Patrick Bateman isn’t any function mannequin.
“American Psycho” director Mary Harron advised Letterboxd Journal in a brand new interview for the movie’s twenty fifth anniversary that she disagrees with the followers who aspire to be like Christian Bale’s iconic serial killer character.
“I’m always so mystified by it,” mentioned Harron about Patrick Bateman being embraced on social media at the moment. “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,” the director continued. “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.”
Harron acknowledged that Bateman’s rising reputation is due to “memes” and “TikTok,” in addition to the funding banker-turned-murderer “being handsome and wearing good suits and having money and power.”
“But at the same time, he’s played as somebody dorky and ridiculous,” she famous. “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.”
The filmmaker additionally mentioned she thinks the boys who’re championing Bateman missed the purpose of the 2000 film
“It was very clear to me and Guinevere, who is gay, that we saw it as a gay man’s satire on masculinity,” she shared. “[Author Bret Easton 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.”
“There’s something very, very gay about the way they’re fetishizing looks and the gym,” Harron added.
Primarily based on Ellis’ 1991 novel, Harron’s satirical movie “was about a predatory society,” she advised Letterboxd Journal. The screenwriter added that “now the society is actually, 25 years later, much worse.”
“The rich are much richer, the poor are poorer,” Harron mentioned. “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.”
An “American Psycho” adaptation is at present within the works with director Luca Guadagnino. “Elvis” star Austin Butler is ready to play Patrick Bateman.
