Summary
- Interview with the Vampire almost had a female-led cast, with Cher as Louis and Anjelica Huston as Lestat.
- Changing Louis to a female character would have brought a different layer of tragedy and dynamics to the story.
- Cher’s musical contribution to Interview with the Vampire was scrapped, but released in a dance-pop version in 2013.
Brad Pitt is not known for his horror films, but in 1994 he starred in Interview with the Vampire, although it almost didn’t, because it was originally a women’s story with a surprising cast. Vampires are among the most popular monsters in literature and cinema, and in 1994, one of the most famous vampire novels was brought to the big screen: that of Anne Rice. Interview with the Vampirepublished in 1976. Directed by Neil Jordan, Interview with the Vampire starred two of the biggest stars of the 1990s as vampires Louis and Lestat: Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise.
Interview with the Vampire follows Louis (Pitt), who, after the death of his wife and unborn child, is targeted by the vampire Lestat (Cruise) and transformed into a vampire and his mate. Struggling to adapt to immortality and killing for food, Louis preys on a little girl named Claudia (Kirsten Dunst), of whom Lestat becomes Louis’ companion. As Claudia and Louis’ bond strengthens, she begins to question their relationship with Lestat. Interview with the Vampire was a critical and commercial success, but it was almost very different because, at one point, it was a female-led story.
Interview with the Vampire Got a Sequel 22 Years Ago, But Not in the Way You Think
Interview with the Vampire didn’t get the sequel it deserved, but it did get a sequel that was an unforgettable critical and commercial failure.
The Vampire interview with Cher and Anjelica Huston as Louis and Lestat
An interview with the vampire is said to have influenced the gender of at least one of its main characters
Rice explained that she wrote the screenplay for
Interview with the Vampire
with Cher in the lead to play Louis, and the idea was that Louis would be a cross-dressing woman.
When Interview with the Vampire was in development, Rice worried about homophobia in Hollywoodso she decided to change Louis and write him as a woman (via Monsters in the closet: homosexuality and the horror film). Through this, Rice allegedly heterosexualized Louis’ relationship with Lestat, and she had an interesting casting idea for the woman Louis. Talk to Cinema line In 1994, Rice explained that she had written the screenplay for Interview with the Vampire with Cher in the lead to play Louis, and the idea was that Louis would be a cross-dressing woman.
Rice’s editor wanted Anjelica Huston to play Lestat, although it is unclear whether this would have been a version in which Lestat was a woman and Louis a man or both would have been changed to women.
Rice explained that at the time Interview with the Vampire is established, the only way for someone to own a plantation and run things was to be a man, so Louis de Cher would have dressed as a man to have his own land. Rice added that Louis as a woman was the only thing different, as the rest of the film would have been the same. Rice also mentioned that his editor wanted Anjelica Huston to play Lestat, although it is unclear whether this would have been a version in which Lestat was a woman and Louis a man or both would have been changed to women.
Cher even wrote a song called “Lovers Forever” for Interview with the Vampire, but when plans for the film changed and Brad Pitt was cast as Louis, the song was scrapped. Fortunately, a dance-pop version was released in 2013, so even if there wasn’t a vampire Cher in Interview with the Vampireat least his musical contribution to the film finally saw the light of day.
How a female-led interview with the vampire would have changed the film
Interview with the Vampire Faced Some Obstacles
Turning Louis into a female character would have avoided the homophobia issues that concerned Rice.
In the source novel, there are many queer elements, notably in the relationship between Louis and Lestat, which the television series understood well. Although the attraction between Louis and Lestat was evident in the 1994 film, it didn’t go beyond the surface level, which makes sense since Rice was concerned about homophobia in Hollywood. Turning Louis into a female character would have avoided the issues Rice was concerned about, but the dynamic and connection between two male vampires is much more intriguing than that between a female and male vampire.
If the rest of Interview with the Vampire would have remained the same, a feminine Louis would have given a deeper meaning to his relationship with Claudiacreating a mother/daughter bond after the death of Claudia’s mother, which would have made Claudia’s death much more heartbreaking.
At the time Interview with the Vampire was in pre-production, Cher had already appeared in various films, winning the Academy Award for Best Actress in 1988 for her performance in Dreamer. Cher has enough star power to have attracted a large audience if she had played Louis in Interview with the Vampire, and she would have given the character another layer of tragedy. As for Anjelica Huston as Lestat, that would have further established her as a horror icon after her roles in films like The witches And The Addams Family.
Sources: Monsters in the closet: homosexuality and the horror film, Cinema line.
Interview with the Vampire
Based on the 1976 novel by Anne Rice, Interview with the Vampire tells the story of two vampires, Lestat and Louis, and their complicated relationship after Lestat turns Louis in 1791. Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt play Lestat and Louis, respectively , with a cast that includes Kirsten Dunst as Claudia, the young charge of the two men who Lestat also transforms in an attempt to prevent a disillusioned Louis from leaving. Christian Slayter rounds out the cast as Daniel Molloy, a journalist to whom Louis tells his story in the mid-1990s.
- Director
- Neil Jordan
- Release date
- November 11, 1994
- Duration
- 123 minutes
