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@lynnenne
The Myth of the Americas in AMC’s Interview With the Vampire
Analysis of the series through the lens of colonial racism, and how it impacts character dynamics in the show. Mainly a primer for white viewers who aren’t well versed in these topics. Black people already know most of this and are welcome to add their own insights, but it’s not their job to teach us about racism. It’s on us to unlearn it.
Here on my Dreamwidth journal
I might be a bit too optimistic and maybe naive in trusting the showrunners but could all this promo be meta? I keep thinking about Daniel in the first teaser saying that people care more about the white guy. And then Sam saying something recently about the oversaturation of his image. Just a thought but I feel like all of it is a bit too on the nose.
when i encounter some sort of ironic metatextual thing/commentary, i always ask myself: is there material difference between endorsement and criticism in this case? or in other words, what exactly this meta thing is trying to achieve and is this artistic decision more important than material consequences? because if the end result is the same, i don't think it matters if this was an ironic "meta" thing or simply a bad (racist/misogynistic/homophobic etc) decision.
the marketing could be meta. or it could be not meta. the end result is the same: actors of color do not get recognition and attention on the same level the main white actor does. s1&2 did everything to boost sam reid's presence in the show and marketing, even when lestat barely had any reason to be in the narrative. s3 marketing does everything to downplay the importance of jacob, assad and delainey and there are very clear negative consequences to it.
if amc respected bipoc, it'd find a way to keep their presence in the marketing without hurting any kind of "meta" vision of it. they could put up ominous clips of ghost or hallucination of claudia lurking behind lestat or haunting louis. they could make more silly in-character interviews like they did with "documentary outtakes". they still could show more of louis and armand in the official trailer. they simply could talk more about the first two seasons and encourage people to watch it instead of downplaying any connection between iwtv and tvl.
as it is now, the actors of color who carried this show do not get nearly as much exposure, attention from the news outlets, public and industry professionals. they're all actors, it’s how they get new interesting big roles and recognition for their work. do you see the problem here? no matter the intention, the material result still sucks ass. in fact, i believe many networks has started covering their asses with "meta" excuses and that's why i no longer fall for them.
listen we never went anywhere ofc but we're so fucking back. jacob is incapable of giving anything but the performance of the century EVERY!!! TIME!!!
Wtf??? How is anyone allowed to look like this?
i don't care if i sound like a complainer or im beating a dead horse, but all the promotion that tvl is getting—the magazines and episode-breakdown couch convo/podcasts and in-universe commercials and live concerts and tons of alternate previews and fucking fashion designer collaborations—compared to the next to nothing that the previous two black and brown-led seasons got really feels purposeful. like amc got their audience built off of their diverse cast, and now they're shifting to a whiter brand, perhaps what they'd wanted to do all along, and are doing their best to advertise that as much as possible.
No one expected the show to get super popular
Also
Louis is not a character who does an eyeshadow palette
Louis is a character who sponsors a book of short stories or something maybe. A charity. Probably not because he doesn't like the spotlight.
Like... name a product tie in you could do with season one. Or season two. They did do some clothes- hot topic had some dresses and stuff. But what are they going to do? Claudia's blue and black and white dress that she hates? Blender by kitchen aid with the text from the argument?
Doing dumb product tie ins for the himbo vampire that broke the masquerade to sing little ai generated songs that barely make sense as being songs he wrote (how are you going to get fatter, mon cher? You are unchanging.) Makes sense. If Lestat was a real guy he would let them name a custom gun oil after him that contained body safe liquid shimmer that doubled as a facial highlighter. He would have his own cologne. They would make a pop socket shaped like a cast of his lips with his fangs peeking out. He would do a video where he apologized to Trixie Mattel and told her that he's terrible with makeup and it would be an insult to her viewers to try and do makeup on her channel and she would be like "yeah you do just kind of bathe in glitter don't you?" He would have at least 5 Twitter feuds and get canceled for being ungrateful to his fans. He would get un canceled for yelling at suicidal people who tagged him asking if he would eat them to value their beautiful lives and then re canceled for almost killing someone by breaking a piece of lighting equipment on stage so he could lie on the floor in the dark hanging by his knees from the stage.
