The Vampire Lestat (2022) s01e01 Episode Script
In Throes of Increasing Wonder...
So, how long
have you been dead?
The year was 1910,
and I was being hunted.
I can give
you a dark gift.
You just have to ask me for it.
He's been watching
since we moved in.
- This isn't gonna be easy.
- When is it ever?
There are stories out
there that need to be told.
There's shit out
there that's just
you know, wrong.
People need to know
about it. That's the job.
It's not a complicated job,
other than how it'll
mess with your life.
News used to be a bunch
of guys who look like me
huddled around a desk
at a Page One meeting
deciding what the news was.
This little fucker
changed all of that.
I've been fired
from three papers,
hired back at two of them.
Third got gobbled
up by Knight Ridder.
So, to be clear here,
I'm a goddamn reservoir
of do's and don'ts.
Your sources are your Sherpas.
Your editor is your priest.
Honesty is not a tactic.
You still want this job?
It's your money.
I'm Daniel Molloy.
This is my Reporter:
The Russian backed
separatists have been
waging guerrilla warfare
- since 2014.
- Can he make his fantasy
a reality?
Walker at
the top of the key.
Pick and roll from Jones.
Walker drives and finishes.
With a tough left hand. That's
seven straight for Walker
Yeah. Hey, doc. Yeah.
Thanks for getting back to me.
I, uh Yes, that's
right. I have
I have an appointment scheduled
for later in the week,
but the the thing I'm
trying to figure out is,
what's the deal with this
sub-variant business?
I mean, is that more contagious?
Is it
Uh-huh.
Yeah, 'cause, I mean, there's
no reason to get more
Okay. So you think Yeah.
I mean, that's
what I'm thinking.
Why get any closer
to the bug than I
Than I need to?
Uh-huh. Uh-huh.
Uh-huh.
I gotta call you back.
Um, first question.
You weren't always
a vampire, were you?
No.
I was a 33-year-old man
when I became a vampire.
How did it come about?
There's a
simple answer to that.
I don't believe I wanna
give simple answers.
I think I want to
tell the real stor
"Dear Mr. Molloy.
I hope this letter finds
you safe and thriving,
if such a thing
were a possibility
in this bleak hour.
I've been following your
career with some interest
since our last meeting.
Please allow me to congratulate
you on all your successes,
those professional and
those personally redemptive.
The passage of time
and the frailties
that accompany it have
provided me perspective.
And I suspect the same
might be for you, as well.
I'm hoping health and pride
won't deter you from
the following proposal.
In a week's time, in a
setting of my choosing,
we revisit the project
boyish youth prevented
us from finishing.
49 years and thousands of miles
removed from the room we
shared in San Francisco,
I offer, for your
journalistic pleasures,
my full attention
and my life story.
All affinities,
Louis de Pointe du Lac."
I told my editor I
was meeting with the, uh,
most dangerous man in the world.
Gave him two choices.
He came back with
"Bezos. Putin."
He thinks I'm in Praskovéyevka.
You've grown old, Daniel.
Yeah, well, mortality
beats a heavy drum.
I wasn't sure you'd
remembered me.
Your book makes no mention
of our prior meeting.
Gritty memoir,
drugs, humiliation,
self-pity kind of thing.
Mention vampires
in one of those,
readers tend to call bullshit.
You've had some health
concerns of late.
Whole planet's having
a moment, I'd say.
You have Parkinson's
disease, Daniel.
Yeah.
And you've got your own
hangar at the airport,
privileges on the
Royal Meydan Bridge,
and zero presence online.
Have I hit a nerve?
I know the Emirates
are big on privacy,
and that's probably
important to you,
but I gotta ask,
what does it cost,
this haven't-aged-in-
half-a-century,
killer-views-in-
all-directions anonymity?
Quite a lot.
Only my family and my
doctor know I'm sick.
I don't dig the one-way hack.
Yeah?
And here's another question.
That's the sun out there.
Where's your coffin?
You're standing in it.
I have to be very
careful whom I let in.
Yeah, well, things didn't
end well the last time,
so forgive me if I'm
a little nervous.
This, after all I've told
you, is what you ask for, boy?!
Yeah, well, you don't
know what human life is like.
I mean, you've forgotten, man.
I mean, you don't even
understand the meaning
of your own story!
No! Hey, stop!
You were
disrespectful.
I was high.
You were not worthy
of my story then.
Maybe your story
wasn't worth telling.
You've got the tapes.
Hire a transcriber.
I don't do puff
portraiture anymore.
And yet, you got on a plane,
with an auto-immune disease,
in the middle of a pandemic.
Alright.
That's my voice, but
I don't remember it.
I ask all the wrong questions.
Yes. There's contradictions
in your story I
never follow up on.
Yes.
The few good ones I
do manage to get out,
you steamroll over them.
It's not an
interview. It's a
It's a fever dream
told to an idiot.
Yes.
And you?
Why again? What's changed?
The world, circumstances.
Me, I've changed.
And I, too, find
the tapes lacking.
So
a do-over.
Truth and reconciliation.
I ask the questions. You
answer the questions.
Anything that can't be verified,
I send to my researcher.
No third parties. I write it.
You get to see it
before it goes to print.
I get the final edit.
That is not the
agreement you signed.
And one more thing.
I do my best work one-on-one.
Would you see to
Mr. Molloy's room?
Have Chef prepare
a meal for him.
I think it best we start
when our boy's had a rest.
I am not your fucking boy.
I'm an old man with all the
triggers that come with it.
And I'm ready.
So let's do this.
I'm Daniel Molloy.
It is 10:08 in the
morning on June 14, 2022.
I'm in the penthouse apartment
of the Al Sharaf Towers
across from Mister
Louis de Pointe du Lac.
So
Mr. du Lac
how long have you been dead?
The year was 1910,
the fall of the fifth year
of my father's passing and
the fall of the fifth year
as the executor in charge
of the de Pointe du
Lac family trust.
The eldest son.
The favored son.
And a sizable trust to
oversee as a consequence.
Capital accrued from
plantations of sugar
and the blood of men who looked
like my great grandfather
but did not have his standing.
But then decades of Jim Crow
and the electrified
light of a new century
had vanquished any idea
of a free man of color.
So it followed the only
place in New Orleans
a gentleman of my complexion
could do a righteous business
was a neighborhood
called Storyville.
That was the old
red-light district. Yeah?
20 blocks of drinking, gambling,
and gluttonous whoring.
Okay, so as the
honorable executor
of the family's
estate, you were in
what business
exactly, Mr. du Lac?
You could say I
managed and operated
a diversified portfolio
of enterprises.
You were a pimp.
The product was desire,
and it came in as many forms
as there were ways to move it.
Of the two dozen sporting
houses on Liberty Street,
I owned eight of them.
Modest in proportion to
the venues on Basin Street.
What they lacked in
size and elegance,
they more than made up for
in efficiency and reputation.
Mr. du Lac.
Finn.
You hiding any bills in them
fat fucking rolls of yours?
I was, admittedly, a
rougher thing then.
Mr. du Lac!
You had to be if you
wanted to survive.
You couldn't look weak
on Liberty Street.
Damn, Doris, you gon' lose your
good leg runnin' out like that.
Mr. du Lac, sir,
we got bad trouble.
I apologize. I
apologize. I apologize.
I was only tryna
show you my love.
Fuck you.
What happened?
The cunny hit me!
Oh, I'm a cunny now?
A minute ago, I was his love.
Alderman Fenwick? Hmm?
You hit an alderman?
God damn it, Bricks.
He stuck it in my shitbox.
I did no such thing.
Gave him a chance to pull
out, and he kept on fucking,
so I gave him a little
squirt of my catfish dinner
for going there.
Don't believe me,
check his dick.
Who the fuck you talkin' to? I
ain't checkin' no man's dick.
Oh. Oh, goddamn.
Hell, I mighta even said
yes if you would just ask.
But I don't care who you is,
you put a dick in an asshole
without asking,
that's against Jesus.
Fuck you.
What
y'all laughin' at?
Someone go and
fetch Doc Johnson.
And you, get some clean
water and a towel.
Get your hands off me, nigger!
You gon' make me regret my
support, you repeat yourself,
Mr. Fenwick.
Louis de Pointe du Lac, sir.
Oh, Pointe du Lac.
Oh, forgive me. I
It was There's
so much wine.
Don't worry none. We'll
keep this here 'tween us.
Someone got the
good doc on the way.
Oh, Miss Williams.
Isn't she a vision?
I ain't cleanin' his dick.
Oh, Jesus, Mary.
Got a situation here, Finn.
Yeah, well, you got
another one outside 122.
Man acting the maggot,
driving away business.
Ain't that what I pay you for?
It's a citizen priest.
Do you not realize,
sister, your body
is part of Christ the Lord?
Second time this month.
When you take that body
and enjoin in harlotry
you are defiling the Lord.
And I could give two moons if
he's your brother, Mr. du Lac.
I'm gonna knock his skull
in the Pontchartrain!
You deny your
victory with Christ.
He shall come again to judge
the living and the dead.
And who has come and
gone will rise again
and throw their bodies
into everlasting fire.
Go on home. Tell
Mama not to wait up.
There's blood on your shirt.
What wickedness is it tonight?
You're not helping
me here, Paul.
Oh, but I am.
The Lord told me to come, Louis.
In my head, like a family
of birds, many voices,
but also one voice
Saying it a second time.
Listen to me, please.
I'm having a
fucking night, okay?
I can't have it with you foo
Get on home, else I'll bleed
ya like a kochon, bruh.
Did I want to pull
a knife on my brother?
No.
But as I alluded to before,
you couldn't look
weak on Liberty.
You never knew who was watching.
He pulled his
knife on me, Mamaw.
You were disrupting
mother's business interests.
D'you hear that, Mother?
He's made you a madam.
Oh, Paul.
Profiting from the
damnation of souls.
