- Hello, friends.
It's been 20 years since Christian Bale starred
as a homicidal psychopath with a killer business card
in a cult classic American Psycho.
This week on Heat Vision Breakdown,
we look at the controversial film
that many consider to be Bale's breakout role.
Years before he took on the mantle of Batman,
or the Batmantle.
See what I did there?
And co-star Jared Leto gave us his take on the Joker.
I don't have a joke for that one,
just look at the tattoo on his forehead.
(upbeat music)
Bale started as Patrick Bateman, an emotionally empty
narcissistic Wall Street serial killer.
Looking back it seems like Bale's the only actor
who could play the character,
but landing the role was no easy task.
But it was even more difficult for the film
and the novel upon which it's based
to get made in the first place.
Let's start with the book.
Back in 1990, critics and public figures
panned Bret Easton Ellis' novel
for it's disturbing content before it was even released.
The New York Times deemed it worthless.
Harsh.
Some activist groups called for a boycott,
and eventually publishes Simon & Schuster
shelved American Psycho right before it's release.
However, another publisher Vintage Books
acquired the rights and in 1991 a paperback version
of the novel hit shelves in bookstores around the globe.
That's right, you used to be able to buy books at stores.
(crickets chirping) Crazy.
The film adaptation faced it's own hurdles.
In the late '90s, Mary Heron was attached to direct,
but she struggled to get the film made
with Christian Bale in the lead role.
Although at that point Bale had been a working actor
since childhood, Newsies!
The film's producers and studio wanted
a more established star for the role.
They wanted somebody who had led
the biggest box office success in history at that point,
and knew how to draw Kate Winslet
as one of his French girls.
They wanted Leonardo Di Caprio.
Don't we all?
Di Caprio has just come off Titanic
when he was sent the script for American Psycho.
He was interested in the role but had questions
about the character, and he also had other directors
in mind like Martin Scorsese and Oliver Stone.
Heron and Bale waited it out though,
as Heron was confident that Leo
wouldn't actually do the film and that Bale
was the only one who could pull off the part.
It turns out she was right!
Leo left the project to go make The Beach with Danny Boyle,
putting Heron and Bale back in the saddle.
Production began in Toronto in 1999,
and the film premiered at the Sundance Film Festival
in January 2000.
The film's problems however continued.
As just before it hit theaters,
the MPAA gave American Psycho an NC-17 rating.
Because of the part where he hacks Jared Leto
up with an axe while Huey Lewis and the News
plays in the background you ask?
No, because of the part where he brutally murders
a woman with a chainsaw?
Also no.
The rating was actually due to a sex scene.
The filmmakers left the scene in but trimmed
it down a bit which appeased the MPAA.
It was then given an R rating
and debuted in theaters on April 14th 2000.
The film received mixed reviews,
but one thing seemed clear.
Christian Bale was perfect for the role
and was on track to Leo levels of acclaim and stardom.
The New York Times whose book critic
had lambasted Ellis' novel just a decade earlier,
called it a "star-making performance from Bale"
in his April 2000 review.
Oh, how the tides have turned.
The role of Patrick Bateman along with Bale's
next few roles including Ring of Fire, Equilibrium
and The Machinist showed not only his range as an actor
and body fat percentage, but also seemed
to prime Bale for the role of Bruce Wayne in Batman.
In hindsight, the fact that there was ever a question
about any role that Bale could pull off seems strange.
I mean, this is the same dude!
On the other hand, Jared Leto's path
to the Joker doesn't feel as obvious.
His role as Paul Allen in American Psycho,
or as we like to call him, the guy who Christian Bale
hacks to death with an ax while listening
to Huey Lewis and the News, was somewhat forgettable.
- You have a dog?
A little chow or something? (laughs)
- In the early to mid noughts, Leto shifted focus more so
to his music career and then in 2014
he won an Oscar for his role in Dallas Buyers Club.
And what's the first thing an Oscar winner does?
They make a comic book movie.
Seriously, it's a legally binding contract
that all actors must sign.
Controversial as it may be,
American Psycho was a turning point.
A reassurance of the complicated character studies
of the past like Travis Bickle and Michael Corleone.
A precursor to Arthur Fleck,
only he's in a slick suit and has a corner office.
Opposite sides of the same coin.
The film didn't glorified materialism, classism,
sexism and murder.
It lampooned them.
And those themes remain relevant to this day.
Despite it's long, rocky road to the screen,
the role catapulted Christian Bale's career,
and primed him to become one
of the most celebrated heroes of our time.
(upbeat music)