, into a vampire. Together they raise her as a daughter—Louis has a pure love for Claudia, while Lestat treats her more as a student, training her to become a merciless killer.
Again, I have already stated the inaccuracies with Lestat’s relationship with Claudia and while it is accurate that he did turn her it wasn’t straight away. Louis drains Claudia and when Lestat turns up at her home he mocks Louis and he flees. Days later Lestat tracks the alive Claudia to a hospital for orphans and claims her as his daughter. He then returns with Louis to the hotel they are staying in and gives her to Louis to drain again. He tries but before he can kill her, Lestat rips her from Louis’ arms and turns her before Louis can comprehend what is going on because of the swoon he feels. By the time he comes around it is too late and there is nothing he can do to prevent the little girl from becoming a vampire.
As thirty years pass, Claudia matures psychologically but still remains a little girl in appearance, and she is treated as such by Lestat. When she finally realizes that she will never grow old, she is furious with Lestat and tells Louis that they should leave him. She tricks Lestat into drinking the “dead blood” of twin boys that she killed by overdosing them with laudanum and she slits his throat. With Louis’s help, she dumps Lestat’s body in a swamp and the two plan a voyage to Europe. However, Lestat returns on the night of their departure, having drunk the blood of swamp creatures to survive. Lestat attacks them, but Louis sets him on fire, and, in the ensuing blaze, they are able to escape to their ship and depart.
This part of the movie is pretty accurate as Claudia feels a massive amount of discontent and hatred towards Lestat and does tell Louis that she is thinking of killing him so they can be free. Louis resists the idea and even tries to convince Claudia not to do it, but she can’t be convinced. She does poison two boys with laudanum and absinthe who Lestat drinks from and ends up being poisoned himself. Claudia then proceeds to slit his throat and Louis just watches and they do dispose of him in the swamp. They then spend several days planning their trip to Europe when a vampire follows Claudia home, this vampire is a young musician friend of Lestat’s. Louis then hears footsteps he knows to be Lestat’s and the four fight which leads to Louis burning down the townhouse and he also believes Lestat and the other vampire to be dead.
After traveling around Europe and the Mediterranean (but finding no other vampires), Louis and Claudia settle harmoniously in Paris. Louis encounters vampires Santiago and Armand by chance.
The pair do travel to Europe, but they do encounter several other vampire, but these are completely mindless monsters. An encounter with one of these vampires leads Louis and Claudia to give up their hunt for other vampires and head to Paris to just travel the world.
Armand invites Louis and Claudia to his coven, the Théâtre des Vampires, where the vampires stage theatrical horror shows for humans. On their way out of the theater, Santiago reads Louis’s mind and suspects that Louis and Claudia murdered Lestat.
It is by accident that Louis is followed by a vampire and attacked, who turns out to be Santiago. He is shooed off by Armand who extends an invitation to the Vampire Theatre to him and Claudia. Here they watch a performance by the vampire which involves a woman being killed on stage and Armand’s performance draws something out of Louis that he has always denied in himself. They are invited below the theatre where the vampires live and here Santiago and others become suspicious of the pair as they don’t conform to their idea of vampires. Because of this, Santiago and the others are looking for any reason to pin suspicion on the pair, especially since they don’t talk about the origins or their creator.
Armand warns Louis to send Claudia away for her own safety, and Louis is intrigued to stay with Armand and learn more about the meaning of being a vampire. Claudia demands that Louis turn a human woman, Madeleine, to be her new protector and companion, and he reluctantly complies.
Armand does warn Louis to get Claudia out of Paris, but this happens after Madeleine has been changed. Claudia doesn’t demand that he turn Madeleine but request he does it because her form is defenseless, and she can’t be alone. Claudia is also aware that Louis will eventually leave her for Armand and needs someone to protect her when he does. Madeleine herself has her own reasons for being changed as she lost a child and she sees Claudia as a child who can’t die and therefore someone she can love for the rest of her immortal life, so after wrestling with himself he complies. However, here he tells Claudia that they are even as she has made him kill the last thing in him that was human, and he was the one that allowed Lestat to take everything human from her.
