20 Things You Didn't Know About American Psycho

20. Christian Bale Based Patrick Bateman On Tom Cruise & Nicolas Cage

Vampire's Kiss Nicolas Cage
Magellan Pictures

Christian Bale didn't rely solely on Ellis' novel for inspiration when deciding how to portray psychopathic protagonist Patrick Bateman, as according to director Mary Harron, Bale based his performance partially on a Tom Cruise appearance on the Late Show with David Letterman.

Harron claims Bale was taken with Cruise's "intense friendliness with nothing behind the eyes," and incorporated that quality into his rendition of Bateman.

Bale has also stated that he studied Nicolas Cage's performance as the literally vampiric literary agent protagonist of the 1989 cult classic black comedy Vampire's Kiss.

These touchstones, combined with Ellis' source material, clearly gave Bale plenty to work with when it came time to shoot.

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