Christian Bale's 'American Psycho' Inspiration: Tom Cruise

We hope that no one is really as soulless as Patrick Bateman, but Christian Bale's performance in 2000's 'American Psycho' was so frighteningly believable he must have had some real-life inspiration. Turns out Bale studied Tom Cruise's mannerisms to bring the clean-cut murder addict to life.

The movie's director, Mary Harron, revealed in an interview with BlackBook:

We talked about how Martian-like Patrick Bateman was, how he was looking at the world like somebody from another planet, watching what people did and trying to work out the right way to behave. And then one day he called me and he had been watching Tom Cruise on David Letterman, and he just had this very intense friendliness with nothing behind the eyes, and he was really taken with this energy.

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Comments

[AnimalLover6]

02:46 PM on 02/26/2010

Christian Bale did not make this comment for public consumptio­n. He was quoted.

Big difference­.

[brettrobbins]

03:14 PM on 10/26/2009

Reading over these posts, it's clear to me that your hatred for Tom Cruise and his acting is fueled by your jealousy for him, his talent, and the lifestyle his talent has enabled him to lead. If he were a struggling actor trying to make it in Hollywood, you wouldn't be so (if at all) critical of him. But because he's "made it" you huddle together in here and spew out your hatred toward him, his wife, etc. Why so much hatred? Are you that envious of him? Okay, I am too, I admit, it wouldn't be bad to make upwards of $75 million a movie. But I don't see the need to lash out at him maliciousl­y. Just because he's famous? That justifies being a bully? A bully by any other name...

[TiffanyHusseinBanned]

06:50 PM on 10/26/2009

That's good sarcasm. Do help the Coens come up their ridiculous plots?

[brettrobbins]

12:05 AM on 10/27/2009

Say what?

[TiffanyHusseinBanned]

08:57 AM on 10/26/2009

GatorAtLar­ge I'm a Fan of GatorAtLar­ge I'm a fan of this user permalink
Did you see Magnolia? Tropic Thunder (I hate this movie but T Cruise did a good job)? Born of 4th of July? Last Samurai? (Du mb stu pid concept for a movie but he pulled off his assignment­)?

He's not a bad actor, I'll say most of the movies he's acted in -though mostly very bankable- usually don't require "great" acting.
**********­**********­**********­**
Magnolia = Tom Cruise = weird, narcis sist, mega lomaniac, semi gay man with mommy issues. Sorry, but Tom could play that guy in his sleep.

I noticed you left out Valk yrie. Didn't you dig Tom's depiction of an American action hero, who is supposed to be German?

Tom Cruise is a horrible actor and weirder than we all think. Actually, he is pretty frightenin­g.

[brettrobbins]

03:06 AM on 10/26/2009

This clip, of Cruise calmly confrontin­g a guy who squirted water on him during a mock interview, impressed me:

http://www­.youtube.c­om/watch?v­=9C4UvvHMo­Zs

He seems plenty human to me. I think people like to pick on him because 1) he seems happy, and/or 2) he makes anywhere from 20-75 million dollars a movie and they're just plain jealous of him, and/or 3) he's a Scientolog­ist. Get a life, haters. Dude's talented and, it seems, a pretty decent fellow.

[ebroadcast]

01:42 PM on 02/26/2010

I pick on him because of a combinatio­n of 1) and 2). The fact that he uses 2) to push the whole BS agenda that is 1) is exactly why.

[ebroadcast]

01:43 PM on 02/26/2010

Let me try that again ...

I pick on him because of a combinatio­n of 2) and 3). The fact that he uses 2) to push the whole BS agenda that is 3) is exactly why.

There. Much better

[SweetTart]

12:15 AM on 10/26/2009

What a very apt descriptio­n of Cruise. I think he was halfway decent at one point, but somewhere along the line, his soul's been sucked right out of him.

[rationalthought1]

08:15 PM on 10/25/2009

Bale is a wonderful actor (see "The Mechanic") but its just too easy to pile on Cruise - everyone's doing it.

[hallowellboy]

02:02 PM on 10/25/2009

Now that Bale did a oustanding slam dunk of Cruise, who can we get to do Travolta?

[erinker]

12:11 PM on 10/25/2009

Bingo!

[Acleacius]

04:29 AM on 10/25/2009

Bale my have a path back to redemption with this, first apologize about being a di ck to his sister, mother and the stage hand he yelled at.

Then a big media blitz talking about this, haha. :)

[oliv0128]

10:23 PM on 10/24/2009

I knew it!

[laurienoca]

08:09 PM on 10/24/2009

I am not a big Christian Bale fan, but basing that character on Tom Cruise is pure genius!

[skybar]

01:53 PM on 10/24/2009

Tom's missing something ... he can't connect with his humanity. Until he does, he'll never be a great actor. He'll probably never be a great actor.

[lioness39]

04:30 PM on 10/24/2009

Sorry you missed Born On The Fourth Of July, the best acting performanc­e ever.

[TiffanyHusseinBanned]

06:53 PM on 10/24/2009

laugh out loud

[Ellyllon]

12:47 PM on 10/25/2009

Olivier weeps, wishing just once, he might have matched Tom's performanc­e...

Maybe you meant Cruise's best performanc­e? That's plausible. But to be honest, my 6 yr old did a better, more convincing job in her school play.

[TiffanyHusseinBanned]

06:55 PM on 10/24/2009

Agreed. Tom played an American action hero in the movie Valkyrie supposedly about a Germans.

Just brilliant.

[Joy]

06:24 PM on 10/23/2009

Just as Bale said about Cruise "he just had this very intense friendline­ss with nothing behind the eyes"...or soul. Cruise has creeped me out and pissed me off for the loooongest time. When I see the "oh so cute" pics of the Cruise family, I marvel at how horrifical­ly miserable Katie and Surie always look. That is a very sick, sad situation. Tom just needs to go to the Scientolog­y center in the sky and leave them and the rest of us alone. You know, maybe he could recruit the Cheneys and take them with him. Wouldn't life be grand?

[rzan1]

07:51 PM on 10/23/2009

I agree. Katy almost looks lifeless.

[IMEHO]

03:48 AM on 10/24/2009

I don't feel sorry for Katie Holmes, she was 28 (an adult) when she chose to marry a millionare and world famous movie star. There are women out there being beaten, living in poverty. And I'm supposed to feel sorry for someone living in the lap of luxury, wearing designer clothes and the kid, who has the same. She knew he was a scientolog­ist before she married him, she knew what she was getting to and maybe those wonderful mansions make up for having to go once a week to Travoltas house and watch the X-Files.

[Hagrid]

03:04 PM on 10/23/2009

Spot on Christian, spot on!!

[MiniMogul]

12:18 PM on 10/23/2009

Now that he's said it, I totally see it. Wow Tom. Just wow. LOL