Let's not fuss on
the particulars.
Mornings with my family
followed a pattern that year.
My mother consumed
herself with preparations
for my sister's wedding,
while Paul confused
the dining table
with a pulpit none of
us would recognize.
We should tithe that
o'er to St. Augustine's
'fore this house falls in on us.
This is just a
temporary situation
until Louis can find us a
more respectable business.
Daddy was here, we'd
still be in sugar cane.
Daddy was alive, you'd
still be locked up
in that hospital in Jackson.
Louis, let's not have that talk.
A month from my wedding day,
and what do I dream about?
Dancing in my husband's arms?
Children running
in the yard? No.
I dream of what a quiet
breakfast might look like.
Your man Levi's a Baptist, no
respect for the Holy Mother.
Paul!
He's gon' make your
daughter jump a broom.
I'm sitting right
here. Plenty of brooms
down the street at the
Mayfair sisters' home.
He's calling me a witch, Mamaw.
Paul de Pointe du Lac,
you walk that back.
Your brother sounds
like a pain in the ass.
Fragile,
stubborn, indulged.
I'd promised our
father on his death bed
to look after him.
But when Paul's mind was
right, he was no burden.
Point of fact, I loved him
more than anyone on earth.
And our daily stroll
to St. Augustine
was the measure of
a good day started.
- Good morning, Paul.
- Good for you maybe.
Morning, Louis.
Pew's got a good shine.
If it wasn't beneath you,
I'd send shoes your way.
Nothing is beneath me, son.
I'm ready, Father.
I wanted to thank the family
for last Sunday's donation.
Baby-sitting money. Church
calms him down some.
Well, we're always here for him.
And the money goes a good
way towards the renovation.
I want Father
Matthias. Thank you.
You ain't got nothing
to confess to anyhow.
Wasting a good man's time.
Be right there, Paul.
I haven't seen you in
confession of late, Louis.
You know, you can always come
here if you're in need, son.
My business and my
raised religion were at odds,
and the, uh
latencies within me,
well, I beat those back
with a lie I told
myself about myself
That I was a red-blooded
son of the South,
seeking ass before absolution.
And you maintained
this delusion how exactly?
A particular woman who
worked for the competition.
As if rickety shacks
were a competition
for Tom Anderson's
Fairplay Saloon.
Ah, Louis du Lac.
The night begins.
Miss Carroll, Miss
Lily working tonight?
Miss Lily's on the terrace.
It was a palace of
opulence and splendor.
A Sazerac, Mr. du Lac?
That'll do fine, Miss Carroll.
And catered to an
almost exclusively
Caucasian clientele,
which helped me
separate the locals
from those visiting from
other southern states.
Shakin' the money
tree tonight I see,
Mr. Anderson, sir.
Can't see the dirt for
the dollars fallin'.
Private game on Friday if
your datebook is free, Louis.
Can do, Mr. Anderson. Can do.
I don't know
much what you're saying.
But it sure sounds nice.
"Only the impossible
can do the impossible."
Miss Lily.
Bonsoir, monsieur.
Do you speak French?
We speak all sorts of
tongues in New Orleans.
It's a hard table to
get. How'd you manage it?
How'd you manage to get
yourself through the front door?
Excuse me?
I mean that as a compliment,
a man of your race to
have privileges here.
Louis has a small empire
of his own down the street.
It gives
him privileges.
Somethin' funny about that?
Your name is Louis.
Of course it's Louis.
I didn't get your name, fella.
I know who you are, sir.
You're the man who made me buy
a townhouse in the quarter.
I owe you everything.
Please, join us.
I know sometimes men of my race,
we all look alike to you people.
But I didn't sell
you no townhouse.
Louis, have a seat.
Let me explain.
New to the the
New World, I am.
That explains the clothes.
A 19th-century
man at heart, yes,
making his, uh, trans-Atlantic
journey by ship,
planning very carefully on
settling myself upriver.
The Sazerac, sir.
Put that on my
account, thank you.
And two more for us.
And another round for the
musicians, whatever they want.
Yes, sir.
Oh, where was I?
On a boat.
So, I'm out on
the Crescent coast,
floating past your village,
when I hear music playing,
and the shadows of men and women
dancing by the water's edge.
I disembarked for the music,
but then there was the food.
What's been your favorite
this year, Mr. Lioncourt?
A favorite?
Mm. Mm.
She puts a pistol to my head.
I couldn't believe it.
Staring me down as his hands
went wandering the seams
of Miss Lily's dress.
I wanted to take
the end of my cane
and slit his throat with it.
Why didn't you?
I couldn't move.
My body was seized
with weakness.
His gaze tied a string
around my lungs,
and I found myself immobilized.
And the women, all
shades of skin
White, Black, cinnamon.
I've emptied a bank vault
sampling, I must say.
But it was not until
a few nights later
that I said to myself
"Lestat, unpack your trunks.
You're home."
What did he say just now?
A little more than he should of.
I had planned to make a new
life for myself in St. Louis.
That was to be my destiny.
And now I know I was right.
Only it turns out the
saint is not a city,
but a handsome man with a
most agreeable disposition.
You're his destiny, Louis.
Destined to be
very good friends.
The Orient room is available
for the next few hours,
Miss Lily.
The gentlemen are swappin'
andouille sausage
recipes, Miss Carroll.
Hmm.
The Orient
room is yours, monsieur.
Please get my friend
here anything he wants.
Wonderful to meet you.
I do hope I run into
you again, Louis.
Emasculation and
admiration in equal measure.
I wanted to murder the man,
and I wanted to be the man.
I had come there for Lily.
But I left thinking of only him.
Come now.
Who the devil
Our friends in the
police tell me there's
an outbreak of fever in town.
It's unfortunates living
near the wharf, mostly.
If you find yourself
riverside of Decatur
you
have only yourself
to blame, I say.
Agreed.
Still, very peculiar, they say.
Each one the same
Small wounds to the body,
and upon examination,
entirely devoid of blood.
It is their theory
some new kind of rat
has come ashore.
Of the six-foot variety.
We call those
bureaucrats in France.
Gentlemen, well, you
all know Louis du Lac.
Louis, let me introduce you
to Mr. Lestat de Lioncourt.
We met already,
Mr. Anderson, sir.
In front of a
florist, wasn't it?
We both wanted the
last bouquet of lilies.
Aren't you gonna ask the
alderman how his head is, Louis?
Now, why would I do
that, Mr. Anderson, sir?
You see, Mr. Fenwick,
just as I told you,
a most discreet Negro.
Would that his doctor
had the same standards.
Gentlemen, show your cards.
Hoo! Mr. Lioncourt,
your hand is incomprehensible.
Oh, yes.
I'm terrible at cards.
Did I not mention
that to everyone?
Would you mind getting me some
more of these money chips?
Louis, did you know
that Alderman Fenwick here
recently purchased
both the title and deed
to the Horton rooming
house on Villere Street?
Yeah, Mr. Anderson
believes it could make
a fine sportin' house.
I recommended the alderman
find a managing partner
before he commits his money.
I recommended he
think of you, Louis.
Very kind of you,
Mr. Anderson, sir.
What do you
think of the location?
It ain't Basin Street.
But throw enough Edison
bulbs on the facade,
get a good margin
on the alcohol,
no-nonsense madam to
keep the girls clean,
I reckon a man could
make a decent sum.
Yes, sir, Mr. Fenwick, sir.
I said you'd do
it for 10 percent.
A-all
respects, Mr. Anderson,
but you proposing 10
percent for all the work?
15%?
There's capital investment,
and there's labor.
Both has its seat at the table.
Wouldn't you say, Mr. Lestat?
Well, I can only speak
of my experience,
which is, I'm sure,
different in my country.
Par exemple, you fine gentlemen
have heard of the success story
that is Le Bon Marché, shopping
experience like no other.
Aristide Boucicaut
invests in a new vision
These men
look down on you.
I have to say, I find it
appalling how men like yourself
are treated in this
country of yours.
It is undeniable. I came
to my wealth honestly
and at great
sacrifice, I might add.
However, it was not
the sacrifice of many.
I had no partners
in my various
- 10 percent.
- The financial risks
15 percent.
Do you not know your value?
Do you suffer these indignities
for some larger purpose?
And do you think two
pair will win the hour?
I believe there is great
opportunity in this city,
but to seize it, I'll need
protection from the wolves.
And that's all to say,
forgive me, Mr. de
Pointe du Lac,
for my bias, but
where is the business
if there is no capital?
It does not exist.
No? Alright, boys.
Show 'em.
Ooh.
Full boat, Mr. du Lac.
Got you beat, Tom.
He wouldn't
tell me how he did it,
his trick to make
the world stop.
"In time, Louis.
Patience, Louis.
Ask me next week, Louis."
You started
hanging out?
He was in
love with my city
and wanted to know
everything he could about it.
So you played docent
to the gentleman vampire?
He had not revealed
his vampire nature yet.
I'm assuming you
only met at night.
It's New Orleans.
Days are for sleeping off the
previous evening's damage.
Perfect cover for a vampire.
Racing ahead
again, Mr. Molloy.
Let the tale seduce you.
Just as I was seduced.
Money would arrive,
wired from France,
and the shopkeepers, who
would usually close at sunset,
were very happy to
accommodate him.
He ransacked the import houses
to furnish his town house,
ravaged the booksellers
of their oldest volumes
for a library,
and, with encouragement,
updated his wardrobe
to the fashion
trends of the season.
It was a cold winter that year,
and Lestat was my coal fire.
And I found myself for
the very first time,
to anyone other than Paul,
confiding my struggles
to another man.
I was being hunted.
And I was completely
unaware it was happening.
I'm switchin' rooms.
I don't need to hear you and
your good man making noise.
You'd have to
be home to hear that.
I come home nights. You
come home some nights.
Out cattin' with some
white man, I hear.
He ain't white, he French.
Oh. That's a new
kind of white, is it?
