Brad Pitt rose to fame and fortune from a modest and devoutly religious household in Springfield, Missouri. The region was distinctly picturesque with “a lot of hills, a lot of lakes”, which Pitt described as “Mark Twain country, Jesse James country.”

Like most children of the 1960s, he grew up transfixed by the bright screen in his front room and found escapism in the interminable western movies of the decade. It was enough to spark a fire in the young man and take steps that would set him on his own frontier westwards, heading for the bright lights of Hollywood.

Approaching his graduation from the University of Missouri, where he studied journalism, Pitt felt unsettled and sensed something more imposing on the horizon, specifically out west. Pitt was a true film fanatic and regarded the wondrous medium as “a portal into different worlds”, but it wasn’t until the closing weeks of his tenure at college that he decided to drop the books and set off for California. It was a decision that would propel him to fame and fortune.

Though such erratic behaviour is often the subject of parental derision, Pitt found his niche and established himself as one of Hollywood’s finest leading men over the 1990s with timeless appearances in Legends of the Fall, Se7ven, Seven Years in Tibet, Meet Joe Black and Fight Club.

Pitt’s early rise was sparked by his small role in Ridley Scott’s 1991 classic Thelma and Louise, which boosted his appeal among directors. One such interested party was Neil Jordan, who sought someone to star alongside Tom Cruise in Interview with the Vampire.

The vampire flick, released in November 1994, was met with a warm commercial and critical reception and lined Pitt’s pockets handsomely as it became his highest-grossing film in its opening weekend, remaining so until 2001’s Ocean’s Eleven usurped the title.

Based on Anne Rice’s novel, the movie hoped to capitalise on the text alongside the heartthrob double act of Pitt and Cruise to cash in. With Cruise as the lead Lestat and Pitt as the tormented Louis, the premise held a distinct opportunity for Pitt to break out of his comfort zone. However, the meticulous attention to detail and constraining shoot schedules would leave a sour aftertaste for the production.

Despite the film’s success, Pitt maintains that it was one of his least favourite projects. “I was disappointed with it,” he once told Rolling Stone. “Because in the book, it was a guy trying to figure out who he was – if he’s a god or if he’s of the devil. The film focused more on the sensational antics of Lestat, which were done really well, but my character ended up getting dragged place to place and set up for the sensational moments. And it just became a little bit more whiny than a real search. That frustrated me.”

“There was no script,” Pitt added, discussing the film on another occasion with Entertainment Weekly. “I knew the book, and 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?’ 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. But then I got the script two weeks before we started shooting.”

Not only was Pitt dissatisfied with the novel adaption, but the filming conditions were less than palatable. “Vampire was a tough shoot,” Pitt elaborated. “I finished Legends of the Fall and went straight into that. First of all, the whole thing was in the dark. In New Orleans, we shot for three months in the dark – we shot all nights. There’s an opening scene in the movie that’s daylight, and that’s it. The whole movie is in the dark. And it really started to mess with my psyche.”

This pressure would also lead to Pitt and Cruise falling foul of one another. Pitt was apparently deterred by Cruise’s megastar attitude, having enjoyed a far richer career when their paths crossed, with Pitt admitting that Cruise “bugged me,” even suggesting “there was a point during filming when I really started resenting him.” While noting that he wouldn’t want to live like Cruise, he shared that the “underlying competition” between them “got in the way of any real conversation.”

In his conversation with Entertainment Weekly, Pitt revealed that he actually asked his producer, David Geffen, how much it would cost to buy his way out of the project. Hoping for an easy way out of his on-set misery, Pitt was resolutely knocked back.

“I said, ‘David, I can’t do this anymore,” Pitt recalled. “I can’t do it. What will it cost me to get out?’ And he goes, very calmly, ‘40million dollars.’ And I go, ‘Okay, 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.’” Instead, Pitt got on with his job and performed admirably within the production, notably pocketing a fair chunk of change for the commercial hit.