bonus chapter: interview with the vampire (1994 movie)

this episode we enjoyed a potent snapshot of Hollywood circa 1994 and watching the film adaptation of interview with the vampire, directed by neil jordan and staring tom cruise, brad pitt and kirsten dunst. this rendition of anne rice’s classic novel offers of plenty of fodder for discussion, from brad pitt’s personal hygiene, to anne rice’s passion for film casting and the whs on candles and set design - no stone is left unturned, no coffin unopened! 

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Transcript

Bridget 0:00

Hello and welcome to a Talk Lit Get Hit bonus chapter. The little book chats in between the big ones. We'll talk about reading, authors, and have discussions with people who, like us, can't shut up about books.

Laura 0:13

We might get sidetracked and talk about literally anything else, but this is a bonus chapter we wrote just for you. Last episode, we discussed the book Interview with the Vampire by Anne Rice, and a common and somewhat unusual theme that emerged amongst the reviews was the sentiment that the movie was better. We've taken it upon ourselves to sniff out the truth once and for all and watch the 1994 film of the very same name. Bridget, let's dive right into it. What are some hard and fast facts that you can tell me about the Interview with the Vampire movie?

Bridget 0:43

A really quick overview is that the film was released on the 11th of November 1994. Our year, oh my god, of birth. Yes. That's a good clarification there. We don't own the year. It was directed by Neil Jordan and adapted by the author of the book, Anne Rice, although it was heavily edited by Neil Jordan. But due to the Writers' Guild rules, it meant that she got the credit. It has garnered some mixed reviews on the internet. It was rated 63% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes. It has an average rating of 3.6 out of 5 on Letterboxd and 7.5 out of 10 on IMDB. It was nominated for two Oscars, including Best Art Direction and Best Original Score. And our last fun fact is that Oprah Winfrey walked out of the premiere disgusted by the amount of blood in the film. Poor Oprah.

Laura 1:38

Laura, had you ever seen this film before? I thought that I hadn't, but upon watching it, yeah, I think that I have. I think that I must have watched it at some point, like maybe illegally downloaded, um, probably watched on a steaming hot laptop at some point with like mild interest. I retained like no information about it though, so I would count this as a fresh watch.

Bridget 2:00

It was a fresh watch for me too. I had never seen it. When I heard that there was a movie that was released in '94, I thought maybe it might have been familiar, like due to my days of haunting the aisles of Blockbuster, like after school and on the weekend, but I don't think the cover was even familiar to me.

Laura 2:18

No, I agree. I don't think I have any memory of it from like childhood, and there's definitely movies that stand out as ones that you did see in Blockbuster or that your parents watched, or someone older than you watched that were like just this big kind of spectre on the horizon.

Bridget 2:33

One of those for me is Miss Congeniality. I've never seen it, but like that cover is like a blockbuster movie for me.

Laura 2:39

Yeah. I mine is American Beauty, which I've also never seen, but all those roses on the cover.

Bridget 2:44

Yeah. Kill Bill as well.

Laura 2:46

Yep. Yep. But yeah, I don't remember seeing this apart from maybe on Tumblr.

Bridget 2:53

Luckily for us, especially you with your SBS on Demand fan club president badge that you wear at all times. Luckily, it was available on SBS on Demand. And luckily for everybody here, it's available for like three more months, I think.

Laura 3:08

Yeah.

Bridget 3:08

So perfect timing. It's free. There's no ads. Amazing. Oh, I got ads. Oh, I didn't get any ads. Special. What the hell? Oh my god. I am the chosen one. I didn't get a single ad.

Laura 3:19

Okay, well, maybe it's just because I'm the president and they know that I'm gonna be loyal no matter what. I I'm confused. I feel a little bit upset, but I'm still happy to fly the flag for SBS on demand because I felt such genuine joy when I searched stream interview with the vampire. And that was the result that came up.

Bridget 3:39

There's nothing I love more than free taxpayer-funded ways of getting media, libraries, SBS on demand.