French white?
He different.
Invite him over for dinner.
Mother loves European.
I'm gon' tell Levi you
fishin' for a richer man.
Don't. Don't deny your sister.
I wanna meet this French white.
I'm just trying to give
you the word of the Lord.
Understa Yes. Yes.
No. That is never my
Paul crawled up on
my bed last night.
Wept for good near an hour.
He ain't takin' it,
you gettin' married.
Levi told me of a
place over in Gretna,
takes in men like Paul.
It's not some crazy
person's house like
How'd that work last time, huh?
He come out worse than before.
Gretna. It ain't happenin'.
He died on the cross for you.
Yes you.
I worry.
I worry so much Worry
about your own life.
Worry about being a bride.
Worry about what you gon' wear
in London, in Paris, Florence.
Now, y'all gon' be in
steerage outta New York,
but once you get to Europe,
it's first class on boats,
trains, and hotel rooms.
What did you go
and do?
You should put the
band by the deck
and the food by the fountain.
Mamaw!
I'm goin' 'round
the world!
I can't thank you
enough, Mama du Lac.
I never been east of Alabama,
and now I'm going
to see the pyramids.
Oh, I think every
young family deserves
a little adventure.
Wouldn't you say,
Monsieur Lioncourt?
Oui, Madame.
My mother, she gave me
every advantage in life
as a young man.
My first Mastiff,
first flintlock rifle,
the means to make
my way to Paris.
It was Louis that purchased
your holiday, Levi.
It's Louis who
controls the money.
Pay no mind, Levi.
And I don't know who
gave you the right
to call our mother your mother.
She's not your mother yet
and will never be your
scientific mother.
Paul.
I do love this bouillabaisse.
Wha?
Down here, we call it gumbo.
We had a gumbo the other
night, didn't we, Louis?
Uh, right after the opera.
Oh, we've got Louis to an opera.
"Iolanta." 'Bout
some blind princess,
didn't know she was a princess.
Stomach got grumbling,
left half way through.
And what exactly is the nature
of your relationship with
my brother, Monsieur Lioncourt?
Your brother and I
have been discussing
a few investment opportunities.
The birds asked me to ask you.
I wasn't being rude.
Monsieur Freniere,
would you tell me
how you came to propose to
this delightsome young woman?
Oh, that's a good yarn.
Are you one with
Christ, Mr. Lioncourt?
How 'bout you shut
your damn mouth?
Louis.
That's alright,
Louis, Madame, the
birds speak for him.
I came to know Christ
in a monastery.
I wanted to be a priest.
Just like you, Paul.
And under the guidance and
discipline of the monks
who lived there, I came to
memorize both the testaments,
the writings of Assisi,
Aquinas, Erasmus, all
the saints and scholars.
My father, a vulgar man, did not
think much of this education,
and so he and my brothers
conspired to pull me out,
lock me away, where,
between beatings,
starvations, and the
failure of Christ
to intercede the
beatings and starvations,
I slowly forgot all about
the testaments, Assisi,
Aquinas, Erasmus, all of it.
Stop. And so to answer
your boring question,
there is an ocean
between Christ
and myself. Stop!
Don't do that shit here!
Not with my family.
You understand?
I am cursed with my
father's temper at times,
and the rudeness is all mine.
That's alright.
It's the humidity. It
does that sometimes.
Why don't we have some ice wine?
And Levi here can
tell us all again
how he won my joychild's heart.
I fear your family has taken
a permanent offense at me.
When Paul ain't
pickin' at his plate,
he pickin' a fight.
If I had your tricks,
I'd have done the same.
You must envy him.
The boy thinks God speaks to
him through birds in his head.
How you figure envy?
The liberty he has
with his thoughts.
However misshapen they may be,
your brother has no
shame in sharing them.
You sayin' I got shame?
The lie you told about
leaving the opera house early.
You were near weeping
when the curtain fell.
Why hide that from your family?
Don't everybody need
to know what I do.
Dishonesty breeds dishonesty.
They sit in judgment.
Paul is the only one
to say it to my face,
but I know my ma and
Grace think it, too.
My daddy ran our sugar
business into a swamp.
When he passed, we
was four months
Four months from going bankrupt
if I didn't do something.
You don't need to defend
yourself to me, Louis.
I know what you go through
to keep your family
ignorant in their comfort.
It ain't easy, the work I do.
Nothing but broken
souls around me,
and the ones that
ain't broke are greedy.
Bone-tired.
Drink up, my good man.
The Earth's a savage garden.
You did good gettin' off
that boat when you did.
St. Louis is dull
as dishwater.
Yes, I feel quite at home here.
Shall we have a nightcap?
Um
Probably had enough for tonight.
Gotta make my rounds
back on Liberty.
You must, Louis.
I bought you a gift.
A gift?
A flower.
That's a nice music
box you got there.
It's one of the few
things I brought with me
from the continent.
What's that lil' song playin'?
Do you like it?
I composed it for a young
violinist I once knew,
a boy of infinite
beauty and sensitivity.
I believe that is for
the lips, Miss Lily.
I don't like the
way mine look plain.
And Mr. du Lac don't
mind when I do it.
Mm-hmm.
A pair of misfit beauties.
I can see why you
both run to the other.
Miss Carroll know
you're here, Lily?
I can assure you,
the Fairplay has been
handsomely compensated
for the evening.
Sent a two-horse
carriage to pick me up.
Felt like the queen
of the quarter.
I told Mr. Lioncourt, you
and me usually just talk.
And why is that, Louis?
What kind of a man wastes
this waist with words?
A beautiful man.
There's nothing to
be nervous about.
The curtains are closed,
the servants sent home.
Even the planets and
stars are blindfolded.
That's your thing,
then? You like to watch?
I've been watching
you for some time now, Louis.
From river to lake,
lake back to river,
looking for my companion heart.
How you do that?
Do what?
Do what?
Get in my head like that.
Such a pretty head.
That's fine, love.
Ah. Ah.
It bears repeating, I
did not consider myself
a homosexual man at the time.
I mean, I had had experiences.
Guilt, shame,
floating-on-a-sea-of-vodka
type encounters.
Obviously, I've come to
embrace my sexuality.
Course, you know that.
We met at a gay bar,
didn't we, Daniel?
It was a good place to score.
I did what I had to.
You've been married?
Twice.
But we're not here
for me, are we?
When you were using
drugs, Mr. Molloy,
do you remember the
best you ever had?
Berkeley, 1978.
Some Mexican black tar that
Carly and Pedro were slinging.
So imagine that
flowing inside your veins again.
Now multiply it by miles,
to the rings of Saturn and back.
He had taken what he
called "un petit coup"
The little drink.
Not enough to kill me,
but just enough to keep him fit.
It takes an enormous
amount of restraint for us,
the little drink.
For a human, experiencing
it for the first time,
it was
unsettling.
And not for the physical
toll on my body,
which was significant,
but for the feelings of
intimacy it awoke within me.
I had never allowed myself
to feel emotionally
close to anyone,
much less a man.
I had no room for feelings
like these in my life.
You could be a lot of
things in New Orleans,
but an openly gay Negro
man was not one of 'em.
I vowed never to return again.
I shut that night out of my mind
and turned my attentions back
to life as it was before.
One, two, three, jump!
Hold still now.
We are missing
my father today.
He's supposed to dance with
me to start the night off.
I'm trying not to cry now.
And I thought the best
way to honor Daddy
would be to make my
brothers do the work.
Mm!
Mm-hmm.
Half of y'all don't know this,
but these no-good boys used to
shuffle for pennies on Sunday.
Called themselves
"The ABCDEFGs".
Remember
that, Father Matthias?
Oh, yes. ABCDE
"Alter Boys Come Dancing
Every day For God." "For God."
That's right!
I remember
their collection hat
didn't always make it
to the collection plate.
That's right.
Paul, Louis?
Oh, come
on, now. Please!
Hey, now. Come on, please!
It's for me
on my wedding day.
Come on, brother.
Alright!
Shoes are tight.
Oh, the shoes is fine.
It's the feet that's fat.
Hey, what kinda
rhythm you want, boss?
Just play it loud so
they can't hear our feet.
Alright. What you remember?
Um
Hey, come on.
- Hey!
- Go ahead now!
- Whoo!
- Hey! Hey!
You still got it!
Alright! Okay!
They still got it!
- Oh!
- Yeah, Louis!
Okay. You ain't gon' do
it. You ain't gon' do it.
That's right!
Amazing.
We gonna miss it.
Quit talkin'. I
have to concentrate.
It's them three pieces of
checkered cake holding you back.
Five pieces of checkered
cake, the Pompano fillet,
three boudins, dirty rice,
beef, green beans,
five, six wines.
Eat anything else,
the buttons on your
vest gon' pop off
like cannon balls,
take down the neighborhood.
9,517.
That's how many days
we've been in his house.
You do that math
all by yourself?
You remember the day
I got taller than you?
Always bringin' that up.
Shot up like a Nuttall oak.
Daddy said I was gon' look down
on you for the rest of days.
Yeah, yeah.
Half an inch.
That was a good
month, that month.
I think you should
get married next.
Do you now?
And you should marry Hazel.
Hazel? Who that?
The one you were
dancing too close with.
You dance that close,
you ought to be married.
I didn't catch her name.
Well, it's Hazel.
You still doing business
with that man Lestat?
Nah. Didn't work out.
That's good.
'Cause he the Devil.
You think everyone's the Devil.
He's here to take
souls. He told me so.
He spoke to me without
moving his lips.
He got tricks is all.
Mortal sins must be
confessed, Louis.
Ain't never gon'
see him again, Paul.
You think Levi loves her enough?
You know, Grace
needs a lot of love.
I do.
Do you think he's givin' her
everything he's got inside him?
Mm-hmm.
Mother made a good
party for Grace.
Mm-hmm, yeah.
Yeah, they gon' talk
about this one for years.
