The 3 Guys Podcast Recorded on 5/21/2022 Killer looks. In this episode we review the movie American Psycho (released 2000) starring Christian Bale, Willem Dafoe, Jared Leto, Chloë Sevigny and Reese Witherspoon. WARNING: There will be SPOILERS! The 3 Guys Rating  2.4/5

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Notes From The Show * Quick Synopsis * Released: January 21, 2000 at Sundance, April 14, 2000 in the United States

Directed By: Mary Harron

Screenplay By: Mary Harron and Guinevere Turner

Based on the Book: American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis

Music By: John Cale

Stars: Christian Bale (Patrick Bateman), Willem Dafoe (Donald Kimball), Jared Leto (Paul Allen), Chloë Sevigny (Jean) and Reese Witherspoon (Evelyn Williams)

Plot: A wealthy New York City investment banking executive, Patrick Bateman, hides his alternate psychopathic ego from his co-workers and friends as he delves deeper into his violent, hedonistic fantasies.

Tagline: Killer Looks.

How did this movie do Budget: $7 Million Box Office: $34 Million * Director Issues * + Mary Harron quit during pre-production due to the producers wanting Leonardo DiCaprio to star. + Oliver Stone was brought in to direct, recasting the entire movie with Leonardo cast as Patrick. + Leonardo wanted too much money (21M) and left to star in The Beach. Oliver Stone quit soon after. + Mary Harron was brought back in and went back to her original cast. + Bale was paid 7M for his role as Patrick. * Theories * + Patrick is a serial killer + Patrick’s psychosis made him think he killed all those people, but he really didn’t kill anyone + Patrick killed some of those people, but as he sunk more into madness, he imagined killing others. A lot of people either covered up for the murders and/or can’t tell people apart (all the mis-naming). - The condo seller didn’t want to lose value on the condo, so had the bodies removed [GREED] - So many people in the movie couldn’t get other’s names right, so nobody knows who is alive or dead…Paul Allen could be dead as the Lawyer could have been with someone he thinks is Paul - The ATM’s message “Feed me the Kitten” - The police car blowing up with via a gunshot (even Patrick had a hard time believing) + The director and author have confirmed their answers… * Trivia * + During production, Christian Bale followed the morning routine that his character Patrick Bateman describes toward the beginning of the film. + Bale based his character off Tom Cruise. Bale saw in Cruise “this very intense friendliness and nothing behind the eyes”. + Tom Cruise is actually featured in the novel. He lives in the same apartment complex as Bateman, who meets him in an elevator and gets the name of Cocktail (1988) wrong, calling it “Bartender.” + The vast majority of the dialogue in the movie is taken word-for-word from the novel by Bret Easton Ellis. + The film had various problems with designer labels during production. Cerruti agreed to allow Christian Bale to wear their clothes, but not when the character was killing anyone. Rolex agreed that anyone in the film could wear their watches except Bateman (hence the famous line from the book “Don’t touch the Rolex” had to be changed to “Don’t touch the watch”). Perry Ellis provided underwear at the last minute after Calvin Klein pulled out of the project. Comme des Garçons refused to allow one of their overnight bags to be used to carry a corpse, so Jean Paul Gaultier was used instead. + Christian Bale was warned by many that it would be career suicide for him to play the lead in a film like this. This only made him more eager to take the part, inspired by Nicolas Cage in Vampire’s Kiss (1989). Fortunately for him, the opposite turned out to be true. + During his big chainsaw scene, Christian Bale would happily (literally) hang out between takes wearing nothing but a sock over his penis and some tennis shoes. + Casting: Leonardo DiCaprio, Ewan McGregor, Johnny Depp and Keanu Reeves were all considered for the role of Patrick + To block the three-way sex scene with two prostitutes, co-writer and director Mary Harron and Christian Bale watched x-rated tapes. In her commentary, Harron says Bale made stick-figure drawings of the positions he thought would work best. + The head that appears in Patrick Bateman’s refrigerator was achieved by the actress in question sticking her head up through the fridge’s shelves. + The business cards belonging to Patrick Bateman, David Van Patten, Timothy Bryce, Paul Allen, and Luis Carruthers each