INTERVIEW WITH THE VAMPIRE

MALLOY
What about coffins?

LOUIS
Coffins... coffins unfortunately are a necessity...

EXT. MANSION. NIGHT.

Louis walks up the steps to the mansion. He looks now like a fully-fledged vampire. Yvette, the slave girl stares at him from the open doorway. Cascades of harpsichord music come from the interior.

LOUIS (VO)
Killing is no ordinary act. It is the experience of another's life for certain. That night I had lost my own life and taken another's. I was drowning in a sea of human guilt and regret, with all the heightened senses of a vampire...

Louis enters the mansion, following the harpsichord music, as if in a dream. Yvette draws back as he approaches.

INT. MANSION. NIGHT.

Louis wanders into the parlour, where Lestat is playing the harpsichord rapidly and exuberantly. Louis goes to a full-length mirror and sees his own reflection there - quite the perfect vampire.

LESTAT
Yes, that's you, my handsome friend. And you'll look that way till the stars fall from heaven.

LOUIS
It can't be...

LESTAT
Give it time. You're like a man who loses a limb and still imagines he feels pain. It will pass. And we must sleep now. I can feel the sun approaching.

EXT. POINTE DU LAC.

Dawn spreading over the plantation.

INT. BASEMENT. POINTE DU LAC.

A brick walled storage room. Two coffins stand on the floor. Lestat enters with a lantern, Louis behind. Lestat is apprehensive and protective of Louis. He pulls back one lid ot reveal a satin interior.

LESTAT
You must get into it. It's the only safe place for you when the light comes.

LOUIS
And if I don't?

LESTAT
The sun will destroy the blood I've given you. Every tissue, every vein. The fire in this lantern could do that too.

Louis approaches the coffin, hands trembling as he peers into it.

LESTAT
Don't be afraid. In moments you'll be sleeping as soundly as you ever slept. And when you awake I'll be waiting for you, and so will all the world.

Louis crawls into the coffin, fearful yet fascinated.

LOUIS
You told me something earlier. You said you didn't have a choice. Was that true?

Lestat smiles bitterly and nods.

LESTAT
Someday I'll tell you. We have a lot of time to talk to each other. You might say... we have all the time we shall ever need.

He closes the lid.

Total darkness. Sounds of Louis' panicked breathing. Of his prayer again.

LOUIS
Dear God, what have I done?

INT. DINING ROOM. NIGHT.

Louis and Lestat sitting at a sumptuous table, piled with uneaten food. Lestat is going through sheafs of documents.

LOUIS (VO)
I awoke the next evening to a different world. And I realized there are as profound differences between vampires as between human beings...

Lestat, totting up figures on a piece of paper.

LESTAT
Your wealth, dear Louis, is inestimable. Your income from cotton alone will keep us in comfort for a century.

Louis just stares at him.

LOUIS (VO)
I sat there staring at him with contempt. He had the soul of a shopkeeper, he was the sow's ear out of which nothing fine could be made. I felt sadly cheated in having him as a teacher...

Lestat looks up at him and grins.

LESTAT
You'll get used to killing. Just forget about that mortal coil. You'll become accustomed to things all too quickly.

LOUIS
Do you think so?

Yvette enters, stands behind him, staring at Lestat with loathing.

YVETTE
You are not hungry, sir...

LESTAT
Au contraire, my dear. He could eat a horse...

Lestat laughs loudly. Louis turns and looks at Yvette. Her beautiful forehead in the candlelight, the veins pulsing on her neck and her hands.

LOUIS (VO)
I looked at anything mortal and saw all life as precious, condemning all fruitless guilt and passion that would let it slip through the fingers like sand...

Yvette returns his stare, troubled.

LOUIS (VO)
It was only as a vampire that I could see Yvette's beauty. Her fear of me increased my desire.

Yvette reaches for his uneaten plate. Louis stops her hand. Holds it for a beat too long, looking at the veins in her wrist.

LOUIS
I will finish it, Yvette. Now leave us.

