25 Things You Didn’t Know About Interview With The Vampire
8. Tom Cruise Was Perhaps The Seventeenth Choice To Play Lestat
When Rice first wrote the novel, she had Rutger Hauer in the back of her head as the template for Lestat; when she wrote the screenplay a decade and change later, she was daydreaming about sixties sex symbol Alain Delon.
However, as she was to discover during the long, long development process, her ideas on casting weren’t ever going to be a priority. Paramount had originally optioned the rights before the book was even published and had John Travolta in mind - and when John Boorman was tentatively attached to direct the project in 1978, he’d earmarked Jon Voight.
During the eighties, Mel Gibson and Richard Gere’s names were both bandied about for Lestat, but by the time the green light lit and pre-production on the film finally began, things had moved on. Rice met with Tom Hanks after seeing Philadelphia, but he was focused on Forrest Gump. She loved the idea of Jeremy Irons, but he wasn’t keen on the hours he’d need in make-up.
John Malkovich, Peter Weller, Alexander Godunov and (funnily enough) Brad Pitt were all considered at various points. Daniel Day-Lewis was actually given the part, but dropped out weeks before filming. Tom Cruise was finally offered the role after Johnny Depp turned it down. By this point, Rice was pushing Julian Sands or Christopher Walken but Sands was considered too unknown and Walken too… well, Walken.