Yeah.
I love you, Louis.
And I love you,
too, baby brother.
I ate too much checkered cake.
Paul.
Paul!
Paul!
Oh, my lord! Paul!
That was the last
sunrise I ever saw.
Perhaps the kindest thing
the dark gift has given me.
I don't miss the sun,
the reminders it carries.
I have seen death over and over
and over and over again.
It's boring.
That'll make a great blurb.
The diagnosis you
received, Daniel,
it winds your clock.
This virus has turned
the world sideways.
I get it.
I'm gonna die.
They're gonna die.
But not the vampire.
The vampire is bored.
The human was destroyed.
Utterly destroyed.
I was
at the funeral home.
Everything is
going as it should.
Good men there.
Promised me that
You musta said
something to him, Louis.
You musta said something to him
to make him do that to himself.
Paul slipped and fell, Florence.
I don't think this is
something you want to pursue.
He was a fragile boy.
He always was.
And you, you always had
to have the last word,
didn't you, Louis?
You always had to
take him down a peg.
Mamaw.
What did you say to him?
Why was you even up there?
Watchin' the sun come up, Mama.
You don't get past the gates
iffen you kill yourself.
Don't you know that?
Paul gone down the other way.
Paul's in Hell because of you.
Storyville
lowered their hats,
gave their propers,
because it was custom.
But if you look past those
lined up on the sidewalk,
you'd see the bars
hadn't stopped serving,
the whores hadn't
stopped whoring.
What was Paul's
life worth to them?
What was my life worth?
The big man of Liberty Street,
trailing the satin-lined
evidence of his failure.
Easy prey for the
discerning predator.
An elegant coffin. Would you
tell me where you purchased
Move on.
I wait on my
balcony every night.
You've been avoiding me.
I have been occupied.
Miss Lily proved herself
a poor substitute.
And I don't take kindly
to being avoided.
It's my brother's funeral!
Believe me when I tell you,
your brother longed
for that flagstone.
What'd you say to me?!
I got it, boss. Keep walking.
Lestat's ambush
had disoriented me.
The sermon that was
given, I could not hear.
And when the gathering
cut loose the body,
I could not join
the transformation
of those in attendance.
He would not let me.
Come to me.
Come to me.
No.
Walk you home, Mama?
No, thank you.
Levi, do you mind?
Of course, Mama Du Lac.
She didn't mean nothin' by it.
Oh, but she did now.
She just needs to
put it somewhere.
Don't let it inside.
See you back at the wake?
Come to me.
I did not
go to the wake.
I did not want to face
my mother's blame
my sister's pity.
I wanted to grieve alone.
But he would not allow it.
Come to me, Louis.
Come to me.
Hello, handsome.
Sazerac.
My heart broke when I heard
of your brother's passing.
Miss Lily.
Oh, my dear.
I don't care if she
busy with someone.
I'll pay more.
'Cause I like Miss Lily,
and I need Miss Lily.
Miss Lily died, Mr. du Lac.
Two weeks ago.
Police found her
under the docks.
Said she contracted the fevers
that's been going around.
Blood went and
dried up inside her.
Viens à moi.
Father!
Father Matthias!
Help me!
Help me, please. He's
in my head, Father.
The Devil is in New Orleans.
Calm down, son.
Catch your breath.
Bless me, Father,
f-for I have sinned.
Grievously sinned.
Sign of the cross, son.
I'm a drunk, Lord.
I'm a liar.
I am a thief, Lord.
I profit off the
miseries of other men,
and I do it easy.
Drugs, liquor, women.
I-I-I-I lure them in and
grab what they got, Lord.
I take daughters with no homes
and I-I put 'em out
on the street, Lord,
and I lie to myself, saying
I-I'm giving them a roof
and food and dollar
bills in they pocket,
but I look in the mirror,
I know what I am
The big man in the big house,
stuffing cotton in my ears
so I can't hear their cries.
And Lord, I dragged my family
into this mess with me.
I shame my father.
I f I failed my brother.
No, son.
I lost my mother and sister,
and rather than fix it
like a man should, Lord,
I run like a coward.
I run to the bottle.
I run to the grift.
I run to bad beds.
I-I laid down with a man.
I laid down with the Devil.
And he has roots in me,
all his spindly roots in me,
and I can't think
nothin' anymore
but his voice and his words!
Please, help me!
I am weak!
I wanna die!
Oh!
No!
Do you think God
heard you, Louis,
in that tawdry box,
through this pig vessel,
this this charlatan?
Do you not see how
unworthy he is?
How can you humiliate
yourself like this?!
You killed Lily.
Cut short that magnificent
life she was living.
What a tragedy.
Ain't no fever out
there. That's you.
You bringin' the death to town.
I give death to those deserving.
I'm not the Devil.
You were wrong about that.
But I can give you death.
This primitive country
has picked you clean.
It has shackled you
in permanent exile.
Every room you enter,
every hat you are
forced to wear
The stern landlord, the
deferential businessman,
the loyal son
All these roles you conform to
and none of them
your true nature.
What rage you must feel as
you choke on your sorrow.
The first time I
laid eyes on you,
your beautiful face,
I saw that sorrow.
I did not know how it got there
or why it was so voluminous.
I can take away
that sorrow, Louis.
I can give you that death
you begged your feeble,
blind, degenerate,
nonexistent god for.
But I can do it
joyfully.
I can swap this life of shame,
swap it out for a dark gift
and a power you can't
begin to imagine.
You just have to ask me for it.
You just have to nod
your beautiful head
and say yes.
I love you, Louis.
You are loved.
I send my love to you,
and you send it
back round to me.
And this circle,
this home we barely
had a glimpse of
know it frightens me
as much as it does you.
It is
difficult to explain
how his words disarmed me,
how efficiently succinct
and impenetrable
his argument was.
All my conceptions,
even my guilt and my wish to die
seemed utterly unimportant,
and I completely forgot myself
and the barbaric scene
that surrounded me.
For the first time in
my life, I was seen.
Be my companion, Louis.
Be all the beautiful
things you are,
and be them without apology.
For all eternity.
He drained me to the
very threshold of death.
Mm.
The blood, it came as
a dull roar at first.
And then a pounding,
like the pounding of a drum,
growing louder and louder,
as if some enormous creature
were coming through a
dark and alien forest.
A huge drum.
And then, there came a
pounding of another drum,
as if another giant
were coming behind him,
each giant intent
on his own drum,
giving no notice to the
rhythm of the other.
Throbbing in my lips, fingers,
and flesh of my temple.
Above all, in my veins.
Drum, and then the other drum.
I opened my eyes.
And it was then that I realized
the drum was my heart,
and the other drum had been his.
I saw him sitting a
length away from me.
Radiant.
And we sat there for some time.
In throes of increasing wonder.
The end.
The beginning.
I'm a vampire.
I walked my entire
life as a dead man
and now could finally receive
the secrets of existence.
You alone of all creatures can
strike like the hand of God.
I did not readily
take to killing.
You're ashamed of what we are.
And then my Claudia,
my redemption.
We're a family?
No! Don't!
For a killing machine,
I kind of like her.
Am I from the devil?
Is my very nature
that of the devil?
This is not a life!
That is 'cause you took my life!
Embrace what you are!
You are a killer, Louis!
Okay.
Did you eat the baby?
I'm Daniel Molloy,
across from Mr
Louis de Pointe du Lac.
So, Mr. du Lac, how
long have you been dead?
Hi, I'm Rolin Jones,
Executive Producer for
"Interview with the Vampire,"
and this is your
Episode Insider.
There are stories at there
that need to be told.
I'm Daniel Molloy.
Daniel Molly, he's a
journalist who's sort of on
the nadir of his career,
and a package arrives
and inside is a
great deal of history
that he did not
want to remember.
I got to call you back.
When he was
a young journalist,
he made a series of
tapes with a vampire.
I think I want
to tell the real stor
He's sort of given an invitation
to revisit this interview
and do it right and
proper when both
have lived a little
life and are way more
comfortable in their skin.
So a do over.
Truth and reconciliation.
He's a very different vampire,
so he's got a lot on his mind.
Lestat sees Louis
de Pointe du Lac
for the first time pulling
a knife on his brother,
and oh, that's intriguing.
There's some potential there
to be a companion predator.
Then, in the middle
of this poker scene,
you can see he has
been on his mind.
There's a shot where he's
sort of staring longingly
at Louis while Louis is
shining his business acumen,
and he goes, "I'm
gonna show him.
I'm gonna give him
a little insight
about what I can do.
These men look down on you.
I find it appalling
how men like yourself
are treated in this country.
So he does a little vampire
parlor trick, as it were.
I believe there is great
opportunity in this city,
but to see that, I'll need
protection from the wolves.
There is a sort of
predator angle to this.
Louis fully admits later
I was being hunted.
Lestat would not see that.
Lestat would say I
was courting him.
Come to me, Louis.
That take Louis to a place
where he find the church is
the only place he can go.
Help me, please. He's
in my head, Father.
Lestat has entered his
mind, heart and soul,
and he wants it out and
he's feeling great regret.
I laid down with the devil.
Help me!
I am weak, and I want to die.
He just pours it out,
screaming to a God
he hasn't talked
to in a long time.
Lestat has a very different
idea about organized religion.
This charlatan!
Do you not see how
unworthy he is?
How could you humiliate
yourself like this?!
We are catching Lestat
at a very vulnerable
and emotionally
out-of-control moment,
and he takes it out
on these two priest
in front of Louis and then
has to make a very, very
quick and aggressive 360 and try
to really give the big pitch.
I can swap this life of shame,
swap it out for a dark gift
and a power you can't
begin to imagine.
He manages to pull it off
The idea of being seen, the
idea of him being loved.
Be my companion, Louis.
Be all the beautiful
things you are.
And despite the barbaric
scene, as he says,
he got him at the right moment.
