Christian Bale Reveals He Earned Less Than Makeup Artists for ‘American Psycho’

American Psycho was a breakout role for Christian Bale, in many ways, but it didn’t make him rich. The actor talked about his past performances in a recent interview with GQ, revealing that he was paid “the absolute minimum they were legally allowed to pay me” for that movie. According to Bale, this was simply because no one besides the director thought he was right for the part.

Bale had starred in movies before American Psycho, including Stephen Spielberg’s Empire of the Sun, but by 2000 he still wasn’t exactly a household name. As Lionsgate was planning its adaptation of Bret Easton Ellis’ novel, he said that the studio wanted someone more recognizable to play Patrick Bateman – perhaps Leonardo DiCaprio, if possible. However, director Mary Harron wanted to cast Bale, and she fought on his behalf. Eventually, she was able to convince everyone else involved in the making of the film to let her cast Bale, but only if he was paid as little as possible.

“Nobody wanted me to do it except the director,” Bale explained. “So they said they would only make it if they could pay me that amount. I was prepping for it when other people were playing the part. I was still prepping for it.”

Bale need the work at the time, but he said the reduced payout was no small sacrifice for him. He said: “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.’ I remember one time sitting in the makeup trailer and the makeup artists were laughing at me because I was getting paid less than any of them. And so that was my motivation after that. Was just: ‘I got to get enough that the house doesn’t get repossessed.’”

Thankfully, American Psycho turned out to do more than keep Bale from homelessness. His performance stunned critics and made the movie itself about as successful as any R-rated slasher can hope to be. It gave Bale the clout to go after other leading man roles, and in a matter of years, he had won himself an Oscar.

Bale’s GQ interview is full of other interesting anecdotes from his long and legendary career. The 47-year-old actor has already starred in two movies in 2022, with a third one on the way. Thor: Love and Thunder is streaming now on Disney+ while Amsterdam is reportedly coming soon to Hulu. If you want to revisit Bale’s early work, American Psycho is streaming now on HBO Max.