The Today Show Interview Transcribed by Mishian of the Anne Rice Mailing List Hypertexted by Shay Today Show July 25, 1995 8:16 AM EDT B.G.= Bryant Gumbel A.R.= Anne Rice B.G.: Anne Rice's latest novel Memnoch the Devil is the fifth volume of her Vampire Chronicles. It just came out last week and already it's at the top of the best seller list. Once again the story revolves around the vampire Lestat, who was first introduced in Interview with the Vampire. It's Lestat's face to face confrontation with both God and the Devil that could make this Anne Rice's most controversial book yet. B.G.: Anne, good morning. Welcome back. A.R.: Thank you. B.G.: How are you doing? A.R.:Thank you. I'm doing great. B.G.: What do you think about this early buzz that this is your most controversial novel? A.R.: Again, I haven't seen any controversy. B.G.: Really? A.R.: I mean I really haven't. There's a great deal of worry that there was going to be but, uh, people seem to take the book right in the right spirit that I meant it in. Lestat has this experience, uh, and like everyone who's been through that kind of vision, he doesn't know for sure whether it's true or not. B.G.: Yeah. B.G.: You, you have said, though, that writing this book, your words, really beat you up. A.R.: Yeah. They did. B.G.: How so? A.R.: Um, well I threw my heart and soul into this, and we had to go to heaven and hell. And I mean it was, it was, it was agony writing that. It was agony trying to really take everything that I'd ever heard and known and absorbed about heaven and hell and really put them in a book, you know? And a great, a great many of the questions that Memnoch asks of God are really questions that I ask. And, uh, I, I, I, I think the book is left with a mystery... B.G: Yes A.R.: ... as to whether these were really God and the Devil, and whether they were really playing fair with Lestat. But, uh, it was, it was an anguishing thing for me to write. B.G.: You say there were questions that you asked. Do you want your readers to view it as, as a simple story, or do you want them to do some real soul searching... A.R.: Oh I want them to soul search. B.G.: ...as they travel with Lestat? A.R. I want them to soul search, and actually my readers like to soul search, that's what they really want to do. They really do. On all levels. You know, they don't, they don't come just for entertainment. They come for that. B.G.: Mmm hmm. A.R.: And that's why the books are filled with all kinds of scenes where people are asking why, you know, why, why are we here, why, why does God let evil happen and so forth. That's always been the nature of my books, I've always had that sort of heavy, religious overtone and a very serious one. You know no, no ridicule, no mockery of religion. Nothing like that. B.G.: In this, in this book, um, the devil, Memnoch... A.R.: Mmm hmm B.G.: ...who hates being called Satan... A.R.: Right B.G.: ...tries to convince Lestat to essentially come rule with him. A.R.: Right B.G.: And, uh, he takes Lestat on a journey back to the creation of time... A.R.: Yes B.G.: ... and back to, to the crucifixion, where Lestat, um, drinks the blood of Christ. A.R.: Right B.G.: Alright, let me just read... A.R.: By invitation... B.G.: By invitation, I understand. A.R.: ... you know of Christ. B.G.: In fact, I had, I had blocked this point to read. Um, he comes up to Christ on the cross and he says "The blood of God, Lestat, he (he) whispered, think of all the human blood that has flowed into your lips. Is my blood not worthy? Are you afraid?" And then Lestat says "Sobbing, I cupped his neck with both hands, my knuckles against the cross-bar, and I kissed his throat. And then my mouth opened without will or struggle and my teeth pierced the flesh. I heard him moan, a long echoing moan that seemed to rise up and fill the world with its sound and the blood flooded into my mouth." A.R.: O.k. B.G.: How concerned are you about treading on ground that is so sensitive to so many. A.R.: It's too serious to offend people. It's too serious . It's about love. It's about a theophany, coming face to face with Christ. Christ at that point is trying to convince Lestat not to join up with the Devil. You know, so he's allowing him this moment, which has great, you know, immense significance for Lestat. Now a moment later he'll, he'll take away a relic, from this scene, that the movie will hinge on, um. I'm not one bit afraid. I mean, when I wrote the scene