contain the same typo. On the top right, underneath where the company name “Pierce & Pierce” is listed, the department is written as “Mergers and Aquisitions” rather than “Mergers and Acquisitions”. + During the famous Business Card scene every card lists their title as “Vice President”. Since none of these Vice Presidents are ever shown actually doing any work this could be a call back to the famous “Greed is Good” speech in Wall Street where Gordon Gekko points out that the company he’s taking over has 33 Vice Presidents and he can’t figure out what any of them do. + Certain scenes in the book either had to be completely removed or toned down for the film, due to the graphic and extreme nature of the murders and torture scenes. + Patrick suggests to Elizabeth to have sex with Christy, to which Elizabeth scoffs at the suggestion, asking why he’d think she’d be into lesbianism. Patrick responded that she went to Sarah Lawrence College. In real life, Guinevere Turner, who portrays Elizabeth and is also one of the writers of the film, went to Sarah Lawrence College, and is a lesbian. + Guinevere Turner, who played Patrick’s friend “Elizabeth” (in the scene with Christie the call girl), also wrote the film’s screenplay. + The Huey Lewis & The News song “Hip to Be Square”, which appears in the film, was initially on the soundtrack album, but it was removed shortly after release because of a lack of publishing rights. + Over 100k albums had to be destroyed due to the publishing rights issue. + Huey Lewis has denied that he didn’t allow the song to be used on the album (just a rumor) + Whitney Houston refused to allow any of her songs to be used in the film. + For Willem Dafoe’s scenes, Mary Harron instructed him to play each one in three different styles – one as if he is suspicious of Patrick Bateman, two as if he has no clue as to Bateman’s guilt and three as if he is undecided. + In Dexter (2006), Dexter Morgan uses Patrick Bateman’s name as an alias to obtain M-99 to incapacitate his victims. Both characters notably share some similarities in terms of each being serial killers who lead double lives. + Christian Bale underwent extensive dental work in order to play the character of Patrick Bateman. + Christian Bale insisted on getting Bret Easton Ellis’s approval for his portrayal before filming and arranged a meeting. Bale showed up to the meeting dressed and groomed as Bateman, even introducing himself as “Patrick Bateman”. After 10 minutes Easton Ellis begged Bale to stop, because his hands were shaking and he could not take it anymore. Easton Ellis has said this was the single creepiest moment of his life. + In 2013, Funny or Die recreated the “Hip to be Square” scene with American Psycho with Huey Lewis and Weird Al (2013). Huey Lewis himself played the Patrick Bateman role and ‘Weird Al’ Yankovic was the Paul Allen role. In the scene, Lewis discusses the film, its controversial reception, Christian Bale’s acting, and its effect on Bale’s performance as Batman. Rather than listening to a song, Lewis pops in the American Psycho (2000) DVD, and at one point he points to the television while discussing Bale as Bale is shown pointing at the stereo discussing Lewis. It ends with Lewis killing Yankovic saying “Try parodying one of my songs now, you stupid bastard!” The video ends with the song “I Want a New Duck,” a parody of the Huey Lewis and the News song “I Want a New Drug.” + The first porn movie Bateman is watching is White Angel (1998). The second is Red Vibe Diaries: Object of Desire (1997). + Two scenes featured unexpected improvisation by Christian Bale. When Bateman is jumping rope, he starts to skip and cross his jump rope as a schoolgirl would. Bale surprised co-writer and director Mary Harron even more by starting to dance as Bateman was preparing to kill Paul Allen (Jared Leto). That time, she says in interviews and the commentary, she collapsed with laughter. + Christian Bale’s frenzied confession to his lawyer down the phone that he’s a serial killer was filmed in 14 takes. Director Mary Harron kept pressing Bale to do another take as he improved with each one. Bale was fueled regularly by cappuccinos during all this. + Patrick Bateman (Christian Bale) spends forty percent of the film either shirtless, in his underwear, or nude. + Luis Carruthers, Jean, and the kitten are the only characters that unknowingly escaped Bateman’s attempted murderous attacks. Jean is the only one to see Patrick is deranged. + Body Count: 12 (implied to possibly be up to 50 or more)

