Here's why Interview With The Vampire author Anne Rice absolutely hated Tom Cruise's casting as Lestat - and how she felt after seeing the movie. Interview With The Vampire was published in 1976 and is framed as a story where a vampire recounts his eventful, tragic life to a reporter. The novel was something of a genre landmark and popularized the notion vampires could be lonely, introspective figures cursed by their immortality. The book was personal for the author too, with the character of Claudia - the five-year-old vampire child - based on Rice's own daughter, who passed away from leukemia.
Interview With The Vampire - which is getting a new series - was a bestseller, but its path to the big screen was a long one. It took nearly 20 years, and in between Rice had considered other options like making it a musical. The author had written various screenplays for this proposed adaptation herself and had just about given up on the notion of the film actually happening when the pieces finally fell into place. Irish director Neil Jordan - hot off The Crying Game - signed on after Rice's preferred choices like David Cronenberg and Ridley Scott passed, while Tom Cruise signed on as Lestat.
Interview With The Vampire was Tom Cruise's first time playing a villain and was considered a risk for the actor. When penning the novel, Rice had pictured Rutger Hauer (Blade Runner) as Lestat, and while she had dreamed of that casting for Lestat while the movie spent years in development hell, she admitted he was likely too old by the time Interview With The Vampire went into production. Daniel Day-Lewis considered the role, among other names, but Cruise eventually signed on and was excited about the challenge it represented. The only issue was fans of Interview With The Vampire felt he was horribly miscast - an opinion shared by Anne Rice.
Rice Hated Cruise's Interview Casting But Loved His Performance
According to an excellent Esquire article on the Tom Cruise Interview With The Vampire casting controversy, Rice attended a book signing attended by readers calling for a boycott against the star. Rice agreed with their complaints, claiming Cruise was totally wrong for the role and claimed he had ordered the more sexualized elements of the book be cut. She also stated she would have preferred his Interview With The Vampire's co-star Brad Pitt to play Lestat instead. Rice's vocal bashing of Cruise's Interview With The Vampire - which changed many book details - casting soon became public knowledge, with Cruise's himself admitting he was surprised by Rice's anger and that “her venom hurt.”
Jordan and Interview With The Vampire co-producer David Geffen were also shocked by Rice's comments - with the latter stating the author's complaints were incredibly unprofessional and unfair to the filmmakers. Rice - who passed in 2021 - ended up loving Cruise's work, stating “I like to believe Tom's Lestat will be remembered the way Olivier’s Hamlet is remembered. Others may play the role some day but no one will ever forget Tom's version of it." Interview With The Vampire was also a huge success, though Cruise's declined to reprise Lestat for the movie's ill-fated sequel Queen Of The Damned, where Irish actor Stuart Townsend played the vampire as a rock star.