The fans were in complete awe when two of the most popular faces of Hollywood Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt joined hands for the 1994 horror movie. Interview with the Vampire featured some of the major names like Christian Slater, Antonio Banderas, Thandiwe Newton, and Kirsten Dunst besides Cruise and Pitt. While all the performances were memorable, Slater earned massive respect after he denied to take his salary for a heartfelt reason.
The making of Interview with the Vampire can be considered one of the most talked about production dramas. The making was filled with several issues that affected the Tom Cruise flick. The production even faced an unfortunate incident when the actor River Phoenix passed away weeks before the start of the filming.
Christian Slater won hearts after appearing in the Tom Cruise superhit
Based on the 1976 novel by Anne Rice, Interview with the Vampire received critical and commercial success even after going through several issues. One of the major events that happened in the Tom Cruise movie was the unfortunate death of River Phoenix. The Oscar-nominated actor gained prominence after appearing in movies like My Own Private Idaho and his death was mourned by almost the entire Hollywood.
The role of Daniel Molloy which was slated to be played by the late actor was given to the Untamed Heart actor Christian Slater. But as revealed by Slater in an interview with Venice Magazine he felt extremely awkward in such a scenario and decided to donate his whole salary of $250,000 to Phoenix’s charities.
“We’d met before and I respected him, and his work tremendously. That was so tragic, and it was really awkward to be stepping into that kind of scenario. But I think I eased my own discomfort by not accepting money for it and donating my salary to his charities.”
River Phoenix’s untimely death also affected many stars in the industry who were close to the actor. One of the most significant of them was Keanu Reeves who took it to many interviews to speak about his bond with the late actor.
Interview with the Vampire also made several headlines after the cast didn’t have a very good time in the movie. Brad Pitt even wanted to exit from the film desperately due to the unfavorable work atmosphere. But it was Tom Cruise who endured a worse scenario after being not a favorite of the writer and her fans.
Tom Cruise’s casting in Interview with the Vampire was highly controversial
Tom Cruise delivered an amazing performance in the 1994 Neil Jordan directorial. But initially, the scenario was very different as the writer of the novel Anne Rice was highly against the Mission Impossible star’s casting.
According to her, Tom Cruise’s casting as Lestat was one of the most wrong decisions. She originally wanted Tom Hanks to portray the role. But Hanks chose Forrest Gump over the 1994 horror which led to some other names like Daniel Day-Lewis, Johnny Depp, and Jeremy Irons pop up. She even approved Brad Pitt as a better Lestat over Cruise.
Tom Cruise worked hard to portray the role, learning the ethics of eighteenth-century French aristocrats and losing 12 pounds to attain perfection in the role. But nothing could please Anne Rice and her fans until the movie was released and she was forced to write an apology to Cruise for her past behavior. She even admitted that the movie is a “masterpiece”.
Interview with the Vampire can be streamed on Paramount+.
Source: Venice Magazine