Laura 3:47

I think it's on ABC IV as well. Oh incredible. So obviously, our last episode was reviewing the book, and something in my research that I came across was that a lot of people were saying, like, don't bother with the book, just watch the movie. Or a lot of people had read the book coming from watching the movie and finding it lacking. So how were you feeling after having read the book? Were you excited to watch this?

Bridget 4:09

I was cautiously excited. I thought that there was a really interesting story in the book. It was just hard to find. I was hoping that the movie people would work their movie magic, make it into the fully formed story that I think the book could have been. But on the other hand, I don't really like watching movies. So I was like, I don't want to watch a movie. And also I don't want to watch a scary movie. I was worried it was gonna be scary.

Laura 4:32

How about you? Yeah, I was really excited to watch it. I've heard that there are like amazing performances from the actors, and it's just like a film of a generation, and it's like sensual and it's raw and it's steamy and it's moody. Same as you, I was thinking maybe this can be tightened up a bit in a film. Uh yeah, I feel like I've seen more praise than criticism for the movie, so I was reasonably excited to watch it too.

Bridget 4:56

If you don't want to have the interview with the vampire movie spoiled for you, pause the episode, hit subscribe, go and watch it, and come back to us.

Laura 5:03

Content warnings for this episode include themes of death and gore, sexual themes, suicidal ideation, and pedophilia. So then, all that said, what were your feelings at the end of watching this movie?

Bridget 5:14

At the end of watching, I thought, what the hell is this movie and why the hell did I love it so much? I really, really, really liked it. Did you? Yes, I really did. Like the whole time I was like, oh like this is so dumb. But then when it finished, I was like, oh wow. Wow, you've shocked me. I'm yeah, I shocked myself. I was speechless the whole time. My jaw was on the floor.

Laura 5:46

Wow. Because it was ridiculous. It was so ridiculous, but so good.

Bridget 5:52

So did you not like it?

Laura 5:53

I I mean I didn't hate it. I just sort of thought, wow, that wasn't much of an improvement.

Bridget 5:59

It was so good. When I was when we were recording the episode for the book, I was like, no, I need to tone this down because I didn't love the book that much.

Laura 6:07

I loved the movie, and it really changed the way I thought about the book. That's so funny. I think they were like about the same quality for me, but good for different reasons. Yeah, okay. Like I think obviously with the book, you get a lot more of that kind of like meditation and emotion and like rumination and the beautiful quotes. And then in the movie, it's like the characters and like this just visual feast that's happening that is like really, really excellent.

Bridget 6:32

Yeah. I was thinking about this because I'm always like, I don't like watching movies, but literally every time I watch a movie, I was like, oh, that is the best movie I've ever seen in my life. So I think I just probably need to start watching movies, and then I might develop some sort of like critical thoughts about movies. Because every time I'm like, you should watch this movie, it's so good. It's like a TikTok, but longer. Well, maybe I am discovering Hollywood like you. What a throwback. Yeah.

Laura 7:01

Theatre. Theatre. Theatre de vampires. Okay, well, let's talk about some of the casting choices here because this movie is such a crazy snapshot in time. The year that was 1994, probably 1993 when they filmed it, I guess, is just imprinted from all over this thing.

Bridget 7:24

It's funny you say that though, because like the people, Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise, especially, they are such a formative celebrity of people of our generation, like every magazine cover would have had something about them, you know, when we were going grocery shopping with our parents. But I had to fact-check myself while I was watching the movie. I looked on Letterboxd, I've seen Rain Man and I've seen Rock of Ages.

Laura 7:51

Same as me. Why are we so low? Tom Cruise. Excellent performance, by the way.

Bridget 7:57

Yes. Another movie where I was like, I loved it. Go and watch it. Still listen to the soundtrack all the time. Constantly listening to that soundtrack.

Laura 8:09

It's so good.

Bridget 8:10

Anyway, you man. That's the weakend. So good. Every time I hear the original, I'm like, it's like when people like Glee, think of the Glee Glee covers better. Rock of Ages is better.

Laura 8:22

Shit, that's so funny.

