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Interview with the Vampire is the new hit show from AMC which is setting all sorts of records on the network's streaming platform, AMC+. Adapted from the legendary work of author Anne Rice, the series is a departure from the Neil Jordan movie of the same name. Some, this author included, may even say that it is an improvement on the erstwhile adaptation because of its depth.
SK POP was part of a roundtable with Jacob Anderson of Game of Thrones fame, who plays Louis de Pointe du Lac in the series, and Australian actor Sam Reid, who portrays Lestat de Lioncourt. Fans can catch the critically-acclaimed show only on AMC and AMC+.
While the show may be rooted in fantasy, it also tackles more hard-hitting questions like whether immortality is a boon or a curse. The cast, intelligent and well-spoken, relayed their feelings about the series to this journalist, who almost felt like Daniel Molloy, sitting across from Louis de Pointe du Lac with a recording device.
Sam Reid and Jacob Anderson address the inspiration behind the Interview with the Vampire adaptation and the complications of immortality
As fond as the Interview with the Vampire cast is of the movie, they referred to the books instead for the 2022 adaptation. According to actor Sam Reid, Rolin Jones' adaptation is based on the books rather than the films:
"Not really, no. I love that film. I have for a long time. Rolin's adaptation really spans the whole Vampire Chronicles book series. And so we're just looking at that script and those books. We're really just going back to the books all the time, as opposed to the film adaptation. And I think they can both exist as adaptations. But yeah, we were never really referencing the film. We were always going back to the book as the main reference."
Jacob Anderson echoed his co-star's words:
"Yeah, Sam said it. That's really what it was. We didn't really reference back to it."
Actor Sam Reid feels that immortality could be wonderful but you end up losing everyone you love
The Interview with the Vampire cast has certainly spent a long time pondering upon immortality since it is the central theme of the show. Anderson addressed the same as:
"I perceive immortality as a process of endurance and acceptance. And I don't know what side of that you fall on. It's different for the individual. But I guess endurance speaks to all of them right?"
Sam Reid recognizes how integral immortality is to the plot of Interview with The Vampire. He elaborated upon the same as:
"Like Jacob's saying, once you accept that you will live forever and you have all of these powers, then, one of the main dynamic questions of the show and Anne Rice's work is whether you embrace that. You take it head on and you dive down the hole of being this creature or you fight it. And if you fight it, and every vampire within Anne Rice's world at some point struggles with it, some don't survive. And the ones that don't survive are the ones that walk into the sun."
Adopting a more light-hearted tone, Interview with the Vampire star Reid also explained the curse of immortality - losing everyone you love over the course of many years.
"So, therefore, it becomes a nightmarish thing to endure. So I think it's equal, you know. Immortality would be amazing but you also lose all the people you love. But then you might also turn all the people you love into a vampire and you realize they didn't like you in the first place anyway."
Anderson also compared the struggle of the immortal Interview with the Vampire beings to the one that we as human beings go through everyday- the struggle to make it to the next day.
"And also, if you don't find any acceptance of self, which would change constantly anyway, then you have the time to find it eventually. You just have to keep going. You have to wake up every night and decide to be there. It's a decision that we make every day as humans. But it has different implications, of course, with immortality."
Captivating, funny, nostalgic, and thought-provoking, Interview with the Vampire is a show you can sink your fangs into if you want to satiate both your fantasy and philosophical cravings.
