‘Interview with the Vampire’: Brad Pitt Once Shared How the Film Started to ‘Mess With My Psyche’
One of Brad Pitt’s most notable roles is Interview with the Vampire. With the success of the film, Pitt found himself with even more eyes on him, beginning his rise to megastardom. But for all the fortune the movie brought him, Pitt admitted that at one point Interview did a number on his psyche.
Brad Pitt was disappointed in ‘Interview with the Vampire’
Despite Interview being such a commercial success, not everyone was pleased with the film. One of the film’s critics happened to be Brad Pitt himself. As most know, the Fight Club actor plays Louise de Pointe. But although some have praised Pitt on his performance as the vampire, Pitt didn’t think the film did his character justice.
“And that movie, I was disappointed with it,” Pitt said in an interview with 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.”
Speaking to Entertainment Weekly, Pitt asked his producer, David Geffen, how he’d be able to get out of the film. But he decided to stay after discovering that leaving the film came with a heavy price.
“I said, ‘David, I can’t do this anymore. I can’t do it. What will it cost me to get out?’ And he goes, very calmly, ‘Forty million 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,'” Pitt recalled.
‘Interview with the Vampire’ really messed with Brad Pitt’s psyche
Pitt had to meet certain requirements for the role that upset the Oscar-winner. One of those requirements was being in the dark for six months, which left him miserable.
“Vampire was a tough shoot,” Pitt said. “I finished Legends of the Fall and went straight into that. First of all, the whole thing was in the dark. In New Orleans, we shot for three months in the dark – we shot all nights. 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.”
Perhaps Pitt would’ve been able to prepare more for what he was getting into if he saw the script. At the time, all the actor could really go off of was the book.
“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 continued. “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.”
How Brad Pitt lightened the mood on ‘Interview with the Vampire’ set
Dunst was also featured in the gothic film at just 11 years old. The Spider-Man star credited Tom Cruise for helping her grab the part of the old vampire trapped in a child’s body.
“I was the tallest girl [at the last audition]. So he had me tuck my legs under, so I looked shorter when he picked me up,” she recalled to Entertainment Weekly. “I felt like he was already like, ‘I like this kid.’”
Given the film’s dark subject matter and themes, some levity was needed on set. Pitt was the one to provide the laughs.
“The darkness was always balanced out by fart jokes by Brad,” Dunst added.