And we set
there for some time
in throes of increasing wonder.
The end.
The beginning.
have you been dead?
The year was 1910,
and I was being hunted.
I can give
you a dark gift.
You just have to ask me for it.
He's been watching
since we moved in.
- This isn't gonna be easy.
- When is it ever?
There are stories out
there that need to be told.
There's shit out
there that's just
you know, wrong.
People need to know
about it. That's the job.
It's not a complicated job,
other than how it'll
mess with your life.
News used to be a bunch
of guys who look like me
huddled around a desk
at a Page One meeting
deciding what the news was.
This little fucker
changed all of that.
I've been fired
from three papers,
hired back at two of them.
Third got gobbled
up by Knight Ridder.
So, to be clear here,
I'm a goddamn reservoir
of do's and don'ts.
Your sources are your Sherpas.
Your editor is your priest.
Honesty is not a tactic.
You still want this job?
It's your money.
I'm Daniel Molloy.
This is my Reporter:
The Russian backed
separatists have been
waging guerrilla warfare
- since 2014.
- Can he make his fantasy
a reality?
Walker at
the top of the key.
Pick and roll from Jones.
Walker drives and finishes.
With a tough left hand. That's
seven straight for Walker
Yeah. Hey, doc. Yeah.
Thanks for getting back to me.
I, uh Yes, that's
right. I have
I have an appointment scheduled
for later in the week,
but the the thing I'm
trying to figure out is,
what's the deal with this
sub-variant business?
I mean, is that more contagious?
Is it
Uh-huh.
Yeah, 'cause, I mean, there's
no reason to get more
Okay. So you think Yeah.
I mean, that's
what I'm thinking.
Why get any closer
to the bug than I
Than I need to?
Uh-huh. Uh-huh.
Uh-huh.
I gotta call you back.
Um, first question.
You weren't always
a vampire, were you?
No.
I was a 33-year-old man
when I became a vampire.
How did it come about?
There's a
simple answer to that.
I don't believe I wanna
give simple answers.
I think I want to
tell the real stor
"Dear Mr. Molloy.
I hope this letter finds
you safe and thriving,
if such a thing
were a possibility
in this bleak hour.
I've been following your
career with some interest
since our last meeting.
Please allow me to congratulate
you on all your successes,
those professional and
those personally redemptive.
The passage of time
and the frailties
that accompany it have
provided me perspective.
And I suspect the same
might be for you, as well.
I'm hoping health and pride
won't deter you from
the following proposal.
In a week's time, in a
setting of my choosing,
we revisit the project
boyish youth prevented
us from finishing.
49 years and thousands of miles
removed from the room we
shared in San Francisco,
I offer, for your
journalistic pleasures,
my full attention
and my life story.
All affinities,
Louis de Pointe du Lac."
I told my editor I
was meeting with the, uh,
most dangerous man in the world.
Gave him two choices.
He came back with
"Bezos. Putin."
He thinks I'm in Praskovéyevka.
You've grown old, Daniel.
Yeah, well, mortality
beats a heavy drum.
I wasn't sure you'd
remembered me.
Your book makes no mention
of our prior meeting.
Gritty memoir,
drugs, humiliation,
self-pity kind of thing.
Mention vampires
in one of those,
readers tend to call bullshit.
You've had some health
concerns of late.
Whole planet's having
a moment, I'd say.
You have Parkinson's
disease, Daniel.
Yeah.
And you've got your own
hangar at the airport,
privileges on the
Royal Meydan Bridge,
and zero presence online.
Have I hit a nerve?
I know the Emirates
are big on privacy,
and that's probably
important to you,
but I gotta ask,
what does it cost,
this haven't-aged-in-
half-a-century,
killer-views-in-
all-directions anonymity?
Quite a lot.
Only my family and my
doctor know I'm sick.
I don't dig the one-way hack.
Yeah?
And here's another question.
That's the sun out there.
Where's your coffin?
You're standing in it.
I have to be very
careful whom I let in.
Yeah, well, things didn't
end well the last time,
so forgive me if I'm
a little nervous.
This, after all I've told
you, is what you ask for, boy?!
Yeah, well, you don't
know what human life is like.
I mean, you've forgotten, man.
I mean, you don't even
understand the meaning
of your own story!
No! Hey, stop!
You were
disrespectful.
I was high.
You were not worthy
of my story then.
Maybe your story
wasn't worth telling.
You've got the tapes.
Hire a transcriber.
I don't do puff
portraiture anymore.
And yet, you got on a plane,
with an auto-immune disease,
in the middle of a pandemic.
Alright.
That's my voice, but
I don't remember it.
I ask all the wrong questions.
Yes. There's contradictions
in your story I
never follow up on.
Yes.
The few good ones I
do manage to get out,
you steamroll over them.
It's not an
interview. It's a
It's a fever dream
told to an idiot.
Yes.
And you?
Why again? What's changed?
The world, circumstances.
Me, I've changed.
And I, too, find
the tapes lacking.
So
a do-over.
Truth and reconciliation.
I ask the questions. You
answer the questions.
Anything that can't be verified,
I send to my researcher.
No third parties. I write it.
You get to see it
before it goes to print.
I get the final edit.
That is not the
agreement you signed.
And one more thing.
I do my best work one-on-one.
Would you see to
Mr. Molloy's room?
Have Chef prepare
a meal for him.
I think it best we start
when our boy's had a rest.
I am not your fucking boy.
I'm an old man with all the
triggers that come with it.
And I'm ready.
So let's do this.
I'm Daniel Molloy.
It is 10:08 in the
morning on June 14, 2022.
I'm in the penthouse apartment
of the Al Sharaf Towers
across from Mister
Louis de Pointe du Lac.
So
Mr. du Lac
how long have you been dead?
The year was 1910,
the fall of the fifth year
of my father's passing and
the fall of the fifth year
as the executor in charge
of the de Pointe du
Lac family trust.
The eldest son.
The favored son.
And a sizable trust to
oversee as a consequence.
Capital accrued from
plantations of sugar
and the blood of men who looked
like my great grandfather
but did not have his standing.
But then decades of Jim Crow
and the electrified
light of a new century
had vanquished any idea
of a free man of color.
So it followed the only
place in New Orleans
a gentleman of my complexion
could do a righteous business
was a neighborhood
called Storyville.
That was the old
red-light district. Yeah?
20 blocks of drinking, gambling,
and gluttonous whoring.
Okay, so as the
honorable executor
of the family's
estate, you were in
what business
exactly, Mr. du Lac?
You could say I
managed and operated
a diversified portfolio
of enterprises.
You were a pimp.
The product was desire,
and it came in as many forms
as there were ways to move it.
Of the two dozen sporting
houses on Liberty Street,
I owned eight of them.
Modest in proportion to
the venues on Basin Street.
What they lacked in
size and elegance,
they more than made up for
in efficiency and reputation.
Mr. du Lac.
Finn.
You hiding any bills in them
fat fucking rolls of yours?
I was, admittedly, a
rougher thing then.
Mr. du Lac!
You had to be if you
wanted to survive.
You couldn't look weak
on Liberty Street.
Damn, Doris, you gon' lose your
good leg runnin' out like that.
Mr. du Lac, sir,
we got bad trouble.
I apologize. I
apologize. I apologize.
I was only tryna
show you my love.
Fuck you.
What happened?
The cunny hit me!
Oh, I'm a cunny now?
A minute ago, I was his love.
Alderman Fenwick? Hmm?
You hit an alderman?
God damn it, Bricks.
He stuck it in my shitbox.
I did no such thing.
Gave him a chance to pull
out, and he kept on fucking,
so I gave him a little
squirt of my catfish dinner
for going there.
Don't believe me,
check his dick.
Who the fuck you talkin' to? I
ain't checkin' no man's dick.
Oh. Oh, goddamn.
Hell, I mighta even said
yes if you would just ask.
But I don't care who you is,
you put a dick in an asshole
without asking,
that's against Jesus.
Fuck you.
What
y'all laughin' at?
Someone go and
fetch Doc Johnson.
And you, get some clean
water and a towel.
Get your hands off me, nigger!
You gon' make me regret my
support, you repeat yourself,
Mr. Fenwick.
Louis de Pointe du Lac, sir.
Oh, Pointe du Lac.
Oh, forgive me. I
It was There's
so much wine.
Don't worry none. We'll
keep this here 'tween us.
Someone got the
good doc on the way.
Oh, Miss Williams.
Isn't she a vision?
I ain't cleanin' his dick.
Oh, Jesus, Mary.
Got a situation here, Finn.
Yeah, well, you got
another one outside 122.
Man acting the maggot,
driving away business.
Ain't that what I pay you for?
It's a citizen priest.
Do you not realize,
sister, your body
is part of Christ the Lord?
Second time this month.
When you take that body
and enjoin in harlotry
you are defiling the Lord.
And I could give two moons if
he's your brother, Mr. du Lac.
I'm gonna knock his skull
in the Pontchartrain!
You deny your
victory with Christ.
He shall come again to judge
the living and the dead.
And who has come and
gone will rise again
and throw their bodies
into everlasting fire.
Go on home. Tell
Mama not to wait up.
There's blood on your shirt.
What wickedness is it tonight?
You're not helping
me here, Paul.
Oh, but I am.
The Lord told me to come, Louis.
In my head, like a family
of birds, many voices,
but also one voice
Saying it a second time.
Listen to me, please.
I'm having a
fucking night, okay?
I can't have it with you foo
Get on home, else I'll bleed
ya like a kochon, bruh.
Did I want to pull
a knife on my brother?
No.
But as I alluded to before,
you couldn't look
weak on Liberty.
You never knew who was watching.
He pulled his
knife on me, Mamaw.
You were disrupting
mother's business interests.
D'you hear that, Mother?
He's made you a madam.
Oh, Paul.
Profiting from the
damnation of souls.
Let's not fuss on
the particulars.
Mornings with my family
followed a pattern that year.
