Feb. 25, 2026
Immortality Is a Curse? | Interview with the Vampire (1994) Deep Dive
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Vampires before they sparkled. Immortality before it was romanticized. In this episode of Parallel Frequencies with Just Blane & Coco, we revisit the 1994 gothic masterpiece Interview with the Vampire and explore why Anne Rice’s world still grips audiences decades later.
From Tom Cruise’s unhinged, magnetic Lestat to Brad Pitt’s brooding Louis and Kirsten Dunst’s unforgettable Claudia, this isn’t just a vampire movie — it’s a meditation on guilt, grief, loneliness, identity, and eternal youth. We unpack the emotional subtext, the cultural impact, and how this film reshaped modern vampire storytelling.
We also discuss the AMC series adaptation, the layered LGBTQ undertones, and why this story hits differently at different stages of life.
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Just Blane (00:00)
frequencies with JustBland and Coco. What's up over there, Coco? What do you got going on today?
Courtney Pearl (00:06)
Nothing much, just got a workout in this morning. So instead of my coffee, I'm doing my protein shake.
Just Blane (00:14)
I saw something, you posted a sweaty selfie or something this morning. I saw that.
Courtney Pearl (00:17)
Sweaty selfie, that's how you get motivated.
You're like, guys, look, it's cool to be sweaty.
Just Blane (00:23)
Is that
a thing? Is hashtag sweaty selfie, is that a real thing? If not, it could be. We could do that. Yeah.
Courtney Pearl (00:30)
Could be. I
bet it is. I bet it is. Cause when I've been in part of workout groups and stuff before they are like, your sweaty selfie today, like motivate each other, like show that you did your workout for the day. I've been trying. I'm not much of a gym person. So this is my effort.
Just Blane (00:41)
Let's see.
Now see, I wouldn't know that. Yeah, I wouldn't
know that because I don't go to the gym. I don't do that. So I wouldn't know that sweaty selfies are a thing out there.
Courtney Pearl (00:57)
⁓ I'm doing it. I'm getting there. I'm doing the things. It's a boot camp. Not really a gym. It's not quite like a normal gym. They have boot camps. So you go like a class and do what they tell you to do with a personal trainer for.
an hour or 45 minutes. Yeah. Yeah. So it's my kind of jam. It's a little bit more high fiving than I'm comfortable with. I'm still not used to that culture. So when they say, all right, you did it to turn to somebody next to you and high five them, I'm like, oh, do we have to?
Just Blane (01:11)
Our? Yeah. Well, that's incredible.
Okay, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Yeah, you're like, can I just do it to myself here? yeah. Yeah, you seemed a little more energetic over there. That's why I was checking on you.
Courtney Pearl (01:32)
Yeah, so what's going on today?
Well, I didn't sleep well last
night, but I'd like to think that the gym is helping give me some energy.
Just Blane (01:43)
Yeah, I'm
gonna tell you, I'm a little bit energetic today as well. And that's because today is Survivor 50 day. And I'm a huge Survivor fan. And I know I jumped the gun a couple of weeks ago and I was like, hey, it's starting tonight. Tonight's the night, I promise. I just looked it up. Yes, and I can't wait. And I'll tell you, when we ⁓ record another show soon,
Courtney Pearl (02:03)
for real this time.
Just Blane (02:12)
I will, after the first episode, I will make my prediction of who I'm calling the winner. And I'm pretty good, I've been pretty good over the years with picking a survivor winner from the very first episode. So I'll do that after.
Courtney Pearl (02:21)
Yeah.
That's kind of my favorite
part of those type of elimination survival challenges is you kind of try to analyze and pick out who has the mental, emotional, physical, and skill sets to get it, right? To get there.
Just Blane (02:44)
Yeah.
Well, survivor is out with outlast outplay or something like that. That's their their motto.
Courtney Pearl (02:53)
There's a whole other element
to the whole like working with other people and trying to compete and trying to kind of get under the mind games that go on and the politics and a little bit more of that. I just finished the Alone Season 11. So there's a little bit less of that because they're out there alone, right? But they just have to outlast basically is the name of the game. I, for those of you who haven't watched the whole Season 11, sorry, I'm gonna spoil it for you, but I
Just Blane (03:03)
Yeah
OOF
Yeah? Yeah.
Courtney Pearl (03:23)
I had my money on Timber. I thought Timber was gonna make it and he was ⁓ second place. So he was one of the last two left and tapped out at the very end there. But in the best way, it was good. It was good Timber. If you're watching, you did awesome. I think you did the right thing.
Just Blane (03:34)
Mmm.
I'm about to check that show out too. I keep hearing about this Traitors show on Peacock. We should do that one. Yeah. Because I've seen people already renting out cottages and doing their own weekend version of this Traitors. Maybe that's what we should do for your birthday. I mentioned we should do a murder mystery. Maybe we should rent out a cottage here somewhere in Utah and do a Traitors style weekend.
Courtney Pearl (03:46)
Mmm, that's good stuff. Yeah, I'm gonna follow along with that.
Just Blane (04:10)
for your birthday. That'd be kind of fun.
Courtney Pearl (04:12)
That
would be a blast. You had me at cottage. I'm like cottage? What? Excuse me? Yeah, I'll take it.
Just Blane (04:15)
Sounds expensive. Yeah, it sounds expensive. If any of our freqs
out there got a cottage that we can borrow, we don't have money. If we can borrow this for the, the freqs can be involved. We'll do a trader's style weekend for Coco's birthday, but we need everything paid for. I'm just going be honest. Nah, Mardi Gras going on. There's a party for you.
Courtney Pearl (04:26)
Yeah.
Yeah, yeah.
Yeah!
Just Blane (04:43)
Or is it over with? I think it was last week or something, but it goes forever. If you've ever been to New Orleans, yeah, you know it's just, you don't know, it never ends. Have you been to New Orleans?
