American Psycho Almost Cast Leonardo DiCaprio Why He Didn’t Get The Role

American Psycho Almost Cast Leonardo DiCaprio: Why He Didn’t Get The Role

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American Psycho’s director, Mary Harron, made it abundantly clear that she didn’t want Leonardo DiCaprio for Patrick Bateman, only Christian Bale.

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American Psycho Almost Cast Leonardo DiCaprio Why He Didn’t Get The Role

American Psycho would have been a completely different movie if Leonardo DiCaprio would have stepped into Patrick Bateman’s shoes, but director Mary Harron wasn’t enamored with the young Hollywood star.

MovieMaker published a lengthy oral history of the iconic horror film, which led to some very interesting insights, including the fact that Leonardo DiCaprio – the ’90s heartthrob – was originally chosen to play serial killer Patrick Bateman. American Psycho was released in 2000 and was directed by Mary Harron with a script from Guinevere Turner that was based on the novel of the same name by author Bret Easton Ellis. Alongside Christian Bale, who ended up snagging the role of Bateman, the film starred Willem Dafoe, Jared Leto, Reese Witherspoon, Josh Lucas, Samatha Mathis, and Chloë Sevigny. The film was distributed by Lionsgate and Sony, and debuted at the Sundance Film Festival in 2000.

While American Psycho has such heavy elements of toxic masculinity, white privilege, and other sociopolitical messaging that remains ever-present in 2020’s culture, it’s also a story about a charming serial killer the likes of Dexter or Ted Bundy. Leonardo DiCaprio had previously made an early career for himself in movies like Titanic and Romeo + Juliet, where he played a romantic male lead and a protagonist. Two years after American Psycho, DiCaprio would go on to star in Gangs of New York and other massive hits. However, Harron wasn’t interested in his contributions to American Psycho, despite him being the studio’s pick.

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American Psycho’s Director Threatened To Quit Over Patrick Bateman Casting

Mary Harron and Guinevere Turner set out to make American Psycho and thought it could be a really “subversive, feminist movie”, according to Turner. According to Ellis, the book was intended to be a criticism of male values based on what he’d experienced and seen. At the center of the novel is Bateman, an investment banker with an inflated self-image who appears to be a serial killer. The ending implies that everything could be in Bateman’s own, warped mind; just another layer of his own self-created intrigue. On the surface, it wouldn’t seem like someone with DiCaprio’s credits at the time would be an immediate pick for that type of role, though he has gone on to tackle extensively versatile parts in many different categories and genres of film. Ellis commented that DiCaprio’s role in The Wolf of Wall Street, which happened much later in the actor’s career, was very similar, though acquiesced that Bale was the correct choice.

Harron’s interest in Bale stemmed not only from the actor’s exquisite ability to blend into and lose himself within a role, but over the bonding they shared through an understanding of the character itself that overlapped. Said Harron, “He saw the part the way that I did, and he got the humor of it. He didn’t see Bateman as cool. I sort of had the feeling a lot of the other actors kind of thought Bateman was cool. And he didn’t”. Despite Harron loving Bale in the part, Lionsgate offered DiCaprio the role for upwards of $20 million dollars, and, according to Turner, she and Harron found out in the trades instead of from the studio directly. Because of this, Harron made it known that, if DiCaprio was their final choice, she would step down as director.

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Harron’s logic was sound. According to Harron, her primary reason for not wanting DiCaprio had nothing to do with his talent as an actor, and more to do with his image. Harron said, “… he had just come off Titanic and I thought you cannot take someone who has a worldwide fanbase of 15-year-old girls, 14-year-olds girls, and cast him as Patrick Bateman”. Harron’s risk paid off and her decision to stick by her artistic merits as a director resulted in American Psycho – and Patrick Bateman – becoming iconic.

Link Source : https://screenrant.com/american-psycho-movie-patrick-bateman-casting-not-dicaprio-reason/

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