Tom Cruise proves doubters wrong on casting choice

Anne Rice, who wrote Interview with the Vampire, doubted Tom Cruise when he was cast in the same-name film based on her novel. But its director said he proved everyone wrong.

On the film’s 30th anniversary, filmmaker Neil Jordan said in an interview with Variety, “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,” the director continued.

“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,” Neil concluded.