Courtney Pearl (04:48)
I'm never totally sure.
I have not. The closest that I have been is the little ⁓ New Orleans themed area of Disneyland where you can get your beignets and your mint julep and you know, I mean, that's, it always makes me so happy to be in that area because that's so my vibe and it's such a witchy, witching hour.
Just Blane (05:03)
yeah,
Courtney Pearl (05:19)
I mean, the cemeteries, the weeping willows. Every time I see anything about New Orleans, I just want to go so bad. But my mom has been. She loves Anne Rice. So she had to go see her house and see all of the setting for things like Mayfair witches. ⁓ such good creepy witchy vibes there in New Orleans.
Just Blane (05:21)
Yeah
Mmm!
And speaking of Anne Rice, look at your nice segue there. We are talking about today on Whisple Wednesday, Interview with a Vampire, the 1994 version. And let me take it back to you here real quick. The only difference in Disney, New Orleans and New Orleans, New Orleans is it's filthy. Disney keeps their version clean. So that's about the biggest difference.
So if you wanna go get the authentic experience in New Orleans and get the filth and all that, which I have, I have part hook in the filth in New Orleans. But yeah, the Disney version is a lot cleaner. But right now, freqs we're stepping into the velvet candlelight and existential dread with perfect cheekbones. Because did not every actor in this movie have perfect cheekbones and become a...
Courtney Pearl (06:38)
Yeah.
Just Blane (06:38)
icon
a sex symbol and I hate to say that but Brad Pitt, Tom Cruise, Christian Slater, Antonio Banderas, I mean goodness. ⁓
Courtney Pearl (06:41)
⁓
You took the words right
out of my mouth. That was the first thing I thought of when I thought we were going to talk about this movie. I'm like, this was like the what's it what's a quart of a trifecta? It's like quatra F da of of all the hotties from the 90s. I mean, this is I mean, this is a little bit more my mom's generation of who was
Just Blane (07:04)
There you go. Yeah.
Courtney Pearl (07:15)
on her list, if you will, but I remember being a kid and thinking, ⁓ my gosh, Tom Cruise, Brad Pitt, so cute.
Just Blane (07:23)
I mean,
let's be honest here. These men are still highly attractive today. Like this is wild. They all ended up in this movie. And there's even other names that were just as big that were tossed in and talked about as playing some of these characters. Johnny Depp was even involved in a role. And I don't think it didn't come to, but he was mentioned for a role. So there's other big stars. You think so, huh?
Courtney Pearl (07:32)
Yeah.
Only thing that would have made this better.
Mmm, my Johnny Depp. I will forever be Team Johnny Depp. That's my guy right there.
Just Blane (07:54)
Mmm, 90s Johnny Depp. This was in 1994
Johnny Depp. But this is back when vampires didn't sparkle. They brooded. They judged your morality while wearing lace cuffs. And let me just say this up top. This movie is messy, but in the most operatic way possible. It's a gothic soap opera meets theology class meets
Courtney Pearl (08:05)
Mm-hmm.
Just Blane (08:23)
Why are these two men arguing like they're in a couples therapy for 200 years? Because that's what it looks like. What if immortality is less about power and more about depression with better lighting? That's what this movie was to me. The aesthetic of this movie is unreal too. It's weird to say, but this movie, you can look at it and it smells. It's got a smell to it. Like old books.
Courtney Pearl (08:37)
Ooh, light it.
Probably.
Just Blane (08:51)
or some spilled wine and regret. Like there's some, there's something there, you know, so.
Courtney Pearl (08:54)
Yeah. ⁓ there's there's
even the scene where I believe it that this is what always kind of comes to my mind is like a feeling because so much of the movie is so beautiful. Like you said, I mean, lighting vibe, all that velvet and silk, it's beautiful. But there is a scene, I believe, where ⁓ they come into the room and they're like, it smells in here. And I get that sort of like corpse smell.
Just Blane (09:11)
Yeah.
Yeah!
Courtney Pearl (09:24)
in my mind of what it would be like to walk into a room and smell death. Yeah, young Claudia.
Just Blane (09:30)
Yeah
Hurston Dunst.
Which is crazy because she's a young Kirsten Dunst here and brilliant. And you could see it. You could see, well this is why she's had such a glow up over the years if you want to call it that and been successful because she was already good then.
Courtney Pearl (09:37)
She's brilliant, absolutely brilliant.
This was so good.
Just Blane (09:52)
Christian Slater, a baby faced Christian Slater interviewing vampires like he wandered into Hot Topic before Hot Topic existed. That was crazy to me too. They also, they doubted Tom Cruise and didn't think that he would be able to do Lestat. He crushed it. He even got a, I believe, was it Anne Rice herself or somebody that gave a video review and it's in the DVD.
Courtney Pearl (10:12)
Yeah.
Just Blane (10:20)
Remember when DVDs had special features and menus? This was one that had one. And it was a two minute apology to him basically saying, hey, I'm sorry, you were incredible in this. And that's saying a lot, because everybody in this movie stood out.
Courtney Pearl (10:20)
wow. Nailed it.
Mm-hmm.
Yeah,
I think a little bit of Tom Cruise's quirky weirdness that he has as an actual Tom Cruise as an actual person. I think that played well with him for him here because Lestat is a little bit out there and you're like, it's a little scary. A little gives you the whoa, coming on a little strong kind of vibes. And it's a nerve.
Just Blane (10:47)
Yeah!
He is!
Let me break him
down for you. Yeah, Lestat's the friend who ruins your life but throws in the incredible parties. He's seductive, theatrical, unhinged, but he's deeply lonely. And we've probably all known people like this. But that's what makes him dangerous. He doesn't want companion. He wants an audience at all times. And that's where the movie really gets spicy because Lewis wants meaning. Lestat, he wants the sensation.