This is not a racial issue it's just okay to make Lestat as crass and materialist and silly and dramatic as you want. But Louis and Claudia are serious people. Except for the meow.
@murfpersonalblog listed about a dozen ideas that would have been on brand to promote S1 and S2, yet AMC did none of them. In 1.04, Daniel talks to his editor on the phone about publishing a chapter of his book in Vanity Fair. I waited all season for the AMC marketing team to publish just such a chapter. Eventually I wrote it myself as a fanfic, with a full magazine spread and everything. Yet AMC can do a six-page spread in Rolling Stone for this season? They even changed the name of the show so they could take away top billing from their Black lead and give it to a white actor - which makes me furious on Jacob’s behalf because he gave the performance of a LIFETIME in the first 2 seasons. How much time and effort and money did AMC put into trying to win him the Emmy nomination that he absolutely deserved? Yet they’ll be going in guns blazing on Sam this season, mark my words.
There’s a promo for this season in which Daniel talks about someone pitching the idea for his documentary. His exact words are, “Not about Louis. Lestat. The white guy.” I appreciate the level of self-awareness in that bit of dialogue, but it doesn’t absolve the network of their failures, unconscious or not.
i don't care if i sound like a complainer or im beating a dead horse, but all the promotion that tvl is getting—the magazines and episode-breakdown couch convo/podcasts and in-universe commercials and live concerts and tons of alternate previews and fucking fashion designer collaborations—compared to the next to nothing that the previous two black and brown-led seasons got really feels purposeful. like amc got their audience built off of their diverse cast, and now they're shifting to a whiter brand, perhaps what they'd wanted to do all along, and are doing their best to advertise that as much as possible.
especially when the pushback is that: "oh, but this is all on-brand for lestat~!" as if there's nothing that can be on-brand to promote louis? or claudia? or armand?
you think POM (putting aside the zionist shilling ofc) couldn't do commercials with armand pulverizing pomegranates in a blender?! SUS!
you think louis can't do audiobooks of excerpts? (those hockey boys did a whole audiobook about frikkin fairies ffs.) people rave about jacob anderson's accent work all the time, yet no one let him do a book reading event for the alphabettery for iwtv's anniversary, or james' baldwin's books for black history month, NOTHING! wwdits got wesley snipes to appear in-character as Blade, and jacob's gushed about Sinners 1000x, and yet NOTHING?! not even a Black vampires zoom call run thru BET, or an Essence magazine cover for halloween when y'all literally mentioned the essence festival in 2x8!? but nope, there's nothing in-character for jacob/louis to do for promo! SUS!
you think claudia/baby lulu can't have an installment as an american girl doll, or a funko, or a plushie? (matter fact: why is all the plushie merch being made & sold by FANS, and not the frikkin company itself?! clearly there's a demand for it!) SUS!
why is it that amc only has bright ideas all of a sudden when it's lestat & sam's the only one present on magazine covers & press events--when back when it was louis he had to always share the spotlight with sam!? this is all MIGHTY SUS, amc.
i don't care if i sound like a complainer or im beating a dead horse, but all the promotion that tvl is getting—the magazines and episode-breakdown couch convo/podcasts and in-universe commercials and live concerts and tons of alternate previews and fucking fashion designer collaborations—compared to the next to nothing that the previous two black and brown-led seasons got really feels purposeful. like amc got their audience built off of their diverse cast, and now they're shifting to a whiter brand, perhaps what they'd wanted to do all along, and are doing their best to advertise that as much as possible.
crazy that louis's "all his spindly roots in me" monologue is from the pilot. like jacob anderson showed up to set from day 1 and said i'm here to make history.
i don't care if i sound like a complainer or im beating a dead horse, but all the promotion that tvl is getting—the magazines and episode-breakdown couch convo/podcasts and in-universe commercials and live concerts and tons of alternate previews and fucking fashion designer collaborations—compared to the next to nothing that the previous two black and brown-led seasons got really feels purposeful. like amc got their audience built off of their diverse cast, and now they're shifting to a whiter brand, perhaps what they'd wanted to do all along, and are doing their best to advertise that as much as possible.
