Since 1976, Interview with the Vampire has been captivating audiences. The tale of Louis, Lestat, Claudia and co. is seen as a remarkable Gothic tale about vampires as they navigate life together, and for a long time, it was praised as a gay allegory. Then, the TV adaptation of Anne Rice’s books came along, and the subtext was no longer under the surface. Now, we’re here to talk about this evolution and more as we discuss the LGBTQ+ history of this beloved story.
In Both The Book And The Movie For Interview With The Vampire, Louis And Lestat Are Never Confirmed As A Couple
In both the 1976 book Interview with the Vampire and the 1994 film adaptation that Anne Rice also wrote (that can be streamed with an HBO Max subscription), Louis and Lestat are not an obviously defined couple. It’s clear they share an undeniable bond; there are incredibly romantic and at times erotic moments between them, and the love they have for each other is clear. However, technically, they aren’t lovers.
Yes, they co-parent Claudia, and yes, they lived together for a very long time. However, without a clearly defined title for their relationship, technically, it’s not confirmed that Louis and Lestat were romantic based on the first book and the movie alone.
Along with that, Rice’s vampires do not have a sexual relationship in the movie or book, as CBR pointed out. While they love each other and have romantic moments, Rice said they couldn’t have sex after their bodies physically died. So, at least for the first part of this story’s history, they weren’t intimate in that way.
However, it could be interpreted in a way that made it clear they were romantically in love, and for decades, Louis and Lestat have been icons in LGBTQ+ media.
For Decades, Both The Book And The Movie Adaptation Of Interview With The Vampire Have Been Viewed As Queer-Coded Texts
Back in 2012, Anne Rice did an interview with Gizmodo where she confirmed that Louis and Lestat were a same-sex couple with a child. She was asked about the vampires being dads to Claudia, and people interpreting them that way. In response, the author exclaimed:
Sure! [Laughs] Sure! I never thought of it, they were the first vampire same-sex parents.
She also confirmed that she hadn’t really thought about that idea before, and then, when the journalist asked if we could say Louis and Lestat were “a same-sex couple with children,” Rice said:
Absolutely! Claudia! She’s their daughter.
All of that is to say that for years, decades even, this story, which is both a great book and one of the best vampire movies, has been read as queer-coded.
To hammer this point home further, IndieWire published a list of queer and homoerotic horror movies. When Interview with the Vampire was discussed, screenwriter Michael Varrati had this to say about Neil Jordan’s movie that starred Brad Pitt as Louis and Tom Cruise as Lestat:
Lestat and Louis are in a relationship. They fight over another man. And they co-parent a child together. In many ways, ‘Interview’ is the most commercially successful gay film of all time, and most audiences didn’t even realize they were seeing a gay film.
While some people didn’t realize the subtext in this story, many others felt very seen by it. In a tribute to Rice on Nerdist, Eric Diaz wrote about why her books spoke to so many. He explained:
Rice’s The Vampires Chronicles and Lives of the Mayfair Witches books drew queer Gen X readers like me en masse into her hyper-sensualized world. But really, anyone who felt like they didn’t belong in a world that celebrated the ordinary and mundane over the exotic and transgressive found kinship with Rice’s beautiful monsters too.
He went on to explain that Louis' story of coming to terms with who he was and Lestat’s belief that “their outsider nature gave them a unique perspective on humanity that no one else had,” was “a gift.”
Later on, in 2017, during an interview with The Daily Beast (via NBC), Rice said she was “very honored” that her work was viewed as a gay allegory. She also explained that she’s “always been very much a champion of gay rights, and art produced by gay people.”
As I mentioned, for decades, people have loved the allegory that came with Interview with the Vampire, and Louis and Lestat’s relationship specifically is an iconic queer-coded relationship. Well, that subtext got thrown out the window when the AMC show premiered, because nothing is under the surface; it is simply and proudly gay.
AMC’s Interview With The Vampire Actually Made Louis And Lestat LGBTQ+ Characters And A Couple
Now, cut to 2022, and the release of the great AMC series, Interview with the Vampire. This book-to-screen adaptation of Anne Rice’s beloved novel leaves nothing up to interpretation, really, when it comes to Louis and Lestat’s identities and their romance; they explicitly are in a loving and romantic (yet toxic) relationship.
In the first episode of the series, which you can stream on AMC+ or with a Netflix subscription, Louis and Lestat, who are played by Jacob Anderson and Sam Reid, respectively, have a threesome that ends with just the two of them having sex. They are a couple, and that 100% plays into the story. Louis’ struggle to accept his own identity isn’t an allegory; his sexuality and being a vampire are both part of it. And Lestat is as unapologetic and boisterous as always; however, in this show, he’s even louder and prouder about it.
Along with all that (and spoilers for Season 2 are ahead), Louis and Lestat are not the only LGBTQ+ characters in the series. Armand’s role is amplified, as he and Louis are a couple for decades after they meet in Paris. And while they’re in Paris, Claudia falls in love with the woman who became her companion before they both met their tragic ends.
This show unabashedly and proudly embraces the queer subtext of Interview with the Vampire that’s been loved for so long, and it makes it a huge part of the story. That’s expected to continue too with the release of Season 3, which will be called The Vampire Lestat after Anne Rice’s second book in The Vampire Chronicles.
So, this history will continue, and we’ll get to keep seeing these marvelous characters on our screens!
