25 Things You Didn’t Know About Interview With The Vampire
3. It’s Absolutely Understandable, Part 3: Lestat Is Based On Anne Rice’s Husband
If Rice herself identified with the griefstricken, heartbroken Louis, her point-of-view character and the lens through which we see vampirism and immortality, she identified Lestat with her husband, the late Stan Rice.
No wonder she had so many ideas about casting the character when her book was being turned into a movie. Lestat de Lioncourt was even given Stan Rice's birthday of November 7th.
Perhaps more accurately, Lestat was a combination of the pair of them. Interviewed the year after her husband’s death in 2002, Rice admitted:
Stan was Lestat; he was the inspiration. Perhaps it is best to say Lestat was Stan and me. He was Stan and what Stan taught me. Lestat was inspired by Stan, and then I became Lestat.