Neil Jordan has opened up about the backlash Tom Cruise faced when he was cast as Lestat in Interview with the Vampire. The director revisited the film for its new 4K Blu-ray release. Three decades on, the vampire epic still feels like the kind of movie studios rarely make, and the story behind its casting proves that getting the biggest stars in the room was only the very first hurdle.

Every dream cast needs a plot twist, and this one came from a surprising corner of the vampire family tree.

Neil Jordan says the resistance to Tom Cruise playing Lestat was a headache during production. Author and screenwriter Anne Rice had been tied to the project since the late 1970s and led the objections.

"It was a pain in the a** for me as a director, for him as an actor and for the entire production," The filmmaker told The Hollywood Reporter.

He then added, "the whole world was saying, 'Oh, you're wrong.'"

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Rice had imagined Rutger Hauer, Julian Sands, Daniel Day-Lewis, John Malkovich, and Tom Hanks as her Lestat before Cruise landed the part. She even suggested that Cruise and Brad Pitt should swap roles. She later apologized after seeing the performance and commissioned a two-page spread in various outlets praising him. Jordan said Cruise never voiced concern and simply enjoyed proving the doubters wrong.

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While the doubters were busy talking, Cruise now runs a script process that begins with the quieter art of listening.

While promoting Digger on the New Heights podcast with Jason and Travis Kelce, Tom Cruise revealed that he does not read scripts. Instead, he asks directors and writers to read the pages aloud to him. His reason is simple, since he wants to understand their communication vision before adding anything of his own. In that room, Cruise becomes the audience, a rare seat for a man who usually hangs off airplanes.

The habit tells Cruise where he feels engaged, where he does not, and whether the story moves him. It also reaches beyond the page, as he wants to understand how the wardrobe and lighting departments approach the film. Neil Jordan may have found the casting backlash a pain, but Cruise has always preferred to tune out the noise and listen to the story in front of him.

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What are your thoughts on Cruise letting writers read scripts to him first? Let us know in the comments.