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“There is an idea of a Patrick Bateman; some kind of abstraction,” intones Christian Bale in the voiceover that fills American Psycho, director Mary Harron’s 2000 adaptation of the 1991 novel by Bret Easton Ellis. “But there is no real me: only an entity, something illusory. And though I can hide my cold gaze, and you can shake my hand and feel flesh gripping yours, and maybe you can even sense our lifestyles are probably comparable, I simply am not there.”
Bateman’s description of himself is something that movie fans might need to keep in mind, given that Italian director Luca Guadagnino plans to make his own adaptation. Granted, the 2000 movie has become a true classic unto itself, and not only because it paved the way for Bale becoming Bruce Wayne in Batman Begins. It also saw Harron and co-writer Guinevere Turner find added humor and even hidden depths in Ellis’ drudging novel about a Wall Street trader who may or may not be a serial killer—making it as much a satire of toxic and fragile masculinity as it is an indictment of the callowness in ’80s yuppie culture among the so-called masters of the universe.
Yet Guadagnino has never been afraid of big swings. In addition to his breakout Call Me By Your Name and this year’s excellent Challengers, he also made the cannibal horror film Bones and All and remade Dario Argento’s Giallo classic Suspiria into a colorless, but no less dense, psychological horror. He knows how to take on impossible challenges… as well as how to cast them to often near perfection. Still, a filmmaker of Guadagnino’s abilities needs the right guy to step into Bateman’s pure leather oxfords. Here are some of the actors who have certainly slipped their embossed business cards to Guadagnino.
WB
Timothée Chalamet
Guadagnino loves to work with actors he knows and trusts, and given that Armie Hammer seems to be too perfect to play Bateman, Timothée Chalamet is the next best thing. Guadagnino has said that he wants to stay more faithful to Ellis’ novel for his movie, which means removing the self-aware humor and feminist perspective that Harron and Turner brought, and increasing the onus on the star to make the vapid Bateman worth watching while committing horrid crimes.
With his sad eyes and perpetually-hunched body, Chalamet can certainly make Bateman look a lot more compelling than he actually is. We haven’t seen the actor play a hot shot before, coming closest as the ebullient and confident Willy Wonka from last year. But he’s already done more complicated characters in Bones and All (directed by Guadagnino) and Dune: Part Two, making American Psycho the natural next step.
WB
Austin Butler
Austin Butler loves to play pretty weirdos, which is Patrick Bateman to a tee. With his model looks and lanky features, Butler commands attention, skills that would benefit someone who wants to command a board room filled with finance bros. Yet as successful as he’s been, Butler tends to play all surface, handsome men with absolutely nothing going on behind the eyes.
That quality could work for Bateman. After all, Ellis gives Bateman endless first-person narration in American Psycho, but spreads it all thin. Bateman thinks about Huey Lewis and skin care routines in part because he can’t think about anything else, certainly nothing that constitutes as human. Butler’s natural aloofness may be the perfect nothing at the center of the film, giving Guadagnino plenty of space to trick audiences into filling the void (a grim mistake made by many of Bateman’s seeming victims in the novel).
Amazon / MGM
Jacob Elordi
And what about the other Elvis of late? Like Butler, Euphoria alum Jacob Elordi commands attention with his large frame, but he has a natural kindness that could bring out an interesting aspect of Bateman. Having already played a privileged kid in Saltburn, Elordi certainly can embody the haughtiness that comes natural to the upper classes, and his affability can be an interesting twist on Bateman.
But Elordi also has a physicality that allows him to make his body imposing, which is perfect for Bateman. While most people think of the American Psycho scenes where Patrick lectures on Huey Lewis or sneers at other stock bros, Bale also captured the bestial nature of Ellis’ character. Like Bale, Elordi can play physically unhinged, which is just as important to the character, given his murderous or sexual moments.
MGM / Amazon
Josh O’Connor
Of course Guadagnino just worked with a pair of young male leads in Challengers. Mike Faist has the open vulnerability that Elordi brings to the role, but not the same physicality, so he may not be the best pick for Bateman. On the other hand, Josh O’Connor exudes confidence, which Bateman needs.
Some might point out that while O’Connor has the height, he also has protruding ears and a mop of curly hair, which he’s put to good use in comic roles, as in 2020’s Emma. where he played the doofy Reverend Mr. Elton. Challengers proved that O’Connor’s unique looks do not prevent him from being an attractive leading man, which adds a compelling wrinkle to a character as concerned with appearances as Patrick Bateman. O’Connor could add an insecurity to Bateman that drives his murderous impulses, something consistent with the character that Ellis wrote.
Marvel Studios
Tom Holland
Yes, Tom Holland plays Peter Parker as a big ol’ sweetie-pie. But look at Cherry, The Crowded Room, and The Devil All the Time. Whenever he gets out of his blue and red tights, Holland wants to play a darker role so badly that he’s willing to do terrible, terrible projects, such as Cherry, The Crowded Room, and The Devil All the Time.
Challengers star Zendaya must have certainly mentioned her frequent collaborator Holland to Guadagnino, and Patrick Bateman is very much the type of role he’s looking for. Famously, Bale took inspiration from Tom Cruise to play Bateman’s mixture of enthusiasm and dead eyes, but Holland could put a softer spin on Patrick’s obsessions, making the horror all the more striking.
Searchlight Pictures
Kelvin Harrison Jr.
Okay, we need to acknowledge that Patrick Bateman is a yuppie whose privilege as a straight white male covers up any crimes that may or may not have happened. Bateman’s race and (especially) his gender and sexuality are a big part of Harron’s film and a subtextual part of Ellis’s novel. All of this is a long way to say that casting a non-white actor in the part closes off some aspects of the source material’s critique.
But at the same time, it opens the door for looking at the intersection of class and patriarchy, even with a man of a different race. And if you’re looking for a young male actor, it’s hard to do better than Kelvin Harrison Jr., who played B.B. King alongside Butler in Elvis, but also put in varied performances in Luce, Cyrano, and Waves (alongside Bones and All star Taylor Russell). Harrison would be the perfect actor for a Bateman that looks at other parts of Ellis’s novel.
Netflix
Tilda Swinton
You laugh, but Tilda Swinton has been Guadagnino’s most frequent collaborator. And in Suspiria, she played no fewer than three different characters, one of them an elderly man. If anyone could pull it off, it’s Swinton. And don’t tell me you wouldn’t watch it.
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