15 Near Miss Villain Castings That Would Suck More Than Eisenberg's Luthor

12. Leonardo DiCaprio - Patrick Bateman (American Psycho)

Lions Gate lobbied hard for Leonardo DiCaprio to take the part of psychopathic Wall Street trader Patrick Bateman in the adaptation of Bret Easton Ellis' controversial novel, offering him an insane $20 million salary despite objections from director Mary Harron, who had already selected Christian Bale for the part. Harron even refused to meet Leo to discuss the role, stating "Leonardo wasn't remotely right . There's something very boyish about him. He's not credible as one of these tough Wall Street guys...He brought way too much baggage with him - I did not want to deal with someone who had a 13-year-old fan base." Though the idea of Leo being unfit to play a Wall Street trader is, of course, totally ridiculous now given his success playing Jordan Belfort in The Wolf of Wall Street, the Leo of a decade-and-a-half ago was very different from the one we see now. At the turn of the century, Leo had a wiry frame, boyish good looks and not so much bass in his voice: it was fine for dreamboat roles like Titanic, but he needed a few more years to mature before he could ease himself into the roles for which he would reap the most acclaim. No doubt Leo would've given it his best shot, and the film would probably have made more money, but it's difficult to see him measuring up to Bale's interpretation, or what Ellis envisioned on the page.