“American Psycho” is a film that people fully embrace now, more than 20 years after its release. However, at the time, Mary Harron’s adaptation of the Bret Easton Ellis classic novel was actually thought to be silly and just not good. And a lot of that comes down to the tricky tone of the film, mixing heaps of satire and black comedy with downright horror, encapsulated in the performance of Christian Bale in the lead role. But it wasn’t just audiences and critics who didn’t necessarily embrace the film right away. Josh Lucas, one of Bale’s co-stars in the film, also had reservations about the film as he was shooting it.
In an upcoming episode of the Yellowstoners (The Playlist’s “Yellowstone”-devoted podcast), Josh Lucas was asked about his experience making “American Psycho,” and specifically, what he thought about Christian Bale’s performance in the film. Several years ago, Bale revealed that many of his co-stars didn’t understand what he was going for in “American Psycho,” and Lucas definitely considers himself one of those people.
“I thought he was terrible. I didn’t think he was crazy, I just thought he was, like, a bad actor,” said Lucas. “I truly remember thinking, ‘OK, this movie’s weird.’ Like, I knew the scenes were kind of fun and funny, but I didn’t realize the timely nature of how great Mary Harron’s storytelling was.”
He continued, “Now, you know it was Christian Bale, but [Harron] had the chance to hire Leonardo DiCaprio at that heightened point in his career, but she was like, ‘No, it’s got to be Christian Bale!’ And I remember also thinking, ‘Well, that’s nuts.’ I mean, I was young in my career and I was nervous, but I also didn’t have enough experience to understand that what Christian was doing was next level. You know, it was beyond anything I’d ever seen. So, I thought it seemed strange. I thought it seemed over the top or a little bit fake and when you go back and watch it, I mean that’s why he’s one of the greatest film actors ever, I would say. It’s because of the risk that he was taking. And also, what I think is surprising about Christian Bale, which has been my experience as I’ve worked with him twice now, is he’s a really nice guy.”
Specifically, Lucas remembers shooting a scene with Bale that, at the time, he thought was terrible, but upon re-examination, he understands that his co-star was just doing something “so complicated and so multi-layered.”
“Look, there’s a scene where I was shooting with Willem Defoe, who’d just done ‘Platoon,’ and Christian,” Lucas explained. “And I remember I come into this scene and I said something and walked out in a steak restaurant and I remember watching Christian and he was like [shaking] pepper and the way he was doing it, I remember thinking, ‘That is the worst acting I’ve ever seen.’ And now you look at it and you’re like, ‘Oh! He was doing something so complicated and so multi-layered.’ It was, sure as hell, way beyond where I was as an actor at that point.”
Obviously, it’s clear from Lucas’ comments that he fully understands that Bale was doing something special in “American Psycho.” However, it’s pretty humorous to think that everyone was working on the film 22 years ago and thinking that their lead actor was actively bad at his job, not realizing that Bale would become one of the greatest living actors we have today.
You can hear Lucas’ full discussion about “American Psycho,” and, of course, “Yellowstone” in an upcoming episode of Yellowstoners.
