This is not an EXIT...American Psycho

[©brad]

i went to circuit city to see if i could pick up this dvd and they said they were waiting for a special edition that was suppose to come out in a month. can anyone validate this? mac? mini-mac?

[meatwad]

if i remember correctly, wasn't leo supposed to be in this, but dropped out to do the beach. I think Christian Bale was the right choice. I just can't see Leo doing this role justice.

Anybody think he would have been better?

[nix]

Hard to imagine anyone but Bale in the role now, but no, I think Leo was all wrong for it.

[molly]

i vote for Bale

[MacGuffin]

American Psycho: The Patrick Bateman Tapes: According to Dark Horizons, Lions Gate is apparently working on another chapter in this franchise.

[MacGuffin]

Before 2000, Mary Harron was best known as the director of I Shot Andy Warhol. But after taking the reins of American Psycho after Oliver Stone lost interest she turned a very harsh book into a scathing look at materialism and how one perceives their personal reality. Lions Gate Home Entertainment has just released the Uncut Killer Collector's Edition of American Psycho which has deleted scenes and a brand new commentary from Harron.

I got a chance to talk with Mary Harron from the set of the TV show Big Love about making American Psycho and her upcoming film biography of Bettie Page, The Notorious Bettie Page.

Daniel Robert Epstein: I heard you are shooting something out in the desert today. What are you doing?

Mary Harron: I’m shooting an episode of a new HBO series called Big Love.

DRE: Oh, the Mormon show! That must be fun.

MH: It is very interesting.

DRE: Did you finish the Bettie Page movie?

MH: Yes, now we’re just timing the print but we’re basically finished.

DRE: Oh, that’s awesome. How’d it come out?

MH: I thought it came out very well. I’m very happy with it.

DRE: How was it working with Lili [Taylor] again?

MH: It was great. That was wonderful.

DRE: When I spoke to her she seemed very excited about the movie.

MH: Yeah we had a wonderful time.

DRE: How involved were you with the new American Psycho DVD?

MH: I did a commentary and we had a lot of back and forth about it. They kept me informed which was nice because I didn’t have anything to do with the first edition so it didn’t have any special features. They just kind of put it out and much more care went into this.

DRE: So you didn’t have anything to do with the sequel?

MH: No nothing with the sequel.

DRE: Rob Weiss, who directed the movie Amongst Friends in my hometown, is credited as producer of American Psycho. What did he do?

MH: Nothing as far as I know. I never met him. I think long time ago he was attached as director. Sometimes when someone leaves a project they give them a credit.

DRE: In the new edition of the American Psycho DVD, what went back into the cut?

MH: The cut itself is the one that was released on DVD earlier and there is about ten seconds of sex stuff in it. The new edition has a lot of those deleted scenes that we couldn’t put in. Not for censorship reasons but they were just scenes that we couldn’t fit into our cut. I always wanted to have those. There’s a great one with Reese Witherspoon and Christian Bale and I had this great scene with Willem Dafoe. The film was long and I had to just lose stuff that I really loved in order to make it tighter. It’s not like the cut is different, its just got all these extra scenes.

Originally Justin Theroux had a whole subplot and we put it all together and realized that you just couldn’t afford to follow anyone else’s story. I always felt really bad about that because Justin’s a great actor and a really close friend of mine. Then there’s this great scene with Christian and Reese in bed together and there’s a great one with Samantha Mathis and Christian in bed together and it was just cut because of pacing.

Also I never did a director’s commentary before so it has that.

DRE: How was doing the commentary?

MH: Fun actually. I hadn’t seen the film in a long time because you see the film so often when you are getting it ready.

DRE: When you made the film you were trying to make a point like the way Bret Easton Ellis did when he wrote the book. Do they feel as relevant?

MH: Yeah it feels even more relevant now. It’s sort of for the audience to decide what the point of the movies. In terms of the world it’s presenting, I don’t think it’s any different and in some ways it is worse.

DRE: Just looking at this movie now in 2005 the cast is unbelievable. Josh Lucas, Justin Theroux, Reese and Christian of course.

