Christian Bale scored 'American Psycho' over Leonardo DiCaprio after losing a string of roles to his 'rival'
Wall Street banker Paul Allen lazily and drunkenly lounged on a chair as his co-worker Patrick Bateman hyped up Huey Lewis &The News, walked into his bathroom, donned a raincoat, and moonwalked out with an ax in his hand. While an oblivious Allen continued to laugh and giggle along at the bizarre setting he had found himself in, Bateman walked up to his stereo, put on 'Hip to Be Square' from 1987's 'Fore,' and started doing a little hip jig before lifting the ax over his head and putting it through his skull.
After he's done hacking and slashing his way through the body, Bateman coolly sat down on his couch, adjusted his hair, lit a cigar, and contemplated his deed.
The iconic scene is from 'American Psycho,' a movie that is just as much about a wealthy New York investment banker who is a shallow, materialistic psychopath who moonlights as a serial killer, as it is about the pitfalls of toxic masculinity and capitalism in modern society.
A little over two decades years after its release, Mary Harron's satirical psychological horror film is considered one of the most prominent works of feminist cinema of the early-2000s. But it could have been oh so different.
For one, it could have been Leonardo DiCaprio who was talking up his morning exercise and beautification routine, designer wardrobe, expensive furniture, and weakness for perfectly designed business cards with that subtle off-white coloring.
At least, that's what Harron revealed in a recent interview, where she also shared that she had been fired from her role as director because she was insistent on Bale.
Lionsgate Films, which had acquired worldwide distribution for the film felt that Bale, then mostly known for child acting roles and independent movies, was not famous enough for the project. They wanted DiCaprio as he had just come off the unprecedented critical and commercial success of 'Titanic,' which had become the first-ever movie to cross the billion-dollar mark at the box office. To get him, they offered to pay $20 million.
DiCaprio was reportedly interested, but Harron refused to meet with him because she felt he wasn't right for Bateman.
"I said no [to meeting him] because I didn't want to start down that road," she said. "I knew I would find him charming, and then I would find myself getting into doing it with him. You have to trust your instinct, or else it's going to be a disaster. They would change the script and try to make the character more sympathetic, and it was just going to lose anything it really had."
Ultimately, DiCaprio backed off from the movie. While the reason for it is still a subject of speculation, Guinevere Turner, who played the part of one of Bateman's victims in the movie, revealed it might have had to do with a rumor she started.
"My friend, who had just spoken to Gloria Steinem, said that Gloria Steinem took Leonard DiCaprio to a Yankees game, I believe, and said, 'Please don't do this movie. Coming off of Titanic, there is an entire planet full of 13-year-old girls waiting to see what you do next, and this is going to be a movie that has horrible violence toward women,'" Turner said.
Feminist icon Steinem had been one of the most strident critics of the Bret Easton Ellis's book when it came out in 1991, terming it misogynostic.
Harron was subsequently reinstated, and Bale, who until then just had a handshake deal to play the part, was brought back in, and the rest, as they say, is history.
The film shone a spotlight on his intense method acting style and earned him starring roles in 'The Machinist,' for which he lost 63 pounds, Christopher Nolan's Batman trilogy, for which he gained 100 pounds, and a series of other movies that eventually culminated in an Oscar and multiple Golden Globe awards.
But the actor has not forgotten about DiCaprio, who he considers to be his biggest rival as per Harrison Cheung's biography, 'Christian Bale - The Inside Story of the Darkest Batman.'
Cheung, who had worked alongside Bale for a decade, revealed in the 2012 book that 'American Psycho' was not the only time he and DiCaprio competed for the same roles, and that the latter coming out on top on most occasions irked the 'Batman' star to no end.
"DiCaprio. The name burned Christian like a branding iron," Cheung wrote. "Over the years, Christian had lost 'This Boy's Life' and 'What's Eating Gilbert Grape' to DiCaprio."
'This Boy's Life' turned out to be DiCaprio's first major film role, while 'What's Eating Gilbert Grabe,' where he played a developmentally disabled boy, earned him an Academy Award nomination. Both released in 1993, seven years before Bale caught his big break with Patrick Bateman.
Cheung also revealed that Bale read for the part of DiCaprio's best friend in "Romeo + Juliet," only for it to go to Harold Perrineau, and for DiCaprio's Jack Dawson in "Titanic."
"Christian had read for the part of Mercutio in Romeo & Juliet but was told that they had decided to cast an African-American in the part instead," he said. "Christian too had gone up for the part of Jack Dawson in Titanic but was told that James Cameron didn't want two British lead actors playing the two leads who were both supposed to be American."
Those heartbreaks proved to just be temporary setbacks in the long-run, and these days, Bale is sure to command any role of his choice.