The new adaptation of Interview with the Vampire has made many changes to the story and the characters. Because of this, there are many things from the original story that viewers won’t know if they only watch the show.
However, even the 1994 movie adaptation, the most faithful adaptation to date, couldn’t include everything from the book. There are hundreds of details about the characters and the story that audiences can only know from reading the book. Some details are relatively minor, such as the appearance of Lestat’s many fledglings. Others are major, such as Lestat’s father, Louis’ travels with Claudia, and how the story ends. All details are fascinating and can change viewers’ perceptions of the characters.
10 Lestat Took Care Of His Human Father
Unlike the movie, the show has Lestat explain to Louis and Claudia how he became a vampire. Although the scene he describes matches the one from The Vampire Lestat, Lestat never discussed his transformation in the original book.
What was in the book was a glimpse of Lestat’s human life. When Louis and Lestat first met, Lestat had a human father still living. Their relationship was contentious, and Lestat was verbally abusive toward him. Nonetheless, Lestat still took care of him and gave him a comfortable life in his final months. This strange sentimentality for a remnant of his old life contrasts with the sadistic, devil-may-care persona Lestat typically projects and shows an unexpected soft side to his character.
9 Louis Was Friends With A Human Woman
Every adaptation of Interview with the Vampire shows Louis’ struggle to come to terms with his vampirish existence, but none of them show one of the major events of this struggle. In the book, Louis meets a woman from a neighboring plantation and becomes emotionally attached to her. However, when he reveals his true nature, she rejects him, and they never see each other again.
Louis’ tragic friendship with the human forces him to reckon with cruel truths. He cannot have human relationships anymore, and he will never be human again. Everyone and everything he knew as a human will pass away, and anyone else he meets is just food. It’s a sad story that’s rarely explored in the adaptations.
8 Louis Killed Other Humans Without Feeding On Them
Even though Louis tried hard not to feed on humans, his hands still weren’t clean. He murders humans multiple times before finally giving in and feeding. Although the adaptations show Louis killing one or two humans initially, his murderous tendencies are presented as his vampirism getting out of control and downplayed to make him more sympathetic.
For instance, in the 1994 movie, he releases his slaves after losing control, bites his house slave, and burns down the house in penitence. However, in the book, he injures and kills some slaves when they attack the house. The truth is, Louis always had fewer qualms about killing in the book than in the movie or the show.
7 Claudia’s Rage Has Many Manifestations
After spending many years as an immortal child, Claudia lashes out in anger. She grows careless, killing without discretion and leaving the evidence around the house. This occurs in the book and the adaptations but does so a little differently in each variation.
In the book, Claudia murders their human maids and leaves their bodies in the kitchen. In the movie, Claudia murders a woman and puts the body in her bed, hidden under her dolls. In the show, she hides a collection of body parts in her room. Claudia’s revenge on her vampire fathers takes different forms, but it’s always a crucial event in her character development.
6 Lestat Found Help For His Revenge
While the show hasn’t gotten around to Lestat’s comeback yet, there’s a chance that he will reappear alone, as he did in the movie. In the film, he heals from his injuries and returns to take revenge on Louis and Claudia. However, they set the house on fire and leave him for dead.
The movie scene is similar to the book's, but with one slight difference. Lestat makes another vampire to aid his revenge, who presumably dies in the fire. Louis mentions in the book that Lestat is willing to make vampires to suit his desires, but this wanton carelessness is on another level. When it comes down to it, Lestat truly doesn’t care what he has to do to get what he wants or needs.
5 Louis And Claudia Found Other Vampires Before Meeting Armand’s Coven
In the book, Louis and Claudia search for other vampires and eventually meet Armand and his vampire coven in Paris. Before meeting them, though, they find other vampires living in Eastern Europe. However, unlike Armand and Lestat, who live like humans, these vampires live like animals. They run entirely on instinct, sleeping in ruins and snarling like wolves.
This is a major difference between the book and the adaptations. In the movie, Louis and Claudia find no other vampires besides Armand and the coven. In the show, Claudia travels alone and finds a vampire like her. It’s a shame those other types of vampires are never explored. Wanting consistency is understandable, but showing different kinds of vampirism could make the vampire world much more prosperous.
4 Lestat Ratted Louis And Claudia Out To Armand
So far, the show hasn’t explained to the audience what happened to Claudia or how Louis and Armand got together. In the movie and the book, it’s revealed that Armand had Claudia executed so that he could have Louis to himself.
However, the movie makes a slight alteration. In the book, Lestat tracks Louis and Claudia and tells Armand what they did to him, and Armand uses this as an excuse to kill Claudia. In the movie, Armand figures it out for himself and has the coven kill Claudia without his direct involvement. It’s unclear why Lestat was left out of the equation, but there’s a chance Lestat will arrive to rat Claudia out in the show.
3 Louis And Armand Broke Up
Louis and Armand have an interesting relationship. Armand wants Lestat, admiring his passion, curiosity, and loving nature. However, everything he wants in Louis dies when Claudia dies. Louis becomes cold and distant, and Armand eventually leaves.
Like everything from the story, the adaptations have different interpretations of it. In the movie, Louis abandons Armand in revenge for his involvement in Claudia’s death. In the show, Armand is with Louis during the interview. Neither version shows how Louis treats Armand with cruelty and apathy.
2 Lestat Had A Much Different Fate
In the movie and the book, Louis finds Lestat again in New Orleans. Lestat’s existence has devolved into a living death, rotting away in the ruins of an old house. He begs Louis to stay with him, but though Louis pities him, he refuses. However, the movie and the book treat Lestat’s fate much differently.
In the book, Louis’ encounter is the last the audience sees of him. He is left to die a shell of his former self, an old man in a young man’s crumbling body, unloved and unwanted, with no one to mourn him. In the movie, he unexpectedly appears to feed on the journalist after Louis disappears. The blood rejuvenates him, and he drives off with the dying man, intending to make him a vampire.
1 The Journalist Didn’t Meet Lestat Or Armand In The End
The movie and the show have the journalist meeting one of Louis’ vampire companions at some point. In the show's season finale, Louis’ companion at the interview is revealed to be Armand. At the end of the movie, Lestat ambushes the journalist in his car.
In the book, though, the journalist never meets any other vampires besides Louis. The book ends with Louis disappearing and the journalist running off to find Lestat. The filmmakers changed the ending to make it a more conventional horror movie (and probably because they liked Lestat too much to leave him in his sad state). As for the show, no reason has been given yet for why Louis and Armand are still together.