Bridget 8:23

And then Brad Pitt, I've only seen um like one of the oceans movies, and I've seen 12 Years a Slave. So weird mix of movies here. But the whole time I was like, isn't it weird that I've never seen like really many movies with these people, but they have such big parts in like celebrity.

Laura 8:43

It is weird. I think that I've seen the same amount of Tom Cruise movies as you. I've seen a few more Brad Pitt movies. Like I've seen The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, I've seen Inglorious Bastards, I've seen Mr. and Mrs. Smith, and I think like it's hard to say whether it's a fault of his performance or if it's just because, like you said, we've grown up with him in this kind of like larger than life, like bigger than their the sum of their own parts kind of thing. Poor one out for Jennifer, never forget. But like, I don't think I've ever seen a Brad Pitt movie where I haven't thought, like, oh holy crap, that's Brad Pitt. And I don't know if it's because he's not doing a good enough job and I'm not buying it, or if I just can't see past that. But it's just Brad Pitt in a movie every time.

Bridget 9:29

Yes. I was thinking the whole time, oh my god, he looks so much like Shiloh.

Laura 9:34

And we got all those blurry paparazzi pictures of Shiloh's new ideas. Shiloh.

Bridget 9:39

Woman's weekly. Crazy, but that's what I was thinking. Could it also be that the character of Louis was giving nothing? And like, was there nothing for Louis to give?

Laura 9:51

Well, this is what I was reading, because I did read that Brad Pitt had a famously bad time filming this movie. And sop womp. Yeah, who cares? Oh, you didn't like the movie. So from what I read, the filming schedule was a little bit messed up, which meant that they were filming at night all the time, sleeping unusual hours, having to sleep during the day. But I also read that what he had enjoyed about his character in the book, which I think would have probably been those really like interior and reflective moments, were kind of stripped from the script.

Bridget 10:25

And the ones that were there were the boring parts of the movie. Yeah. Like the start when he was just moping around, I was like, oh, get to the point.

Laura 10:35

Yeah. And I don't really know how you would convey that in the film. Someone could, I'm sure.

Bridget 10:41

I think this is where the interview format worked better in the movie than I think the book. I think that was a great like scene setting sort of thing. Because he could say his like inner thoughts. I just wish there weren't so many of them.

Laura 10:55

Yeah, that's true. It did sort of work in its favour. There were some quotes from Brad Pitt on this, and he said, in the book, you have this guy asking, Who am I? Which was probably applicable to me at the time. Am I good? Am I of the angels? Am I bad? Am I of the devil? In the book, it is a guy going on his own search of discovery, and in the meantime, he has this Lestat character that he's entranced by and abhors. In the movie, they took the sensational aspects of Lestat and made that the pulse of the film. And those things are very enjoyable and very good. But for me, there was just nothing to do. You just sit and watch.

Bridget 11:29

Yeah, and that's all he did. I I mean he's not wrong. Yeah. But in the book, he also did a lot of sitting and watching.

Laura 11:35

And then in the same breath, in another interview, he said, I'm telling you, one day it broke me. It was like life's too short for this quality of life. I called David Geffen, who was a good friend. He was a producer and he'd just come to visit. 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, $40 million. And I go, Okay, thank you. It actually took the anxiety off me. I was like, I've got to man up and ride this through, and that's what I'm gonna do.

Bridget 12:04

Brad, some people have real problems.

Laura 12:06

Some people do shift work and they're nurses and they're doctors, and they're like miners.

Bridget 12:11

I mean, this might be a good segue. It was so funny when I first like looked up this movie and saw who was in it. It was like double homicide. I was like, oh, Brad Pitt, oh god. Alleged abuser, oh Tom Cruise, freaky Scientologist. Not good. Oh, not good.

Laura 12:29

I really struggle to separate thinking about that from my enjoyment of the film. Um, and I think as established, I just generally don't really like Brad Pitt's acting. I don't really like the way he looks. I've never really bought into it. And I think every time he was on screen, kind of moping around and doing his freaky stare at everyone, I was like, get off my screen, you bozo.