Courtney Pearl (11:17)
Mm-hmm.
Just Blane (11:28)
And when those two frequencies collide, you get immortality as a domestic argument. And that's where, like I said, this thing gets real conflicting. But what are you seeing in that?
Courtney Pearl (11:43)
Yeah, it was like long before Bella's Edward was a sort of tortured soul who wondered if his existence was monstrous or he was damned to hell. If there was a hell, you know, is he is he already there? That kind of existential question about being a vampire, being an immortal who has to ⁓ murder people for
Just Blane (11:43)
There's a lot there.
Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
Courtney Pearl (12:11)
first sustenance, has to has to live, survive that way. You see that in Louis, right? And Louis this tortured soul, he can't enjoy it the way Lestat does. He's he's he feels himself damned. And there's that whole, you know, Queen of the Damned spin off and tortured kind of ⁓ gothic question about that and that with
Just Blane (12:18)
Yeah.
Yeah.
Courtney Pearl (12:38)
And I'm not sure Brad Pitt totally nailed that. Some say he's a little deadpan or he was phoning it in. But I think that you could argue that that's absolutely in line with what the character needed too.
Just Blane (12:51)
I mean,
Louis was the sad boy prototype. He was the original, I didn't ask for this protagonist, becomes a vampire and immediately goes, but what about my conscience? You know, but I loved it. The film wasn't really a, yeah, this whole film though is through Louis because it's not about all the blood and all that, like the other vampire movies. This one's about guilt and that's what he feels. You know, like.
Courtney Pearl (12:55)
Hmm.
Mm-hmm. What have I done?
Just Blane (13:20)
All of us freqs out there, you've outgrown a version of yourself at some point. You've looked back and thought, I don't even recognize that person. That's Louie for two centuries straight.
Courtney Pearl (13:32)
Mm hmm. Yeah. It begs the question, have you ever made a choice in desperation, feeling like this was the only choice you had at the time, but it puts you into a position where you feel a lot of guilt and regret about where you're at? Or, you know, for Louis, I think it was kind of like, well,
Just Blane (13:34)
And that's hard. That's hard.
Yeah.
Courtney Pearl (13:58)
You know, we can understand why in the moment he would have said yes to Lestat. He would have said yes to an immortal life or to what he was when he was dying. But then later go, what have I got myself into? Or do I really want to be here? Is this really me? Does this really align with my identity? So I would love to hear those kind of stories, too. I would love to hear the stories where I thought this was the only option I had was to do this, but I sold my soul for it and. It wasn't worth it.
in the long run.
Just Blane (14:27)
Well, let's talk
about Claudia because Claudia is the real horror. She's a child vampire trapped forever in a body that won't grow, but a mind that absolutely will. So is that where this whole thing is the scariest part of the movie because she's being told who she is forever. That's gotta be scary. If somebody told you that right now this is who you are forever.
Courtney Pearl (14:45)
Mm-hmm.
Just Blane (14:54)
And I mean forever, because she's immortal in this and that. That would be terrifying. That would be, that would be, yeah, I can't even understand. I can't get that. I can't wrap my mind around that because this is like version eight of Just Blame. You know, so I hate them being stuck in version one.
Courtney Pearl (15:08)
Yeah, yeah, true.
Do we grow? you know, that we don't know how it actually works if the brain continues to develop into a mature brain or how Claudia, but it's something that you don't think about. And I love that Anne Rice and writing this story and how this character unfolds and we it's represented in this movie is that ⁓ I remember the first time I saw it thinking, it'd be great to be a kid forever.
or to have a certain age where physically that's your physical peak or according to society, that's your physical peak. For us women, it's like 18, 19, all of those romantic novels stop us aging there because I guess that's when we peak. I'm not sure that's true. But let's say you could stop at 19 and then you could still have all the wisdom and experience of aging, living immortally, but you could be young forever.
And then Claudia's experiences that you see where that tortures her, where she's never going to get to see herself as a grown woman and she's never going to, hence the keeping the corpse in her bed with her and hiding it under stuffies is a little unnerving. ⁓ But yeah, she's kind of obsessing over grown women's bodies because she's so infatuated with the idea that
Just Blane (16:24)
Ugh.
Courtney Pearl (16:34)
I'm never gonna have that. I never get to reach that level. that's, I mean, then you see her just like throwing the biggest rage tantrum.
Just Blane (16:43)
Yeah, belligerent.
Courtney Pearl (16:44)
you've ever seen. Rightly so. She has a right to be mad. She's like, I didn't ask for this either. This is not what I saw for myself.
Just Blane (16:47)
Yeah!
But that's what the question that the movie keeps whispering to you about is, is immortality a curse? If you live forever, would you still care? If nothing is, does anything matter? I think this is one of those movies too that it hits you different in different times of your own life watching it. When you watch it and you're younger, you think this movie's sexy. Like it is, it's, when you've lived a little, you realize it's more about grief.
Courtney Pearl (17:05)
Mm-hmm.
Right.
Just Blane (17:24)
Louis is grieving his humanity, Lestat's grieving his loneliness, and Claudia is grieving a future she never got to have.
You know, that's a lot of that scary and deep.
Courtney Pearl (17:32)
Yeah.
Forever child and never getting quite the privilege of adulthood, never getting to be in a space where you get to make your own choices about yourself. She's always at the mercy of an adult, always needing to walk out in society and have to have the cover of, ⁓ this is my adult. This is the guardian who takes, who makes the choices for me at all times. It just has to at least present that image to people for her to be accepted.
Just Blane (17:45)
Yeah.
