50 Fun Facts About American Psycho

Which American Psycho restaurant can Patrick Bateman never book, though Paul Allen gets in with ease?

Dorsia is the table Bateman cannot land, and Paul Allen's easy access to it feeds his envy. In the stage musical his secretary names it when he offers her dinner anywhere she likes.

Which status symbols do Patrick Bateman and his colleagues compare at a meeting in American Psycho?

Business cards are passed around until the look of Paul Allen's leaves Bateman enraged. The stage musical turned the showdown into a song titled Cards.

Which Huey Lewis and the News hit does Patrick Bateman lecture Paul Allen about in American Psycho?

Hip to Be Square reached number three in the US, with San Francisco 49ers players singing backup. It was later pulled from the film's soundtrack album, which the band's manager said had used it without permission.

Which star is Patrick Bateman's neighbour in the novel American Psycho and inspired Christian Bale's portrayal?

Tom Cruise lives in the penthouse of Bateman's building in the novel. Bale watched him on a talk show and borrowed the manner he saw: intense friendliness that seemed to have little behind it.

Which star's casting as Patrick Bateman in 1998 got director Mary Harron fired from American Psycho?

Leonardo DiCaprio was the studio's pick, and Harron was replaced by Oliver Stone when she refused to drop Christian Bale. DiCaprio soon left to make The Beach, and both Harron and Bale were brought back.

Which Canadian city stood in for Manhattan during the American Psycho shoot, despite local protests?

Toronto hosted most of the filming, with only some outdoor scenes captured in the real New York. To dodge protesters, the crew kept the film's title off its daily call sheets and permits.

Which chore can leave American Psycho's Patrick Bateman near tears, as can a failed dinner reservation?

Returning videotapes is the errand Bateman frets over, a relic of the rental-store era. He claims to feel nothing at all, yet small hassles like this one bring on rage, panic or grief.

Which dance move, at first disliked by Bret Easton Ellis, did Christian Bale improvise in American Psycho?

The moonwalk was Bale's own idea on set and appears nowhere in the novel. Ellis disliked the addition when he first saw it but grew to appreciate it over time.

Which actor plays Donald Kimball, the detective hunting for Paul Allen, in the film American Psycho?

Willem Dafoe played each interview three ways: sure that Bateman was guilty, merely suspicious, and suspecting nothing. The takes were then blended so that viewers can never read the detective.

Which actress led the sequel American Psycho 2, a film she later said embarrassed her?

Mila Kunis plays a criminology student who murders her rivals for a teaching post. The script began as an unrelated thriller and was only tied to Patrick Bateman once production had begun.

Which actress plays Evelyn Williams, the fiancée Patrick Bateman despises, in American Psycho?

Reese Witherspoon got the part, although Mary Harron and Christian Bale also tried to persuade Winona Ryder to play it. The studio wanted recognisable faces around its little-known lead.

Which actor, kept out of a rehearsal so his shock would be real, plays Paul Allen in American Psycho?

Jared Leto was shut out of rehearsals for his character's death scene, so his startled look when Christian Bale ran at him was genuine. The stage blood involved meant only a few takes were possible.

Which weapon does Patrick Bateman use on a drunken Paul Allen in the film American Psycho?

An axe is what he swings, back at his own apartment. The shots had to be captured quickly, because the stage blood squirted at Christian Bale's face limited the number of takes.

Which US president appears in archive television footage in the final scene of the film American Psycho?

Ronald Reagan's 1987 Iran–Contra address plays as Bateman's friends idly discuss the president's persona. The novel's closing scene also puts reruns of his successor's inauguration on the bar's television.

Online memes hold up American Psycho's Patrick Bateman as the ideal example of which type of man?

Sigma male memes treat Bateman as a role model, largely among Generation Z viewers. That admiration sits oddly with a film many read as a harsh critique of capitalism.

Which Doctor Who star first played Patrick Bateman when the American Psycho musical opened in 2013?

Matt Smith led the premiere at the Almeida Theatre, where every ticket sold out. A Broadway version followed in 2016 but closed after only 54 regular performances.

Which TV serial killer uses the alias Dr. Patrick Bateman, a nod to American Psycho, to obtain drugs?

