25 Things You Didn’t Know About Interview With The Vampire
5. It’s Absolutely Understandable, Part 1: The Novel Was An Obsession
The thing is, if Rice did take the casting personally, it was for good reason.
Although the novel was published in 1976, Rice actually began Interview with the Vampire in the 1960s. Obsessed by the idea of the vampire as a legendary creature that had once been mortal, her fascination with the subject led her to write it initially in short story form, albeit under the same title.
When she returned to the story a few years later, she used that short story as a jumping off point for what became a much longer project. Working under the pall of intense depression and loss after the death of her daughter, she describes her mental state at the time as “like a white heat”. The manuscript was completed in only five weeks.
In the absence of that furious urge to write, she then developed a form of obsessive-compulsive disorder that saw her repetitively clean her house, running from door to window to door to check the locks.