‘Interview With the Vampire’ cast: Where are they now?

Tom Cruise (Lestat de Lioncourt)

When Cruise signed on to play Lestat, many wondered whether the famously boyish actor was wrong for the story’s dark prince, who bestows his gift of death upon Louis and Claudia. Even Rice publicly objected to Cruise’s casting, although she later backtracked after seeing a preview, and endorsed his multifaceted interpretation of the character.

Of course, Cruise was an accomplished actor by the time he took on the role. He broke out in the coming-of-age dramedy Risky Business (1983) before hitting megastar status with Top Gun (1986). From there, he pushed himself dramatically with starring roles in The Color of Money (1986), Rain Man (1988), and Born on the Fourth of July (1989), which brought him his first Oscar nomination. He also starred opposite Jack Nicholson in A Few Good Men (1992), and headlined the John Grisham thriller The Firm (1993). 

After Lestat showed audiences a side of Cruise they’d never seen, he hit another milestone by producing his first movie, an adaptation of the spy TV series Mission: Impossible (1996) which he also stars in, launching a franchise that continues to this day. He earned his second Oscar nomination for the classic romantic dramedy Jerry Maguire (1996), then proceeded to spend the next two years of his life in the U.K., along with his then-wife Nicole Kidman, for the notoriously long production of Stanley Kubrick’s Eyes Wide Shut (1999).  

Upon his return from overseas, he took on the role of a charismatic, misogynistic sex guru in Paul Thomas Anderson’s Magnolia (1999), earning career-best plaudits and his third Oscar nod.

Since then, Cruise has largely specialized in science-fiction — including Vanilla Sky (2001), Minority Report (2002), War of the Worlds (2005), and Edge of Tomorrow (2014) — and action films like Jack Reacher (2012). He’s also found occasional opportunities to play against type as a sociopathic assassin in Collateral (2004) and as a plump, bald, abrasive movie producer in Tropic Thunder (2008). Most recently, Cruise reprised his most iconic role in Top Gun: Maverick (2022), which became one of the highest-grossing movies of all time en route to a Best Picture nomination.

As for his personal life, Cruise’s three marriages played out for years across supermarket tabloid covers. He was married to actress Mimi Rogers from 1987 to 1990, then met Kidman on the set of their NASCAR drama Days of Thunder (1990) and married her just 10 months after his split from Rogers. The couple adopted two children, Isabella and Connor, but separated in 2001. He had a daughter, Suri, with Katie Holmes, whom he married in 2006 and divorced in 2012. He’s also received significant media attention as a prominent Scientologist. 

Brad Pitt (Louis de Pointe du Lac)

Brad Pitt plays Louis, who’s enticed into becoming a dark creature of the night and struggles to find some form of redemption.

Pitt was at the start of a long, successful career when he portrayed Louis. He first caught everyone’s attention as sexy drifter J.D. in Ridley Scott’s feminist road movie Thelma and Louise (1991), seducing Geena Davis and audiences worldwide. He continued to turn heads in acclaimed films A River Runs Through It (1992) and True Romance (1993) before donning Louis’ fangs and cape for Interview With the Vampire.

After headlining Legends of the Fall (1994), Pitt hit a career turning point with the classic serial killer drama Seven (1995) and the twisty time-travel thriller 12 Monkeys (1995), where his bugged-out performance as a lunatic anarchist earned him his first Oscar nomination. A number of iconic roles followed, including Fight Club (1999), Ocean’s Eleven (2001), and the doomed title character in The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (2007). He secured Best Actor nominations for The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008) and Moneyball (2011) while earning wide acclaim for Burn After Reading (2009), The Tree of Life (2011), and The Big Short (2015). 10 years after first working with Quentin Tarantino on Inglourious Basterds (2009), Pitt took home the Best Supporting Actor Oscar for the auteur’s historical Hollywood epic, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (2019).

Recently, Pitt starred in the action comedy Bullet Train (2022) and the showbiz drama Babylon (2022) alongside Margot Robbie. Next, he’ll reunite with George Clooney for the comedic crime thriller Wolfs (2024).

Like Cruise, Pitt’s love life is often sensationalized. He was engaged to Gwyneth Paltrow, whom he dated from 1994 to 1997, but the pair never tied the knot. He began dating Jennifer Aniston in 1998 and married her in 2000; the couple divorced in 2005. He met Angelina Jolie on the set of Mr. & Mrs. Smith (2005) and they married after nine years together in 2014. This third marriage lasted until 2019. Pitt and Jolie have three biological children together — daughter Shiloh and twins Knox and Vivienne — and three adopted children: Maddox, Zahara, and Pax.

