Aaliyah was the first actor to be cast for the film. She was enthusiastic about taking the role due to her fascination with Egyptian mythology and also being a huge fan of vampire horror fiction.
Aaliyah died in a plane crash shortly after principal photography was completed but had not yet actually performed any ADR redubbing for her character. Michael Rymer called in Aaliyah's brother, Rashad Haughton, to help with overdubbing her voice following her death due to their similar voices, special vocal technology was also used to make his voice sound more feminine.
The singing voice of Lestat was supplied by Jonathan Davis of Korn. However due to contractual difficulties, Davis could not sing on the soundtrack album release. The five songs written by he and Richard Gibbs for the movie were then performed on the album by Marilyn Manson, Chester Bennington of Linkin Park, David Draiman of Disturbed, Wayne Static of Static-X and Jay Gordon of Orgy. Davis was still allowed to play several instruments on the album.
Stuart Townsend took the role of Lestat after originally being cast as Aragorn in O Senhor dos Anéis: A Sociedade do Anel (2001) but was recast with Viggo Mortensen after four days of shooting because the filmmakers realized he was too young for the role.
For the scenes of Lestat's concert in Death Valley, over 3,000 goths were recruited from Melbourne nightclubs and on the internet, then driven on a fleet of buses to a quarry in Werribee to act as extras.
Jonathan Davis, Korn: (at around 56 mins) the composer appears as a ticket scalper trying to peddle tickets outside the concert.