American Psycho director Mary Harron opened up about the response to the movie among “Wall Street Bros,” who’ve idolized Christian Bale’s character Patrick Bateman…
Director Mary Harron marked the 25th anniversary of the release of American Psycho by speaking to Letterboxd Journal about how puzzling it is to see “Wall Street bros” idolizing Patrick Bateman, the sociopathic New York City investment banker and serial killer played by Christian Bale in her film.
“I’m always so mystified by it,” Harron said. “I don’t think that [co-writer Guinevere Turner] and I ever expected it to be embraced by Wall Street bros, at all. That was not our intention. So, did we fail? I’m not sure why [it happened], because Christian’s very clearly making fun of them… But, people read the Bible and decide that they should go and kill a lot of people. People read The Catcher in the Rye and decide to shoot the president.”
American Psycho, which was released theatrically in the United States and Canada on April 14, 2020, is based on the book of the same name by Bret Easton Ellis, which was published in 1991. In recent years
Harron understands that TikTok and memes have played a role in the idolization of Patrick Bateman because “there’s [Bateman] being handsome and wearing good suits and having money and power. But at the same time, he’s played as somebody dorky and ridiculous. When he’s in a nightclub and he’s trying to speak to somebody about hip hop — it’s so embarrassing when he’s trying to be cool.”
That men could aspire to be Patrick Bateman is ironic considering Harron always viewed American Pyscho as “a gay man’s satire on masculinity.” She thinks that the Wall Street bros are missing that piece of the puzzle.
“[Ellis] being gay allowed him to see the homoerotic rituals among these alpha males, which is also true in sports, and it’s true in Wall Street, and all these things where men are prizing their extreme competition and their ‘elevating their prowess’ kind of thing,” the director said. “There’s something very, very gay about the way they’re fetishizing looks and the gym.”
Harron also noted that her film has aged well, unfortunately. “It was about a predatory society, and now the society is actually, 25 years later, much worse. The rich are much richer, the poor are poorer,” she said. Connecting the themes to the political sphere, she added, “I would never have imagined that there would be a celebration of racism and white supremacy, which is basically what we have in the White House. I would never have imagined that we would live through that.”
Still, Letterboxd noted that many of the movie’s fans seemingly do understand the satire; it’s the 23rd most popular film on their website, and more viewers with she/her pronouns have it listed as one of their four favorite films than those with he/him pronouns. “I’m really delighted that young women have started liking it,” she said, saying that, to her, the book and the movie are a “clear critique.”
A new version of American Psycho is currently in development with director Luca Guadagnino (Call Me By Your Name, and Challengers). The film’s script was written by by Scott Z. Burns and Austin Butler has been tipped to play Patrick, although no official casting has been announced yet.
You can read Harron’s “wall Street bros” interview in its entirety over at the Letterboxd Journal’s website.
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