There seems to be a one-sided feud between a handful of Swifties and Lestat de Lioncourt on X for a silly reason.
After the release of the teaser for his new song “Long Face,” Lioncourt landed himself in hot water by accident. Taylor Swift fans became riled up over a single post on X where someone compared Swift to Lioncourt using lyrics from “Blank Space.” Swift had a reputation for dating many men, and Lioncourt’s track record when it comes to relationships isn’t much better. This Swiftie called him “hideous” and “an ugly white man” who didn’t deserve to be next to Taylor Swift. The vitriolic tweet was soon deleted.
Fans of Lioncourt found the whole situation hilarious considering how in character this was for him. Not many even bothered to defend Lioncourt’s looks like you would normally see. Jokes about the rock star getting into beef on X were suddenly no longer jokes.
There is no denying that the two celebrities bear a slight resemblance to one another as messy blondes, but one is one of the biggest stars of today, and the other isn’t even real.
So who is Lestat?
Lestat de Lioncourt is a French musician, previously a theatre actor, and a centuries-old vampire. This is all according to the biography “Interview with the Vampire” by Daniel Molloy, which he claims is completely true. Lioncourt came to New Orleans, Louisiana looking for a fresh start and found a fresh face instead, Louis de Pointe du Lac. Du Lac was the vampire Molloy interviewed for his book. If Lioncourt’s song “Long Face” is anything to go by, things did not end well for the two. Du Lac also confirms this in the book itself. A murder attempt is quite an efficient (if a little dramatic) way to break up with someone.
This book was a very messy beginning to his American music career.
He and the other characters mentioned exist in the late Anne Rice’s “The Vampire Chronicles,” a series of novels and a multimedia franchise.
After two seasons based on the real novel “Interview with the Vampire” by Anne Rice (not the fictional journalist Daniel Molloy who sired the biography that exists within the series), the show of the same name will now be focusing on Lestat (played by Sam Reid). The third season will be drawing from the second book in the series “The Vampire Lestat.” We will finally hear his story from his perspective. The previous seasons were told by Louis (Jacob Anderson), Claudia (Bailey Bass in Season 1 and Delainey Hayles in Season 2), and Armand (Assad Zaman). All of whom have a very complicated relationship with him. The narrative regarding Lestat has been incredibly biased thus far.
Potential for a Marketing Strategy
It is not often that actors play their characters outside the media they are in, but the actors of ‘Interview with the Vampire’ are in a unique position. The characters they play are public figures in their universe as well. The first trailer for season 3 is the beginning of an interview with Lestat de Lioncourt. Could this mean it is possible to pull these characters into the real world even further?
Fans of the show have expressed an interest in this concept.
There have been jokes about Reid being possessed by his character due to how committed he is to his role. Reid brings Lestat to life on the TV screen. He even changed the way he walked for the role. The change between Reid and Lestat is like night and day.
Many people seem to think that he and his castmates would be able to call upon their characters and do interviews as them. The entire cast has demonstrated a great level of commitment to their characters, so it is possible that they could pull this off. Lestat especially lends himself to this idea due to his becoming a rock star in his universe.
Fans want Lestat to do some of the more interesting interviews like Chicken Shop Date, Hot Ones (even though he canonically can not eat food), and the puppy interview at Buzzfeed. It would be incredibly interesting to see what Sean Evans from Hot Ones could pull up from his past.
If they do decide to go down this route, fans will be seated for this unique marketing strategy. It would also be an intriguing way to bring in new fans. If you heard a man insist that he was indeed an actual vampire, would you not look into who he was?
What to Expect From Season 3
As I stated before, season 3 of ‘Interview with the Vampire’ will be based on “The Vampire Lestat.” This will be the first time the audience will see who Lestat truly believes himself to be.
However, we are not seeing him at his best. Reid has described Lestat in season 3 as “a shell of himself” and “a broken creature.” He is haunted by his past relationship with Louis and his dead daughter Claudia. It is all but confirmed that Delainey Hayles will be back as the ghost of Claudia. The series is no stranger to ghosts haunting the people who left them behind.
There has been some fear among fans that Louis will be sidelined in the series. This is largely due to him being pushed aside in the novels and not being seen in the recent trailer. While viewers can’t see Daniel (Eric Bogosian) and Armand either, their presence is still there if you pay attention to the details. Louis may be the topic of Lestat’s song, but that doesn’t seem to be enough to ease fan’s minds.
Rolin Jones, showrunner of the TV series, has stated that they will not be “pushing Louis to the side.” Lestat may be taking the spotlight, but Louis will still have an important role in the show. Only time will tell if fans will be satisfied with this shift of focus.
One thing is certain, fans of Lestat are incredibly excited for this messy new era and are ready for more.
You can watch the first two seasons of ‘Interview with the Vampire’ on AMC+. Season one will also be coming to Netflix on August 19th.