Bridget 12:50

Like, yeah, I was like, why is your hair so shiny? I know, why are your lips so plump? What's going on? His stupid little ponytail. I was sort of entranced by the the shiny quality of his hair, uh, but anything else he did was quite boring to me. And like I was like, why is your face look like that? How are you making that facial expression? It was very confusing to me. It was a bit like when you see someone that you follow on Instagram that's like like a micro celebrity to you and you only, when you see them in real life and you're like, wow, like they're a real person. That's how I was feeling when I was watching Brad Pitt on the screen.

Laura 13:30

I think this movie was a real case against contact lenses because they were not doing anything for me there.

Bridget 13:36

No, he's kind of freaking me out a bit.

Laura 13:38

I mean, they freaked me out in Twilight as well. So unfortunately, contact lens technology doesn't seem to have advanced too far. I think it makes your eyes like appear to strain in a really uncomfortable way.

Bridget 13:50

He looked like he was on the verge of tears the whole time.

Laura 13:53

Yeah, I think his character didn't really come off as strongly as he did in the books. I just everything was so watered down. A good example that made me cringe so hard was when he was drinking human blood for the first time, and he's kind of like gulping it down like and then he kind of like pops away and he's like, I will not take her alive. And he's got his head thrown back, and there's all this blood around his mouth, and it just was so like he's like gasping for air. Very embarrassing to watch.

Bridget 14:26

That part was quite shocking to me. That was the thing the first time where I was like, What is this movie? I didn't expect it to be quite so ridiculous.

Laura 14:33

I think the tone of the movie was so different to the tone of the book because it felt like a little bit disjointed. The book was obviously very serious, and there was really no comedy apart from the accidental comedy that like the utter joy we found in Lestat.

Bridget 14:46

Yes.

Laura 14:47

But I would say the movie was trying to be quite funny in parts.

Bridget 14:50

Yeah, I thought it was like a little bit camp. Yeah. There was like probably five parts of the movie where I was in hysterics because it was so funny. Do you remember them? Yeah, I've written them down. So the f oh here we go. The first was when they went to that high society ball and he decided to go for the dog instead of that. It took away the horror of the poor little dog. I watched it with Maddie and Maddie and I were like, surely, surely not. And then uh sure enough.

Laura 15:32

And then Lestat's like, you idiot.

Bridget 15:38

The second was when Lestat was throwing the grapes at him, like just before the like the slave revolt sort of thing. That was so read the room, read the room, Lestat, the the slaves are revolting. And then when when they found Claudia and he started to dance with the with Claudia's mother's corpse, it was like the lady's got some life in her yet. It was so funny. Kind of was start stealing the show again. It is so funny. When they got to Paris and Louis was doing his melancholy walk through the city, Santiago started to do ballet and was like, What? So funny. And then last was when Louis had just turned Madeline and he was like planking on the balcony. Claudia came out and he was like, What's wrong with her? And he's like, She's gotta, she's gotta die first. And he's like lying on the balcony, so dramatic, so freaking funny.

Laura 16:47

I thought it was one of the funniest movies I've ever seen, and I don't think that was the intention. I don't think so. I don't think many people would have that same perspective. Oh, I thought it was hysterical. I loved after Louis went off his chops and burned down the plantation, and then Lestat was like, like, what the hell are you doing? And then cutscene. Yeah, they're sitting on the ground in the dark. Louis was like, Where are we gonna sleep tonight? Listat was like, in this freaking cemetery, and he's just like looking straight ahead. The shot is from the side, and he's just so done with this.

Bridget 17:25

I love him. When he was like reprimanding Claudia for doing bad things, so funny. Well, we've gotta.

Laura 17:33

I'm bursting at the seams to talk about the stats, I think we should.

Bridget 17:37

I did not realize that Tom Cruise was cool like this. Like I thought he was like the most square person alive, and he was so freaking cool. Like at the end, at the end when he's driving that car, I was like, Where's the sequel? Let's watch it now. Oh this is why he has the level of fame he does. Yeah.

