He did hate it! But that’s part of what made him so perfect!
In no particular order, some of Brad’s grievances were:
- He was miserable with the filming schedule which basically demanded filming at night and sleeping during the day. Seasonal affective disorder maybe?
- Much of what he loved about his character in the book was different in the script, which he didn’t even see until 2 weeks before filming started.
- IIRC, he didn’t get along with Tom but more bc Tom was absent than that he was difficult. Apparently, Tom would show up to film his scenes and not stick around before or after to socialize with anyone (remember, he had 2 young kids then, so I would assume he wanted to spend time with them).
For a little window into Brad’s experience, in his own words, hit the jump.
Brad Pitt, in an article by Mike Scott, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune:
“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, ‘Forty million dollars.’ And I go, ‘OK, thank you.’ It actually took the anxiety off of me. I was like, ‘I’ve got to man up and ride this through, and that’s what I’m going to do.’”
…Still, he says he doesn’t necessarily regret “Interview with a Vampire.”
“I don’t lament the failures,” he said. “The failures prepare you for the next one. It’s a step you needed to take, and I’m all for it.”
“Another big problem was the script, which was written by Rice herself, taking her first shot at writing a screenplay. Pitt hadn’t seen it until two weeks before shooting started. When he finally did get a copy, he realized that everything in Rice’s book that was interesting about his character … was gone.
And so here he was, a rising young actor and budding sex symbol, stuck in an uninteresting, passive role.
“In the book you have this guy asking, ‘Who am I?’ Which was probably applicable to me at that 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 this 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.”
“You gotta understand, Tom and I are … we walk in different directions.” says Pitt. “I always thought there was this underlying competition that got in the way of any real conversation… it bugged me a bit.”
But they clearly get along now at least for the cameras but it looks pretty legit. they were even talking about working together on a movie about a year ago.
