American Psycho is one wild movie to improvise scenes on, yet with Christian Bale involved, nothing is impossible. Though the Batman actor’s seamless performance makes every scene look seamless yet intricately planned, there’s a gripping detail about the film’s creation that many aren’t aware of. It turns out that Jared Leto’s terrified expression in the scene where he meets his end was completely genuine. The reason? He had no idea his character’s fate was scripted to involve a brutal axing because it wasn’t, at least in Leto’s script it wasn’t.
This absolutely unhinged filming tactic actually proved to be a game-changer. By keeping him clueless, they got a real and terrified look that turned the scene into a next-level shocker.
Jared Leto Had No Clue He’d Be Axed Off in American Psycho!
In a 2020 interview with Entertainment Weekly‘s The Shot segment, filmmaker Mary Harron took a deep dive into one particularly memorable scene from the 2000 film American Psycho. The focus was on the chilling murder of Wall Street banker Paul Allen by Christian Bale’s Bateman. After luring Allen, who thinks he’s with Marcus Halberstram, back to his newspaper-cover apartment and blasting Huey Lewis, Bateman suddenly shifts gears, greeting Allen with a chilling “Hey Paul” before swinging an ax.
This shocking moment was a jolt not only for viewers but for Jared Leto as well, who had no clue what was coming and was genuinely caught off guard. Mary Harron revealed,
We decided to shoot the rehearsal of the actual murder without telling Jared,–Christian held back his performance until then so that it would be a real surprise. When he screams ‘Hey Paul’ and Jared turns around and sees Christian running towards him with the axe, he looks genuinely shocked.
The cherry on top came right after when Bateman’s axing of the body resulted in blood splattering only on one side of his face. This “happy accident” gave the scene a striking Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde vibe, adding an eerie yet poetic, split-personality touch. Ironically, this dramatic visual was pure coincidence, but it ended up adding a perfect twist to the already chilling moment. As the director continued,
It was one of those scenes where everything does fall into place,–By accident, the blood spray only hit one side of Christian’s face. When you look at him head-on, his face seems covered in blood. But when you look at him from the side, his face looks quite clean. It was a perfect metaphor for the Jekyll-and-Hyde aspect of Bateman: pristine on the outside, bloody and psychotic on the inside. And it all happened by chance.
It’s wild to consider how many elements in this movie were pure coincidence, especially given how flawlessly everything came together. It’s almost unbelievable how these accidental details ended up creating such a perfectly executed film.
Can Christian Bale Really Sweat on Command?
Rumor has it that Christian Bale has a unique talent for sweating on command, earning him the title of “Robo-Actor” on set. This particular skill was famously showcased during the business card exchange scene, where Bale reportedly sweated on cue, take after take.
When asked about the truth of this, Bale told Inverse,
I didn’t plan on doing that,–[American Psycho author] Bret Easton Ellis actually described it in this scene as his breathing sort of getting stopped. And so in doing that, I just found that beads of sweat kept breaking out on my forehead. But that wasn’t actually planned. It was just a result of what I was doing with my breathing.
Here’s yet another happy accident that cranked up the film’s psychotic vibe. Christian Bale, already infamous for his extreme method of acting, took things to new heights with this role. He nailed every quirk and nuance, proving that no matter how intense the role, Bale could deliver a performance that keeps American Psycho buzzing even 24 years later.
American Psycho is streaming on Netflix.