Laura 18:09

I I mean, like one of the funny reviews that I read was like, hey, this is just Tom Cruise being Tom Cruise. He's not acting. Yeah, I have to say I've never understood the appeal of Tom Cruise until this moment. But like the moment he appeared on screen, I was like, oh, hang on, hang on. Like, why was he so hot? I don't know, I don't understand. Oh, and just so like I thought that I couldn't love Lestat more, but he is so delightfully unhinged and like absolutely fruity in this film. So dumb as well. So perfect. My favorite. Speaking of funny moments, my favorite moment is when Claudia calls him out for getting yet another doll.

Bridget 19:02

And he's like oh well, dolls are dirty anyway. They're old. Take him out, put him in the bin then, Claudia.

Laura 19:12

But the look on his face is so perfect. He was so good. Well, I think something that makes the excellence of his performance even funnier is what a hater Ann Rice was about his casting. Did you read about this?

Bridget 19:28

I also love how she had to retract all statements. Yes. Completely fair though. If someone said to me, hey, hey girl, we're making a movie out of your book, Tom Cruise is the hot guy, I would be so bad.

Laura 19:44

Yeah, so prior to this he had been in things like The Outsiders, Risky Business, Rain Man, and Top Gun, none of which would really inspire me to believe that he would be a great unhinged vampire. I have this quote that says, Upon learning that Tom Cruise had been cast as the stat, Rice was livid and stated Cruz could not carry the part, calling the casting so bizarre it's almost impossible to imagine how it's going to work. And the worst crime in the name of casting since the bonfire of the Vanities 1990. I don't know what that is, but got to assume it was pretty big at the time. Rice recused herself from the production and did not view the film until a producer sent her a VHS copy. Rice was so impressed by Cruz's performance that she wrote him a letter of apology and recorded a two-minute video endorsing the film that was included as a pre-feature on mid-1990s VHS releases. God, it's like a proof-of-life hostage video.

Bridget 20:43

Tom Cruise's behind the camera with a clipboard with her lines and a gun. Say I'm good.

Laura 20:50

And the Church of Scientology is awesome. I did read some of the other contenders for this role, just some of the names that were thrown into the ring, actors that were approached, and it is just such a hilarious picture of the 1990s film scene. So we have the likes of Daniel Day Lewis, Jeremy Irons, Tom Hanks, Johnny Depp. Imagine Tom Hanks. Cannot absurd. And the thing that I read, rather, like who knows how reliable it was. It said that Anne Rice wanted Tom Hanks with a role. In what world is he the better Tom? Absurd. Uh, we also have John Malkovich, Richard Gere, and Mel Gibson.

Bridget 21:31

What the hell? What Anne said though about how it's almost impossible to imagine how it's going to work. I could never be a casting director because I couldn't imagine what people are gonna do. Like his audition would, I'm sure, have been nothing like what the movie turned out to be. It's incredible that they have this like foresight and this vision to imagine what these people who like Rain Man only a few years earlier, imagine as Lestat. I can't, but it somehow it worked so well. And like hats off to Tom Cruise. Good job. You did a great job.

Laura 22:03

You did a great job. You carried this film. Yeah. Another fun fact that I read was at some point in production, Anne Rice considered dialing back the homoerotic undertones. And so she considered rewriting the character of Lestat to be female. And at that point in time, Cher was thrown into consideration. So funny.

Bridget 22:26

That would have been, I mean, no disrespect to Cher, I'm sure you're great, but that would have been so boring. It's so awful. Do you think that this movie is what Mona Award watched before she wrote Rouge and then was like, that's gonna be the imaginary friend or whatever happened there? Like that's like the celebrity crush is gonna be Tom Cruise, but only Tom Cruise in Interview with the Vanby. Because, like, you know how he was like, You're so hot and sexy and your mum's such a bitch. Lestat would say that.

Laura 22:53

That is so true. I completely forgotten about that. And so funny because one of my notes was Tom Cruise's middle tooth. And I remember that was a talking point in the Bruce episode. Another fun piece of trivia I read was that uh he was placed on an elevated platform during some scenes to reduce the height difference between his character and other vampires. And then, like when I was trying to wrap my head around the vision, I did Google Tom Cruise 1994 and I came across some really hot pictures. And it's him and Nicole Kidman at the Interview with a Vampire premiere. Um, hilariously captioned Lestat and Tom Cruise at the 1994 premiere of Interview with a Vampire.

