Interview With the Vampire director Neil Jordan reveals Anne Rice cut off all communication the moment Tom Cruise was cast as Lestat.
Why Anna Rice Was Outraged On Tom Cruise Casting
Speaking on the film’s 4K restoration, Jordan recalled meeting Tom Cruise at his home and recognizing an unsettling menace beneath his trademark charm, an edge that convinced the filmmaker Cruise could embody the aristocratic vampire Lestat de Lioncourt. However, the late author vehemently disagreed with the decision, shutting down contact with the production immediately.
“The minute I cast Tom Cruise, she just, she wouldn’t even speak to anybody,” Jordan revealed. “Everybody was giving out about, ‘How can you cast Tom Cruise in this role?’ and blah blah blah. I mean, that was a pain in the ass, frankly speaking… It sets you up with a challenge that you don’t want to meet. You don’t want to have to prove to everybody that this actor could be what Anne Rice had thought of Lestat or something.”
The backlash extended far beyond Rice’s private silence into an intense, surreal wave of fan outrage across New Orleans.
“The fandom for that book was really weird,” Jordan remembered. “I was in a bar once and this girl says, ‘How dare you cast Tom Cruise as Lestat?’ I said, ‘What do you mean?’ She pulls up her skirt—she had tattooed, I think Jeremy Irons’ Lestat or somebody, on her bum. Too strange, man… But it’s credit to Anne, I suppose, and the power. She knew what popular culture was and she knew what the fandom for her book was.”
Cruise ultimately delivered a chilling, career-defining performance that silenced skeptics and famously won Rice over upon seeing the finished cut. Even so, Jordan admitted the casting sparked an exhausting media circus that shadowed the entire production.
“I suppose the only problem with casting Tom in the production was it brought an enormous amount of attention to us all,” Jordan reflected. “And that was a bit distracting.”
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