Kirsten Dunst (Claudia)

Kirsten Dunst plays Claudia, an 11-year-old child turned into a vampire, who faces immortality in the body of a little girl who will never grow up. In the original book, the character is 5 years old, but director Neil Jordan believed an actress that age wouldn’t be able to express the emotional range required for the movie. 

Dunst floored people with her mature performance in Interview With the Vampire and impressed audiences again in the classic literary adaptation Little Women (1994) and the fantasy adventure Jumanji (1996). She continued to show off her range in the satirical beauty pageant comedy Drop Dead Gorgeous (1999) and Sofia Coppola’s wistful, morbid teen drama The Virgin Suicides (1999). She headlined the cheerleader comedy Bring It On (2000) before moving into superhero territory as Peter Parker’s girlfriend Mary Jane Watson in Spider-Man (2002), a role she reprised in the film’s two sequels.

Even with a Marvel franchise to her name, Dunst’s taste for complex roles never wavered — among them the tragicomedy Elizabethtown (2005), Coppola’s postmodern quasi-biopic Marie Antoinette (2006), a sneakily pivotal supporting role in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004), and the apocalyptic psychodrama Melancholia (2011), for which she earned Best Actress at the Cannes Film Festival.

She collaborated with Coppola for the third time in the Southern Gothic remake The Beguiled (2017) and landed her first Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress in Jane Campion’s Western The Power of the Dog (2021).

Dunst has been just as successful in her occasional forays to the small screen. She headlined season 2 of FX’s anthology series Fargo (2015) as a beautician who tries to cover up a vehicular homicide, and starred as a pyramid scheme scammer in Showtime’s dark comedy On Becoming a God in Central Florida (2019).

She met Jesse Plemons on the set of Fargo. The costars started dating in 2016, became engaged in 2017, and then had two sons, Ennis and James. The happy couple were finally married in 2022 and notably starred opposite one another in Civil War (2024).

Antonio Banderas (Armand)

Antonio Banderas plays the secretive leader of the Théâtre des Vampires, who makes a connection with Louis that ultimately turns sour. 

Banderas was first discovered by Spanish director Pedro Almodóvar, who cast him in a small role in his screwball comedy Labyrinth of Passion (1982). Over the next decade, Almodóvar worked with Banderas in increasingly major roles in Matador (1986), Law of Desire (1987), Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown (1988), and Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down! (1989)

He made his first American screen appearance in Madonna’s documentary Truth or Dare (1991) and starred in the musical drama The Mambo Kings (1992) — since he was still learning English at the time, he had to learn his lines phonetically! Banderas played the longtime partner of Tom Hanks’ character in the AIDS drama Philadelphia (1993) before taking his vampire role.

The actor worked with filmmaker Robert Rodriguez for the first time in the neo-Western action film Desperado (1995) then teamed up with Sylvester Stallone in Assassins (1995) before joining Madonna in the musical biopic Evita (1996). He rose to further prominence as the classic swashbuckling title character in The Mask of Zorro (1998) and directed his first film, Crazy in Alabama (1999), starring his then-wife Melanie Griffith. 

Banderas has several franchises to his name in addition to his roles as El Mariachi and Zorro. He played a superspy father in three Spy Kids films (2001–2003) and was the breakout character of Shrek 2 (2004) as feline hero Puss in Boots, leading to his own spin-off series. He also notably starred in the chilling Spanish sci-fi feature The Skin I Live In (2011).

His non-movie work has been just as fruitful. He was nominated for a Tony Award for the 2003 Broadway revival of Nine and has been nominated for two Emmys: first for his work in the HBO TV movie And Starring Pancho Villa as Himself (2004), and then for playing Pablo Picasso in season 2 of National Geographic’s Genius (2018). 

Banderas finally earned his first Oscar nomination in 2019 for his work in Almodóvar’s Pain and Glory. He then landed roles in Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny (2023) and the upcoming Paddington in Peru (2024). 

Banderas was married to Ana Leza from 1987 to 1996. He met Griffith on the set of the rom-com Two Much (1995) and married her following his divorce in 1996. The couple had a daughter, Stella, and Banderas was stepfather to Griffith’s daughter, actress Dakota Johnson. Banderas and Griffith split in 2014. He’s been dating investment banker Nicole Kimpel since 2015. 

Christian Slater (Daniel Molloy)

Christian Slater plays Daniel Molloy, the journalist who records Louis’ story and gets swept up in the romance of the vampires’ existence. This role was originally meant to go to River Phoenix, who died a week before they started filming. Slater gave his paycheck to charities that Phoenix supported. 

Slater’s film career began with a leading role in the action drama The Legend of Billie Jean (1985), followed by a turn as Sean Connery’s apprentice in the historical mystery The Name of the Rose (1986). His breakthrough role was opposite Winona Ryder as high school sociopath James “J.D.” Dean in the dark high school satire Heathers (1988), which established Slater as a classic teenage rebel. He continued that theme in the Pump Up the Volume (1990), playing a pirate radio DJ whose broadcasts inspire others to speak out. He went on to supporting roles in action-adventure films Young Guns II (1990) and Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves (1991) before pivoting to romantic drama in Untamed Heart (1993) and True Romance (1993) opposite his future Vampire costar Brad Pitt.