She turns and runs from the table. Lestat leans towards him.

LESTAT
Can't you pretend, you fool? Don't give the game away. We're lucky to have such a home.

His hand snakes out under the table. It comes up holding a large grey rat.

LESTAT
Pretend to drink, at least.

He bares his fangs and slices the rat's throat. He pours the blood into a crystal glass.

LESTAT
Such fine crystal shouldn't go to waste...

He hands the glass to Louis. Louis drinks the blood and stares at it in surprise, then at the dead rat on the fine lace tablecloth.

LESTAT
I know. It gets cold so fast.

LOUIS
We can live like this? Off the blood of animals?

Lestat shrugs.

LESTAT
I wouldn't call it living. I'd call it surviving. A useful trick if you're caught for a month on a ship at sea.

Lestat strokes the belly of the dead rat, studying it sadly.

LESTAT
There's nothing in the world now that doesn't hold some...

LOUIS
Fascination...

LESTAT
Yes. And I'm bored with this prattle --

He throws the rat away.

LOUIS
But we can live without taking human life. It's possible.

LESTAT
Anything is possible. But just try it for a week. Come into New Orleans and let me show you some real sport!

He rises. Louis follows.

EXT. NEW ORLEANS. NIGHT.

A big, lavish drinking place with a raised stage.

Italian actors in buffoonish costumes act crude commedia dell'arte on the stage.

Plantation owners in soiled brocade, lace, crooked wigs watch the show as tavern wenches move about.

LOUIS (VO)
This was New Orleans, a magical and magnificent place to live. In which a vampire, richly dressed might attract no more notice in the evening than hundreds of other exotic creatures.

Louis and Lestat by a table, in the shadow of a tree. Teresa, a tavern wench, sits on Lestat's lap, pouring drinks for the two of them. She lifts a fresh glass to Lestat's lips as he flirts with her.

TERESA
Come on, mon cher. The best in the colony. Once you touch this you'll never go to any other tavern again.

LESTAT
You think so, cherie? But what if I'd rather taste your lips?

TERESA
My lips are even sweeter still...

She kisses him. He lets his tongue play with hers, then runs it down her neck. She swoons with pleasure. Then he sinks his teeth gently in her neck, looking playfully behind at Louis, who if apalled and fascinated.

ANTICS ON THE STAGE

Laughter rocks the tavern.

Lestat slips the pale and dead Teresa into a chair beside him and folds her hands on the table. No one notices. He lays gold coins on the table and touches Louis' knee.

LESTAT
Let's get out of here!

Lestat rushes out, thrilled with himself.

EXT. TAVERN. NIGHT.

A crowded street. Louis and Lestat emerge from the tavern. Louis looks up at the moon.

LOUIS
Have you ever been caught?

LESTAT
Of course not. It's so easy you almost feel sorry for them.

They walk down the crowded night street, full of ladies in their finery, freed slaves, whores, sailors etc.

LOUIS (VO)
Lestat killed two, sometimes three a night. A fresh young girl, that was his favourite for the first of the evening.

INT. FRENCH QUARTER MANSION -- BALLROOM

Small orchestra plays for colonial couples in fine wig and garb prancing to a French minuet. Young women sit in chairs along the walls with their chaperones. Young men stand opposite.

LOUIS (VO)
But the triumphant kill of Lestat was a young man. They represented the greatest loss to Lestat because they stood on the threshold of the maximum possibility of life.

A youth of preternatural beauty, sillhouetted against French windows. He is talking to an elegan widow, seated, holding two manicured poodles. Lestat stares at the youth with longing.

LESTAT
The trick is not to think about it. See that one? The widow St. Clair? she had that gorgeous young fop murder her husband. She's perfect for you. Go ahead.

LOUIS
But how do you know?

LESTAT
Read her thoughts.

LOUIS
I can't.

LESTAT
The dark gift is different for each of us. But one thing is true of everyone. We grow stronger as we go along.

He leads Louis closer to them.