Latest news with #Feminist
NZ Herald
06-08-2025
- Entertainment
- NZ Herald
Book of the day: Rejection by Tony Tulathimutte
Listening to articles is free for open-access content—explore other articles or learn more about text-to-speech. Tony Tulathimutte: Witty, courageous, often brutal. Photos / Supplied What does literary fiction have to offer the chronically online ‒ people who spend more time gaming, gooning and doomscrolling than reading? And what do the chronically online have to offer fiction writers; what plot points can be crafted from our inaction, what motivation from our compulsive sating of surface desires? There are reasons fiction hasn't kept pace with the changing ways we live. Thai-American author Tony Tulathimutte, who's 41, nevertheless plays catch-up in his book of stories, Rejection, upping the difficulty by casting powerfully self-pitying, misanthropic, misogynistic and malevolent characters, people who not only experience rejection but come to identify as rejects. In the opening story, The Feminist, we meet a 'nice guy', a gender studies major who, despite devoting all his energy to understanding women, just can't get laid. The Feminist blames his narrow shoulders, but it's socially that he's most underdeveloped; flirtation's 'subtextual cues no more perceptible to him than ultraviolet radiation'. The Feminist is comically desperate to come across as an ally, his online dating profile leading with 'Unshakeably serious about consent. Abortion's #1 fan'. Despite virtue-skywriting in public, he privately stews about the broad-shouldered guys getting the girls. 'Dragging his virginity like a body bag,' the wound of rejection turns septic and he adopts an incel's checklist of obsessions and anxieties: depo-testosterone, canthal tilt, death-grip syndrome. Given a wake-up call on the Narrow Shoulders/Open Minds (NSOM) blog, The Feminist slams the phone. Having done everything right, in his view, for the past 40-something years, he comments, calling out the 'mass abrogation of the social contract by the legions of treacherous, evasive, giggling yeastbuckets'. Villain arc completed, what he does next further ties The Feminist to Elliot Rodger, the socially impaired, slender-framed, self-described 'sophisticated polite gentleman', whose lack of the sexual and romantic attention he felt he deserved drove him to kill six people and injure more in Isla Vista, California in 2014. Several of the stories in Rejection work this way. Tulathimutte presents marginal personalities, caricatures played for laughs in TV series such as Girls and High Maintenance, and keeps adding detail, cross-hatching in the darkest recesses of their minds. In Pics, love-starved Alison spirals after having supposedly no-strings-attached sex with a pal, 'occasionally posting a cryptic song lyric, ones where if he went and looked up the line right after it, he'd see it was about him and hopefully be devastated'. She complains in her friend group chat, dates a string of men she saves to her phone as icks (Mesh Shorts, Mr Gifs, The Feminist) and buys a raven in a cuckoo attempt to stave off loneliness. All of it – pal, friend group, lovers, even the bird – gets swallowed by the validation-consuming vacuum inside her. Eminently vulnerable, Alison is love-bombed, gaslit and economically entrapped by a tech bro named Max in the story Our dope future. With all the room-reading powers of Elon Musk, Max relates the tale of their failed relationship on a site like Reddit, underscoring his rizz, generosity and drive, including the desire to have at least a dozen kids using IVF ('four per gestation cycle would strike the ideal balance between fast and reliable'.) Learning in the comments that he's not just the OP (original poster) but an op (the opposition) doesn't compute: 'If everything I did was so evil, how is it that up until now not a single person ever told me No?' The protagonist of Ahegao, or The Ballad of Sexual Repression, is a closeted gay sadist named Kant who's as blinded by self-loathing as Max is by narcissism. Deciding it's the only way he can satisfy his hideous desires, he commissions impossibly depraved pornography – the kind that can be realised only by using special effects – from an OnlyFans-esque creator. The script, which makes Sam Rockwell's sex monologue in White Lotus seem tame, is a Chekhov's gun of humiliation just waiting to go off. Where Kant excessively identifies with his kinks, his sibling Bee abandons identity altogether. They sell their gender to a kid named Sean for $22, noting, in a sublime turn of phrase, that 'before I learned gender was fluid, I'd learned it was liquid'. Refusing even to identify as non-binary, Bee infuriates well-meaning, category-obsessed classmates. Disgusted by 'bad-faith identity-cels' and confident that 'discourse is loneliness disguised as war', Bee dedicates theirselves to elaborate online trolling operations, like The Joker with a Twitter account. Tulathimutte is extremely witty, his knowledge of the digital discourse-loneliness-war way beyond Wikipedic, but oof, Rejection is brutal, the characters so mercilessly denied love, hope and redemption. They wallow in grievance, weaponising it, like Trump voters or Netanyahu apologists. It's a temptation available to us all; to enumerate your grievances and find them wanting only helps level the score. In the final tale, Re: Rejection, Tulathimutte imagines us disliking not only his characters but the book itself. It's a rejection letter written by a fictional publisher who wonders if the manuscript isn't 'trying to espouse the conventional literary virtues of insight, empathy, fun and so on' because the author is deliberately soliciting rejection. In that regard, Rejection is a failure. All the poisonous Ivy League-level black-pilled rumination will leave you with a rash, but the book is also compelling, courageous and unusually engaged with the growing portion of people who feel abandoned, left out and looked over. Rejection, by Tony Tulathimutte (HarperCollins, $24.99), is out now.
