Yes, Tom Cruise was wearing a wig. Thinking about it now, I think it was a partial wig and blended with his own hair somewhat.
Admittedly it wasn’t the “glorious mane of pampered yellow hair” as described in book!IWTV, but I think his performance really made up for any of his physical shortcomings (pun intended, lol), like not being blond enough.
New thoughts, too:
In fact, he was a brighter blonde as we can see in some stills from what appear to be cut scenes, and they modified his hair and makeup, so that may be a reason why those scenes had to be cut. This one looks oversaturated but you can still tell that his hair is very different from the movie, and his eyebrows are bigger and brighter. Pastier white skin, too.
^I think this would have been the scene Lestat makes Louis watch him take a victim to make sure Louis reeeeeeally wants to vampire. Or it’s the scene Lestat bashes open Louis’s wife’s coffin to show him the decaying corpses of his wife and child to remind him what death actually looks like and it’s hella not fun.
Compare the above to the hair and makeup he had in the movie before the murder attempts:
He was totally down for it at one point! I don’t have the evidence readily available, but I remember reading articles in which he said he’d read several of the books to prepare for the role, and was very interested in doing a sequel (something he has only done for Mission Impossible, and now, Jack Reacher).
I think at one point he owned the rights to TOBT and that would have incorporated some of TVL.
I don’t think what ruined it was contractual obligations, it was more about the homophobic backlash, despite how successful IWTV was. Plus, making a movie takes a whole team. It probably got mired in development hell, which is what held up the IWTV movie for some 20 years.
Whatever the case, I think Tom should be involved w/ casting Lestat, and then Tom should train them, or at least write out a Lestatiquette manual bc he nailed it.
That would be the Piano Sonata in Eb by Joseph Haydn ;D
WHICH, IIRC, Tom had to actually learn how to play, because we do see a shot of his hands. His version sounds tuned differently than the version below, and if so, that would make sense bc Lestat himself is ~tuned differently~ in this scene.
I’m ignoring movie!QOTD bc of reasons We can’t have a real sequel bc movie!IWTV ended w/ Lestat *riding off into the sunrise* w/ Daniel and that’s very not canon. It would be hard to wrangle the story back to canon, or harder to alter canon to allow for that ship (Lestat says he’s gonna give Daniel the Choice, pretty obviously setting it up that Lestat will turn him, and then where would that leave Armand in QOTD? Fledglingless!).
Plus, all the original actors are too old for their original roles, sadly. At one time, Tom Cruise was trying to get the rights (or had them?) for TOBT which I assume he planned to star in. All the gay backlash at the time probably helped kill that project ;A;
((BTW I wouldn’t mind casting them in other roles if they wanted it… Tom could play the Marquis de Lioncourt now…))
It’s crazy but I would love an animated feature… and then we could have the original voices back…
We could restart in IWTV:
Or we could start it in TVL and go in chronological order:
^Both by @garama . (This scene with Lestat and Armand (or is that Nicki?) didn’t happen in canon but I feel like we could scoot some silliness in there) These looks like stills from an animated feature, don’t they??! As for the original voices: Tom definitely. In fact why hasn’t he done animated voicework? It’s a crime that he hasn’t. Brad, well, I didn’t love him in his animated features (Sinbad, Megamind), so I won’t argue recasting Louis.
Someone asked me for my ultimate casting choices for a live-action VC movie awhile back and I haven’t gotten a chance to answer properly. In the meantime, you might have fun browsing my #vc casting tag ;]
This interview… I’m sharing it bc I feel so much second-hand embarrassment for Tom whenever I watch it which is not often but I found it again today so I’m posting it here for… reasons. He shares this story, without hardly being prompted, about cutting off the oxygen of one of his passengers while in flight (starts at 2:32). Watching it, I just keep feeling, “Tom, no, stahp plz, oh gawds… begging you… FIRST OF ALL WHY WOULD U DO THAT?? Second of all, WHY WOULD U OFFER THAT STORY UP – I can’t even with you sometimes… You are in serious need of non-sexual corporal punishment.”
But the story is a very Lestat thing to do and it’s a very Lestatuesque way to tell it, as he’s cracking up, with what can only be described as manic laughter. He keeps hiding his face probably bc he knows he’s dug himself in too deep with this story, but he has to keep going, even though he probably knows he can only make it worse.
“Looking for a way to create the character of Patrick Bateman, Christian Bale stumbled onto a Tom Cruise appearance on David Letterman.
According to director Mary Harron, Bale saw in Cruise “this very intense friendliness with nothing behind the eyes” and Bale subsequently based the character of Bateman on that.“
It reminds me of Russia in the way it’s totally the
kind of stories you can hear after the opening of a cheap bottle of vodka (it
sounds cliché but I swear I’ve seen that during the few months I stayed there) ;
“lolz we almost died/killed him it was so much fun”… EXCEPT TOM DOESN’T HAVE
THE EXCUSE OF BEING DRUNK OR RUSSIAN GODDAMMIT. I guess we can say the co-pilot
was a jerk too (since they apparently figured it too together… but also meaning
it wasn’t that dangerous?? Er, it’s still a dumb idea though). Concerning the
laugh, it is certainly… well, impressive (I’m being polite here). And to be honest,
I think he was kinda scary/manic at this time (if, as I think, the interview is
from late 90’s – mid 2000’s), even if I’m too young to remember that properly (but
you know, I did my homework).
I definitely agree with you on the lestatique attitude, the more I
think about it the more he looks like a brat for me ; sometimes charming, sometimes totally out of control,
and not thinking much about the consequences… Pretty much like Lestat, in fact.
*sigh* Why almost all my faves are
problematic as hell?? 😥
I actually really hope that he was drunk when he did this interview! It was 2004, and i know that bc he mentions his kid’s ages so I did the math based on that so we can’t say it was part of the CRAZYINLOVE that was Dating Katie Era (started in April of ‘05).
Yeah the co-pilot should get some blame too! But still. Not a good interview story, bb.
Yes my fave is problematic as hell, too, join the club, TakeMe ;A;
As I said, I don’t think he ever fully let go of Lestat. For better or worse 😛
“Looking at that from another direction, isn’t that… Attempted Manslaughter?”
I-want-my-IWTV 