Bridget 23:37

Oh my god. She looks so good. That is the best I've ever seen him. Amazing.

Laura 23:45

How look at how good she looks. Oh my god. She looks stunning. These obviously need a place on our Instagram grid. She looks unreal. So if I could describe this, she's got her red hair, but it's in this like big fluffy 90s blowout. It's like flowing down her back. She's got like a smoky eye. Her skin is pale, but she's got these like rosy flush cheeks and like a very dark red burgundy lip, thin eyebrows. She's looking very pale and she's rocking like crisp, very office siren inspired. Tom Cruise, short king that he is, he is looking like I would say this is refined castaway. Yes. Against all odds, he's making the goatee work.

Bridget 24:31

He looks kind of like Matthew McConaughey. Yeah. Like very tan, rugged, blonde highlights.

Laura 24:39

And he's got like a surface blue velvet suit on, which looks unreal. I'm obsessed. Same. Sorry for Nicole and all of the things that happened at this point in your life. And then to dig a little deeper on another piece of trivia I had read, I decided to explore some photos of Brad Pitt in 1994. Because what I had read was that throughout the filming, Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise didn't necessarily get along super well. And one of the pressure points in their relationship was that Tom Cruise said Brad Pitt's personal hygiene was lacking and he smelled bad. And honestly, these pictures really tell a story. Oh, he really does. What's with they're so tan. So these photos, he's got bra strap length platinum blonde hair. He's got a goatee too, but he's not really rocking it in the same way.

Bridget 25:38

No, he's really not.

Laura 25:40

He just looks greasy. He looks like he'd have that slight aroma of poo poo. Am I gonna get sued for this? Allegedly.

Bridget 25:52

He allegedly looks like he stinks like shit. It's just my opinion.

Laura 25:58

Like shit and patchouli. Anyway, these will be on Instagram too. We can't forget our little baby girl, Kirsten Dunst.

Bridget 26:14

Freaky little curls. Didn't like the hair, but when she went to cut it off, I was like, no, babe, that looks worse. It looked so bad. Don't cut that. Um, she was great, amazing. I haven't really seen her in much either. Like I've seen Is she in Spider-Man? Yes. I've seen Spider-Man. Couldn't tell you another movie. What else is she in?

Laura 26:33

Um well one of my notes was her performance was so strong, arguably overshadowed all of the grown men. She's been that bitch ever since Jumanji. Little Women? Oh yes.

Bridget 26:44

Oh Elizabeth Town with Orlando Bloom.

Laura 26:47

I've never seen it. You should watch that. Well, I want to watch it because a little tie-in to our next episode on Manic Pixie Dream Girls. Um, but I saw Elizabeth Town popping up a lot as a great example of one.

Bridget 27:00

Yeah. I really loved that movie. I don't remember a thing. Maybe I might, you know, I reserve the right to retract all statements in in case of something that I don't know. I don't remember that happens, but I really liked that movie. Ah, apparently Tom Cruise produced it.

Laura 27:14

Oh my god, I love him. How did this happen?

Bridget 27:19

Right, okay. Anyway, back to back to Kirsten Dunst. I had to do a mid-movie Google just to see how old exactly she was because I was amazed at how good she was, and I knew that obviously in the book Claudia's like five or six. She was around 11 when this was filmed, and it was not her first movie. She was in her first movie in 1989. I was also thinking about like the child protection sort of safety measures that surely would have had to have been in place around the filming of the movie because it was like in parts it was quite scary. And I did see that she wasn't allowed to watch the movie when it was released. Her parents thought it was too much. Some of the scenes that they were filming, I think they use like quite clever camera angles and that probably would have been filmed completely separately. And I was just thinking as well, like, how does filming these kinds of scenes because like she was popping off in some of these scenes? Like, how does this affect you as a child? Like, you hear stories about you know, like the Joker, Heath Ledger, and um, all these people that sort of go a bit mad when they're filming emotionally demanding roles. Like, I think that would have been quite demanding for an 11-year-old. How how do you grow home and just go to sleep?

