Christian Bale acted a little too crazy for Chloë Sevigny’s liking when they filmed “American Psycho.”
Sevigny, 49, and co-star Josh Lucas did an interview with Vanity Fair and looked back on how Bale, 50, used method acting when playing serial killer Patrick Bateman in the 2000 psychological horror film.
“I was trying to respect his process, which I found challenging because I’m very gregarious and silly and goofy, unbeknownst to the general public,” Sevigny said in the interview published June 7.
“When people take themselves so seriously, I kind of shut down, even though I take my work very seriously and I love acting and whatnot,” she added.
The “Feud: Capote Vs. The Swans” star admitted she was “really intimidated” by Bale’s method acting approach.
“And I wanted a little more generosity to make myself feel more at ease, which is my own ego,” Sevigny shared. “It was a really challenging dynamic for me, but I don’t think that I thought he was bad. I was just kind of confused, like, ‘Why aren’t you being social?’ “
The actress continued: “I wasn’t even that aware of what the method thing was. I never had any formal training; I think I was just kind of ‘fake it until you make it.’ But the whole method thing, I was like, ‘What even is this approach?’ It was very intimidating.”
Sevigny played Patrick Bateman’s secretary at an investment banking company in the film, while Lucas, 52, played one of his colleagues. Justin Theroux, Reese Witherspoon, Willem Dafoe and Jared Leto also starred.
Lucas told Vanity Fair he didn’t understand Bale doing method acting at first either.
“I remember the first scene I did with him, I watched him and he seemed so false—and I now realize that it was this just f–king brilliant choice that he was making,” said Lucas. “That was an actor who was at such a completely different level already, and that he was capable of having these crazy layers going on in what he was doing. I thought it was bogus acting at the time, but was exactly the opposite.”
The “Palm Royale” star said that now she has “nothing but admiration” for Bale, “because a lot of method actors are actually kind of distracting with the fact that their process is more important than anything or anybody else.”
Sevigny admitted she’s “surprised” Bale does the technique considering he started in the business as a kid.
“It’s not like he studied in college and then became this method-y, Brando-y kind of thing. He found this journey from being a child actor to then an adult actor that I think is a really interesting trajectory, and I’m curious about that,” she said.
Bale received widespread praise for his performance in “American Psycho.” However, the film did not receive a single Oscar nomination.
In an interview with Movie Maker last year, Bale said that he learned from Lucas that the “American Psycho” cast were not huge fans of his.
He informed me that all of the other actors thought that I was the worst actor they’d ever seen,” said Bale. “He was telling me they kept looking at me and talking about me, saying, ‘Why did [director] Mary [Harron] fight for this guy? He’s terrible.’ And it wasn’t until he saw the film that he changed his mind. And I was in the dark completely about that critique.”