Courtney Pearl (18:05)
walking around being a forever child. And that's why Kirsten Dunst's performance, I thought back when I first saw it, and I was probably about her age, that she is in this movie when I first saw it. ⁓ watching it now as an adult, I just am blown away at the ability for this child who is
Just Blane (18:07)
Forever Child.
Courtney Pearl (18:28)
A child actor. She is not a 35 year old playing a child so that she can show that wisdom and show that experience. She is a child who has to act like an old soul and she nailed it. mean, I just really cannot say enough amazing things about her performance here. How did they do that?
Just Blane (18:47)
Cheat.
It was, I mean, honestly, she out acted grown people who had hundreds of years of experience between them. And that's an incredible thing, an incredible feat and played it perfectly. The whole thing though was total 90s energy because we were obsessed with beautiful sadness. And that's what this whole movie is. Her eternal child, like I said, Louis.
Courtney Pearl (19:01)
Yeah.
Mmm.
Just Blane (19:18)
was
that it was big emotions, slow burns, huge monologues, great monologues, no jump scares. And it was just this dread kind of marinating the entire time. And it does feel like a movie plucked right out of nineties. And that's why it really became a, I hate to say cult classic, cause this was huge when it came out too, but it really has become a part of culture at this point.
Courtney Pearl (19:30)
Yeah. ⁓
Mm-hmm.
Yes. And I want to get into a little bit ⁓ the the new series, Interviewed the Vampire, which I think we should throw out to maybe a Tube Tuesday deep dive into the TV series as a comparison. When I mentioned to my mom, who I know loves Interview the Vampire, she
⁓ She wanted to name our dog, our family dog. She wanted to name him Lestat when we first got him, but she went with Louis. So we had Louis the dog as our childhood dog all the way growing up. Favorite, favorite dog and family dog. But Louis was named after Brad Pitt's character in this movie. I know how much she loved the story, the books. ⁓ We loved the movie when it came out, but when I mentioned it to her just a few days ago, I'm like, we're going to be covering Interview the Vampire. She said,
Just Blane (20:13)
Yeah!
Courtney Pearl (20:36)
no, no, no, don't do the movie. Don't do the movie. She's like the TV series that just the new TV series, AMC plus so much better. And I've caught a little bit of it so far. And the undertones of the LBGQT community of being what is the attraction between Louie and the stat? You know, there's there's so much more going on there. And I think that Anne Rice alludes to it more in the book. But
Just Blane (20:39)
⁓
Yeah.
Courtney Pearl (21:04)
coming out in 1994, I'm sure they were like, we really can't do anything with that at this moment in time. We have to keep that totally ambiguous. Like we can't show that part.
Just Blane (21:15)
Yeah.
I mean, that subtext was in the movie. It definitely was in the movie. And it's probably one of the reasons that this film really did become a cult cornerstone. It wasn't just gothic flair. It was emotional honesty. Hiding under velvet capes, because that's what it was. But yeah, that's a great point.
Courtney Pearl (21:20)
Mm-hmm.
I was teased.
Yeah.
Just Blane (21:41)
It would have been a tough time in 1994 for that, but.
Courtney Pearl (21:45)
Yeah,
now we know with these, this hockey show that's come out and women are just falling all over themselves about it. We know that it would have been pretty, it might've been received really well, at least in quiet circles. We had been out loud admitting it at that time in 94, but it would have, it would have raised some eyebrows for sure.
Just Blane (21:53)
yeah.
Yep, yep, that's true.
The other cultural impact of this movie is it paved the way for vampire movies, really. And I know there was other ones beforehand, yes. But this is one that made it okay. It was proving that horror movies could be philosophical or the monsters could be tragic. The villains could be heartbreakingly human. And that's what happened here. And everything after this 1994 vampire movie,
Courtney Pearl (22:34)
Hmm.
Just Blane (22:38)
We saw a whole lot more of them. We didn't see so many that were like this before that. And I think that's something that we gotta really...
just commemorate, you know, like, that's gotta be something that we give it its flowers, yeah.
Courtney Pearl (22:49)
Mm hmm. Give it the credit that it's due. And right. Writing
this book in 76, I believe. So she was coming in hot with the vampire fad way before Twilight and other things started coming out with the whole vampire and human ⁓ kind of titillating romance that forbidden love of an immortal.
Just Blane (23:01)
Yep.
Courtney Pearl (23:17)
perhaps monstrous character and a human, but ⁓ I can't help but think that it was definitely influenced. I mean, you can't watch Interview with the Vampire with Brad Pitt and not go, ⁓ sign me up, yeah. If he was my vampire boyfriend, I'd be right there with it. Be all right with me.
Just Blane (23:31)
This happens.
Yeah,
absolutely. Final thoughts on Interview with a Vampire?
Courtney Pearl (23:41)
There's just so much, so much great stuff that in the making of this, the production of it, ⁓ the thought that always comes to my mind is that good.
Just Blane (23:41)
Incredible. I know.
Courtney Pearl (23:52)
deliciously thick, dramatic feeling of a New Orleans cemetery. The weeping statue, the catacombs, that whole vibe. And it's at the beginning of this movie. It's a lot of Anne Rice ⁓ productions. We've talked a lot about Stephen King on this show a lot. So it's good to give Anne Rice some credit where she deserves it for all of her.
Just Blane (23:59)
Mm-hmm.
yeah!
Courtney Pearl (24:20)
Beautiful. The only difference I would say in writing style is Anne Rice could go real in detail in her writing. So we get that in the movie. We can see that in the cinematography and the set design and how that came about. Even in costumes, it's just very like drippy. And I love that.
Just Blane (24:41)
Mm-hmm. My final thoughts are it's incredible. And that's all I gotta say, because it is an incredible movie. I will say this. It is probably one of the ⁓ most mispronounced movies ever, because it's not interview with a vampire. It's interview with the vampire. But I think a lot of people do say interview with a vampire. We all know what movie we're talking about. I can tell you this too, if...
