No doubt, Christian Bale is the greatest Batman ever. As Batman, he was flawless. From Michael Keaton to Val Kilmer and George Clooney, everyone has donned the mask, but no one could do what Bale achieved in this role. That was a time when hardly a few had shown the courage to go with this genre, and many serious cinephiles had viewed this type of film with derision. But with Christopher Nolan’s direction, Bale became the perfect Dark Knight.
However, some people had told him not to do the role as they thought he would be stuck with it and never be able to play anything else. Meanwhile, this Batman role is not the only such role Bale was told not to do. Another role that he played despite being told as “career suicide” was the iconic Patrick Batman in American Psycho. Nevertheless, Bale, being Bale, did brilliantly in both roles and showed the world why he is regarded highly when it comes to versatility and transformation.
People Told Christian Bale that Playing Patrick Bateman Would Be “career suicide“
For sure, Christian Bale‘s portrayal of Patrick Bateman in American Psycho is one of the greatest roles he has ever done. The movie is now a cult classic. With his performance as the homicidal investment banker in the film, Bale took a brave step in his career.
However, in a GQ interview, Bale recalled people telling him to abstain from doing Patrick Bateman. Bale said in the interview:
“People were telling me, you can’t go play Patrick Bateman. It’s career suicide.”
But we all know what Bale is capable of and what he is known for. To take up a challenge and master it eventually and prove people wrong. He continued:
“I was like ‘bring it on.’ Let’s see what happens. I always felt like… if I don’t have the skill to rise above that, then I don’t deserve to.”
And, we saw what he did in both the characters. The Oscar winner actor, who made his debut at 13 in Empire of the Sun, gained widespread recognition through his appearance as Patrick Bateman.
The American Hustle Star Did Not Take These Threats Seriously
Bale is known for bringing otherwise challenging, complex characters to life. And that’s what he did with Patrick Bateman. He has proven that he can breathe life into various on-screen characters. He was determined to play the controversial character, and for that, he went through rigorous training and transformation.
As people warned him that going for such a role would be like ‘one-step-forward-two-steps-back,’ he described his experience while sitting down for an interview with Charlie Rose (via YouTube).
“I had an awful lot of calls saying it was [going to] be career suicide … 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.”
However, he did not take these threats too seriously, and he never categorized Bateman as a villain. He went on and triumphed over those initial assumptions. In an in-depth chat with Interview Magazine, he elaborated:
“I never viewed Patrick Bateman as a real character. It wasn’t going to work unless I made myself look absurd. There were so many times in that movie where I had to take that leap, and by the time I did that scene it really didn’t feel like much of a leap at all. It felt very much like just another day on the set of American Psycho.”
The Fighter star made sure that there was no other actor who could have played Patrick Bateman from American Psycho. The actor’s full dedication and hard work to embrace the challenging role enabled him to give a powerful performance that is still talked about today.
American Psycho is available to rent or buy on Prime Video.