Following Interview With the Vampire, Slater defied typecasting, taking roles in the John Woo action-thriller Broken Arrow (1996), the crime drama Hard Rain (1998), and Woo’s WWII epic Windtalkers (2002).

After several years largely out of the spotlight, Slater returned to prominence with his Golden Globe-winning role as the father of a troubled, genius hacker (Rami Malek) in Mr. Robot (2015–2019). He also had a recurring voice role in the FX animated spy satire Archer (2014–2023).

Recently, Slater did voice acting for Netflix’s animated sci-fi sitcom Inside Job (2021–2022) and appeared in the action film Freelance with John Cena (2023). Coming up, Slater is slated to star in Zoë Kravitz’s thriller Blink Twice (2024) alongside Channing Tatum.

Slater married Ryan Haddon in 2000. The couple had two children, Jaden and Eliana, before divorcing in 2007. In 2013, he married Brittany Lopez; the pair has one daughter with a second baby on the way.

Stephen Rea (Santiago)

Stephen Rea plays Santiago, Armand’s second-in-command who teases Louis and learns his secrets. 

Rea has a decades-long working relationship with Interview With the Vampire director Neil Jordan, dating back to the filmmaker’s directorial debut, Angel (1982). Rea played the lead in Jordan’s crime thriller The Crying Game (1992), which revolved around a romance between Rea’s character and Dil (Jaye Davidson), a transgender woman. The role earned Rea an Oscar nomination. 

Following Vampire, Rea reunited with Jordan in Michael Collins (1996), The Butcher Boy (1997), In Dreams (1999), The End of the Affair (1999), Ondine (2009), Breakfast on Pluto (2005), and Greta (2018). Rea has also played key roles in the action-adventure film The Musketeer (2001), and the dystopian comic book adaptation V for Vendetta (2005). Recently, Rea appeared in the drama The Miracle Club (2023).

Rea married Dolours Price in 1983; they divorced 20 years later in 2003 and have two sons, Oscar and Danny.

Thandiwe Newton (Yvette)

Thandiwe Newton (then credited as Thandie Newton) plays Yvette, an enslaved woman who works in Louis’ house. He bites her just before he burns down the house and flees the plantation.

Interview With the Vampire was one of Newton’s early film roles. Soon afterward, she played Sally Hemings in Jefferson in Paris (1995) and the title character in Beloved (1998), Jonathan Demme’s adaptation of the Toni Morrison novel, starring alongside Oprah Winfrey and Danny Glover. She then shifted gears to rejoin Vampire costar Tom Cruise in Mission: Impossible 2 (2000). 

From there, Newton starred in the Charade remake The Truth About Charlie (2002) — in a role first played by none other than Audrey Hepburn — the sci-fi sequel The Chronicles of Riddick (2004), and the Best Picture-winning drama Crash (2004). She appeared opposite Will Smith in the inspiring biographical drama The Pursuit of Happyness (2006), and opposite Simon Pegg in the comedy Run Fatboy Run (2007). She also played Condoleezza Rice in Oliver Stone’s George W. Bush biopic, W (2008). Her other works include the sci-fi disaster film 2012 (2009) and a role as the “Lady in Orange” in Tyler Perry’s ensemble drama For Colored Girls (2010). 

Newton achieved some of her greatest mainstream success as the rebellious “Host” Maeve in HBO’s sci-fi/Western series Westworld (2016–2022), earning an Emmy nomination in 2017. Her recent big-screen work includes Solo: A Star Wars Story (2018), the sci-fi drama Reminiscence (2021) alongside Hugh Jackman and Rebecca Ferguson, and an acclaimed lead performance in the indie thriller God’s Country (2022). She lent her voice to the animated sequel Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget in 2023, and we’ll hear her again soon in the upcoming Disney musical Mufasa: The Lion King (2024).

Newton was married to English filmmaker Ol Parker from 1998 to 2022. They have two daughters, Ripley and Nico, and son Booker.

Domiziana Giordano (Madeleine)

Domiziana Giordano plays Madeleine, a human who’s turned into a vampire to be a companion for Claudia. 

Giordano’s career began with Italian and French films in the early 1980s before appearing in Jean-Luc Godard’s Nouvelle Vague (1990). She played notorious spy Mata Hari in the ABC adventure series The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles (1993); that and Interview With the Vampire were two of her few English-speaking roles. She continued acting in Italy until 2003. Giordano is also active as a visual artist, poet, and photographer.