Laura 28:29

I know. I was kind of thinking about this as well. Um, because she was so phenomenal and she had seemingly such a well of anger to draw upon. I was kind of thinking that this really blows the case of method acting out of the water.

Bridget 28:41

Yeah.

Laura 28:41

Because as an 11-year-old, like, I don't know what she what's she drawing from. I think one of the main things that was in my head about this movie was that Kirsten Dunst had been made to feel uncomfortable in some way on this set. And I guess that probably has come out, like, you know, maybe in line with things like the Me Too movement. So I did read that there were a couple of things that made her uncomfortable in this film. One of those was having to pretend to drink blood from the neck of one of the actors. I think I read that they were really sweaty and hot at the time, and in the scene you can kind of see her mouth just like hovering over their neck all day. She isn't quite committed. She'sn't like latched on in the way that Tom and Brad were. Um, so I think that's something she didn't enjoy. And the other thing was having to kiss Brad Pitt. So she does have a quote about this, and she said, I was a little girl and he was like a brother to me, and it was very weird, even though it was a peck. I was very not into it. I hated the kiss so much because Brad was like my older brother on set, and it's kind of like kissing your brother. It's weird because he's an older guy and I had to kiss him on the lips. So it was gross. And I think it is gross, and it is weird, and I don't really know what it added to the film.

Bridget 29:50

I think a lot of the weird undertones that we were sort of reading in the book had been watered down or taken out of the movie. So it is quite strange that they left that in, especially because at the time she spoke about how it made her uncomfortable. And I think he was 31. So he was 20 years older than her. One thing I just kept coming back to when I was watching the movie was their budget for the candles. Must have been astronomical. There were so many candles. And every time I was like, oh, nice candles. They're so nice. I've been seeing lately a lot of criticism on TikTok of like new release movies saying that how they're so dark. Um, there's not much light, there's not much colour as well. And I thought this is a great example of a dark movie that has colour and that has light, but still is able to show that, you know, nighttime or gothic theme or what have you. A movie that I feel like must have used this as sort of mood board inspiration was the series of unfortunate events movie. I found the similarities between the two movies to be so obvious, especially when they were putting on that the play in the theatre. I was like, this is Jim Carrey saying, back in the time when the dinosaurs roamed the earth. Like, that is the same. Count Olaf's house was so similar to so many of the sets in this movie. And costumes were fantastic, their freaky little acrylics are kind of scary.

Laura 31:21

That's so funny you were thinking about the candles because I had a couple notes. One was what's the WHS on the candles? They would have to be like 50 pages long. And they can't they can't be fake, it can't be movie magic. I choose to believe it's hundreds of real candles.

Bridget 31:37

Oh, same. Yeah.

Laura 31:38

I also was thinking, what's the budget on rats? Because there was a lot of rats. There were a lot of rats. Or what how do we make a fake rat? I need that movie magic revealed. And I also really agree about the dark movie that's still colourful. Because as soon as the movie started and it was those opening shots of the city and people walking through the city, and you see Louie in the window, and it's kind of got neon lights and kind of that greenish-blue tinge. I felt so comforted, so nostalgic. It was such a like moody visual, and it just had that really kind of saturated colour that you find in like 90s films. Excellent.

Bridget 32:18

The fact that Anne Rice wrote the screenplay is quite funny to me because as we spoke about in our Twilight episode, Stephanie Meyer didn't want any part of writing the screenplay because she felt like, you know, killing her darlings, taking out parts of the books was like cutting off a finger or something. I did see her say at the Forever Forks or whatever that festival was called, that she ha is actually involved in the writing of the Midnight Sun series. So that was quite interesting, bit of personal, professional growth for Stephanie. Um, but I think that Anne Rice, the way that she changed some of the parts of the story, worked really well. I liked the ending. I liked that he sort of fobbed off Amand straight away, like he saw who he was. He wasn't like strung along by Amand for ages, like he sort of knew that he had also betrayed him. Also, the discovery of Claudia and Madeline was genuinely heartbreaking. I thought that was horrific. I'm tearing up a little bit now, and I was also this is so crazy, but I was also tearing up when he was in the cinema and he was watching the movies, and like he was seeing like Nos Ferraro and then he saw Superman, and I was like this is so nice. And like he was saying like I got to see my favourite colour blue or something, like because it moved from black and white movies to colour movies. I thought that was beautiful, and I was like, why am I so obsessed with this movie?