Courtney Pearl (24:50)
love it.
Just Blane (25:08)
In real life, a pale aristocrat offers you eternal life. Maybe ask about the emotional terms and conditions first. Parallel frequencies with Just Plane and Coco. We love the freqs. We'll see you on the other side.
Courtney Pearl (25:16)
Hehehehe
frequencies with JustBland and Coco. What's up over there, Coco? What do you got going on today?
Courtney Pearl (00:06)
Nothing much, just got a workout in this morning. So instead of my coffee, I'm doing my protein shake.
Just Blane (00:14)
I saw something, you posted a sweaty selfie or something this morning. I saw that.
Courtney Pearl (00:17)
Sweaty selfie, that's how you get motivated.
You're like, guys, look, it's cool to be sweaty.
Just Blane (00:23)
Is that
a thing? Is hashtag sweaty selfie, is that a real thing? If not, it could be. We could do that. Yeah.
Courtney Pearl (00:30)
Could be. I
bet it is. I bet it is. Cause when I've been in part of workout groups and stuff before they are like, your sweaty selfie today, like motivate each other, like show that you did your workout for the day. I've been trying. I'm not much of a gym person. So this is my effort.
Just Blane (00:41)
Let's see.
Now see, I wouldn't know that. Yeah, I wouldn't
know that because I don't go to the gym. I don't do that. So I wouldn't know that sweaty selfies are a thing out there.
Courtney Pearl (00:57)
⁓ I'm doing it. I'm getting there. I'm doing the things. It's a boot camp. Not really a gym. It's not quite like a normal gym. They have boot camps. So you go like a class and do what they tell you to do with a personal trainer for.
an hour or 45 minutes. Yeah. Yeah. So it's my kind of jam. It's a little bit more high fiving than I'm comfortable with. I'm still not used to that culture. So when they say, all right, you did it to turn to somebody next to you and high five them, I'm like, oh, do we have to?
Just Blane (01:11)
Our? Yeah. Well, that's incredible.
Okay, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Yeah, you're like, can I just do it to myself here? yeah. Yeah, you seemed a little more energetic over there. That's why I was checking on you.
Courtney Pearl (01:32)
Yeah, so what's going on today?
Well, I didn't sleep well last
night, but I'd like to think that the gym is helping give me some energy.
Just Blane (01:43)
Yeah, I'm
gonna tell you, I'm a little bit energetic today as well. And that's because today is Survivor 50 day. And I'm a huge Survivor fan. And I know I jumped the gun a couple of weeks ago and I was like, hey, it's starting tonight. Tonight's the night, I promise. I just looked it up. Yes, and I can't wait. And I'll tell you, when we ⁓ record another show soon,
Courtney Pearl (02:03)
for real this time.
Just Blane (02:12)
I will, after the first episode, I will make my prediction of who I'm calling the winner. And I'm pretty good, I've been pretty good over the years with picking a survivor winner from the very first episode. So I'll do that after.
Courtney Pearl (02:21)
Yeah.
That's kind of my favorite
part of those type of elimination survival challenges is you kind of try to analyze and pick out who has the mental, emotional, physical, and skill sets to get it, right? To get there.
Just Blane (02:44)
Yeah.
Well, survivor is out with outlast outplay or something like that. That's their their motto.
Courtney Pearl (02:53)
There's a whole other element
to the whole like working with other people and trying to compete and trying to kind of get under the mind games that go on and the politics and a little bit more of that. I just finished the Alone Season 11. So there's a little bit less of that because they're out there alone, right? But they just have to outlast basically is the name of the game. I, for those of you who haven't watched the whole Season 11, sorry, I'm gonna spoil it for you, but I
Just Blane (03:03)
Yeah
OOF
Yeah? Yeah.
Courtney Pearl (03:23)
I had my money on Timber. I thought Timber was gonna make it and he was ⁓ second place. So he was one of the last two left and tapped out at the very end there. But in the best way, it was good. It was good Timber. If you're watching, you did awesome. I think you did the right thing.
Just Blane (03:34)
Mmm.
I'm about to check that show out too. I keep hearing about this Traitors show on Peacock. We should do that one. Yeah. Because I've seen people already renting out cottages and doing their own weekend version of this Traitors. Maybe that's what we should do for your birthday. I mentioned we should do a murder mystery. Maybe we should rent out a cottage here somewhere in Utah and do a Traitors style weekend.
Courtney Pearl (03:46)
Mmm, that's good stuff. Yeah, I'm gonna follow along with that.
Just Blane (04:10)
for your birthday. That'd be kind of fun.
Courtney Pearl (04:12)
That
would be a blast. You had me at cottage. I'm like cottage? What? Excuse me? Yeah, I'll take it.
Just Blane (04:15)
Sounds expensive. Yeah, it sounds expensive. If any of our freqs
out there got a cottage that we can borrow, we don't have money. If we can borrow this for the, the freqs can be involved. We'll do a trader's style weekend for Coco's birthday, but we need everything paid for. I'm just going be honest. Nah, Mardi Gras going on. There's a party for you.
Courtney Pearl (04:26)
Yeah.
Yeah, yeah.
Yeah!
Just Blane (04:43)
Or is it over with? I think it was last week or something, but it goes forever. If you've ever been to New Orleans, yeah, you know it's just, you don't know, it never ends. Have you been to New Orleans?
Courtney Pearl (04:48)
I'm never totally sure.
I have not. The closest that I have been is the little ⁓ New Orleans themed area of Disneyland where you can get your beignets and your mint julep and you know, I mean, that's, it always makes me so happy to be in that area because that's so my vibe and it's such a witchy, witching hour.