The Herald Scotland
06-08-2025
- Politics
- The Herald Scotland
Why does Scotland continue to drive female leaders out of politics?
Particularly irksome to them is the 'misguided' notion that Scotland is, by its nature, more egalitarian and socially progressive than the more backward thinking rest of the UK. Today they will be strutting with a little more purpose, their nostrils sucking in the Scottish air more vigorously, following the announcement by deputy first minister Kate Forbes that she will be standing down at next year's election. Back in the late 1990s, the founding mothers and fathers of the Scottish Parliament made a point of stressing that it would do things differently, by which they meant better. Read More: The institution, its processes and schedules, were all designed with this in mind and, top of the list, was the way in which it would treat women. Westminster, with its late night sittings, lack of childcare facilities and in-built biases against the participation of female members, was cited as an example of how not to do things. A quarter of a century on, if the way in which Holyrood appears to treat its women leaders is anything to go by, it has signally failed. Ms Forbes is the latest in a long line of senior female figures – including Wendy Alexander, Kezia Dugdale, Annabelle Goldie, Ruth Davidson, and Nicola Sturgeon – who have prematurely quit frontline politics. While all will have had their own personal reasons for doing so, there is an unavoidable pattern of women leaving, not just their leadership positions, earlier than they might have done, but the parliament and, in some cases, politics altogether, What is it about Scotland that seemingly makes it so difficult for women to achieve high political office and, when they get there, to remain? From the start, Holyrood was designed with inclusivity in mind, incorporating family-friendly procedures such as aligning sittings with school holidays and ensuring accessible working hours. The establishment of an equal opportunities committee and an equality unit within the Scottish Executive demonstrated a commitment to embedding gender equality into its governance. Additionally, gender mainstreaming was prioritised in policy and budgetary decisions. Women's groups campaigned vigorously for equal representation, leading to a significant rise in female MSPs – 37.2% in the first election, a marked improvement over UK-wide trends. Though a legal 50:50 quota was unattainable, party-level measures, such as voluntary targets, helped boost women's participation. Feminist influences also shaped the Parliament's "new politics" ethos, emphasising consensus and accessibility. The parliament also pioneered progressive policies, such as a robust violence against women framework, developed with organisations like Scottish Women's Aid, while consultation mechanisms ensured that women's voices were integrated into legislation. Ms Goldie was the first woman to head a party at [[Holyrood]] when she was elected leader of the Scottish Conservatives in 2005, a post she held until 2011 when Ms Davidson succeeded her. Ms Alexander succeeded Jack McConnell as leader of Scottish Labour in September 2007, but lasted less than a year in office. All three are now members of the House of Lords. Ms Dugdale, who led the [[Scottish Labour]] Party for 18 months between 20014 and 2016, now works in academia while Ms Sturgeon, who was SNP first minister for more than eight years, before resigning in March 2023, plans to stand down at next year's election to pursue a career in writing. Ms Forbes cited family reasons for her decision to quit politics, saying she wants to see more of her children growing up. Ms Davidson also expressed a desire to achieve a better work-life balance as a reason for resigning. But none of the other women did so and besides, the Scottish Parliament was meant to make it easier for young mothers to pursue a career while raising a family. Though she understandably failed to make any mention of it, Ms Forbes' socially conservative views on issues such as abortion and transgender rights have long placed at her at odds with current thinking in the SNP. The latter has created a hostile environment within the party for those who share her views, including gender critical figures like Joanna Cherry, ironically created by Ms Sturgeon who is quitting politics for what she claims are wholly different reasons. Across all levels of politics, women tend to stay in politics for shorter periods than men due to a combination of cultural, structural, and practical barriers. Sexist and misogynistic behaviours – ranging from everyday condescension to outright harassment – create a toxic culture that drives women away. The murders of MPs Jo Cox and David Amess in their constituencies have forced MPs of both sexes to pay greater attention to their personal security and that of their families. Many female politicians report being marginalised, ignored, or subjected to derogatory comments, both in person and online, with inadequate mechanisms to address