Louis & Armand's Living Room Wall: A Character Analysis
So Louis and Armand have this giant wall, in their living room. The wall is given a lot of screentime, and a lot of importance. And I think that this wall (and what's hanging on it) says a LOT about Louis' mental state, Armand's mental state, and the state of their relationship.
So this is the very first shot we get of the inside of the penthouse, it's our intro into Daniel in Louis & Armand's world.
We've got those three red pantings, called out in dialog as "the Bacon triptych" "Three Studies for Figures at the Base of a Crucifixion," and "The Three Furies." Which I think we're meant to read as a visual representation of Louis' pain.
First, Francis Bacon is specifically riffing off this altarpiece:
and you can absolutely see him subtly using the iconography and shapes of (from left to right) - John the Apostle, the Virgin Mary, John the Baptist
the left one has John's red hair and red wrap, the center has mary's white veil/headscarf, and Bacon leans into the way it kinda looks like a blindfold (the shape of Mary Magdalene has been simplified into that table/tripod thing.) And the one on the right is the general shape of John the Baptist, with the lamb represented as that furry carpet.
The most important painting is the center "Virgin Mary" one, the one that frames Daniel. And the most OBVIOUS meaning here (other than the catholic of it all, which is very Louis) is -- death of a child. Mary is watching Jesus die. It's a painting of his Claudia pain.
BUT these are also the three "furies," the goddesses of vengeance (so ALSO very Louis) who come down especially hard on liars and oath breakers. And the remaining liar/oath breaker? Armand, and arguably Lestat. Louis doesn't know the extent of Armand betrayal, but he DOES know that he sold them out to the Paris coven because of his "cowardice." These are the two main sources of his current pain. Daniel is here to help them process them, and that's why Daniel's sitting right in the middle of them. His head is literally in the game.
BUT Armand (in his Rashid persona, and that doesn't feel like a good omen, putting on a false face in front of the furies) is blocking the one on the right almost completely. HE wants to sell the Bacon Triptych, take it down off the wall. That's because... Armand doesn't WANT Louis' pain front and center. The last thing we hear him say to Louis is "One night, 70 years ago. You are over this, Louis! The pain of it has left you (...) You have forgiven me for what part I played in her death!"
After he successfully sells the triptych, Louis and Armand have this conversation in front of the blank wall:
ARMAND: The two Barcelos would fit. LOUIS: If we replaced the couch. ARMAND: I assumed we would. LOUIS: The couch, then the table, then the Antieau Javelina, then, then, then, then. ARMAND: How about the Ai Weiwei wallpaper with the Hockney lemons? LOUIS: Like we're a Firmdale hotel lobby? ARMAND: Okay, what do you think we should do with the wall? LOUIS: What about a selection of Fred Steins, tastefully framed? They've been sitting in my albums all this time, seems a waste. Or better not to have so tangible a reminder of Paris up on our walls? ARMAND: An interview about Paris is a more tangible reminder of Paris than a few photographs. LOUIS: Huh. Leave it bare then. Wait for revelation to enter the room.
It's unclear what Armand means by "the two Barcelos" so I get to speculate. I think we're talking about Miquel Barceló, and I also think we're talking about his sculptures rather than his paintings, because of the reference to moving the couch. Which you would DEFINITELY do if you were moving in sculptures, but probably not if you were hanging a painting. Especially since it's a really neutral, charcoal grey couch.
Also, the fact that it's TWO Barcelos mean that I'm looking for sculptures that are part of set, and the famous Barcelo sculpture series is "Metamorphosis."
And I dunno. This seems pretty Armand coded to me. Metamorphosis as a concept is very Armand, with all his shifting identities, but I'm also getting *hunger* from this, I'm getting *damage,* I'm getting shaky foundation... and the shaky foundation, it's built out of corrupted Roman pillars (cough marius de romanus cough.) So, if the Bacon triptych symbolizes Louis' pain, maybe this symbolizes Armand's pain (and his interiority, his backstory.) It's his first pick after all.
But Louis says no, shuts it down. Armand's next suggestion is pretty straightforward. The Ai Weiwei "Wallpaper" piece is all about imprisonment and surveillance.
And David Hockney, important figure of post-war pop art, painted mid-century American scenes that at first glance seem to be bright, clean, and happy... but have a sort of melancholy, suburban malaise underneath the surface. He's really famous for his paintings of swimming pools.
But he also painted a lot of lemons. I think it's because we've got that bright yellow on the outside, hiding an underlying bitterness.
So, this pair of artworks is Armand saying "can we continue on as we have been?" (me keeping you superficially happy in my "prison of empathy.") And Louis says no, because he's recovered his memories at this point, he's getting wise to Armand's deceptions.
Then Louis suggests (a little sarcastically) that they should hang the Fred Stein photographs that Armand has been slipping into his portfolio. We're never explicitly told WHY Armand is doing this - pretty weird thing, but I think it's got to do with memory, and the David Hockney superficial happiness of it all. Armand wants Louis to remember a Paris that was better than it was, more romantic than it was (where Louis was a better photographer than he was...) But that story isn't reflected in Louis' photographs, so Armand... fixes it. 'Cleans up the mess' (the way he always does.)
So, Louis wanting to put that 'Fred Stein' lie front and center is a call out. He's saying that he wants to focus on Paris (with Daniel) and remind himself of Armand's lie. So, a way to interpret this conversation is Armand saying "can we focus on my damage/past/interiority/pain," Louis saying no. Then Armand saying "can we keep things status quo?" and Louis saying no. Then Louis says "can we focus on the truth of Paris." And Armand says no. At which point, Louis says he wants to wait for "revelation to enter the room." AND - we cut to this shot.
Revelation HAS entered the room (its name is Daniel Molloy.) Because Daniel of course breaks the case wide open, exposes Armand, and helps Louis process the pain he's had since that first shot.
Pictured - Louis processing pain. By throwing Armand at the living room wall.
The NEXT time we see the wall, it looks like this --
Louis has introduced color back into his life (also lot of yellow. which is a very *Claudia* color.)
The new painting is "Shelter" by contemporary artist Peter Jerrod Macon, and it's of a mother embracing a child. (confirmed by production designer Mara LePere Schloop.) SO - Louis is no longer defined by his pain like he was at the beginning of season one, when he the Virgin Mary watching a child die. Now he's defined by the *love* he feels for his child.
It's also a very large painting. So, I like to think that the crack in the wall is still there, underneath it. As Louis says in Paris, he hangs art to "cover up the cracks in the walls." That pain and damage is still a part of Louis, but now he's able to build over it.
I’m team Loustat
I’m team Loumand
Well I'm a drunk, Lord. I'm a liar. I am a thief, Lord. I profit off the miseries of other men, and I do it easy. Drugs, liquor, women. I lure them in and grab what they got, Lord. I take daughters with no homes and I put 'em out on the street, Lord, and I lie to myself sayin' I'm givin' 'em roof and food and dollar bills in they pocket, but I look in the mirror, I know what I am. The big man in the big house, stuffin' cotton in my ears so I can't hear their cries. And, Lord, I dragged my family into this mess with me. I shame my father. I failed my brother. I lost my mother and sister, and rather than fix it like a man should, Lord, I run like a coward. I run to the bottle. I run to the grift. I run to bad beds. I laid down with a man. I laid down with the Devil. And he has roots in me. All his spindly roots in me. And I can't think nothin' anymore but his voice and his words! Please! Help me! I am weak! I wanna die!
“The ex”, the fucking nerve! The absolute gall omg
I won't let anyone forget about this
AMC really just went "OK that's enough of having more than one poc in the spotlight of our show! now it's time for all the white cast minus one to be front and center 🥰"
ok...........ive settled now and thought about it all more and it's legitimately bothering me. no delainey or assad for this promo shoot at all??? nothing??? they were interviewed but didn't deserve to be featured in any of this promotional material?? they've really not been featured at ALL if we're being completely honest here, and that is nothing if not extremely deliberate and really fucking disappointing. especially because delainey and assad (along with jacob ofc) carried s2 on their backs. they deserve just as much praise and recognition if not more as their white costars. and yet they're nowhere to be seen :/
Mr. Jacob Anderson