Released: January 21, 2000 at Sundance, April 14, 2000 in the United States

Directed By: Mary Harron

Screenplay By: Mary Harron and Guinevere Turner

Based on the Book: American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis

Music By: John Cale

Stars: Christian Bale (Patrick Bateman), Willem Dafoe (Donald Kimball), Jared Leto (Paul Allen), Chloë Sevigny (Jean) and Reese Witherspoon (Evelyn Williams)

Plot: A wealthy New York City investment banking executive, Patrick Bateman, hides his alternate psychopathic ego from his co-workers and friends as he delves deeper into his violent, hedonistic fantasies.

Tagline: Killer Looks.

How did this movie do Budget: $7 Million Box Office: $34 Million

• Mary Harron quit during pre-production due to the producers wanting Leonardo DiCaprio to star.
• Oliver Stone was brought in to direct, recasting the entire movie with Leonardo cast as Patrick.
• Leonardo wanted too much money (21M) and left to star in The Beach. Oliver Stone quit soon after.
• Mary Harron was brought back in and went back to her original cast.

• Bale was paid 7M for his role as Patrick.

• Patrick is a serial killer

• Patrick’s psychosis made him think he killed all those people, but he really didn’t kill anyone
• Patrick killed some of those people, but as he sunk more into madness, he imagined killing others. A lot of people either covered up for the murders and/or can’t tell people apart (all the mis-naming).
  • The condo seller didn’t want to lose value on the condo, so had the bodies removed [GREED]
  • So many people in the movie couldn’t get other’s names right, so nobody knows who is alive or dead…Paul Allen could be dead as the Lawyer could have been with someone he thinks is Paul
  • The ATM’s message “Feed me the Kitten”
  • The police car blowing up with via a gunshot (even Patrick had a hard time believing)

• The director and author have confirmed their answers…

• During production, Christian Bale followed the morning routine that his character Patrick Bateman describes toward the beginning of the film.