these issues. The toxic culture is compounded by a lack of accountability, leaving women to navigate these challenges without sufficient support. Structural barriers, including low pay and inflexible working conditions, disproportionately affect women. Councillors, for example, often work full-time hours for wages below the living wage, forcing many to take on additional jobs – a situation that is especially difficult for women with caregiving responsibilities. The unpredictable schedule of political work clashes with traditional caregiving roles, which still fall predominantly on women. Additionally, physical accessibility issues and a lack of family-friendly policies further exclude underrepresented groups, including disabled women and women of colour, who face intersecting forms of discrimination. The absence of mentorship and professional development opportunities also hinders women's long-term political careers. Unlike men, who often transition into higher political roles, women are more likely to leave office and return to grassroots work. The premature exodus of women from all levels of politics, not just senior leadership roles, cannot be dismissed as coincidence, and is something to which we should all take exception. Carlos Alba is a journalist, author, and PR consultant at Carlos Alba Media. His latest novel, There's a Problem with Dad, explores the issue of undiagnosed autism among older people
Buzz Feed
03-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Buzz Feed
Fina Strazza On 'John Proctor' Broadway Success
John Proctor Is The Villain is one of Broadway's most buzzed-about plays. In the coming-of-age story, a group of students begin studying The Crucible at the start of the #MeToo movement. As a series of events come to light, the students question their perspective on The Crucible and their own lives. Nominated for Best Featured Actress in a Play, Fina Strazza portrays Beth, the serious but sweet leader of the newly formed Feminist club. With the Tony Awards right around the corner, I hopped on Zoom with Fina to learn more about her experience in John Proctor Is The Villain, and the new Netflix film Fear Street: Prom is a spoiler-free This interview has been edited for length and clarity. Did you read The Crucible before auditioning for John Proctor Is The Villain? Fina: I never read The Crucible in high school, but I read it once I found out I would be doing John Proctor. I didn't actually ever audition. I did a workshop of it two years ago with Danya [Taymor, the director], Kimberly [Belflower, the playwright], and Sadie [Sink, who plays Shelby]. During our first week of rehearsal, Danya assigned each of us a character from The Crucible that aligned with our character in John Proctor Is the Villain, and we read it aloud. I also watched the movie with Winona Ryder and Daniel Day-Lewis, and there's something very particular about seeing a production like that. The movie is kind of able to skew your perspective just in the way it's edited, and in the way that they portray the story. It kind of lights a very harsh light on Abigail, and she does seem like this sort of 'villain' character, where John Proctor comes out looking like the hero. Reading the play out loud with my castmates is what really skewed my perspective into seeing John Proctor under a different light. Something really awesome about this show is that even though it has this very direct and very assertive title, it's not necessarily aiming to be this declaration that there is one perspective on The Crucible, and that John Proctor is this bad guy. It's more about being open to opposing perspectives and reevaluating these historical texts, allowing the possibility that some heroes may not be as heroic as we think they are. Through this whole process, I've been able to have multiple perspectives on The Crucible. I've learned that it's a really rich story, and there are a lot of different discussions to be had about it. I loved the use of music in John Proctor, like Lorde's "Green Light." What is your connection to the music used in the play? Do you sing and write music yourself? Fina: I'm not as much of a songwriter, but I do love to sing. I'm kind of a walking radio. I grew up doing musical theater. I started on Broadway in Matilda, way back when, so my heart has always been with the music. I didn't grow up listening to Taylor Swift and Lorde as much as these girls did. But I think there's something so wonderful about how deeply these teenage girls connect over music. Even though those weren't the songs that I grew up with, I also have songs I have a visceral connection to. My best friends in high school, our dance, our "Green Light," would have been "Shut Up and Dance" [by Walk The Moon]. That song was everything to us, and it forever reminds me of these girls who shaped my entire childhood. I just had dinner with them last night and talked about the song again, because it's this integral part of our upbringing. I think it's really awesome how much the show highlights the importance of music, the connection it