Tom Cruise’s Role In Interview With The Vampire Shared Real-Life Similarities With The Actor According To The Director

Interview With the Vampire director Neil Jordan reflects on casting superstar Tom Cruise in the role of Lestat, and how the actor’s life and career shared similarities with the character. Adapted from Anne Rice’s classic novel of the same name, the movie was released in November 1994, and became a box office success, grossing more than $223 million against a production budget of $60 million, and spawned a 2022 Interview With the Vampire TV adaptation. The movie’s cast included Cruise, Brad Pitt, Christian Slater, Antonio Banderas, and Kirsten Dunst, with Cruise receiving critical acclaim for his performance.
In an interview with Variety, The Company Of Wolves director Jordan reflects on the process of making the movie, and, in particular, the casting of Cruise. Jordan reveals that, although Cruise was very different in appearance to Lestat, the Mission: Impossible star shared similarities with his character, including the need to avoid crowds, maintain his legend, and keep an air of mystery about him. He added that these strengths, along with Cruise’s conviction, made him the perfect casting choice. Check out Jordan’s full comments below:
I went and met Tom twice, and then thought I could get something really great going here. I’d always admired Tom as an actor, but apart from the fact that he was the biggest star around at the time. I just saw that I liked him as an actor, it’s as simple as that. I mean, Lestat is described as tall, rangy, and blonde haired and all that sort of stuff. Tom was none of those things. But he had a conviction and a kind of a chilling centrality to him, that I thought he’d be great in this role. It struck me that a huge Hollywood star was forced into a life not unlike the life that Lestat led. They have to avoid publicity, avoid crowds, keep their legend intact, keep a certain unknowability about them. And I thought those things were part and parcel of Tom’s life, and maybe they would make him a great Lestat. And it turned out to be the case.
This Is A Great Example Of Cruise Showcasing His Acting Chops
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In many ways, Lestat was an early example of Cruise being cast against type, and there was a lot of controversy surrounding his casting. Famously, author Rice campaigned against Cruise playing Lestat during pre-production, before admitting she was wrong after seeing the movie. This seems to link well with Jordan’s comments, that, despite not being the obvious choice for the part, Cruise was clearly able to tap into the similarities between his life and the character’s, to give a compelling and larger-than-life performance that ranks among Cruise’s best movie villain performances.
The juxtaposition of his darkly captivating, witty, and larger-than-life Lestat contrasts perfectly with Pitt’s fittingly dour turn as Louis ✕ Remove Ads
Cruise’s status as perhaps the biggest star in the world at the time may have been off-putting to many fans of the novel, but Jordan clearly saw something in the actor that would work in the role. In some ways, Cruise embodying the role of Lestat was an art-imitates-life moment, with the actor and vampire sharing many of the same concerns and desires, and the actor was able to channel this into a memorable performance.
Our Verdict On Cruise’s Interview With The Vampire Legacy
Lestat Remains Among The Actor’s Most Iconic Roles
Even thirty years on, Interview With the Vampire remains one of the best vampire movies based on books, and Cruise’s performance is one of the key reasons behind this. I think the juxtaposition of his darkly captivating, witty, and larger-than-life Lestat contrasts perfectly with Pitt’s fittingly dour turn as Louis and deepens the complicated companionship between the two characters. Interview With the Vampire is one of the most influential vampire movies in Hollywood history, and Cruise’s charismatic turn is one of the key reasons why.
Source: Variety