The Actor Who Inspired Christian Bale's American Psycho Performance Isn't Who You Think

One of the keys to any good movie role is body language. If an actor is expected to portray a psychopath, they can't just sound psychotic: they also have to look psychotic. Christian Bale worked long and hard with American Psycho's director Mary Harron to nail the character of Patrick Bateman, but apparently all he needed was an epiphany. And Tom Cruise.

During an interview with Black Book Magazine, Harron revealed that she spent a lot of time on the phone, talking to Bale about how he could step into Bateman's expensive shoes. In these conversations, she described the character as "Martian-like," and that he "[looked] at the world like somebody from another planet." 

But one day, Bale called her and said that, finally, he got it: while observing Tom Cruise being interviewed by David Letterman, Bale noted that the Mission: Impossible star had what he described as "this very intense friendliness with nothing behind the eyes." Bale decided that replicating this would be the perfect approach to Patrick Bateman, or as Harron put it, "he was really taken with this energy."

Regardless of your opinion regarding Bale's analysis of Cruise, it proved beneficial, since he used it as the basis for his Bateman acting — a man whose eyes and mouth convey two distinct personalities. And you can't argue against the results, considering the awards (and acclaim) he's received ever since.