Director Neil Jordan on Tom Cruise’s ‘Interview with the Vampire’ Casting Controversy: “It Was a Pain in the Ass for Me and for Him” https://t.co/qnhCC0Z3Cy
— The Hollywood Reporter (@THR) September 27, 2026
In light of the new 4K release Neil Jordan discussed Tom Cruise’s casting in ‘Interview With the Vampire’ and how original author Anne Rice lead a public protest against it.
“It was a pain in the ass for me as a director, for him as an actor and for the entire production, when the whole world was saying, ‘Oh, you’re wrong,’” Jordan said. “The opposition that Anne Rice took to his casting was an absolute distraction. It wasn’t a welcome thing at all.”
“He just liked the challenge of playing a flamboyant monster. When everyone told him he was not the right choice for the part, he liked the challenge of proving them wrong,” Jordan says. “He was just beginning to explore the non-Tom Cruise aspects of himself, and there are a lot of sides to Tom that he has yet to explore, let me put it that way.”
Anne Rice later went to great lengths to apologize to Cruise after seeing his performance, even commissioning a two-page spread in various outlets praising him.
