Casting Issues:
Author Anne Rice adapted her 1976 novel Interview with the Vampire into a screenplay with French actor Alain Delon in mind for the role of Louis.
Later on, when Interview entered the casting stage, British actor Julian Sands was championed by Anne Rice and fans of the novel to play Lestat, but because Sands was not a well-known name at the time (being only famed for his performance in A Room with a View), he was rejected and the role was given to Tom Cruise. Because of his star power, Cruise received a record $10 million salary and a percentage of the profits.
The casting was initially criticized by Anne Rice, who said that Cruise was “no more my vampire Lestat than Edward G. Robinson is Rhett Butler,” and the casting was “so bizarre; it’s almost impossible to imagine how it’s going to work”.
She recommended a number of other actors including John Malkovich, Peter Weller, Jeremy Irons, and Alexander Godunov. She suggested that Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise switch roles, stating that “I tried for a long time to tell them that they should just reverse these roles—have Brad Pitt play Lestat and have Tom Cruise play Louis. Of course, they don’t listen to me.”
Eventually, Rice became satisfied with Cruise’s performance after seeing the completed film, saying that “from the moment he appeared, Tom was Lestat for me” and “that Tom did make Lestat work was something I could not see in a crystal ball.” She called Cruise to compliment him and admit that she was wrong.
Homoeroticism or Homophobia
Due to Rice’s perception of Hollywood’s homophobia, at one point she rewrote the part of Louis, changing his sex to female, in order to specifically make heterosexual the character’s relationship with Lestat. At the time, Rice felt it was the only way to get the film made, and singer-actress Cher was considered for the part.
A song titled “Lovers Forever”, which Cher wrote along with Shirley Eikhard for the film’s soundtrack, got rejected as Pitt was ultimately cast for the role, though a dance-pop version of the song was released on Cher’s 2013 album, Closer to the Truth.
River Phoenix Death
Originally, River Phoenix was cast for the role of Daniel Molloy (as Anne Rice liked the idea), but he died four weeks before he was due to begin filming. When Christian Slater was cast in his place as Molloy, he donated his entire salary to Phoenix’s favorite charitable organizations.[15] The film has a dedication to Phoenix after the end credits.
Kirsten Dunst, then 10, was spotted by talent scouts and was the first girl tested for the role of Claudia. Said producer Stephen Woolley: “We started looking at 6-year-olds, which is about Claudia’s age in the book, but the role is too demanding for a 6-year-old. We needed a child with a mind capable of grasping the fine points of the difficult monologues Claudia has, and Kirsten was the first actress we saw. She gave a wonderful reading, but we thought it was too good to be true, so we saw thousands of other girls. In the end we came back to Kirsten–she’s quite extraordinary in the part.”
Julia Stiles also auditioned for Claudia but Neil Jordan considered her “too old.”
