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Then, before the film had even begun shooting, Anne Rice was at the front of an army of fans furious at the casting of actor Tom Cruise as Lestat. Although she thought that he had talent, she felt that his voice was too high and he was all too American, nothing like the androgynous, fair-haired European, Lestat. Fans around the world were also outraged. They flooded Anne with calls and letters, asking her why she had allowed it to happen. Publicly in the L.A. Times, she asked Cruise to relinquish the role.
The outcries was ignored and the production of the movie continued. Finally, the film opened. It had first weekend earnings of nearly $40 million, which made it the fourth largest non-holiday-weekend opening in movie history. Anne Rice saw the film and bought two pages in Daily Variety (a film industry newspaper) to make a public apology, stating how impressed she was with Cruise's performance, likewise, impressed a lot of other people.
The vampires in Neil Jordan's script were less elegant and more brutal. A few scene in the movies involving females victim were bloodier, earning the movie an R rating (MA in Australia). Essential aspect such as the blood tears was ignored. Claudia in the movie was portrayed a few years older than the Claudia in the novel because Neil Jordan felt that a younger child actor would not have been able to handle the role. He also gave the movie a totally different ending. Other than that, Anne Rice felt that, overall, the movie had been faithful to the book. She has her say about the film in her critique.
Read Anne's
on "Interview with
the Vampire"
Read Anne's statement
in
magazine
This
section last modified 11-11-99
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