Just Blane (05:03)
yeah,
Courtney Pearl (05:19)
I mean, the cemeteries, the weeping willows. Every time I see anything about New Orleans, I just want to go so bad. But my mom has been. She loves Anne Rice. So she had to go see her house and see all of the setting for things like Mayfair witches. ⁓ such good creepy witchy vibes there in New Orleans.
Just Blane (05:21)
Yeah
Mmm!
And speaking of Anne Rice, look at your nice segue there. We are talking about today on Whisple Wednesday, Interview with a Vampire, the 1994 version. And let me take it back to you here real quick. The only difference in Disney, New Orleans and New Orleans, New Orleans is it's filthy. Disney keeps their version clean. So that's about the biggest difference.
So if you wanna go get the authentic experience in New Orleans and get the filth and all that, which I have, I have part hook in the filth in New Orleans. But yeah, the Disney version is a lot cleaner. But right now, freqs we're stepping into the velvet candlelight and existential dread with perfect cheekbones. Because did not every actor in this movie have perfect cheekbones and become a...
Courtney Pearl (06:38)
Yeah.
Just Blane (06:38)
icon
a sex symbol and I hate to say that but Brad Pitt, Tom Cruise, Christian Slater, Antonio Banderas, I mean goodness. ⁓
Courtney Pearl (06:41)
⁓
You took the words right
out of my mouth. That was the first thing I thought of when I thought we were going to talk about this movie. I'm like, this was like the what's it what's a quart of a trifecta? It's like quatra F da of of all the hotties from the 90s. I mean, this is I mean, this is a little bit more my mom's generation of who was
Just Blane (07:04)
There you go. Yeah.
Courtney Pearl (07:15)
on her list, if you will, but I remember being a kid and thinking, ⁓ my gosh, Tom Cruise, Brad Pitt, so cute.
Just Blane (07:23)
I mean,
let's be honest here. These men are still highly attractive today. Like this is wild. They all ended up in this movie. And there's even other names that were just as big that were tossed in and talked about as playing some of these characters. Johnny Depp was even involved in a role. And I don't think it didn't come to, but he was mentioned for a role. So there's other big stars. You think so, huh?
Courtney Pearl (07:32)
Yeah.
Only thing that would have made this better.
Mmm, my Johnny Depp. I will forever be Team Johnny Depp. That's my guy right there.
Just Blane (07:54)
Mmm, 90s Johnny Depp. This was in 1994
Johnny Depp. But this is back when vampires didn't sparkle. They brooded. They judged your morality while wearing lace cuffs. And let me just say this up top. This movie is messy, but in the most operatic way possible. It's a gothic soap opera meets theology class meets
Courtney Pearl (08:05)
Mm-hmm.
Just Blane (08:23)
Why are these two men arguing like they're in a couples therapy for 200 years? Because that's what it looks like. What if immortality is less about power and more about depression with better lighting? That's what this movie was to me. The aesthetic of this movie is unreal too. It's weird to say, but this movie, you can look at it and it smells. It's got a smell to it. Like old books.
Courtney Pearl (08:37)
Ooh, light it.
Probably.
Just Blane (08:51)
or some spilled wine and regret. Like there's some, there's something there, you know, so.
Courtney Pearl (08:54)
Yeah. ⁓ there's there's
even the scene where I believe it that this is what always kind of comes to my mind is like a feeling because so much of the movie is so beautiful. Like you said, I mean, lighting vibe, all that velvet and silk, it's beautiful. But there is a scene, I believe, where ⁓ they come into the room and they're like, it smells in here. And I get that sort of like corpse smell.
Just Blane (09:11)
Yeah.
Yeah!
Courtney Pearl (09:24)
in my mind of what it would be like to walk into a room and smell death. Yeah, young Claudia.
Just Blane (09:30)
Yeah
Hurston Dunst.
Which is crazy because she's a young Kirsten Dunst here and brilliant. And you could see it. You could see, well this is why she's had such a glow up over the years if you want to call it that and been successful because she was already good then.
Courtney Pearl (09:37)
She's brilliant, absolutely brilliant.
This was so good.
Just Blane (09:52)
Christian Slater, a baby faced Christian Slater interviewing vampires like he wandered into Hot Topic before Hot Topic existed. That was crazy to me too. They also, they doubted Tom Cruise and didn't think that he would be able to do Lestat. He crushed it. He even got a, I believe, was it Anne Rice herself or somebody that gave a video review and it's in the DVD.
Courtney Pearl (10:12)
Yeah.
Just Blane (10:20)
Remember when DVDs had special features and menus? This was one that had one. And it was a two minute apology to him basically saying, hey, I'm sorry, you were incredible in this. And that's saying a lot, because everybody in this movie stood out.
Courtney Pearl (10:20)
wow. Nailed it.
Mm-hmm.
Yeah,
I think a little bit of Tom Cruise's quirky weirdness that he has as an actual Tom Cruise as an actual person. I think that played well with him for him here because Lestat is a little bit out there and you're like, it's a little scary. A little gives you the whoa, coming on a little strong kind of vibes. And it's a nerve.
Just Blane (10:47)
Yeah!
He is!
Let me break him
down for you. Yeah, Lestat's the friend who ruins your life but throws in the incredible parties. He's seductive, theatrical, unhinged, but he's deeply lonely. And we've probably all known people like this. But that's what makes him dangerous. He doesn't want companion. He wants an audience at all times. And that's where the movie really gets spicy because Lewis wants meaning. Lestat, he wants the sensation.
Courtney Pearl (11:17)
Mm-hmm.
Just Blane (11:28)
And when those two frequencies collide, you get immortality as a domestic argument. And that's where, like I said, this thing gets real conflicting. But what are you seeing in that?
