Anne Rice Weighs In on True Blood Vampires
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Aaron W. Tellock, a writer for Milwaukee’s Examiner, recently chatted with Anne Rice, well known author of The Vampire Chronicles, and favorite in the genre. She talked about what inspired her to write vampire novels, Interview with a Vampire being made into a movie and mentions her personal favorites.
When Mr. Tellock asked Rice about the direction the vampire legend has taken, she talked about Twilight and True Blood, and what interested her in both stories. About Twilight, she had this to say, “Obviously this appeals to very young kids and the vampire, Edward, is charming, and strong, and is a powerful metaphor for the outsider and also he represents what teenagers dream of: a boyfriend who is really deep and caring and powerful and protective.”
True Blood, however, seems to make more sense to Mrs. Rice. “The show is clever, satirical and yet deeply involving. It is full of humor and yet its characters have tender and emotional scenes. I find it very engaging and fun to watch.”
I have never read The Vampire Chronicles, and have never seen Interview with a Vampire. Perhaps I should give them a look? What do you think? Should I bite? (Yes, I went there.)
You can read Mr. Tellock’s entire interview with Anne Rice by clicking this link.
Loved reading the Vampire Chronicles, and they remain in my permanent book collection. As to the movie, it was badly miscast. Cruise and Pitt were horrible. I have yet to sit through the entire movie. It’s like nails on a blackboard to me.
Read them all. Cruise was an awful Lestat but I think Alexander Skarsgard would be perfect for the role of Lestat- tall check. blonde check. blue eyes check.aristocratic nose check. Pitt wasn’t that bad as a simpering Louis’. Wonder if Rice sees Skarsgard as Lestat? Alas the time has past and it will never happen.
WAIT a second, your a fan of vamp pop culture and you never read the master?!! I read your blog all the time and follow on twitter but never posted before but this is to crazy not to say something… i demand you go read and then watch Interview and the diaries can come later…but really at least tell me you were a Buffy fan?
LOL
LOL! Actually, I was never a vampire fan until Sookie & Co. Not a loyal fan anyway. More of a mythology fan.
(And the only “Buffy” I’ve even seen was the original movie.) **Runs and hides.**
OMG, you have to read ‘Interview’ and watch the movie, and ‘The Vampire Lestat’! At LEAST!
Ummm however… just a heads up… and why I was so worried about Charlaines online behavior… Anne Rice is a friggen nutbar online. Relentlessly persecuting fan-fic authors, posting hateful bitter ‘responses’ to Amazon.com reviews to her later books (that had to be taken down they were so… off)… To be honest, many vamp fans care as much about Anne Rices opinion of ‘True Blood’ as they care about the color and texture of their dogs poop.
On a brighter note, youve got no excuse not to watch Buffy, either. Or Angel. The first few seasons are online at Hulu! Free!! LEGAL free!! And Joss Whedon is pretty much the nicest, coolest, pro-feminist guy on planet Earth– ie, Anne Rices opposite.
You have got to read the Vampire Chronicles; they are the best vampire stories.
Sure do it! But if you like Eric go read “Lestat” the book is centered obviously on the blonde vampire who then turned Louis which is the central character in Interview With The Vampire. Brad Pitt makes a good Louis, just whinny enough, Tom Cruise as Lestat though? Weeeeeaaaakkkk!!! As far as I’m concerned Kirsten Dunst totally steals the show as the child-vamp Claudia. She’s sort of a Jessica only younger and more ruthless…well, Jessica still has some time to get there so the jury is out on that one still LOL
I loved interview with the Vampire. It is one of my favorite movies. I think you should check it out.
Deffinetely see Interview with the Vampire.It’s a timeless vampire classic.
To the ones dogging Interview(movie), it wasn’t the best movie ever but it sure beat the hell out of the movie version of Queen of the Damned. I finally went to a Barnes & Noble to buy the Vampire Chronicles and after reading all but The Tale of the Body Thief at least I can say Interview(movie) did the book some justice(obviously cant be exact). But read queen and watch the movie, tell which was the worst adaptation.
The only Anne Rice books I really liked was Interview with the Vampire and Memnoch the Devil. I have read all of them, but those two seemed the best.
Anne Rice wrote her Vampire tales not to simply write Vampire stories, but to explore her own tangled relationship with the Church, from whom she had seperated herself for many years, until the last three or four years when she began her reunion with the Church.
Lestat and Louie are the dual sides of Anne Rice, one unrepentant and the other guilt ridden. She is also the Vampire child Claudia, the young savage, turning her back on her humanity but longing for some fulfillment which never comes.
The sexual, or rather, the non-sexual element of her Vampires is an expression of her sexual repression, which I suspect was her main quarrel with the Church. Anyone reading her Sleeping Beauty Trilogy will know that sex and desire and fulfillment and true communion are the issues that seperated her from the Church and inspired most of her stories.
Of the movies, I must say that Interview was beautifully rendered and all of the actors did a wonderfully ruthless job. That Anne Rice objected strongly to Tom Cruise playing Lestat is well known, and she vociferously critized Niel Jordan for casting Tom Cruise in the role.
However, after she saw the movie, she took out full page ads in major papers and apologized and declared that Tom Cruise had actually brought Lestat to life.
Unfortunately, the film following Interview, The Queen of the Damned, was terrible and did not have the heart or soul of the book, nor did it reflect the truthfulness of Interview.
I wish I’ll be able to read Anne Rice’s books someday.The only contact I had with her work is the ‘Interview…’ movie.
I read the first three books in the Vampire Chronicles series, but I was done with Anne Rice after that because I could *barely* get through the Queen of the Damned. I thought it was a horrible book. While Interview was excellent, and The Vampire Lestat expanded upon that story, I really, really hated the direction the series took after that, and I thought the series lost its center. The Interview movie was also really good, and that was a bit surprising to me because Tom Cruise really did pull off the roll of Lestat. It worked, somehow, and is proof that, once upon a time, Tom Cruise could act.
Haha “yes I went there.” I think the story is compelling so you might find it interesting.