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INTERVIEW WITH THE NEW VAMPIRE
by Dave White, The Advocate 3/5/02


Stuart Townsend, star of Queen of the Damned, talks about baring his
fangs-and his abs-as Anne Rice's vampire Lestat

"My first time in a nightclub with a gay friend, I walked into a room
full of men kissing each other, and I was shocked by the energy of the
place-the muscles! I had never been in that environment before, and I
freaked a little. The homophobia barrier closed in around me-I was
scared. But I've grown up a bit since then," laughs actor Stuart
Townsend.

The grown-up actor's next gay rite of passage is his star role as Lestat
in the film version of Anne Rice's hugely popular novel Queen of the
Damned, picking up the fake fangs originally worn by Tom Cruise in
Interview With the Vampire. This time out, Townsend transforms the
character, formerly an omnisexual 18th-century fop, into a ghoulish
glam/goth rock star, one who inspires his fans to hoist homemade Total
Request Live-like signs that read "Suck Me, Lestat!" He's a vampire
rocker gleefully perverse enough to make both David Bowie and Marilyn
Manson proud.

A veteran of independent cinema-having starred in the comedy About Adam,
with Kate Hudson, as well as director Michael Winterbottom's Wonderland
and the flat-out strange Judaic ghost stow Simon Magus-the 29-year-old
Irish actor was ready for this step into the Hollywood mainstream. What
he was not prepared for was its accompanying off-screen tragedy, as
Townsend's Queen of the Damned costar, pop singer Aaliyah, died in a
plane crash during postproduction.

"I have no catchphrase to say about her, there's no escaping it or
redeeming it," he says quietly. "You can say someone was wonderful after
they die, and people will say, 'Yeah, you're just saying that because
she's dead.' But the thing about her is that it's all tree. She was a
genuinely joyful person, gentle and respectful of everyone. I'm honored
to have known her."

Paired with Aaliyah's regal, murderous queen, Townsend's Lestat rules
over his fans by cutting the rock star swagger with an equal amount of
androgyny. "I never thought of this character as male or female, gay or
nongay, just as a seducer and as someone who craves to be known, to be
famous," explains Townsend. "I prepared by reading the Anne Rice novels
and watching lots of vampire movies, but also by watching lots of rock
performances and learning how they moved, especially Bowie."

This late-model Lestat, one who awakens in the modem world and decides
the time is right to exit the vampire closet, is also a cheekier ghoul
than the one who came before. In one scene, Lestat even taunts other
vampires, via MTV, to "come out, come out, wherever you are." As coded
messages go, it may not pack the punch of watching Tom Cruise linger
over Brad Pitt's neck, but it's something.

And the subtext suits him fine. "I'd say there's sexual tension between
my character and Vincent Perez's [who plays Marius], but there's nothing
explicit." Yet Townsend also feels that the very nature of vampire lore,
not to mention the glare rock and goth subcultures and their defiant
"difference," offer plenty of queer spirit for lesbian and gay audiences
to feed on. Queen doesn't show and tell like The Hunger, Townsend's
favorite vampire movie, "but if you're looking for it," he says, "it's
there."

Will that be enough for audiences looking for less metaphoric
representation? "Well, there was no one there saying, 'Stuart, could you
be little more homosexual here?' But I promise, he's no macho vampire. I
mean, look, they shaved my chest and put me in a velvet skirt," he
laughs. "What more do you want?"

White writes about film for E! Online.

For The Advocate's past coverage of Anne Rice and the vampire Lestat, go
to www.advocate.com