The Vampire Lestat has been asleep for a very, very long time.
"When Lestat first becomes a vampire," explains Stuart Townsend, the Irish actor who plays Lestat, the charming anti-hero whom Anne Rice first introduced to the world in Interview with the Vampire. the first novel in her Vampire Chronicles series, "he feels all that power, loves it for about half an hour and then realizes that he's a monster, and that he can never really be in touch with anything human again. So begins this sort of downward spiral."
Unwilling or unable to face the prospect of living eternally in the shadows, cut off by necessity from the very life that sustains him, Lestat decided a century ago to bow out rather than accept this grim prospect.
Lestat entombs himself in Lafayette Cemetery in New Orleans, where he lays until the 1990's roll around, and a sound reaches his ears that leads him to believe that his time has come again. "He's been in this crypt for a hundred years, bored, sleeping, lonely," says director Michael Rymer. "And then he hears this rock music playing, and he thinks, Oh, this is interesting, and he rises from his tomb to investigate. He looks at these kids and they're all tattooed and pierced and sexy and androgynous, and for an 18th century vampire who was always frustrated with the restrictions of moral European culture, it's sort of a fantastic liberation for him."
Lestat realizes that in this new, more flamboyant yet skeptical age, he can live out in the open, without having to hide his true nature from the unsuspecting masses. "When he wakes up and says, I'm a vampire, his fellow band members all laugh and think he's like a Marilyn Manson-type character," Rymer explains. "But his vampire powers have given him great musical prowess, so he very quickly becomes this sensational rock star."
Lestat's fame soon reaches around the globe, and his music finally finds the ear of Akasha, the Mother of all Vampires, in the crypt where she is kept safe by the Ancient Vampire Marius. Akasha, played by internationally acclaimed singer and actress Aaliyah, has been slumbering for thousands of years, but in Lestat's voice she hears a kindred spirit, one who will rule beside her as she reclaims her power in the new age.
"Akasha appears and whisks him away," says Rymer, "and tells him, You want to live in the light? Come with me and we will rule the earth. Lestat becomes the proverbial magician's apprentice who unleashes forces way beyond his control."
Lestat's devotion to Akasha is tempered only by his growing fascination with a mortal woman named Jesse. played by Marguerite Moreau, best known for her role as Connie in the Mighty Ducks trilogy. "Jesse is one of the only mortals of our story," Moreau reveals. "Jesse is a Talamascan. She translates and studies ancient philosophy and paranormal activity. She's very confused and lost in her own life, trying to figure out what her place is in the world. The closer and closer she gets to the vampires, the more alive she begins to feel. Like Lestat, for [he first time, she feels that someone can know her.
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