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‘Interview With the Vampire’ at 30: Director Neil Jordan on the Tom Cruise Casting Controversy, Brad Pitt’s Misery and More
'Interview With the Vampire’ at 30: director Neil Jordan discusses Tom Cruise, Brad Pitt and why his adaptation exists 'outside sexuality.'
Aided by producer David Geffen, only director Neil Jordan — riding high after the critical and commercial success of “The Crying Game” — was able to overcome those hurdles and deliver an adaptation of Anne Rice’s 1976 novel that merged the operatic scale of “Gone With the Wind” and theatrical bloodletting of “Bram Stoker’s Dracula.” Although Rice originally balked at Tom Cruise playing the vampire Lestat, it didn’t hurt that the film starred one of the biggest actors in Hollywood, as well as Brad Pitt, himself on the precipice of superstardom, alongside Kirsten Dunst as their scene-stealing pre-teen companion. I read a quote from somebody a few years ago about how vampire movies lend themselves, perhaps understandably, to a lot of “teeth acting.” Was there an approach that you tried to employ to facilitate good performances from the actors? When Tom Cruise went on “The Oprah Winfrey Show” to promote the film, an audience member drew laughter when he brought up the homoerotic undertones of this story.
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