Why did Anne Rice object to Tom Cruise in Interview w Vampire?

I find a quote where she says he's not what she had in mind and the quote where she later changed her mind, but I can't find why she initially didn't like Cruise for the role. Does anyone know?

She believed he didn't have the acting prowess and was only doing it because he wanted to be in a "creature feature".
The character Le-Stat has certain traits that she believed Tom Cruise was completely incapable of portraying.

After she saw his performance though, she liked it... but still stood by what she said about him making a mockery of her beloved character.

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I understand that she had Rutger Hauer in mind when she designed Lestat. I suppose for her Cruise was just completely wrong in the role.

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When i read the novel, I sort of pictured Lestat as David Bowie in his Thin White Duke phase. I would have loved to have seen THAT movie. I did enjoy the film that we got though, cause it was like a trashy novel come to life onscreen (which in a way, it was).

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Cruise won her over, but if I were her I woulda been horrified at first with Cruise being cast, and Pitt. Neither of them were perfect as both shouldve been talking with a french accent.

Tom Cruise as Lestat is a better fit than Keanu Reeves as John Constantine. Somebody shouldve been fired and blacklisted for that stupidly repulsive casting.

Did she ever say what specifically about Tom Cruise she thought was incompatible with the character, or what the character was supposed to have that she thought Tom couldn't do?

I found some more quotes where she was asked about it and she mentioned Jeremy Irons as an example of an actor who would have been good for the rule, then she said Brad could play the part and that it would be good if Cruise and he would just switch roles.

She mentioned Lestat should be athletic and something to the effect that he should be imposing, so I suppose she thought Tom was too small for the part. Does anyone know whether she was any more explicit and specific than that?

I remember Val Kilmer being the actor she/many/most thought Lestat should've been.

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I thought he was the worst thing about this movie.

The book was sooooo much better.

Then it must've been an amazing book because I liked the movie quite a bit.

I read several of The Vampire Chronicles books as well as other Anne Rice books.

Blood and Gold was my favorite. It was Marius' story.

the movie was a bit campy i thought. not sure if it was meant to be.

If you read the book, Armand and Louis were completely off. Brad Pitt should have been Armand and Antonio Banderas should have been Louis.

In Queen of the Damned movie, Armand was correct. I enjoyed the actors who played Pandora and as well as other characters.

I forgive a little camp in vampire movies. It's part of the vampire genre appeal. It's the highfalutin side of it all, the White Wolf vampire underground where the rich and powerful are just as much real monsters as the politicians.


Though ironically, my pick for the best vampire movie, Let the Right One In, has none of that.

For recent Vamp films, Abigail is a fun watch.

I totally wanna see that, if not partially to support the directors of the last two Screams.

I don't know how much in detail she got, but as far as I remember, the two main reasons are the ones already mentioned. She felt that Tom Cruise wasn't as physically imposing as she expected, and she didn't feel he had the acting chops to pull the role.


Like someone else said, she always mentioned Rutger Hauer, who was 6'1", as how she viewed Lestat. Tom Cruise is 5'7" and at this point was not yet seen as the "physically impressive" action mega-star he is right now.


As for the acting, even though Cruise has had some critical success as a dramatic actor (i.e. Born on the Fourth of July) he was still at a point where he wasn't fully seen as a serious, talented dramatic actor. Much like Pitt, they were seen as "pretty boy movie stars".


Personally, I love the film and I think he nailed the role (it is one of my favorite performances from him, if not *the* favorite). I read the book(s) afterwards and although there are several differences, I really enjoyed Neil Jordan's vision. It also helped that Rice herself wrote the screenplay.

I always saw Lestat as a Jim Morrison looking figure; a tall, lanky, slinky rock star. Oh, Robert Plant would have been another great model for the character.