Hurry, this movie is leaving Netflix soon! This performance by Christian Bale made the camera crew quit

Christian Bale has never shied away from challenging roles. He came to play The Dark Knight, gained weight for the role of the power-hungry Dick Cheney, and lost an impressive amount of weight to the point of being ugly for the film.

These dramatic physical transformations seem to garner media attention with every promotion for a new movie, but behind this physical commitment, Christian Bale is just an extraordinary actor who loves to play challenging roles. However, there is one iconic role he played that was highly controversial.

Vulnerable Patrick Bateman

In 1991, Brett Easton Ellis published his postmodern classic. American PsychoThe darkly comic, ultra-violent and disturbing story of Patrick Bateman, a vain, shallow and narcissistic investment banker with a strict cosmetic and exercise routine…who also happens to be a cannibalistic serial killer!

The book was very successful, but it also caused a lot of controversy upon its release. Critics praised the denunciation of capitalist culture, while some activists criticized the graphic violence against women.

The novel was therefore turned into a feature film in 2000, directed by Mary Harron. Leonardo DiCaprio was originally slated to star, but he dropped out, presumably due to the controversial nature of the subject matter, and Christian Bale will play Patrick Bateman.

in the interview GQThe actor spoke about his decision to take on this role:They had Leonardo DiCaprio ready, but I kept rehearsing, training and preparing. People were looking at me anxiously, and I was looking at them and saying, “Look, I’m definitely going to make this movie.”“

What Mary Harron and screenwriter Guinevere Turner bring to the film is a keen sensitivity to the characters and an ability to convey the humor of the book. However, we can bet that having a female writer and director helped to criticize the film’s misogynistic themes, which was a problem in the book.

Bateman’s relentless, dirty, almost pornographic monologues about restaurants, albums, movies and cosmetic routines in the book are skillfully translated into darkly comic narration and screen editing.

enough is enough

According to Christian Bale, the laughter was not only in the script, but also on the set, for the most part. “It was a pleasure. The team burst out laughing most of the time“- said the actor. However, some crew members did leave the set due to the controversial nature of the story.

“I mean, there were a few team members whose wives forced them to leaveChristian Bale explained.But for those who thought we were really psychotic daughters, most of the crew were women, for God’s sake—the director, the writers, the script supervisor.“

Controversy surrounding American Psycho resurfaced upon the film’s release, generating buzz that helped at the box office. Interestingly, one of the most vocal opponents of the film was feminist activist Gloria Steinem, who found many of the themes and scenes where Bateman abuses women problematic, but she also happens to be Christian Bale’s mother-in-law!

American Psycho remains as shocking and thrilling as it was all those years ago, and will also go down as one of Christian Bale’s greatest – albeit controversial – screen performances.

American Psycho leaves Netflix on August 31st.