Dexter Morgan uses the Bateman alias to get hold of M-99, the drug with which he incapacitates his victims. A later sequel series revealed that Ellis's novel had been a formative read for him.

Before American Psycho, Christian Bale was best known for which Spielberg film, made when he was 13?

Empire of the Sun cast him, from more than 4,000 hopefuls, as a British boy in a wartime internment camp. A decade on he was still so little known that the studio resisted hiring him as Bateman.

What is Patrick Bateman's specialism in American Psycho, which one listener hears instead of a confession?

Mergers and acquisitions is his field at an investment bank. When he admits aloud what he really does, the words are taken for that job title, one of many times nobody truly listens to him.

Who receives Patrick Bateman's voicemail confession in American Psycho, only to laugh it off as a joke?

His lawyer, Harold Carnes, gets the message, in which Bateman owns up to around 40 murders. Carnes then mistakes him for somebody else and treats the whole thing as a prank.

A faked answering machine message in American Psycho says the missing Paul Allen has gone to which city?

London is the cover story Bateman records on Allen's own answering machine. It works too well: an acquaintance later insists he has dined with Allen there, leaving Bateman unsure what he really did.

Which firm employs Patrick Bateman in American Psycho, a name borrowed from The Bonfire of the Vanities?

Pierce & Pierce is where bond trader Sherman McCoy works in Tom Wolfe's 1987 novel of New York greed. Ellis reused the name for the investment bank where Bateman spends his days.

Which feminist critic of the novel American Psycho is the stepmother of the film's star, Christian Bale?

Gloria Steinem opposed the book over its portrayal of violence toward women. Ellis pointed out the family coincidence himself in a later mock memoir.

Which singer, whose solo work Patrick Bateman discusses in American Psycho, avoided the novel but enjoyed the film?

Phil Collins assumed the book simply glorified violence and never read it. When the film came out, he said, he thought it was very funny.

Which publisher dropped American Psycho just before its 1991 release, citing aesthetic differences?

Simon & Schuster had been due to publish it in March 1991 before pulling out. Vintage Books bought the rights instead, and Ellis later wrote that people assumed the book would end his career.

Paul Allen in the film American Psycho has which different surname in Bret Easton Ellis's novel?

Owen is his name on the page, one of several changes made for the screen. Evelyn Richards became Evelyn Williams, and Timothy Price turned into Timothy Bryce.

Which colleague of Patrick Bateman in American Psycho mistakes an attempted strangling for a romantic advance?

Luis Carruthers is secretly attracted to Bateman, so he reads the hands at his throat as affection, and a horrified Bateman flees. Bateman is also having an affair with his fiancée, Courtney.

Which actress plays Jean, the secretary Patrick Bateman cannot bring himself to harm, in American Psycho?

Chloë Sevigny said she had never seen an actor commit to a role as completely as Christian Bale. He stayed in character for the whole shoot and never socialised with the cast off camera.

At which film festival did American Psycho have its premiere, dividing its first audiences?

Sundance crowds split between those who praised the writing and Christian Bale and those repelled by the violence. The film was touted there as the next Fight Club.

American Psycho author Bret Easton Ellis grew up in which city, the setting of his debut Less than Zero?

Los Angeles and its rich, disaffected teenagers filled his first book, published when he was a 21-year-old student. He set American Psycho a continent away, among Manhattan bankers.

Which teen drama built an episode around the American Psycho musical, which its showrunner had scripted?

Riverdale chose the show for its yearly musical episode in 2022, titled American Psychos. Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa, who ran the series, had written the musical's book years earlier.

Which European country restricted sales of American Psycho for five years, judging the novel harmful to minors?

Germany severely limited how the book could be sold and marketed from 1995 to 2000. Australia classifies it R18, so shops there sell it shrink-wrapped and only to adults.

On which relative did Bret Easton Ellis first say American Psycho's Bateman was based, before admitting it was himself?

His father was the model he named when the novel came out. In 2010 Ellis said that had been a lie, and that the book was really about his own rage and loneliness at the time.

Bret Easton Ellis's unused American Psycho screenplay ended with a musical number atop which landmark?

