Chloë Sevigny recalls ‘challenging dynamic’ with ‘intimidating’ Christian Bale on American Psycho set

‘I wanted a little more generosity to make myself feel more at ease, which is my own ego,’ said the actor of her time acting opposite Bale

Chloë Sevigny has recalled being “very intimidated” by Christian Bale on set for American Psycho.

The 2000 cult classic, directed by Mary Harron and based on the 1991 novel by Bret Easton Ellis, starred Bale as a wealthy investment banker psychopath who leads a double life as a serial killer.

Sevigny, Josh Lucas, Reese Witherspoon, and Justin Theroux also appeared in the movie.

In a new interview with Lucas, Sevigny, 49, reminisced about her time on set working with Bale.

“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,” she told Vanity Fair.

“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.”

Bale is known for going to extreme measures for his roles, with Sevigny saying that she was “really intimidated by his process and intimidated by him”.

“I wanted a little more generosity to make myself feel more at ease, which is my own ego. It was a really challenging dynamic for me, but I don’t think that I thought he was bad,” she said.

Christian Bale in the ‘watered down, secondhand version’ of Bret Easton Ellis’s ‘American Psycho' (Shutterstock)

The American Horror Story star went on to explain that she was initially unaware of what Method acting was, and so was confused by Bale’s demeanour on set.

“I was just kind of confused, like, ‘Why aren’t you being social?’ I wasn’t even that aware of what the Method thing was,” she continued.

“ 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.”

(Rex)

Meanwhile, Lucas said he did not share Sevigny’s views on the subject because he had thought Bale was “terrible” in the film – before realising that his performance was intended to be subversive.

“I remember the first scene I did with him, I watched him and he seemed so false — and I now realise that it was this just f***ing brilliant choice that he was making,” Lucas said.

“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 it was exactly the opposite.”

American Psycho is not the only film for which Bale went to great lengths. For his performance as insomniac Trevor Reznik in 2004’s The Machinist, the actor reportedly lost over 30kg and slept only two hours a night.