Laura 33:45

I got really emotional when he saw the stat for the last time and the helicopter was randomly done. So weird. I don't really understand why that happened, but when he was like cowering and afraid of the noise and had become this like frail thing, I felt kind of sad.

Bridget 34:03

I thought it was also like kind of poetic. I think he regretted a lot of the things that he had done, or maybe not regret, or I don't know. I think he still probably blamed Claudia for a lot of it, but he was trying to live life like Louis, he was abstaining from feeding on humans, he was purely on rats, like he was living in this trashy area, and then also kind of funny that when Louis was like, nah, I'm not sticking around, he was like, Well, what I'll just go back to being me then.

Laura 34:29

Yeah. It paid off because it looks great at the end of it.

Bridget 34:34

And just that guns and roses, like singing, oh amazing. Oh, the flying was insane. Why were they flying? Oh and how did it improve anything? I don't know, and like it wasn't always happening either. Like it would just sometimes happen, like when Lestat first attacked Louis and he was flying up in like the tall ship. I was like, what?

Laura 34:58

Yeah, but then he attacked Louis plenty of other times, but wasn't flying. Yeah. It was like just pick and choose. And there was another thing that I don't know if I just missed in the book, um, because I was in an absolute stupor, but like when they rock up to that party and Lestat's like, oh my god, read her mind. And then Brad Pitt says, Oh, I can't, I don't, I can't do that. He's like, Oh well, some people have different powers, and that's just sort of brushed over.

Bridget 35:23

I think he was just trying to manipulate him, like being like, Well, I'm better than you. But I don't really know. I was a bit confused by that as well. So funny.

Laura 35:32

I think I'm pretty much at the end of the insights that I can offer about this film, but I would like to leave you with a couple of my favourite reviews that I saw on Letterboxed. They're all in a really similar vein. The first says, IMDB says the gay subtext from the novel was taken out of the movie, but sis seemed pretty gay to me. It's literally about Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise being a married couple and struggling to raise their daughter. The only way it could have gotten any gayer is if Brad Pitt fucked a peach. Tom Cruise as an evil gay vampire as one of the greatest casting choices in film history. And it should be said. Yeah. Preach. Yes. Next review: this deserves five stars for doing the impossible by making me attracted to Tom Cruise. Yep. My sentiments exactly. However, this also made me attracted to Tom Cruise, so I'm taking away half a star. This review says, a family can be two dramatic vampire dads in their angry little vampire daughter. And then lastly, this movie could have only happened during Bill Clinton's presidency.

Bridget 36:38

I had one favorite letterbox review. I felt like they were just writing from inside my brain. Nothing about this makes sense. Is this a romance? A comedy? A horror film? How was this so gay? But how was it not gayer? How is this marketed? Who funded this? How was this made? Who saw this in theaters? Where are they now? Why did Kirsten Dunce have to snap so hard? Why was Tom Cruise given the go-ahead by Scientology to make this extremely erotic film? Why did the audience not clap after Antonio Banderas' extremely thought-provoking play? Why is this dedicated to River Phoenix? Is Brad Pitt like okay? And last but not least, where is the sequel?

Laura 37:29

So true.

Bridget 37:30

It's so true.

Laura 37:31

Give it to me. Where was he driving to? I want to go to there.

Bridget 37:38

The next book we will be reading is Looking for Alaska by John Green. Have your say in what we read next by keeping an eye on the link in our show notes and on our socials. Make sure you subscribe to the show, and if you want to be on the same page as us, follow us at talklit.get on Instagram and TikTok.