Chloe Sevigny’s Struggles with Christian Bale’s Intense Method Acting on “American Psycho”

Chloe Sevigny has revealed she found Christian Bale’s intense method acting on American Psycho ‘challenging’.

Bale, 50, who played yuppy serial killer Patrick Bateman in the 2000 film, was famed for his rigorous process to embody the psychopath – with director Mary Harron previously revealing he even managed to sweat on cue for his takes.

Sevigny, 49 – who played his sweet assistant Jean – said she struggled with Bale’s process – telling Vanity Fair there was a ‘challenging dynamic’ on set which caused her to ‘shut down.’

She said: ‘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. 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. I was really intimidated by his process and intimidated by him, and I wanted a little more generosity to make myself feel more at ease, which is my own ego.

Bale also transformed his physique, spoke constantly in an American accent and refused to socialize with others on the set for the role, with Sevigny saying: ‘It was a really challenging dynamic for me, but I don’t think that I thought he was bad. [Laughs] I was just kind of confused, like, Why aren’t you being social? 

Chloe Sevigny has revealed she found Christian Bale’s intense method acting on American Psycho ‘challenging’ – pictured as Patrick Bateman and Jean in the 2000 movie

Bale, 50, was famed for his rigorous process to embody the serial killer – with director Mary Harron previously revealing he even managed to sweat on cue for his takes.

‘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.’

The star was interviewed alongside former American Psycho star Josh Lucas – who portrayed Bateman’s colleague Craig McDermott – with Lucas saying he initially thought Bale’s performance was ‘terrible’.

He said: ‘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*****g brilliant choice that he was making. 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.’

In 2004, Bale lost five stone to play emaciated insomniac Trevor Reznik in The Machinist by barely sleeping and surviving on a diet of coffee and apples.

After landing the role of the Caped Crusader in Batman Begins soon after, Christian swiftly bulked up his tiny 121 pound (8st 6lb) frame in just six weeks.

In 2022 Bale revealed he got paid even less than the makeup artists working on the film.

In an interview with GQ, Bale recalled getting laughed at by makeup artists over the pay gap and claimed he was being paid the legally minimum amount. 

The star was interviewed alongside former American Psycho star Josh Lucas – who portrayed Bateman’s colleague Craig McDermott (right) – with Lucas saying he initially thought Bale’s performance was ‘terrible’

In 2022 Bale revealed he got paid even less than the makeup artists working on the film 

‘They had paid me the absolute minimum they were legally allowed to pay me,’ he told the magazine. ‘And I had a house that I was sharing with my dad and my sister and that was getting repossessed.

‘So the first thing was: “Holy crap. I’ve got to get a bit of money,” because I’ve got American Psycho done, but I remember one time sitting in the make-up trailer and the make-up artists were laughing at me because I was getting paid less than any of them.

‘And so that was my motivation after that. It was just: “I got to get enough that the house doesn’t get repossessed.”‘