causes, and how it becomes this core memory. You mentioned that you workshopped the play with Danya and Sadie. Were you always considered for the role of Beth, or did you ever consider other parts? Fina: I recently found this out — I believe Danya and Kimberly had seen a tape of me auditioning for another play, and then invited me to work on this workshop with them.I knew only about Beth because that was my introduction to the show. I wasn't familiar with other characters before being cast as Beth, but I don't see myself connecting with any other role in the same way. I think I feel a very deep connection to Beth. I've also had a lot of conversations with our playwright, Kimberly Belflower, about how she sees herself in Beth, and how Beth is kind of inspired by her younger self. I feel very close to Kimberly through that, and I feel very close to the show. There's this pride that I take in bringing this role to life, and I couldn't see it any other way. Everybody is where they're meant to be, and it is like this beautiful symphony that we play every night. That's what Danya always says, we are like this nine-piece orchestra, all tuned perfectly. Beth's character evolves quite a bit, especially in Act 2. How do you feel your performance has evolved over time? Fina: You'll be doing the show one night and feel like you've really gotten it, and you'll feel like, "Wow, I can't imagine learning more about this character — I'm so a part of her already!" Then the next week, you're like, "Oh my gosh, my world is opening even more!" It's a really awesome thing that happens when you're doing a show. I can only imagine that the more I do it, the more I'll feel you continue, there's just so much more to learn. There's something about Beth where she can come off as a little naive at times and have a few slip-ups throughout her arc, where she might not, in my opinion, have the right perspective on an actor, it can be hard to let your character have those mishaps and let her be seen in this negative way by the audience for a moment. The more I've done the show, the more I realize the benefit of leaning into those uglier moments. That can be really hard to do, because I'm on stage, and our audience has been super vocal. When they don't like someone, they tell us. There have been people in the front row who say, "Girl, what are you doing?" audibly, which is hilarious, but it can be hard to lean into those more difficult moments. I think I'm learning to let her have her mistakes, and then it'll have a better outcome in the end. I've always wondered what it's like to be on a Broadway stage. What is that feeling for you when you step on stage? Fina: I was on Broadway when I was younger. It was 11 years ago now, and the last time I did theater was 7 years ago. After Matilda, I did off-Broadway and some out-of-town opens. I did theater a lot as a child, and as a kid, I always thought of it as the world's best playground. To me, the audience was never really there, and I was just always having a lot of fun. I was 8 years old when I was last on Broadway; I don't think it was possible for me to realize the weight of what I was doing. In these past years, I've often wished I just understood it a little bit more, so I could have appreciated those moments on stage a little more. Now I'm making sure I'm soaking everything up in our rehearsals and through our previews and during tech. Every time I'm on stage, I want to savor every moment. I think there's a real gratitude to being on stage.I've done film and TV, and obviously, the audience isn't right there, so it's hard to see who is taking the time to watch you and absorb your work. So there's this gratitude when you're on stage, because the people who have paid to be there are sat right in front of you. They're there for the 2 hours, and they're locked in, and they're in their seats, and there's just something really special about that. I think there's this constant wheel of gratitude being an actor on who plays Lee, said there's something awesome about having the audience right there — they feel like they can change what happens, and like they have this agency where they can change the story. They kind of do. Depending on how much they're reacting, if they're an audience who laughs more, or if they're crying more, it does alter the way we play into them, and the way that we hit certain beats. It is this ebb and flow, and it becomes this cool, symbiotic relationship. Do you have any favorite memories with the cast? Fina: Danya is such a great physical director. We did a lot of work with the script to start off the process, but she did it in a very fun way, so it didn't feel like we're just sat at a table doing table one of our first days of rehearsal, she had us all come in, and she said we're gonna work on the script today — except she pointed at Sadie, and she was like, "You're gonna play Mr. Smith." Gabe, who plays Mr. Smith, was gonna play Shelby, and I ended up playing Lee. Maggie Kuntz, who plays Ivy, ended up playing Raelynn, and we were all just jumbled. It was a