Brad Pitt rose to fame and fortune in a humble and deeply religious family in Springfield, Missouri. The area was distinctly scenic with “lots of hills, lots of lakes”, which Pitt described as “Mark Twain country, Jesse James country”. Like most children of the 1960s, he grew up fascinated by the bright screen in his living room and found escape in the decade’s endless western movies.
As he neared graduation from the University of Missouri, where he studied journalism, Pitt felt unsettled and sensed something bigger on the horizon, especially out west. . Pitt was a true film fanatic and considered this wondrous medium “a portal to different worlds”, but it wasn’t until the final weeks of his tenure at college that he decided to ditch the books and to leave for California.
Although such erratic behavior is often the subject of parental derision, Pitt found his niche and established himself as one of Hollywood’s top men during the 1990s with timeless appearances in Fall Legends, Se7ven, Seven years in Tibet, Meet Joe Black and fight club.
Pitt’s early rise was sparked by his small role in Ridley Scott’s 1991 classic Thelma and Louise, which furthered its appeal to directors. One of those interested parties was Neil Jordan, who was looking for someone to star alongside Tom Cruise in Interview with the Vampire.
The vampire film, released in November 1994, received a warm commercial and critical reception and generously lined Pitt’s pockets as it became his highest-grossing film in its opening weekend, remaining so until 2001. Ocean’s Eleven usurped the title.
Despite the film’s success, Pitt maintains that it was one of his least favorite projects. “I was disappointed by it,” he once said. rolling stone. “Because in the book, he was a guy trying to figure out who he was – if he’s a god or if he’s from the devil. The film focused more on Lestat’s sensational antics, which were very well done, but my character ended up being dragged from place to place and set up for the sensational moments. And it just got a little more whiny than real research. It frustrated me.
“There was no script,” added Pitt, discussing the film on another occasion with Weekly entertainment. “I knew the book, and in the book you have this guy asking, ‘Who am I? Which probably applied to me at the time. ‘Am I good? Am I angels? In the book, it’s a guy who embarks on this quest for discovery. And in the meantime, he has this Lestat character that he is fascinated with and abhors. But then I got the script two weeks before shooting started.
Not only was Pitt unhappy with the new adaptation, but the filming conditions were far from palatable. “Vampire was a tough shoot,” Pitt explained. “I’m finished Fall Legends and went straight into that. First, everything was in the dark. In New Orleans, we shot for three months in the dark – we shot every night. There’s an opening scene in the movie that’s in daylight, and that’s it. The whole film is in the dark. And it really started to mess with my psyche.
In his conversation with Weekly entertainmentPitt revealed that he actually asked his producer, David Geffen, how much it would cost to get out of the project.
“I said, ‘David, I can’t do this anymore,'” Pitt recalled. “I can’t do this. How much will it cost me to get out? And he replies, very calmly, ‘Forty million dollars.’ And I’m like, ‘Okay, thank you.’ It actually took the anxiety away from me. I was like, ‘I have to be a man and get through this, and that’s what I’m going to do.’
Watch the official trailer for Interview with the Vampire below.
