“Interview With The Vampire” Lestat Sam Reid has an edge over Tom Cruise
Casting Lestat in the Interview with the vampire film was controversial. When the filmmakers left with Tom Cruise, author Anne Rice herself protested. She eventually stopped by. Rice died just like the AMC series Interview with the vampire was pouring. Sam Reid continues playing Lestat Interview with the vampirebut feels he has a unique advantage that Cruise didn’t have in 1994.
Reid was on a Zoom panel at the Television Critics Association on Aug. 10. When the inevitable question about the pressure of the Cruise settlement arose, Reid took it in stride. Interview with the vampire Premieres October 2 at 10 p.m. on AMC and streams on AMC+.
Sam Reid was a fan of Anne Rice’s “Interview with the Vampire” prior to the film.
Reid would have been 7 years old in 1994. He didn’t say if he saw it on home video then or later, but he was clearly a fan of the Cruise film and the Rice books.
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“I was alive when the film came out and I love this film,” Reid said. “I love this film and I’ve always loved the work of Anne Rice so I was very excited to be a part of reviving it. Even as a fan of the books, I was excited that it would even be made.”
Tom Cruise worked blind as Lestat in Interview with the Vampire
By 1994, Rice had already written four vampire novels, including The vampire Lestat and Queen of the Damned. Even so, there would be a total of 18 before she died. AMC bought them all and plans to adapt them at some point. Reid said he could start playing Lestat with whatever Rice later wrote about him, most of which neither Cruise nor Rice himself knew about in 1994.
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What we are doing in this adaptation in this version of Interview with the vampire is a look at a whole series of books. Because when that movie came out, they were still writing them, so they didn’t have a perspective on the whole work, and now we have that perspective. So when we look at character arcs, we’re looking at a much broader scale. So yeah it’s valid and I love what Tom Cruise did as Lestat and I think he should be loved and remembered for that role and so I never try to touch that. It’s a great honor to take on this extraordinary role created by Anne, but we’re doing a different show. We actually look at all of her books, so it’s a different feeling than the 1994 film.
Sam Reid, Panel of the Television Critics Association, 08/10/22
Anne Rice turned vampires into humans
Reid continued to talk about the unique vampires that Rice had created. He sees the human weaknesses she gave them Interview with the vampire and other books.
“Anne Rice is probably responsible for vampires being so universally loved because they’re so human,” Reid said. “They are the most human of monsters. They mirror back our own humanity, they speak about our own darkest desires, and they constantly question their existence, why they are here, because they are motive-conscious demons who are never truly allowed to die. So I think it really is Anne Rice who created these complex, beautiful creatures.”
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https://www.cheatsheet.com/entertainment/interview-with-the-vampire-lestat-sam-reid-1-advantage-over-tom-cruise.html/ “Interview With The Vampire” Lestat Sam Reid has an edge over Tom Cruise