• Bale based his character off Tom Cruise. Bale saw in Cruise “this very intense friendliness and nothing behind the eyes”.
• Tom Cruise is actually featured in the novel. He lives in the same apartment complex as Bateman, who meets him in an elevator and gets the name of Cocktail (1988) wrong, calling it “Bartender.”
• The vast majority of the dialogue in the movie is taken word-for-word from the novel by Bret Easton Ellis.
• The film had various problems with designer labels during production. Cerruti agreed to allow Christian Bale to wear their clothes, but not when the character was killing anyone. Rolex agreed that anyone in the film could wear their watches except Bateman (hence the famous line from the book “Don’t touch the Rolex” had to be changed to “Don’t touch the watch”). Perry Ellis provided underwear at the last minute after Calvin Klein pulled out of the project. Comme des Garçons refused to allow one of their overnight bags to be used to carry a corpse, so Jean Paul Gaultier was used instead.
• Christian Bale was warned by many that it would be career suicide for him to play the lead in a film like this. This only made him more eager to take the part, inspired by Nicolas Cage in Vampire’s Kiss (1989). Fortunately for him, the opposite turned out to be true.
• During his big chainsaw scene, Christian Bale would happily (literally) hang out between takes wearing nothing but a sock over his penis and some tennis shoes.
• Casting: Leonardo DiCaprio, Ewan McGregor, Johnny Depp and Keanu Reeves were all considered for the role of Patrick
• To block the three-way sex scene with two prostitutes, co-writer and director Mary Harron and Christian Bale watched x-rated tapes. In her commentary, Harron says Bale made stick-figure drawings of the positions he thought would work best.
• The head that appears in Patrick Bateman’s refrigerator was achieved by the actress in question sticking her head up through the fridge’s shelves.
• The business cards belonging to Patrick Bateman, David Van Patten, Timothy Bryce, Paul Allen, and Luis Carruthers each contain the same typo. On the top right, underneath where the company name “Pierce & Pierce” is listed, the department is written as “Mergers and Aquisitions” rather than “Mergers and Acquisitions”.
• During the famous Business Card scene every card lists their title as “Vice President”. Since none of these Vice Presidents are ever shown actually doing any work this could be a call back to the famous “Greed is Good” speech in Wall Street where Gordon Gekko points out that the company he’s taking over has 33 Vice Presidents and he can’t figure out what any of them do.
• Certain scenes in the book either had to be completely removed or toned down for the film, due to the graphic and extreme nature of the murders and torture scenes.
• Patrick suggests to Elizabeth to have sex with Christy, to which Elizabeth scoffs at the suggestion, asking why he’d think she’d be into lesbianism. Patrick responded that she went to Sarah Lawrence College. In real life, Guinevere Turner, who portrays Elizabeth and is also one of the writers of the film, went to Sarah Lawrence College, and is a lesbian.
• Guinevere Turner, who played Patrick’s friend “Elizabeth” (in the scene with Christie the call girl), also wrote the film’s screenplay.
• The Huey Lewis & The News song “Hip to Be Square”, which appears in the film, was initially on the soundtrack album, but it was removed shortly after release because of a lack of publishing rights.
• Over 100k albums had to be destroyed due to the publishing rights issue.
• Huey Lewis has denied that he didn’t allow the song to be used on the album (just a rumor)
• Whitney Houston refused to allow any of her songs to be used in the film.
• For Willem Dafoe’s scenes, Mary Harron instructed him to play each one in three different styles – one as if he is suspicious of Patrick Bateman, two as if he has no clue as to Bateman’s guilt and three as if he is undecided.
• In Dexter (2006), Dexter Morgan uses Patrick Bateman’s name as an alias to obtain M-99 to incapacitate his victims. Both characters notably share some similarities in terms of each being serial killers who lead double lives.
• Christian Bale underwent extensive dental work in order to play the character of Patrick Bateman.
• Christian Bale insisted on getting Bret Easton Ellis’s approval for his portrayal before filming and arranged a meeting. Bale showed up to the meeting dressed and groomed as Bateman, even introducing himself as “Patrick Bateman”. After 10 minutes Easton Ellis begged Bale to stop, because his hands were shaking and he could not take it anymore. Easton Ellis has said this was the single creepiest moment of his life.
• In 2013, Funny or Die recreated the “Hip to be Square” scene with American Psycho with Huey Lewis and Weird Al (2013). Huey Lewis himself played the Patrick Bateman role and ‘Weird Al’ Yankovic was the Paul Allen role. In the scene, Lewis discusses the film, its controversial reception, Christian Bale’s acting, and its effect on Bale’s performance as Batman. Rather than listening to a song, Lewis pops in the American Psycho (2000) DVD, and at one point he points to the television while discussing Bale as Bale is shown pointing at the stereo discussing Lewis. It ends with Lewis killing Yankovic saying “Try parodying one of my songs now, you stupid bastard!” The video ends with the song “I Want a New Duck,” a parody of the Huey Lewis and the News song “I Want a New Drug.”
• The first porn movie Bateman is watching is White Angel (1998). The second is Red Vibe Diaries: Object of Desire (1997).
• Two scenes featured unexpected improvisation by Christian Bale. When Bateman is jumping rope, he starts to skip and cross his jump rope as a schoolgirl would. Bale surprised co-writer and director Mary Harron even more by starting to dance as Bateman was preparing to kill Paul Allen (Jared Leto). That time, she says in interviews and the commentary, she collapsed with laughter.
• Christian Bale’s frenzied confession to his lawyer down the phone that he’s a serial killer was filmed in 14 takes. Director Mary Harron kept pressing Bale to do another take as he improved with each one. Bale was fueled regularly by cappuccinos during all this.
• Patrick Bateman (Christian Bale) spends forty percent of the film either shirtless, in his underwear, or nude.
• Luis Carruthers, Jean, and the kitten are the only characters that unknowingly escaped Bateman’s attempted murderous attacks. Jean is the only one to see Patrick is deranged.
• Body Count: 12 (implied to possibly be up to 50 or more)

About The Movie From IMDB

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