My mother consumed
herself with preparations
for my sister's wedding,
while Paul confused
the dining table
with a pulpit none of
us would recognize.
We should tithe that
o'er to St. Augustine's
'fore this house falls in on us.
This is just a
temporary situation
until Louis can find us a
more respectable business.
Daddy was here, we'd
still be in sugar cane.
Daddy was alive, you'd
still be locked up
in that hospital in Jackson.
Louis, let's not have that talk.
A month from my wedding day,
and what do I dream about?
Dancing in my husband's arms?
Children running
in the yard? No.
I dream of what a quiet
breakfast might look like.
Your man Levi's a Baptist, no
respect for the Holy Mother.
Paul!
He's gon' make your
daughter jump a broom.
I'm sitting right
here. Plenty of brooms
down the street at the
Mayfair sisters' home.
He's calling me a witch, Mamaw.
Paul de Pointe du Lac,
you walk that back.
Your brother sounds
like a pain in the ass.
Fragile,
stubborn, indulged.
I'd promised our
father on his death bed
to look after him.
But when Paul's mind was
right, he was no burden.
Point of fact, I loved him
more than anyone on earth.
And our daily stroll
to St. Augustine
was the measure of
a good day started.
- Good morning, Paul.
- Good for you maybe.
Morning, Louis.
Pew's got a good shine.
If it wasn't beneath you,
I'd send shoes your way.
Nothing is beneath me, son.
I'm ready, Father.
I wanted to thank the family
for last Sunday's donation.
Baby-sitting money. Church
calms him down some.
Well, we're always here for him.
And the money goes a good
way towards the renovation.
I want Father
Matthias. Thank you.
You ain't got nothing
to confess to anyhow.
Wasting a good man's time.
Be right there, Paul.
I haven't seen you in
confession of late, Louis.
You know, you can always come
here if you're in need, son.
My business and my
raised religion were at odds,
and the, uh
latencies within me,
well, I beat those back
with a lie I told
myself about myself
That I was a red-blooded
son of the South,
seeking ass before absolution.
And you maintained
this delusion how exactly?
A particular woman who
worked for the competition.
As if rickety shacks
were a competition
for Tom Anderson's
Fairplay Saloon.
Ah, Louis du Lac.
The night begins.
Miss Carroll, Miss
Lily working tonight?
Miss Lily's on the terrace.
It was a palace of
opulence and splendor.
A Sazerac, Mr. du Lac?
That'll do fine, Miss Carroll.
And catered to an
almost exclusively
Caucasian clientele,
which helped me
separate the locals
from those visiting from
other southern states.
Shakin' the money
tree tonight I see,
Mr. Anderson, sir.
Can't see the dirt for
the dollars fallin'.
Private game on Friday if
your datebook is free, Louis.
Can do, Mr. Anderson. Can do.
I don't know
much what you're saying.
But it sure sounds nice.
"Only the impossible
can do the impossible."
Miss Lily.
Bonsoir, monsieur.
Do you speak French?
We speak all sorts of
tongues in New Orleans.
It's a hard table to
get. How'd you manage it?
How'd you manage to get
yourself through the front door?
Excuse me?
I mean that as a compliment,
a man of your race to
have privileges here.
Louis has a small empire
of his own down the street.
It gives
him privileges.
Somethin' funny about that?
Your name is Louis.
Of course it's Louis.
I didn't get your name, fella.
I know who you are, sir.
You're the man who made me buy
a townhouse in the quarter.
I owe you everything.
Please, join us.
I know sometimes men of my race,
we all look alike to you people.
But I didn't sell
you no townhouse.
Louis, have a seat.
Let me explain.
New to the the
New World, I am.
That explains the clothes.
A 19th-century
man at heart, yes,
making his, uh, trans-Atlantic
journey by ship,
planning very carefully on
settling myself upriver.
The Sazerac, sir.
Put that on my
account, thank you.
And two more for us.
And another round for the
musicians, whatever they want.
Yes, sir.
Oh, where was I?
On a boat.
So, I'm out on
the Crescent coast,
floating past your village,
when I hear music playing,
and the shadows of men and women
dancing by the water's edge.
I disembarked for the music,
but then there was the food.
What's been your favorite
this year, Mr. Lioncourt?
A favorite?
Mm. Mm.
She puts a pistol to my head.
I couldn't believe it.
Staring me down as his hands
went wandering the seams
of Miss Lily's dress.
I wanted to take
the end of my cane
and slit his throat with it.
Why didn't you?
I couldn't move.
My body was seized
with weakness.
His gaze tied a string
around my lungs,
and I found myself immobilized.
And the women, all
shades of skin
White, Black, cinnamon.
I've emptied a bank vault
sampling, I must say.
But it was not until
a few nights later
that I said to myself
"Lestat, unpack your trunks.
You're home."
What did he say just now?
A little more than he should of.
I had planned to make a new
life for myself in St. Louis.
That was to be my destiny.
And now I know I was right.
Only it turns out the
saint is not a city,
but a handsome man with a
most agreeable disposition.
You're his destiny, Louis.
Destined to be
very good friends.
The Orient room is available
for the next few hours,
Miss Lily.
The gentlemen are swappin'
andouille sausage
recipes, Miss Carroll.
Hmm.
The Orient
room is yours, monsieur.
Please get my friend
here anything he wants.
Wonderful to meet you.
I do hope I run into
you again, Louis.
Emasculation and
admiration in equal measure.
I wanted to murder the man,
and I wanted to be the man.
I had come there for Lily.
But I left thinking of only him.
Come now.
Who the devil
Our friends in the
police tell me there's
an outbreak of fever in town.
It's unfortunates living
near the wharf, mostly.
If you find yourself
riverside of Decatur
you
have only yourself
to blame, I say.
Agreed.
Still, very peculiar, they say.
Each one the same
Small wounds to the body,
and upon examination,
entirely devoid of blood.
It is their theory
some new kind of rat
has come ashore.
Of the six-foot variety.
We call those
bureaucrats in France.
Gentlemen, well, you
all know Louis du Lac.
Louis, let me introduce you
to Mr. Lestat de Lioncourt.
We met already,
Mr. Anderson, sir.
In front of a
florist, wasn't it?
We both wanted the
last bouquet of lilies.
Aren't you gonna ask the
alderman how his head is, Louis?
Now, why would I do
that, Mr. Anderson, sir?
You see, Mr. Fenwick,
just as I told you,
a most discreet Negro.
Would that his doctor
had the same standards.
Gentlemen, show your cards.
Hoo! Mr. Lioncourt,
your hand is incomprehensible.
Oh, yes.
I'm terrible at cards.
Did I not mention
that to everyone?
Would you mind getting me some
more of these money chips?
Louis, did you know
that Alderman Fenwick here
recently purchased
both the title and deed
to the Horton rooming
house on Villere Street?
Yeah, Mr. Anderson
believes it could make
a fine sportin' house.
I recommended the alderman
find a managing partner
before he commits his money.
I recommended he
think of you, Louis.
Very kind of you,
Mr. Anderson, sir.
What do you
think of the location?
It ain't Basin Street.
But throw enough Edison
bulbs on the facade,
get a good margin
on the alcohol,
no-nonsense madam to
keep the girls clean,
I reckon a man could
make a decent sum.
Yes, sir, Mr. Fenwick, sir.
I said you'd do
it for 10 percent.
A-all
respects, Mr. Anderson,
but you proposing 10
percent for all the work?
15%?
There's capital investment,
and there's labor.
Both has its seat at the table.
Wouldn't you say, Mr. Lestat?
Well, I can only speak
of my experience,
which is, I'm sure,
different in my country.
Par exemple, you fine gentlemen
have heard of the success story
that is Le Bon Marché, shopping
experience like no other.
Aristide Boucicaut
invests in a new vision
These men
look down on you.
I have to say, I find it
appalling how men like yourself
are treated in this
country of yours.
It is undeniable. I came
to my wealth honestly
and at great
sacrifice, I might add.
However, it was not
the sacrifice of many.
I had no partners
in my various
- 10 percent.
- The financial risks
15 percent.
Do you not know your value?
Do you suffer these indignities
for some larger purpose?
And do you think two
pair will win the hour?
I believe there is great
opportunity in this city,
but to seize it, I'll need
protection from the wolves.
And that's all to say,
forgive me, Mr. de
Pointe du Lac,
for my bias, but
where is the business
if there is no capital?
It does not exist.
No? Alright, boys.
Show 'em.
Ooh.
Full boat, Mr. du Lac.
Got you beat, Tom.
He wouldn't
tell me how he did it,
his trick to make
the world stop.
"In time, Louis.
Patience, Louis.
Ask me next week, Louis."
You started
hanging out?
He was in
love with my city
and wanted to know
everything he could about it.
So you played docent
to the gentleman vampire?
He had not revealed
his vampire nature yet.
I'm assuming you
only met at night.
It's New Orleans.
Days are for sleeping off the
previous evening's damage.
Perfect cover for a vampire.
Racing ahead
again, Mr. Molloy.
Let the tale seduce you.
Just as I was seduced.
Money would arrive,
wired from France,
and the shopkeepers, who
would usually close at sunset,
were very happy to
accommodate him.
He ransacked the import houses
to furnish his town house,
ravaged the booksellers
of their oldest volumes
for a library,
and, with encouragement,
updated his wardrobe
to the fashion
trends of the season.
It was a cold winter that year,
and Lestat was my coal fire.
And I found myself for
the very first time,
to anyone other than Paul,
confiding my struggles
to another man.
I was being hunted.
And I was completely
unaware it was happening.
I'm switchin' rooms.
I don't need to hear you and
your good man making noise.
You'd have to
be home to hear that.
I come home nights. You
come home some nights.
Out cattin' with some
white man, I hear.
He ain't white, he French.
Oh. That's a new
kind of white, is it?
French white?
He different.
Invite him over for dinner.
