Interview With The Vampiremight be one of Brad Pitt’s most memorable performances, but the Oscar-winning actor didn’t enjoy the experience of making it. In fact, at one point he even tried to quit.
The Moneyball star recalled being demoralized by the physical challenges of playing Louis de Pointe du Lac in the 1994 fantasy drama. They filmed predominantly night shoots in New Orleans, something the actor struggled with. “There’s an opening scene in the movie that’s daylight, and that’s it. The whole movie is in the dark. And it really started to mess with my psyche.”
“I am miserable [in the film],” he decalred to Entertainment Weekly in 2011. “Six months in the f—— dark. Contact lenses, make-up, I’m playing the b—- role.”
Why Interview With A Vampire Was So Bad, Brad Pitt Tried To Quit
There was also uncertainty on set, as there was no script ready when director Neil Jordan started making the movie, which also co-stars Tom Cruise and Kirsten Dunst. “There was no script. I knew the book, and in the book you have this guy asking, ‘Who am I?’ Which was probably applicable to me at that time. ‘Am I good? Am I of the angels?’” Pitt recalled.
He added in the 2011 interview: “In the book it is a guy going on this search of discovery. And in the meantime, he has this Lestat character that he’s entranced by and abhors. But then I got the script two weeks before we started shooting.”
Pitt hated making the project so much, he even tried to exit the film, calling producer David Geffen. “I said, ‘David, I can’t do this anymore,” Pitt recalled. “I can’t do it. What will it cost me to get out?’ And he goes, very calmly, ‘40million dollars.’ And I go, ‘Okay, thank you.’ It actually took the anxiety off of me. I was like, ‘I’ve got to man up and ride this through, and that’s what I’m going to do.’”
Despite the film’s cult status, the project continues to be one of Pitt’s least favorites. “I was disappointed with it,” he once told Rolling Stone. “Because in the book, it was a guy trying to figure out who he was – if he’s a god or if he’s of the devil. The film focused more on the sensational antics of Lestat, which were done really well, but my character ended up getting dragged place to place and set up for the sensational moments. And it just became a little bit more whiny than a real search. That frustrated me.”
Director Neil Jordan Knew Brad Pitt’s Feelings Towards The Film
Photo by Warner Brothers/Getty Images
30 years after the release of Interview With The Vampire, director Neil Jordan sat down with Vanity Fair. He admitted he was well aware of Brad Pitt’s feelings towards the movie. “We were shooting at night constantly, we never saw the daylight for months and months, and I think it affected him,” Jordan explained.
“But it was part of the character as well. I mean, Louis is somebody who is punished through a 300-year period by this creature. So the way the role affected Brad was not unlike the journey Louis himself had to go through,” the director added.
Despite Pitt’s on-set attitude, Jordan doesn’t regret casting the Once Upon a Time in Hollywood star as Louis. “I thought he was really good in the part,” he admitted.
“Any faults of what people perceive to be the performance are faults of the actual character itself, and of the novel itself. I mean, Louis suffers in the novel from the moment he’s turned into a vampire to the very end of the book. So I’m sure it was a tough journey for Brad, but it was also a tough journey for the character too,” the Michael Collins filmmaker revealed.
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