The Parisian vampires abduct all three and punish them for Lestat’s murder, imprisoning Louis in a metal coffin, and trapping Claudia and Madeleine in a well where sunlight burns them to ash. Armand does nothing to prevent this, but the next day he frees Louis.
This is also really inaccurate as Santiago tries to abduct all three but Louis fights and gets Claudia out so only he and Madeleine are taken. They are taken to the theatre where Lestat is waiting for Louis and tries to convince him to come home, while Louis tries to convince him to stop his vendetta against Claudia. As he can’t be convinced Santiago locks Louis in a coffin and traps him in the walls, leaving Madeleine all alone with the other vampires. At some point in the night while Louis is in the coffin Claudia is caught and imprisoned in a walled garden with Madeleine exposed to the sun. Armand isn’t in the theatre at the time but returns to free Louis, but Louis goes back for Claudia only to find the burning remains of Claudia and Madeleine.
Seeking revenge, Louis returns to the Theater at dawn and sets it on fire, killing all the vampires including Santiago. Armand arrives in time to help Louis escape the sunrise and once again offers him a place by his side. Louis, however, refuses Armand and leaves for good, knowing Armand could have saved Claudia.
This one of the most inaccurate part of the movie as Louis does return to the theatre seeking revenge and burns the place to the ground after beheading Santiago. However, he escapes on his own until Armand seeks him out. They do discuss the fire and Louis says he knows that he could have prevented the deaths of everyone in the theatre but choose not to as it wasn’t what Louis wanted. Louis realises that he and Armand are truly evil and when everyone else would destroy them for that evil they manage to love one another. Although it isn’t voice we know that Louis knows Armand played a part in Claudia’s murder, but it isn’t brought up until much later.
As decades pass, Louis explores the world dejectedly alone and eventually returns to New Orleans. One night he comes across Lestat, living as a recluse in an abandoned mansion and surviving on rat blood as Louis did. Lestat asks Louis to rejoin him, but Louis rejects him and leaves. Louis concludes the interview, prompting Molloy to offer to be his new vampire companion. Louis is outraged that Molloy has not understood the tale of suffering he has related and scares him into abandoning his idea. After Louis vanishes, Molloy runs to his car and takes off. On the Golden Gate Bridge Lestat appears and attacks him, taking control of the car. Revived by Molloy’s blood, Lestat offers him the choice that he “never had”—whether or not to become a vampire.
This part of the movie is completely fiction and has nothing to do with the ending of the book. After the fire in Paris, Louis and Armand travel the world together as Louis becomes more cold and distant withdrawing into himself. One night Armand tells him that Lestat is still alive and that he should return to New Orleans. Louis agrees but Armand has a hidden agenda. Louis finds Lestat again but following another vampire who leads him to an abandoned house. Here he watches as the younger vampire brings Lestat a baby and tells him to feed from it. The Lestat here is much changed from the one we have come to know as he seems frail and extremely fragile. When he spots Louis they discuss what happened which is a very emotional scene, but Louis says he isn’t coming back to Lestat and leaves once more as does the younger vampire. This Lestat hasn’t been able to adjust to the changing time but Louis doesn’t give it a second thought as he returns the child to were it belongs. He meets Armand on the banks of the river, where Armand confesses he asks Louis to return to New Orleans and find Lestat in the hopes that it would spark something back to life in Louis. Louis counters this by saying that Claudia’s death killed that in him and now Armand sees only a mirror of himself, something he can’t love. Armand leaves him here and he is never seen again. Louis carried on with his life until he meet “the boy” who in the movie is named Daniel played by Christian Slater.
The part of the movie where Daniel asks to be turned is true and Louis does refuse but he does drink from the boy and leaves him to possibly die. When he wakes the next morning he is changed by the encounter he has had with Louis and leaves to find Lestat in New Orleans, Lestat doesn’t find him and that’s where the novel ends. I think the movie has its advantages and it is very beautiful to watch, however, it is very inaccurate to the source material and I’d advise that people go and read the book before watching the movie otherwise you are going to miss out on a lot of vital information and relationship that aren’t featured in the movie at all.
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