In a recent interview with Entertainment Weekly, Anne revealed a couple of her top casting choices for leading roles in the future Vampire Chronicles TV series.
First and foremost, of course, would be Lestat himself. This role was initially played by Tom Cruise in the 1994 Neil Jordan film, Interview With the Vampire. As it is widely known, Anne initially was not thrilled with the casting choice but was won over by Cruise’s spectacular performance. The Brat Prince was next played by Stuart Townsend in the less well-received Queen of the Damned (2002).
Interestingly, though, Anne didn’t reveal any specific choices for Lestat in the EW interview. This is what she said when asked if she had anyone in mind:
This is an age in which fantasy film and fantasy TV have done so well, that there are all kinds of actors – in Australia, in England, and in America, and coming from other countries as well – that can play these kinds of characters, and can do period very, very effectively. And they can do the kind of diction that you need when you’re dealing with 18th century characters. I don’t think there will be any trouble finding an actor, at this point. Maybe it will be an unknown, maybe it will be somebody that’s already working and I just haven’t seen him yet. I honestly don’t know. Again, I don’t think it’s going to be a problem.
Anne did, however, have a couple of specific choices when it came to other characters.
For Louise she gave Matt Bomer as an example of an actor with the kind of beauty that would be demanded of any actor who sought to play the character originally played by Brad Pitt.
It’s Louis’ beauty that attracted Lestat to him, and I would hope it would be a beautiful actor like Matt Bomer. Somebody with that incredible beauty. Brad Pitt did a beautiful job in the original film, and he set the bar very high when it comes to physical beauty.
For Marius she would like Matthew MacFayden.
I would absolutely love it if Matthew MacFadyen, the British actor, ever wanted to be part of this and wanted to play Marius. Marius is one of the pillars of the Chronicles – 2,000 years old – and I am an absolute, stoned fan of Matthew MacFadyen in Ripper Street and every other show that he’s ever done. Talk about quality TV — Ripper Street is just outstanding.
So there you have it: those are Anne Rice’s choices for Marius and Louis. But Anne and executive producer Christopher Rice still want to hear what you, the fans, think about who would be good to play all the beloved characters from the Chronicles. And, once again, the best place to do that is on the official Vampire Chronicles Facebook page: