Interview With the Vampire Director Reflects on Backlash of ‘Miscasting’ Tom Cruise Over Daniel Day-Lewis

In the last three decades, Tom Cruise‘s performance as Lestat in Interview With the Vampire is often considered one of his best, but his casting wasn’t met with widespread appreciation when the film was first announced. Despite Cruise being a bonafide box office draw and movie star in 1994, the role of Lestat de Lioncourt felt, to some, a bit out of his reach. This was especially true for author Anne Rice and fans of Rice’s work. Now, in a new memoir, director Neil Jordan looks back on his decision to cast the Top Gun star, even after offering the role to Daniel Day-Lewis.

Interview with the Vampire

Louis accepts a proposition from a vampire, and Lestat drains Louis’ mortal blood and then replaces it with his own, turning Louis into a vampire. Louis must learn from Lestat the ways of the vampire in this film from Anne Rice’s vampire franchise.

Release Date

November 11, 1994

Director

Neil Jordan

Runtime

123

Studio

Warner Bros. Pictures

Tagline

Drink From Me And Live Forever.

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In an excerpt from Jordan’s memoir, via Variety, Jordan looks back at the backlash he faced after Cruise was cast in the role of Lestat opposite Brad Pitt’s Louis de Pointe de Lac. The director reveals that he offered the role to Daniel Day-Lewis and Pitt agreed to play Louis, believing Lewis was cast in the role. Jordan admits that the actor read the script and ultimately turned it down.

“The problem was the casting of Lestat. Brad Pitt had agreed to play Louis and somehow assumed Daniel Day-Lewis would be playing Lestat, an assumption shared by Anne. I offered it to Daniel, who read it, and, as I expected, didn’t want to play the character. A few years before, he had confined himself to a wheelchair to play Christy Brown in ‘My Left Foot.’ He would have had to sleep in a coffin for the entirety of this production if he followed the same practice. So we moved on.”

Neil Jordan Thought Tom Cruise Had a lot in Common With Lestat

Jordan took a couple of meetings with Cruise before the final casting decision was made, and he realized that the actor was perfect for the role because he surprisingly had a lot in common with the character. While he doesn’t directly say this, the director alludes to Cruise’s connection with Scientology, which played a part in the actor needing to hide a bit despite his stardom, as a reason that he was right for Lestat.

“I finally got it. He had to live a life removed from the gaze of others. He had made a contract with the hidden forces, whatever they turned out to be. He had to hide in the shadows, even in the Hollywood sunlight. He would be eternally young. He was a star. He could well be Lestat.”

Despite Jordan feeling right about his decision, the rest of the world didn’t seem to agree, particularly Rice, who was vocal in her disapproval regarding the casting. It’s reported that the author imagined Rutger Hauer in the role and once she learned Cruise was cast, publicly said that he wouldn’t be able to carry the part. She was so mad, in fact, that she distanced herself from the film entirely. Jordan goes on to say that people forgot that Cruise was indeed a good actor, who was previously nominated for an Oscar for his role in Born on the Fourth of July.

“Half of America, it seemed, had read Anne Rice’s books and wanted a say in the casting of Lestat. Anne herself took to the airwaves, saying that it was as if I had cast Edward G Robinson as Rhett Butler. But she was wrong and was later big enough to admit it.”

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The film, which also starred Brad Pitt, Kirsten Dunst, and Antonio Banderas, was a financial success when it was released in 1994.

When the film was finally released, everyone was proven wrong and Cruise received stellar notices for his performance. Also, as Jordan stated, Rice eventually viewed the finished film and was thoroughly impressed by Cruise, so much so that she wrote the actor a personal letter of apology. The author also fully endorsed the movie, after previously trying to distance herself from it.

Interview With the Vampire centers on Lestat (Cruise) and Louis (Pitt), whom Lestat transforms into a vampire in 1791. The rest of the film details their time together, eventually turning a young girl named Claudia (Kirsten Dunst) into a vampire as well. The movie is structured through a present day interview that Louis is having with a San Francisco reporter named Daniel Molloy (Christian Slater), with much of the story being told through flashbacks via the interview. The film was a huge financial success, grossing $223.7 million worldwide on a $60 million budget.