The World Trade Center was to host an elaborate closing sequence set to a Barry Manilow song. Ellis felt the ending showed how tired he had grown of his own material.

Which watchmaker made American Psycho's director rewrite a line so that its brand went unspoken?

Rolex insisted, so on screen Bateman refers only to his watch and never names the make. American firms shunned the film, and even the European brands that helped set conditions.

A promotion for American Psycho let fans sign up for messages from Patrick Bateman in which form?

E-mails arrived as though Bateman were writing to his therapist, picking up his life after the film. In them he has married his former secretary and dotes on a young son.

Which star turned down the lead in American Psycho after Christian Bale personally urged him to refuse it?

Ewan McGregor said no after Bale rang and asked him not to take the part. When several other stars had also declined, the studio gave in and hired Bale, for a fee Mary Harron put at perhaps $50,000.

Which Canadian director was once attached to American Psycho, with Brad Pitt lined up to star?

David Cronenberg wanted a script of 70 pages at most, with the restaurant scenes and the violence removed. Ellis, hired to write it, thought the demands insane and ignored them.

Which critic gave American Psycho three stars out of four, praising its two women writers' perspective?

Roger Ebert argued that Mary Harron and Guinevere Turner showed Bateman as selfish male ego taken to an extreme, not as a baffling aberration. He also called Christian Bale's performance heroic.

Where did Bret Easton Ellis first see the words American Psycho, handing him a title for his novel?

A cinema marquee had run two listings together, American Anthem and Psycho III, because neither title would fit in full. Ellis knew at once that it was the name for the book he was writing.

Which bodily reaction could Christian Bale control on the American Psycho set, earning the name Robo-Actor?

Sweating on cue was the trick, spotted by Mary Harron and the cast while shooting a scene of boardroom rivalry. Bale also stayed in character and kept his American accent between takes.

Which Welsh co-founder of the Velvet Underground composed the score for the film American Psycho?

John Cale composed it in his studio on a sampler and had the music arranged for hired players. Mary Harron heard something soulful, even melancholy, in it beside the bright 1980s pop songs.

Which Spring Awakening songwriter wrote the music and lyrics for the stage musical of American Psycho?

Duncan Sheik gave the show an entirely electronic score, broken up by extracts from real 1980s hits. He had already won a Grammy for the songs of his earlier Broadway success.

In which later Bret Easton Ellis novel does American Psycho's Bateman haunt a fictional version of the author?

Lunar Park has its invented Ellis confess that writing American Psycho felt like channelling a violent spirit. He writes one last Bateman story to bring the character under control.

Which friend of Bret Easton Ellis created Alison Poole, a character who reappears in American Psycho?

Jay McInerney made her the narrator of his 1988 novel Story of My Life, basing her on a former girlfriend. Ellis borrowed her as one of Bateman's victims, then brought her back in Glamorama.

Which 1989 Nicolas Cage black comedy did Christian Bale draw on to play Patrick Bateman in American Psycho?

Vampire's Kiss stars Cage as a narcissistic New York yuppie who torments his secretary. In his trailer Bale also kept pictures of 1980s figures Bateman might imitate, Donald Trump among them.

How does the novel American Psycho's narration change during Patrick Bateman's shooting spree and chase?

It switches to third person, as if Bateman were watching himself, and the chase is described like a scene from a movie. Everywhere else he tells the story himself, in the present tense.

Which TV programme does Patrick Bateman watch in the novel American Psycho, its topics growing ever more absurd?

The Patty Winters Show is invented, and its subjects turn so bizarre that the later episodes seem to exist only in Bateman's head. It is one of the book's hints that he cannot be trusted.

Which Ivy League university did American Psycho's Patrick Bateman attend, for both college and graduate study?

Harvard followed his years at Phillips Exeter Academy, the elite prep school. His younger brother Sean took a different road, to a small liberal arts college in New England.

Which piece of breakfast cereal does Patrick Bateman see interviewed on television in the novel American Psycho?

A Cheerio in the guest's chair is one of the hallucinations that mark his collapse. He also believes a bench is stalking him and finds a bone in his Dove Bar.