it was anguish, it was me, it was me going up to the Christ that I had sat in church on Good Friday and, and meditated on the wounds of, you know. The Christ that, um, that, that I loved with all my heart as a child. And, and the God that I still love and believe in. Th, though I don't know necessarily that Christ is that God. But I mean, it was, it was very, um, it was, it was a wonderful moment for me. Anguishing and, and uh there was no backing away from it. It just had to happen. B.G.: So it's a serious treatment... A.R.: I think so B.G.: ...and it's not treated with any flippancy at all A.R.: Absolutely B.G.: Let's, let's, let's move on. Your, your booksigning in, in New Orleans was, um, I was going to say bizarre. It was unusual. A.R.: Yeah. It was a riot! B.G.: We've got a piece of tape (footage of mock funeral shown). You had a mock jazz funeral... A.R.: Yeah B.G.: ...and traveled from the cemetery in a wedding dress and a coffin. Now what... A.R.: (Anne laughing) B.G.: ... what was that all about? A.R.: I just wanted to do it, I thought it would be fun. I mean I, I really I get asked to do so many things that I really don't want to do, I start-, I decided this year that I would start doing the things that I like to do, if other people would go along with them. So I dreamed it up, I bought a coffin, and I wanted to be carried into the signing in the coffin, and then of course everybody in New Orleans just jumped on this like what about the glass hearse, let's get the jazz band. You know, all my friends, Marco Brunet, you know, they, they jumped in to help, and uh... B.G.: All in prelude to a booksigning, eh... A.R.: Yeah!!! Sure. I mean New Orleans is Mardi Gras all the time... B.G.: (laughs) A.R.: ... You know it really is. I mean, you have to live there, almost, I guess to understand what this was like. Coming out of the Lafayette Cemetery. I'm in this, I'm in this coffin, in this glass hearse, right, and the jazz band is playing this incredible, uh, second line jazz funeral music and I'm thinking "My God! You know, I'm getting to hear what it's like to have a jazz funeral (giggles)." I loved it!!! B.G.: This ... A.R.: I just absolutely loved it!!! B.G.: This is the fifth in the, in the a Vampire Chronicles, is it the last? A.R.: Uh, yeah, Lestat walked off on me at the end. Definitely, he did that. But it's not the end of my writing. I mean... B.G.: No, obviously, yeah... A.R.: I plan on doing other things...Yeah. But he said enough. B.G.: Still got the witches. And you've moved up to ghosts now too. A.R.: Yeah, I mean but I want to move on to something completely new. B.G. & A.R.: Yeah, yeah B.G.: But what if your readers say they don't want you to leave Lestat just yet? A.R.: Well, if Lestat comes back and there's a book, I'll write it, but at this point I don't see that book. I see this as the ultimate. I mean, I mean he ends this book, really, you know saying "I will never take another human life. I will never drink another drop of human blood." So, it's the culmination of five books. It's like a spiritual journey through... B.G.: Yeah A.R.: ... five books that are all sort of connected. B.G.: One other thing. I read in your newsletter this is your last interview? A.R.: No. This is, this is live. We are on live. This is- I don't want to do any more packaged interviews. B.G.: Never again. A.R.: Yeah. I've, I've just had a few bad experiences. I've had some good experiences, by the way, too. B.G.: Yeah A.R.: Particularly, particularly with Today. But I've had some other shows that have come in and, and it's, it's the editing. You know. I'd talk for 20 minutes about what a wonderful actor Tom Cruise was and they would only use the line "I don't think he should play Lestat in the movie." B.G.: Mmm A.R.: You know. And it was, it was a little discouraging. I decided that we would, we would sort of take charge. And if we wanted to do a movie, you know, a film, we would do it. And I do my own newsletter that I send out, so. B.G.: Then we look forward to welcoming you again. A.R.: O.k. B.G.: As always. A.R.: Great. B.G.: Anne, good seeing you. A.R.: Do you have to do it at this hour of the morning? B.G.: Well, see, we could reschedule it, then we'd tape it and we could edit it. A.R.: (Anne and Bryant laughing) NO! No! Your right! You got me! I just thought maybe you'd like to come over and we could do it in, you know, bed eating cake. (Commercial) END Back to the Commotion Strange Home Page