Courtney Pearl (11:43)
Yeah, it was like long before Bella's Edward was a sort of tortured soul who wondered if his existence was monstrous or he was damned to hell. If there was a hell, you know, is he is he already there? That kind of existential question about being a vampire, being an immortal who has to ⁓ murder people for
Just Blane (11:43)
There's a lot there.
Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
Courtney Pearl (12:11)
first sustenance, has to has to live, survive that way. You see that in Louis, right? And Louis this tortured soul, he can't enjoy it the way Lestat does. He's he's he feels himself damned. And there's that whole, you know, Queen of the Damned spin off and tortured kind of ⁓ gothic question about that and that with
Just Blane (12:18)
Yeah.
Yeah.
Courtney Pearl (12:38)
And I'm not sure Brad Pitt totally nailed that. Some say he's a little deadpan or he was phoning it in. But I think that you could argue that that's absolutely in line with what the character needed too.
Just Blane (12:51)
I mean,
Louis was the sad boy prototype. He was the original, I didn't ask for this protagonist, becomes a vampire and immediately goes, but what about my conscience? You know, but I loved it. The film wasn't really a, yeah, this whole film though is through Louis because it's not about all the blood and all that, like the other vampire movies. This one's about guilt and that's what he feels. You know, like.
Courtney Pearl (12:55)
Hmm.
Mm-hmm. What have I done?
Just Blane (13:20)
All of us freqs out there, you've outgrown a version of yourself at some point. You've looked back and thought, I don't even recognize that person. That's Louie for two centuries straight.
Courtney Pearl (13:32)
Mm hmm. Yeah. It begs the question, have you ever made a choice in desperation, feeling like this was the only choice you had at the time, but it puts you into a position where you feel a lot of guilt and regret about where you're at? Or, you know, for Louis, I think it was kind of like, well,
Just Blane (13:34)
And that's hard. That's hard.
Yeah.
Courtney Pearl (13:58)
You know, we can understand why in the moment he would have said yes to Lestat. He would have said yes to an immortal life or to what he was when he was dying. But then later go, what have I got myself into? Or do I really want to be here? Is this really me? Does this really align with my identity? So I would love to hear those kind of stories, too. I would love to hear the stories where I thought this was the only option I had was to do this, but I sold my soul for it and. It wasn't worth it.
in the long run.
Just Blane (14:27)
Well, let's talk
about Claudia because Claudia is the real horror. She's a child vampire trapped forever in a body that won't grow, but a mind that absolutely will. So is that where this whole thing is the scariest part of the movie because she's being told who she is forever. That's gotta be scary. If somebody told you that right now this is who you are forever.
Courtney Pearl (14:45)
Mm-hmm.
Just Blane (14:54)
And I mean forever, because she's immortal in this and that. That would be terrifying. That would be, that would be, yeah, I can't even understand. I can't get that. I can't wrap my mind around that because this is like version eight of Just Blame. You know, so I hate them being stuck in version one.
Courtney Pearl (15:08)
Yeah, yeah, true.
Do we grow? you know, that we don't know how it actually works if the brain continues to develop into a mature brain or how Claudia, but it's something that you don't think about. And I love that Anne Rice and writing this story and how this character unfolds and we it's represented in this movie is that ⁓ I remember the first time I saw it thinking, it'd be great to be a kid forever.
or to have a certain age where physically that's your physical peak or according to society, that's your physical peak. For us women, it's like 18, 19, all of those romantic novels stop us aging there because I guess that's when we peak. I'm not sure that's true. But let's say you could stop at 19 and then you could still have all the wisdom and experience of aging, living immortally, but you could be young forever.
And then Claudia's experiences that you see where that tortures her, where she's never going to get to see herself as a grown woman and she's never going to, hence the keeping the corpse in her bed with her and hiding it under stuffies is a little unnerving. ⁓ But yeah, she's kind of obsessing over grown women's bodies because she's so infatuated with the idea that
Just Blane (16:24)
Ugh.
Courtney Pearl (16:34)
I'm never gonna have that. I never get to reach that level. that's, I mean, then you see her just like throwing the biggest rage tantrum.
Just Blane (16:43)
Yeah, belligerent.
Courtney Pearl (16:44)
you've ever seen. Rightly so. She has a right to be mad. She's like, I didn't ask for this either. This is not what I saw for myself.
Just Blane (16:47)
Yeah!
But that's what the question that the movie keeps whispering to you about is, is immortality a curse? If you live forever, would you still care? If nothing is, does anything matter? I think this is one of those movies too that it hits you different in different times of your own life watching it. When you watch it and you're younger, you think this movie's sexy. Like it is, it's, when you've lived a little, you realize it's more about grief.
Courtney Pearl (17:05)
Mm-hmm.
Right.
Just Blane (17:24)
Louis is grieving his humanity, Lestat's grieving his loneliness, and Claudia is grieving a future she never got to have.
You know, that's a lot of that scary and deep.
Courtney Pearl (17:32)
Yeah.
Forever child and never getting quite the privilege of adulthood, never getting to be in a space where you get to make your own choices about yourself. She's always at the mercy of an adult, always needing to walk out in society and have to have the cover of, ⁓ this is my adult. This is the guardian who takes, who makes the choices for me at all times. It just has to at least present that image to people for her to be accepted.
Just Blane (17:45)
Yeah.
Courtney Pearl (18:05)
walking around being a forever child. And that's why Kirsten Dunst's performance, I thought back when I first saw it, and I was probably about her age, that she is in this movie when I first saw it. ⁓ watching it now as an adult, I just am blown away at the ability for this child who is
Just Blane (18:07)
Forever Child.
Courtney Pearl (18:28)
A child actor. She is not a 35 year old playing a child so that she can show that wisdom and show that experience. She is a child who has to act like an old soul and she nailed it. mean, I just really cannot say enough amazing things about her performance here. How did they do that?