Mother loves European.
I'm gon' tell Levi you
fishin' for a richer man.
Don't. Don't deny your sister.
I wanna meet this French white.
I'm just trying to give
you the word of the Lord.
Understa Yes. Yes.
No. That is never my
Paul crawled up on
my bed last night.
Wept for good near an hour.
He ain't takin' it,
you gettin' married.
Levi told me of a
place over in Gretna,
takes in men like Paul.
It's not some crazy
person's house like
How'd that work last time, huh?
He come out worse than before.
Gretna. It ain't happenin'.
He died on the cross for you.
Yes you.
I worry.
I worry so much Worry
about your own life.
Worry about being a bride.
Worry about what you gon' wear
in London, in Paris, Florence.
Now, y'all gon' be in
steerage outta New York,
but once you get to Europe,
it's first class on boats,
trains, and hotel rooms.
What did you go
and do?
You should put the
band by the deck
and the food by the fountain.
Mamaw!
I'm goin' 'round
the world!
I can't thank you
enough, Mama du Lac.
I never been east of Alabama,
and now I'm going
to see the pyramids.
Oh, I think every
young family deserves
a little adventure.
Wouldn't you say,
Monsieur Lioncourt?
Oui, Madame.
My mother, she gave me
every advantage in life
as a young man.
My first Mastiff,
first flintlock rifle,
the means to make
my way to Paris.
It was Louis that purchased
your holiday, Levi.
It's Louis who
controls the money.
Pay no mind, Levi.
And I don't know who
gave you the right
to call our mother your mother.
She's not your mother yet
and will never be your
scientific mother.
Paul.
I do love this bouillabaisse.
Wha?
Down here, we call it gumbo.
We had a gumbo the other
night, didn't we, Louis?
Uh, right after the opera.
Oh, we've got Louis to an opera.
"Iolanta." 'Bout
some blind princess,
didn't know she was a princess.
Stomach got grumbling,
left half way through.
And what exactly is the nature
of your relationship with
my brother, Monsieur Lioncourt?
Your brother and I
have been discussing
a few investment opportunities.
The birds asked me to ask you.
I wasn't being rude.
Monsieur Freniere,
would you tell me
how you came to propose to
this delightsome young woman?
Oh, that's a good yarn.
Are you one with
Christ, Mr. Lioncourt?
How 'bout you shut
your damn mouth?
Louis.
That's alright,
Louis, Madame, the
birds speak for him.
I came to know Christ
in a monastery.
I wanted to be a priest.
Just like you, Paul.
And under the guidance and
discipline of the monks
who lived there, I came to
memorize both the testaments,
the writings of Assisi,
Aquinas, Erasmus, all
the saints and scholars.
My father, a vulgar man, did not
think much of this education,
and so he and my brothers
conspired to pull me out,
lock me away, where,
between beatings,
starvations, and the
failure of Christ
to intercede the
beatings and starvations,
I slowly forgot all about
the testaments, Assisi,
Aquinas, Erasmus, all of it.
Stop. And so to answer
your boring question,
there is an ocean
between Christ
and myself. Stop!
Don't do that shit here!
Not with my family.
You understand?
I am cursed with my
father's temper at times,
and the rudeness is all mine.
That's alright.
It's the humidity. It
does that sometimes.
Why don't we have some ice wine?
And Levi here can
tell us all again
how he won my joychild's heart.
I fear your family has taken
a permanent offense at me.
When Paul ain't
pickin' at his plate,
he pickin' a fight.
If I had your tricks,
I'd have done the same.
You must envy him.
The boy thinks God speaks to
him through birds in his head.
How you figure envy?
The liberty he has
with his thoughts.
However misshapen they may be,
your brother has no
shame in sharing them.
You sayin' I got shame?
The lie you told about
leaving the opera house early.
You were near weeping
when the curtain fell.
Why hide that from your family?
Don't everybody need
to know what I do.
Dishonesty breeds dishonesty.
They sit in judgment.
Paul is the only one
to say it to my face,
but I know my ma and
Grace think it, too.
My daddy ran our sugar
business into a swamp.
When he passed, we
was four months
Four months from going bankrupt
if I didn't do something.
You don't need to defend
yourself to me, Louis.
I know what you go through
to keep your family
ignorant in their comfort.
It ain't easy, the work I do.
Nothing but broken
souls around me,
and the ones that
ain't broke are greedy.
Bone-tired.
Drink up, my good man.
The Earth's a savage garden.
You did good gettin' off
that boat when you did.
St. Louis is dull
as dishwater.
Yes, I feel quite at home here.
Shall we have a nightcap?
Um
Probably had enough for tonight.
Gotta make my rounds
back on Liberty.
You must, Louis.
I bought you a gift.
A gift?
A flower.
That's a nice music
box you got there.
It's one of the few
things I brought with me
from the continent.
What's that lil' song playin'?
Do you like it?
I composed it for a young
violinist I once knew,
a boy of infinite
beauty and sensitivity.
I believe that is for
the lips, Miss Lily.
I don't like the
way mine look plain.
And Mr. du Lac don't
mind when I do it.
Mm-hmm.
A pair of misfit beauties.
I can see why you
both run to the other.
Miss Carroll know
you're here, Lily?
I can assure you,
the Fairplay has been
handsomely compensated
for the evening.
Sent a two-horse
carriage to pick me up.
Felt like the queen
of the quarter.
I told Mr. Lioncourt, you
and me usually just talk.
And why is that, Louis?
What kind of a man wastes
this waist with words?
A beautiful man.
There's nothing to
be nervous about.
The curtains are closed,
the servants sent home.
Even the planets and
stars are blindfolded.
That's your thing,
then? You like to watch?
I've been watching
you for some time now, Louis.
From river to lake,
lake back to river,
looking for my companion heart.
How you do that?
Do what?
Do what?
Get in my head like that.
Such a pretty head.
That's fine, love.
Ah. Ah.
It bears repeating, I
did not consider myself
a homosexual man at the time.
I mean, I had had experiences.
Guilt, shame,
floating-on-a-sea-of-vodka
type encounters.
Obviously, I've come to
embrace my sexuality.
Course, you know that.
We met at a gay bar,
didn't we, Daniel?
It was a good place to score.
I did what I had to.
You've been married?
Twice.
But we're not here
for me, are we?
When you were using
drugs, Mr. Molloy,
do you remember the
best you ever had?
Berkeley, 1978.
Some Mexican black tar that
Carly and Pedro were slinging.
So imagine that
flowing inside your veins again.
Now multiply it by miles,
to the rings of Saturn and back.
He had taken what he
called "un petit coup"
The little drink.
Not enough to kill me,
but just enough to keep him fit.
It takes an enormous
amount of restraint for us,
the little drink.
For a human, experiencing
it for the first time,
it was
unsettling.
And not for the physical
toll on my body,
which was significant,
but for the feelings of
intimacy it awoke within me.
I had never allowed myself
to feel emotionally
close to anyone,
much less a man.
I had no room for feelings
like these in my life.
You could be a lot of
things in New Orleans,
but an openly gay Negro
man was not one of 'em.
I vowed never to return again.
I shut that night out of my mind
and turned my attentions back
to life as it was before.
One, two, three, jump!
Hold still now.
We are missing
my father today.
He's supposed to dance with
me to start the night off.
I'm trying not to cry now.
And I thought the best
way to honor Daddy
would be to make my
brothers do the work.
Mm!
Mm-hmm.
Half of y'all don't know this,
but these no-good boys used to
shuffle for pennies on Sunday.
Called themselves
"The ABCDEFGs".
Remember
that, Father Matthias?
Oh, yes. ABCDE
"Alter Boys Come Dancing
Every day For God." "For God."
That's right!
I remember
their collection hat
didn't always make it
to the collection plate.
That's right.
Paul, Louis?
Oh, come
on, now. Please!
Hey, now. Come on, please!
It's for me
on my wedding day.
Come on, brother.
Alright!
Shoes are tight.
Oh, the shoes is fine.
It's the feet that's fat.
Hey, what kinda
rhythm you want, boss?
Just play it loud so
they can't hear our feet.
Alright. What you remember?
Um
Hey, come on.
- Hey!
- Go ahead now!
- Whoo!
- Hey! Hey!
You still got it!
Alright! Okay!
They still got it!
- Oh!
- Yeah, Louis!
Okay. You ain't gon' do
it. You ain't gon' do it.
That's right!
Amazing.
We gonna miss it.
Quit talkin'. I
have to concentrate.
It's them three pieces of
checkered cake holding you back.
Five pieces of checkered
cake, the Pompano fillet,
three boudins, dirty rice,
beef, green beans,
five, six wines.
Eat anything else,
the buttons on your
vest gon' pop off
like cannon balls,
take down the neighborhood.
9,517.
That's how many days
we've been in his house.
You do that math
all by yourself?
You remember the day
I got taller than you?
Always bringin' that up.
Shot up like a Nuttall oak.
Daddy said I was gon' look down
on you for the rest of days.
Yeah, yeah.
Half an inch.
That was a good
month, that month.
I think you should
get married next.
Do you now?
And you should marry Hazel.
Hazel? Who that?
The one you were
dancing too close with.
You dance that close,
you ought to be married.
I didn't catch her name.
Well, it's Hazel.
You still doing business
with that man Lestat?
Nah. Didn't work out.
That's good.
'Cause he the Devil.
You think everyone's the Devil.
He's here to take
souls. He told me so.
He spoke to me without
moving his lips.
He got tricks is all.
Mortal sins must be
confessed, Louis.
Ain't never gon'
see him again, Paul.
You think Levi loves her enough?
You know, Grace
needs a lot of love.
I do.
Do you think he's givin' her
everything he's got inside him?
Mm-hmm.
Mother made a good
party for Grace.
Mm-hmm, yeah.
Yeah, they gon' talk
about this one for years.
Yeah.
I love you, Louis.
