To this day, Christian Bale's performance as Patrick Bateman in American Psycho remains an iconic depiction of one seriously disturbing character. It's hard to imagine a different actor portraying the Adonis-looking, materialistic yuppie who's also a serial killer. But Bale wasn't the first choice for the film. In fact, the producers' first choices were Leonardo DiCaprio, Johnny Depp, and Brad Pitt.
Still, Bale was determined to play the role. Even when he was fired from the movie when DiCaprio was suddenly available for the project again, Bale continued to go to the gym every day to achieve Bateman's physique. When DiCaprio exited the project again, allegedly because of a chat with Gloria Steinem, Bale slid back into the project.
American Psycho turned out to be his ticket into becoming a mainstream performer. But aside from not being the first choice for the role, Christian Bale had a lot against him when he decided to take on the part. People either doubted him or advised him that it would be bad for his career.
The Director Fought For Bale Over DiCaprio Since Day One
Before Mary Harron, the director of American Psycho, was involved in the film, there was already a version by David Cronenberg that would have starred Brad Pitt. Harron had to work hard to get Christian Bale on board and get the studio's approval for the movie. She didn't want a movie star as the lead. Wanting complete control over the movie, Harron fought hard for Bale over DiCaprio.
"Obviously, I think DiCaprio’s a great actor, but I thought he was wrong for it," Harron explained. "I thought Christian was better for it, and I also thought, and I think my instinct was right on this, he carried enormous baggage because he had just come off Titanic and I thought you cannot take someone who has a worldwide fanbase of 15-year-old girls, 14-year-olds girls, and cast him as Patrick Bateman."
It was definitely a riskier career move for DiCaprio than for Bale. "You jump, I jump" Jack to murderous Bateman? Yeah, can't see it.
Harron added, "It’ll be intolerable, and everyone will interfere, and everyone will be terrified. It would be very bad for him and very bad for the movie. Because everybody will be all over it. They’ll rewrite the script and all the rest. And I knew I could only make this work if I had complete control over it, over the tone and everything."
She was right. Behind the scenes, negotiating the terms to get DiCaprio on board was a nightmare. Everyone was also convinced that he wouldn't last long in the project.
The 'American Psycho' Cast Secretly Thought Bale Was The Worst
Speaking to Movie Maker, Bale talked about how his American Psycho co-star Josh Lucas told him that the actors on set didn't believe in him. Josh Lucas played Craig McDermott, one of Patrick Bateman's colleagues. Lucas and Bale worked together again after 19 years in Ford v Ferrari.
"Josh Lucas and I did a film together recently and he opened my eyes to something that I had been unaware of," Bale said. "He informed me that all of the other actors thought that I was the worst actor they’d ever seen."
Bale had no idea his co-actors felt that way about his performance at that time. "He was telling me they kept looking at me and talking about me, saying, 'Why did Mary [Harron, director] fight for this guy? He’s terrible.' And it wasn’t until he saw the film that he changed his mind. And I was in the dark completely about that critique," Bale added.
For the record, it wasn't only the actors who were unnerved by the film. Esteemed filmmaker and critic Kevin Smith hated it so much that after seeing it for the first time, he couldn't bring himself to have dinner with American Psycho's writer, Guinevere Turner. But he told Turner that after seeing it on cable years later, he realized it was actually genius. At least he came around.
Mary Harron also repeatedly shared how the first viewers didn't know how to react to the story. "The amount of hostility at Sundance really did take me aback. The audience just sat there and did not know how to react. Because this little group of us, the editor, me, Christian, a few other people—we were laughing away. We knew the scenes that are meant to be funny are funny," Harron said.
Bale Was Warned That Playing Patrick Bateman Was 'Career Suicide'
In Charlie Rose's interview with the author of American Psycho Bret Easton Ellis, Mary Harron, and Christian Bale, Rose asked the actor if he got calls from people saying he should forget about taking the role of Patrick Bateman or that it wouldn't be good for him.
"I had an awful lot of calls saying it was gonna be career suicide," Bale answered. "A lot of people would talk about Anthony Perkins in Psycho and say, you know once you play a villain like that, you never get to play anything else because you're stuck in everybody's imagination as that person."
Bale didn't see Patrick Bateman's character as an ordinary, scary villain. He thought that with Bateman, you laugh at him and never with him because he would always find himself in ridiculous situations. Bale said it was exciting to take on such a complex and entertaining role, so he was never concerned about the career threats. Clearly, that worked out just fine.