Neil Jordan Says Brad Pitt's 'Interview with the Vampire' Transformation Was a "Pain in the Ass"

Making a vampire movie sounds pretty fun until you realize the vampires can’t exactly wander around in broad daylight. For Brad Pitt, filming Interview with the Vampire meant months of night shoots, makeup, contact lenses, and being the straight man in a cast full of outlandish and outrageous characters. It's almost no wonder he didn't have a great time. Pitt has famously spoken about how miserable he became during the production, but director Neil Jordan has a slightly different perspective on what was happening at the time.

Speaking exclusively with Collider, Jordan explained that Louis’ role as the audience’s guide through the story inevitably makes him less dynamic than the characters surrounding him. He explained during a Collider Rewind interview for the 4K restoration of the film:

“It often happens with the central character. If you look at Tom Jones, for example, the character who tells the story can become the least dynamic character in the whole equation because they’re the person to whom things are done. Is David Copperfield the most dynamic character in David Copperfield? He’s not. Is Pip the most dynamic character in Great Expectations? Everyone remembers Estella and Miss Havisham and the horrible criminal who ties them up, but they don’t remember Pip that much. And that’s the nature of the story in many ways.”

Jordan believes Rice essentially constructed Interview with the Vampire like a Victorian novel, meaning Pitt was playing the relatively passive figure at its center while Tom Cruise's Lestat and Kirsten Dunst’s Claudia were allowed to be considerably more explosive. “Anne had written kind of a traditional Victorian novel when she wrote Interview with the Vampire, and that was the part that Brad played," said Jordan. "He had a hard time, but he only had a hard time when we got to Paris. I don’t know, I think it got to him.”

Brad Pitt Had to Hang Upside Down for ‘Interview with the Vampire’

Jordan also pointed toward the physical reality of the production. Interview with the Vampire was shot extensively at night, something Jordan loved because it gave him near-total control over what appeared in the frame, but for Pitt and his fellow actors, it was another story. “I loved shooting at night to make this movie," Jordan enthused. "It was like going on the night shift for six months. As a director, it’s great because you can control everything that gets into the frame. You’re not waiting for the sun to come up or down, the clouds and all that. Everything is lit, everything is shot, everything is decided and designed. But for actors, I’m sure it was a real pain in the ass.”

Pitt’s transformation into Louis came with its own uncomfortable routine, which probably didn't help matters. Despite all that, though, Jordan treasured and valued the experience of working with Pitt and believes there are no hard feelings. He told Collider:

“Given the way I designed the vampires and how they should look, Brad had to hang upside down every morning and get his face painted. He had to wear contact lenses, and Tom did too. It was a hard journey for an actor, and I can see how he got upset. But I enjoyed making it with him. We were mates at the time. I haven’t seen him for a long time, but we were very close. Even at the end of the film, we were still very close. So if he had a hard time making it, I don’t know what to say. Talk to him.”

Interview with the Vampire is available on 4K UHD. Stay tuned at Collider for more from our latest installment of Collider Rewind.