6. He Lost The Patrick Bateman Role To Leonardo DiCaprio (And Won It Back):
Bale would continue to find steady employment throughout the remainder of the 1990s, doing voice work on Disney flick Pocahontas in 1995 and also appearing in The Portrait of a Lady, Metroland and Velvet Goldmine. Nevertheless, as the decade drew to a close there was one role he coveted above all else. In 1991, novelist Bret Easton Ellis published American Psycho, a vicious satire of the Wall Street scene in the late-1980s centred around investment banker and serial killer Patrick Bateman. Mary Harron, who was developing the screenplay and set to direct the feature adaptation, wanted Bale for the lead, but both of them were soon swept aside when Leonardo DiCaprio expressed interest in playing Bateman. Bale had already started intense physical preparations and refused to accept that the project was in new hands, continuing his rigorous training and even calling up Harron to discuss how he should play the part, even though neither of them were involved in the project. DiCaprio, newly installed as his generations teen idol following the incredible success of Titanic, eventually passed on the role, which was subsequently offered to Ewan McGregor. Still, Bale wouldnt give up and actually phoned McGregor to persuade him not to accept the part. His persistence would eventually pay off, with Harron restored to the directors chair to oversee a performance that would take Bales career to another level.
I watch movies and I watch sport. I also watch movies about sport, and if there were a sport about movies I'd watch that too. The internet was the closest thing I could find.