Just Blane (18:47)
Cheat.
It was, I mean, honestly, she out acted grown people who had hundreds of years of experience between them. And that's an incredible thing, an incredible feat and played it perfectly. The whole thing though was total 90s energy because we were obsessed with beautiful sadness. And that's what this whole movie is. Her eternal child, like I said, Louis.
Courtney Pearl (19:01)
Yeah.
Mmm.
Just Blane (19:18)
was
that it was big emotions, slow burns, huge monologues, great monologues, no jump scares. And it was just this dread kind of marinating the entire time. And it does feel like a movie plucked right out of nineties. And that's why it really became a, I hate to say cult classic, cause this was huge when it came out too, but it really has become a part of culture at this point.
Courtney Pearl (19:30)
Yeah. ⁓
Mm-hmm.
Yes. And I want to get into a little bit ⁓ the the new series, Interviewed the Vampire, which I think we should throw out to maybe a Tube Tuesday deep dive into the TV series as a comparison. When I mentioned to my mom, who I know loves Interview the Vampire, she
⁓ She wanted to name our dog, our family dog. She wanted to name him Lestat when we first got him, but she went with Louis. So we had Louis the dog as our childhood dog all the way growing up. Favorite, favorite dog and family dog. But Louis was named after Brad Pitt's character in this movie. I know how much she loved the story, the books. ⁓ We loved the movie when it came out, but when I mentioned it to her just a few days ago, I'm like, we're going to be covering Interview the Vampire. She said,
Just Blane (20:13)
Yeah!
Courtney Pearl (20:36)
no, no, no, don't do the movie. Don't do the movie. She's like the TV series that just the new TV series, AMC plus so much better. And I've caught a little bit of it so far. And the undertones of the LBGQT community of being what is the attraction between Louie and the stat? You know, there's there's so much more going on there. And I think that Anne Rice alludes to it more in the book. But
Just Blane (20:39)
⁓
Yeah.
Courtney Pearl (21:04)
coming out in 1994, I'm sure they were like, we really can't do anything with that at this moment in time. We have to keep that totally ambiguous. Like we can't show that part.
Just Blane (21:15)
Yeah.
I mean, that subtext was in the movie. It definitely was in the movie. And it's probably one of the reasons that this film really did become a cult cornerstone. It wasn't just gothic flair. It was emotional honesty. Hiding under velvet capes, because that's what it was. But yeah, that's a great point.
Courtney Pearl (21:20)
Mm-hmm.
I was teased.
Yeah.
Just Blane (21:41)
It would have been a tough time in 1994 for that, but.
Courtney Pearl (21:45)
Yeah,
now we know with these, this hockey show that's come out and women are just falling all over themselves about it. We know that it would have been pretty, it might've been received really well, at least in quiet circles. We had been out loud admitting it at that time in 94, but it would have, it would have raised some eyebrows for sure.
Just Blane (21:53)
yeah.
Yep, yep, that's true.
The other cultural impact of this movie is it paved the way for vampire movies, really. And I know there was other ones beforehand, yes. But this is one that made it okay. It was proving that horror movies could be philosophical or the monsters could be tragic. The villains could be heartbreakingly human. And that's what happened here. And everything after this 1994 vampire movie,
Courtney Pearl (22:34)
Hmm.
Just Blane (22:38)
We saw a whole lot more of them. We didn't see so many that were like this before that. And I think that's something that we gotta really...
just commemorate, you know, like, that's gotta be something that we give it its flowers, yeah.
Courtney Pearl (22:49)
Mm hmm. Give it the credit that it's due. And right. Writing
this book in 76, I believe. So she was coming in hot with the vampire fad way before Twilight and other things started coming out with the whole vampire and human ⁓ kind of titillating romance that forbidden love of an immortal.
Just Blane (23:01)
Yep.
Courtney Pearl (23:17)
perhaps monstrous character and a human, but ⁓ I can't help but think that it was definitely influenced. I mean, you can't watch Interview with the Vampire with Brad Pitt and not go, ⁓ sign me up, yeah. If he was my vampire boyfriend, I'd be right there with it. Be all right with me.
Just Blane (23:31)
This happens.
Yeah,
absolutely. Final thoughts on Interview with a Vampire?
Courtney Pearl (23:41)
There's just so much, so much great stuff that in the making of this, the production of it, ⁓ the thought that always comes to my mind is that good.
Just Blane (23:41)
Incredible. I know.
Courtney Pearl (23:52)
deliciously thick, dramatic feeling of a New Orleans cemetery. The weeping statue, the catacombs, that whole vibe. And it's at the beginning of this movie. It's a lot of Anne Rice ⁓ productions. We've talked a lot about Stephen King on this show a lot. So it's good to give Anne Rice some credit where she deserves it for all of her.
Just Blane (23:59)
Mm-hmm.
yeah!
Courtney Pearl (24:20)
Beautiful. The only difference I would say in writing style is Anne Rice could go real in detail in her writing. So we get that in the movie. We can see that in the cinematography and the set design and how that came about. Even in costumes, it's just very like drippy. And I love that.
Just Blane (24:41)
Mm-hmm. My final thoughts are it's incredible. And that's all I gotta say, because it is an incredible movie. I will say this. It is probably one of the ⁓ most mispronounced movies ever, because it's not interview with a vampire. It's interview with the vampire. But I think a lot of people do say interview with a vampire. We all know what movie we're talking about. I can tell you this too, if...
Courtney Pearl (24:50)
love it.
Just Blane (25:08)
In real life, a pale aristocrat offers you eternal life. Maybe ask about the emotional terms and conditions first. Parallel frequencies with Just Plane and Coco. We love the freqs. We'll see you on the other side.
Courtney Pearl (25:16)
Hehehehe