MH: All of these people I had to fight to have in the movie. They would say who’s Justin Theroux , who’s Josh Lucas and of course now they’re very famous.

DRE: This movie would have cost a lot more if you tried to make it now I think.

MH: With that cast, yes. Christian himself would cost a lot more because of Batman.

DRE: Did you see Batman?

MH: I haven’t seen it yet, no. Have you seen it?

DRE: I saw it this past week. He was amazing and the movie is very good.

Have you seen The Machinist yet?

MH: Yes, very scary movie. Christian is great in it but he should never do that again.

DRE: I don’t think he wants to.

MH: I don’t think he will.

DRE: I read at one point even David Cronenberg was attached to direct American Psycho with Brad Pitt.

MH: Yeah, that was a couple years before I came on and Cronenberg decided not to do it for whatever reason.

DRE: I heard it was a big casting call for American Psycho, how did you settle on Christian?

MH: I met with a lot of people and I looked at a lot of different people’s movies. He just came in and I put him on tape and watched the tape of his audition, that was it. There was never anybody else I thought could do the role as well as he could.

DRE: What scene did you have him read for the audition?

MH: I had him do a couple of scenes. I had him do one of the monologues about the music. I think it was the Huey Lewis monologue. I had him do the scene where he killed Paul Allen.

It was really funny because he auditioned in my apartment. He was doing the axe murdering and yelling “Take that you stupid bastard” and all of that. With the windows open, my neighbors must have thought it was very strange with all the yelling going on and then we did one of the very quiet monologues.

DRE: Maybe the skin care monologue?

MH: Yes I think so, about nothing there, “When you take off the mask there’s nothing there.” He was just so interesting and there so much going interior life behind his eyes.

DRE: It seems that you focused the movie more on the yuppie scum aspects.

MH: I really liked the social satire in the book and thought that was funny and very relevant so I focused on the elements that I was most interested in.

DRE: When did you realize that you wanted to do that?

MH: I read the book in 1992 when it came out in England where I was living at the time and I felt that it had been very misunderstood. It had a lot of interesting things in it and it was very funny and it didn’t deserve this terrible reputation it had. I felt that a lot of people who had attacked the book never read it. I didn’t read it and think oh God make a movie out of this. I just really liked it. Then it was four or five years later when somebody called me and asked me if I was interested in it. That’s when I started thinking, “Wow, can you make a film of this? Is it filmable? How would you do it?”

DRE: How did you sell yourself to whoever owned it?

MH: They had called me up and I just went in and I had a meeting with Ed Pressman the producer and I had an idea how to exercise the copy. They asked me about it and I just thought you could do it as a period film of the 80’s and bring out the social satire.

DRE: American Psycho is so popular with certain kinds of people. Are you aware of the cult following around it?

MH: I realize it does have that because when you look at IMDB you see that a huge amount of people are into it. Its internet following is crazy.

DRE: Do you agree or disagree with the way people have interpreted it?

MH: Sometimes late night I kind of am amused so I go on and read about it and it’s always people who say that they hate me because I didn’t make it violent enough. I just look at those debates. Some of them raise some very interesting, perceptive comments sometimes.

DRE: Why did you decide to tone down the violence?

MH: I’m interested in fear and suspense and dread but I’m not interested particularly in physical violence or gore. I’m not a horror director in that way. I’m not interested in the special effects or the really detailed presentation. I’m more of a Hitchcock or a Polanski person. Keeping it off screen and just creating fear is more interesting to me.

DRE: What scenes stand out from the production of the movie?

MH: The last murder with Christie and Elizabeth, when the girls are back at his apartment late at night. That was the very last scene that we shot and it was all murder and mayhem. It was just a crazy shoot and it was just night shooting for three days. I could tell it was going to be good. It was intense, but I didn’t know if I could go to that kind of place again.

DRE: You worked again with Cara Seymour who played Christie. .

MH: Yes she’s got a lot to do with Bettie Page. She’s a fantastic actor.

DRE: What struck you about her?

MH: I knew her already as a stage actress. I really liked her because thought she had a very expressive face. On paper it was a small role actually but by casting a great actress, she will bring so much and you will feel those scenes so much through her. Those scenes are from her point of view and they‘re all filtered through her. She ended up giving so much that I thought it was very memorable.

