Christian Bale has revealed that he continued preparations for his role as Patrick Bateman in American Psycho even after being fired from the production along with director Mary Harron.
Based on the controversial book by Brett Easton Ellis, American Psycho tells the story of a New York City yuppie in the 1980s who may, or may not, be a violent, psychopathic murderer.
Bateman is one of Bale's most iconic performances, and it is now public knowledge that he had to fight to earn the role as higher profile names like Leonardo DiCaprio were also reportedly in the running to be cast.
Bale says he initially won Harron over after his first audition.
"When I first went and auditioned for her, I went to her apartment and it was just her and a little camera," he previously said in a conversation with GQ.
"I didn't approach it the way she said some other actors had. They were talking about his childhood, the reason he has become this. And none of that really matters, he's just this alien. As we were doing the scene, I started laughing, and she started cracking up. We realised we both had this really sick sense of humour."
Bale fought for American Psycho role
The financiers of American Psycho were so adamant against Bale being cast that they ultimately threw the actor and Harron off the production.
New actors and directors were considered, but Bale remarkably continued to prep for the Bateman role, such was his passion for the project, and he and Harron were eventually reinstated.
"She really put herself on the line and I really appreciate that. She had so many known actors stepping up, wanting to do it, and she just said 'no, I want Christian' even though the financiers were saying 'we'll give you no money'. They actually kicked the two of us off," Bale recalled.
"We went and we did this stage reading in New York for it. Willem Dafoe was there, Chloe Sevigny was there, Brett Easton Ellis was there. We got the money, yay, but what our agents, our agents at the time, forgot to do, was to include us in the package.
"So, we raised the money, then they said, 'the two of you, bye-bye'.
"I went a bit psycho myself in that I said, 'nah, nah, I'm still making the film'. Even though other people were cast, other directors were on board, I would keep on prepping. I would call Mary up and she would say 'Christian, they've given it to other people' and I'd say 'nah, we're still going to make it'.
"She was like, 'he has lost the plot'.
"It did eventually come back, and that felt like a great victory."
As part of MovieMeter's series focusing on the greatest acting performances of all time, you can read more about Bale's performance in American Psycho HERE.
Related Movie
American Psycho
Horror
2000 • 101 minutes
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