How Tom Cruise inspired one of Christian Bale’s darkest roles
Lots of people will talk about how Christian Bale’s approach to method acting is always what helps him sink himself into a role and deliver the finest performances time after time, but there’s far more to his technique than one might necessarily think.
Bale has always vehemently denied that he is a method actor, but the amount of commitment he puts into his greatest roles and how he approaches them demonstrates that he’s operating on another level. Take his intense transformations in The Machinist or Vice, for example, where he becomes barely recognisable against how he normally appears, and you’ll realise that the British actor is attempting to do more than portray someone; he’s becoming the character that he’s starring as.
However, the role that often receives the most discussion is his villainous turn as Patrick Bateman in Mary Harron’s 2000 adaptation of American Psycho. Suave yet sinister beyond belief, Bale convincingly plays the maniacal and sociopathic investment banker-turned-killer in a way that becomes so gruesome, yet you can’t take your eyes off his performance for the duration of the film, no matter how abhorrent the crimes he commits on screen are.
There was plenty for him to base his character on due to him having the source material of Bret Easton Ellis’ original novel to work with, but it was actually one of his peers who unwittingly ended up being the main inspiration for his portrayal of this iconic villain protagonist. Bale chose not to base his portrayal of Bateman on a fictional work, but instead looked towards real human behaviour, and just how unsettling it can be in specific environments.
Harron later shared that she received a phone call from Bale during production of the film, where he said that he’d witnessed something on television that would influence how he approached the role. “I saw Tom Cruise on a talk show last night,” Bale allegedly told the director, adding: “There was something about that friendliness, with almost nothing behind the eyes.”
The interview in question was on The Rosie O’Donnell Show, where the host comedically teases Cruise about the crush she has on the actor and deliberately makes him feel uncomfortable throughout the show. Cruise, being the consummate professional that he is, plays along with O’Donnell’s flirtatious advances, but it’s clear to see that beneath all of the Hollywood charm, there’s a man close to reaching breaking point, and who is desperately trying to seem amicable in order to save face.
Of course, Cruise’s intentions during the interview wouldn’t have been to dismember the host in the same way that Bateman did to many of his victims in American Psycho, but the way in which he presents himself as being charming while clearly feeling something else internally inspired Bale to approach the role in a similar way. Bateman has to appear normal and charming as part of his professional role, but beneath the surface is a cold and calculating killer, and for Bale to have found that inspiration from a brief interview with Cruise is perhaps one of the strangest ways an actor has interpreted one of the most evil characters to have ever graced the screen.
