Christian Bale’s American Psycho co-stars Josh Lucas and Chloë Sevigny discussed working with him on the cult classic
Directed by Mary Harron, who also wrote the screenplay with Guinevere Turner, the 2000 Bret Easton Ellis adaptation American Psycho (watch it HERE) has come to be known as a cult classic, carried by the incredible performance delivered by lead actor Christian Bale – but during a new interview published by Vanity Fair, Bale’s co-stars Josh Lucas and Chloë Sevigny have admitted that they weren’t blown away by Bale on set. In fact, Lucas thought he was doing some terrible acting, while Sevigny found his process difficult to deal with.
During the interview, Lucas said he didn’t realize exactly what American Psycho was while he was working on it. “I didn’t realize what a subversive comedy it was. I didn’t realize the way that Mary was going to turn it on its head. I don’t know if you felt this way, but I actually truly remember thinking that Christian Bale was terrible. [Laughs] I remember the first scene I did with him, I watched him and he seemed so false—and I now realize that it was this just f*cking brilliant choice that he was making. That was an actor who was at such a completely different level already, and that he was capable of having these crazy layers going on in what he was doing. I thought it was bogus acting at the time, but was exactly the opposite.“
Sevigny replied, “I was trying to respect his process, which I found challenging because I’m very gregarious and silly and goofy, unbeknownst to the general public. When people take themselves so seriously, I kind of shut down, even though I take my work very seriously and I love acting and whatnot. I was really intimidated by his process and intimidated by him, and I wanted a little more generosity to make myself feel more at ease, which is my own ego. It was a really challenging dynamic for me, but I don’t think that I thought he was bad. [Laughs] I was just kind of confused, like, Why aren’t you being social? I wasn’t even that aware of what the Method thing was. I never had any formal training; I think I was just kind of ‘fake it until you make it.’ But the whole Method thing, I was like, What even is this approach? It was very intimidating.“
Lucas went on to say that while bad Method actors are terrible to work with, he has “nothing but admiration” for the approach Bale takes to playing his roles.
American Psycho has the following synopsis: Patrick Bateman is a young, handsome, Harvard educated Wall Street success, seemingly perfect with his stunning fiancé and entourage of high-powered friends. But his circle of friends doesn’t know the other Patrick Bateman, the one who lusts for more than status and material things. With a detective hot on his trail and temptation everywhere, Patrick Bateman can’t fight his terrible urges that take him on the pursuit of women, greed and the ultimate crime – murder! Based on the controversial book by Bret Easton Ellis, American Psycho is a sexy thriller that sets forth a vision that is both terrifying and chilling.
Christian Bale took on the role of Patrick Bateman. Along with Lucas and Sevigny, he was joined in the cast by Reese Witherspoon, Willem Dafoe, Jared Leto, Samantha Mathis, Matt Ross, Bill Sage, Cara Seymour, Justin Theroux, and Guinevere Turner.
What do you think of what Josh Lucas and Chloë Sevigny had to say about working with Christian Bale on American Psycho? Let us know by leaving a comment below.