And I love you,
too, baby brother.
I ate too much checkered cake.
Paul.
Paul!
Paul!
Oh, my lord! Paul!
That was the last
sunrise I ever saw.
Perhaps the kindest thing
the dark gift has given me.
I don't miss the sun,
the reminders it carries.
I have seen death over and over
and over and over again.
It's boring.
That'll make a great blurb.
The diagnosis you
received, Daniel,
it winds your clock.
This virus has turned
the world sideways.
I get it.
I'm gonna die.
They're gonna die.
But not the vampire.
The vampire is bored.
The human was destroyed.
Utterly destroyed.
I was
at the funeral home.
Everything is
going as it should.
Good men there.
Promised me that
You musta said
something to him, Louis.
You musta said something to him
to make him do that to himself.
Paul slipped and fell, Florence.
I don't think this is
something you want to pursue.
He was a fragile boy.
He always was.
And you, you always had
to have the last word,
didn't you, Louis?
You always had to
take him down a peg.
Mamaw.
What did you say to him?
Why was you even up there?
Watchin' the sun come up, Mama.
You don't get past the gates
iffen you kill yourself.
Don't you know that?
Paul gone down the other way.
Paul's in Hell because of you.
Storyville
lowered their hats,
gave their propers,
because it was custom.
But if you look past those
lined up on the sidewalk,
you'd see the bars
hadn't stopped serving,
the whores hadn't
stopped whoring.
What was Paul's
life worth to them?
What was my life worth?
The big man of Liberty Street,
trailing the satin-lined
evidence of his failure.
Easy prey for the
discerning predator.
An elegant coffin. Would you
tell me where you purchased
Move on.
I wait on my
balcony every night.
You've been avoiding me.
I have been occupied.
Miss Lily proved herself
a poor substitute.
And I don't take kindly
to being avoided.
It's my brother's funeral!
Believe me when I tell you,
your brother longed
for that flagstone.
What'd you say to me?!
I got it, boss. Keep walking.
Lestat's ambush
had disoriented me.
The sermon that was
given, I could not hear.
And when the gathering
cut loose the body,
I could not join
the transformation
of those in attendance.
He would not let me.
Come to me.
Come to me.
No.
Walk you home, Mama?
No, thank you.
Levi, do you mind?
Of course, Mama Du Lac.
She didn't mean nothin' by it.
Oh, but she did now.
She just needs to
put it somewhere.
Don't let it inside.
See you back at the wake?
Come to me.
I did not
go to the wake.
I did not want to face
my mother's blame
my sister's pity.
I wanted to grieve alone.
But he would not allow it.
Come to me, Louis.
Come to me.
Hello, handsome.
Sazerac.
My heart broke when I heard
of your brother's passing.
Miss Lily.
Oh, my dear.
I don't care if she
busy with someone.
I'll pay more.
'Cause I like Miss Lily,
and I need Miss Lily.
Miss Lily died, Mr. du Lac.
Two weeks ago.
Police found her
under the docks.
Said she contracted the fevers
that's been going around.
Blood went and
dried up inside her.
Viens à moi.
Father!
Father Matthias!
Help me!
Help me, please. He's
in my head, Father.
The Devil is in New Orleans.
Calm down, son.
Catch your breath.
Bless me, Father,
f-for I have sinned.
Grievously sinned.
Sign of the cross, son.
I'm a drunk, Lord.
I'm a liar.
I am a thief, Lord.
I profit off the
miseries of other men,
and I do it easy.
Drugs, liquor, women.
I-I-I-I lure them in and
grab what they got, Lord.
I take daughters with no homes
and I-I put 'em out
on the street, Lord,
and I lie to myself, saying
I-I'm giving them a roof
and food and dollar
bills in they pocket,
but I look in the mirror,
I know what I am
The big man in the big house,
stuffing cotton in my ears
so I can't hear their cries.
And Lord, I dragged my family
into this mess with me.
I shame my father.
I f I failed my brother.
No, son.
I lost my mother and sister,
and rather than fix it
like a man should, Lord,
I run like a coward.
I run to the bottle.
I run to the grift.
I run to bad beds.
I-I laid down with a man.
I laid down with the Devil.
And he has roots in me,
all his spindly roots in me,
and I can't think
nothin' anymore
but his voice and his words!
Please, help me!
I am weak!
I wanna die!
Oh!
No!
Do you think God
heard you, Louis,
in that tawdry box,
through this pig vessel,
this this charlatan?
Do you not see how
unworthy he is?
How can you humiliate
yourself like this?!
You killed Lily.
Cut short that magnificent
life she was living.
What a tragedy.
Ain't no fever out
there. That's you.
You bringin' the death to town.
I give death to those deserving.
I'm not the Devil.
You were wrong about that.
But I can give you death.
This primitive country
has picked you clean.
It has shackled you
in permanent exile.
Every room you enter,
every hat you are
forced to wear
The stern landlord, the
deferential businessman,
the loyal son
All these roles you conform to
and none of them
your true nature.
What rage you must feel as
you choke on your sorrow.
The first time I
laid eyes on you,
your beautiful face,
I saw that sorrow.
I did not know how it got there
or why it was so voluminous.
I can take away
that sorrow, Louis.
I can give you that death
you begged your feeble,
blind, degenerate,
nonexistent god for.
But I can do it
joyfully.
I can swap this life of shame,
swap it out for a dark gift
and a power you can't
begin to imagine.
You just have to ask me for it.
You just have to nod
your beautiful head
and say yes.
I love you, Louis.
You are loved.
I send my love to you,
and you send it
back round to me.
And this circle,
this home we barely
had a glimpse of
know it frightens me
as much as it does you.
It is
difficult to explain
how his words disarmed me,
how efficiently succinct
and impenetrable
his argument was.
All my conceptions,
even my guilt and my wish to die
seemed utterly unimportant,
and I completely forgot myself
and the barbaric scene
that surrounded me.
For the first time in
my life, I was seen.
Be my companion, Louis.
Be all the beautiful
things you are,
and be them without apology.
For all eternity.
He drained me to the
very threshold of death.
Mm.
The blood, it came as
a dull roar at first.
And then a pounding,
like the pounding of a drum,
growing louder and louder,
as if some enormous creature
were coming through a
dark and alien forest.
A huge drum.
And then, there came a
pounding of another drum,
as if another giant
were coming behind him,
each giant intent
on his own drum,
giving no notice to the
rhythm of the other.
Throbbing in my lips, fingers,
and flesh of my temple.
Above all, in my veins.
Drum, and then the other drum.
I opened my eyes.
And it was then that I realized
the drum was my heart,
and the other drum had been his.
I saw him sitting a
length away from me.
Radiant.
And we sat there for some time.
In throes of increasing wonder.
The end.
The beginning.
I'm a vampire.
I walked my entire
life as a dead man
and now could finally receive
the secrets of existence.
You alone of all creatures can
strike like the hand of God.
I did not readily
take to killing.
You're ashamed of what we are.
And then my Claudia,
my redemption.
We're a family?
No! Don't!
For a killing machine,
I kind of like her.
Am I from the devil?
Is my very nature
that of the devil?
This is not a life!
That is 'cause you took my life!
Embrace what you are!
You are a killer, Louis!
Okay.
Did you eat the baby?
I'm Daniel Molloy,
across from Mr
Louis de Pointe du Lac.
So, Mr. du Lac, how
long have you been dead?
Hi, I'm Rolin Jones,
Executive Producer for
"Interview with the Vampire,"
and this is your
Episode Insider.
There are stories at there
that need to be told.
I'm Daniel Molloy.
Daniel Molly, he's a
journalist who's sort of on
the nadir of his career,
and a package arrives
and inside is a
great deal of history
that he did not
want to remember.
I got to call you back.
When he was
a young journalist,
he made a series of
tapes with a vampire.
I think I want
to tell the real stor
He's sort of given an invitation
to revisit this interview
and do it right and
proper when both
have lived a little
life and are way more
comfortable in their skin.
So a do over.
Truth and reconciliation.
He's a very different vampire,
so he's got a lot on his mind.
Lestat sees Louis
de Pointe du Lac
for the first time pulling
a knife on his brother,
and oh, that's intriguing.
There's some potential there
to be a companion predator.
Then, in the middle
of this poker scene,
you can see he has
been on his mind.
There's a shot where he's
sort of staring longingly
at Louis while Louis is
shining his business acumen,
and he goes, "I'm
gonna show him.
I'm gonna give him
a little insight
about what I can do.
These men look down on you.
I find it appalling
how men like yourself
are treated in this country.
So he does a little vampire
parlor trick, as it were.
I believe there is great
opportunity in this city,
but to see that, I'll need
protection from the wolves.
There is a sort of
predator angle to this.
Louis fully admits later
I was being hunted.
Lestat would not see that.
Lestat would say I
was courting him.
Come to me, Louis.
That take Louis to a place
where he find the church is
the only place he can go.
Help me, please. He's
in my head, Father.
Lestat has entered his
mind, heart and soul,
and he wants it out and
he's feeling great regret.
I laid down with the devil.
Help me!
I am weak, and I want to die.
He just pours it out,
screaming to a God
he hasn't talked
to in a long time.
Lestat has a very different
idea about organized religion.
This charlatan!
Do you not see how
unworthy he is?
How could you humiliate
yourself like this?!
We are catching Lestat
at a very vulnerable
and emotionally
out-of-control moment,
and he takes it out
on these two priest
in front of Louis and then
has to make a very, very
quick and aggressive 360 and try
to really give the big pitch.
I can swap this life of shame,
swap it out for a dark gift
and a power you can't
begin to imagine.
He manages to pull it off
The idea of being seen, the
idea of him being loved.
Be my companion, Louis.
Be all the beautiful
things you are.
And despite the barbaric
scene, as he says,
he got him at the right moment.
And we set
there for some time
in throes of increasing wonder.
The end.
The beginning.