Tom Cruise's Eyes Inspired 'Psycho' Bale

Filed under: Gut Reactions, Movie News

When Christian Bale went for broke with the homicide-happy Patrick Bateman in 'American Psycho,' he didn't study Charles Manson or Jeffrey Dahmer to get into character -- it was Tom Cruise that guided him. According to the film's director, Cruise's "intense friendliness with nothing behind the eyes" was what Bale based his character on. Watch Bale Get His Business Card Envying 'Psycho' On >>>
In an interview with BlackBook, 'Psycho' director Mary Herron discusses how she and Bale went about crafting the delusional and homicidal Bateman character. "We talked about how Martian-like Patrick Bateman was, how he was looking at the world like somebody from another planet, watching what people did and trying to work out the right way to behave," Harron tells BlackBook.

So how exactly does that relate to Cruise, you ask?

"And then one day he [Bale] called me and he had been watching Tom Cruise on David Letterman, and he just had this very intense friendliness with nothing behind the eyes, and he was really taken with this energy," Herron said.