DRE: How difficult was it to make Toronto look like New York?

MH: A lot of those exteriors we had to shoot in New York. I’m from Toronto and I kept saying to producers, “I’m from Toronto and this does not look like New York.” All those office scenes are shot on a stage and the view outside the window is a trapped slide. So we created New York on the soundstages in Toronto. The scene where he’s running in the plaza between the two big office buildings. It just looks very Wall Street, but it’s actually Toronto. There’s certain parts of Toronto in the business district that could pass for New York.

DRE: What did you think of Rules of Attraction?

MH: I think there were interesting things about it. I never watched the whole thing, so don’t ask me about that.

DRE: How did you pick Gretchen Mol to be Bettie Page?

MH: We auditioned many people.

She was so great. It was like after I saw Christian for American Psycho. After Gretchen came in no one else would do.

DRE: You saw that much in her?

MH: Yeah, really.

DRE: That’s good because I haven’t seen her in a role that really blew me away.

MH: Now you will.

[Finn]

I saw American Psycho a few days ago and really liked it. It's not great but a good portrait of those stuck-up yuppies who are addicted to their material possessions. Bale's performance was the real highlight.

[NEON MERCURY]

man, i love the killer collectors edition.  its got an awesome commentary track [i just listen to the director one so far] but is great stuff.  also, the writer is fuckign gorgeous...i had never seen a more sexier writer.  and she cusses alot too.   i didnt know that she played that chick in the film..man shes a hot brunette.

[MacGuffin]

also, the writer is fuckign gorgeous...i had never seen a more sexier writer.  and she cusses alot too.   i didnt know that she played that chick in the film..man shes a hot brunette.

She's like a cross between Sherilyn Fenn and Liv Tyler.

[matt35mm]

She's a lesbian.

Or maybe she's bi.

But I think she's a lesbian.

[Pubrick]

She's a lesbian.

Or maybe she's bi.

But I think she's a lesbian.

yeah that's what i thought, from her involvement with The L Word.

also imdb quotes indicate she talks a lot of shit.

[NEON MERCURY]

She's a lesbian.

...damn, i wish you didnt tell me that....

shes way too hot IMO to be a lesbian...if she was ugly then thats okay with me...but damn....i think shes cute.  i do beleive thats true in chasign amy about not "buying" a lesbian....but i like to put myself in other peoples shoes to experience their state of mind....if i was a lesbian i would hate it [or get bored] by rubbing my pussy against another lady's pussy ....plus i have sensitive skin and i use alot of lotion and those pussy hairs would itch  and irritate my pussy ....i think it would be more fun to stick things in my pussy...an di dont mean rubber stuff or bottles or crayons or whatever...i would wont something warm in my pussy......so, if i was a lesbian i would maybe consider putting a large warm polish sausage in my pussy..that might feel good....but in the end i would really want a penis in it........

[Escapeism]

It wasnt what I thought it would be.  I really liked the madness aspect of being perfect in a perfectly mad mad world.

My inturpatatioin of the ending is this.  The lawyer covered up for him and so did the woman at the apt where he did those killings because they couldnt afford to let the people below there status in on there world.  They take care of there messes they wouldnt stand for such riff raff involved with there superior lifestyles

[Figure 8]

I just rented this movie this weekend.  I thought it was so god awful.
Kind of SPOILERS:
It just was a really bad adaptation of the book.  So much was left out, and I know, if they left it all in, it'd be way too long by most people's standards, but the movie felt like it was five minutes.  The things that the book pulled off quietly, like the idea that it was all in his head, the movie was so blatent about it that it just ruined the entire idea of it for me.  The fact that they had Willem Dafoe "chasing" after Bateman was a wrong choice I think as well.  I just thought the way they changed the story in so many ways just ruined it for me.  Though, I did think that Christian Bale put in a great performance, it's really too bad that the movie wasn't made better.

[SiliasRuby]

I get such a kick out of this movie. I got the Uncut edition a while back and it is so invigorating for me and soooo much fun.