6. As it ended up, Cruise understood precisely what he was entering and, though apparently “deeply hurt” by Rice’s preliminary criticism, he got the function by the jugular, checking out all of her books, discovering piano, slimming down and absorbing the environment in Paris with then-wife Nicole Kidman to get a get on Lestat’s hedonistic way of life ahead of the start of production.
Of the source product, which is distinguished Louis’ perspective, “you have to read it very carefully to find the clues to who Lestat is,” Cruise stated in 1994.
And in the end, he turned Rice– and, according to the author, he turned all the readers who were at first annoyed simply as she was.
“I think Tom did a wonderful job, I really do,” she acknowledged in a 1994 interview. “I too was shocked in the beginning and I was very much against it, but Tom Cruise really did read the books, I think, and he got the essence of Lestat. He got Lestat’s power and his charisma and his charm. He got all of that across in the movie. He had great skill in that performance, I think, and great power.”
Rice kept in mind that the only issue was that Cruise was too damn captivating. “Since he isn’t all that nasty, why does Louis hate Lestat? How can he?” she likewise mused in1994 “Well, I’ll take that problem any day over a more shallow solution. Tom his the right note. And Louis was Louis. Nothing could comfort Louis. The film got it.”
