Tom Cruise inspired Christian Bale's American Psycho

Movie director Mary Harron says Bale based psychopathic character on Cruise

Remember Christian Bale's chilling portrayal of a serial killer in American Psycho? If you don't, you might be inclined to look it up, since the director of the 2000 movie has revealed Bale based his portrayal of psychotic banker Patrick Bateman on none other than Tom Cruise.

Speaking in an interview with BlackBook, Mary Harron explained that although Bale was initially uncertain about how to approach the character, he soon found inspiration after watching a David Letterman interview with Tom Cruise.

'We talked about how Martian-like Patrick Bateman was, how he was looking at the world like somebody from another planet and watching what people did and trying to work out the right way to behave,' she told the magazine.

'And then one day [Christian] 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 his energy.'

Now, now, Christian, you're not the only one to put Tom Cruise down as a bit odd. We certainly did, after all that sofa-jumping. But psychopathic? Bit harsh.