really awesome way to receive your character and be an audience for the words that you were going to be speaking. You had a chance to see someone else's acting choices on your role, surrendering to those choices, and maybe taking inspiration from them. You also gain respect for other people's roles, being like, "Oh, this is a hard scene to do — you're gonna have to do this every night!" I've never had a director do that before, and afterwards, it was this very jovial experience where we kind of had this understanding of one another's paths and tracks. It was a really fun day. It also led to a lot of laughter, because Sadie was playing a grown man, and I think Hagan, who plays Lee, was playing Miss Gallagher, and it was just these miscast funny times. I really enjoyed that. Huge congratulations to you, the cast, and the crew! You're the youngest Tony nominee this year; what was your reaction to hearing your nomination for Best Featured Actress in a Play? Fina: When you're waiting for news like that, there's this roller coaster you send yourself on the whole week leading up to it, feeling guilty that you even think it's a consideration. Because you're like, "Who am I to think that? I shouldn't even be worried about this!" Then you're at a high point in the day, and you're thinking, "Oh, maybe it could happen!" Then you plummet back down to, "Who do I think I am?"I'd already been on this wild ride of emotions for the week leading up to it, so on the day of, I was like, "Maybe I should just get some sleep. I won't watch the broadcast, I won't set an alarm." But I ended up naturally waking up at the time that it started. My feed was delayed, so I didn't even see my category come up on screen, and before anything was announced on my end, my phone just started blowing up. I picked up a phone call from my mom, and she was the one who told me, she was like, "You're nominated, you're nominated!" and immediately, I kinda blacked out, you know, I don't remember so much after that. I grew up in New York, and Broadway, and the Tonys have always been the biggest thing for me. I know every single word to Neil Patrick Harris's 2013 Tony opening — that is peak theater. I think I'm still not really able to comprehend what this moment means. Every event that I've gotten to go to so far for the nominees, I kind of feel like I've been given this all-access fan pass. I'm just looking at everybody around me, and I'm like, these are the people that I grew up with. These are the people that my mom would show me doing their cabaret shows on YouTube, and just none of it feels real. It's all been very surreal. I watched Fear Street: Prom Queen on Netflix last night, and it was terrifying. Tiffany is a much different character from Beth. Was it a fun experience getting to do a horror film? Fina: Yeah, it was very, very, very different. I had never played a mean girl before, so this was a very exciting challenge. I was able to just have a lot of fun on this shoot. I ended up becoming very close friends with the entire cast. We had around 15 principal cast members on set every day, and we became this really tightly knit pack. We started basically filming this movie in between our conversations with each other. I don't think that Tiffany and Beth would get along so well, but they're both fun to play in their different rights. Did you get to meet R.L. Stine? Fina: You know, he was supposed to make a cameo in the film, but he was sick, and it was on the day that we were filming in the diner. He couldn't make it, and so someone from his estate came instead, on his behalf, to say hi. John Proctor Is the Villain is an incredible play. What do you hope audiences take away from your performance? Fina: I feel like the phrase that I keep repeating throughout this whole process is just, "Whose life am I living?" That's what this whole process has felt like. There's been something very spiritual and witchy about all of it that feels like I've been granted a magical luck spell. I hope that audiences are moved by the show and by my performance.I received a letter from someone at the stage door the other day that was really meaningful and made me feel like Beth was doing something right. It said a similar instance that happens in the show happened to her in high school, and she reacted to the situation similarly to how Beth does. Through the show, and through Beth, she was able to grant her younger self some forgiveness for the way she acted, because she didn't know any better, and she was just acting on what she'd been taught. Just to know that someone was moved by the show enough to connect it back to their own selves was really awesome. It's always important to grant your younger self some forgiveness — to feel connected to your personal self and allow your younger self to take up some space and be granted some forgiveness and healing. Thank you, Fina, for sharing great insight! See John Proctor Is The Villain at the Booth Theatre until July 13th, and keep up with Fina on Instagram. If you like horror, don't miss Fear Street: Prom Queen on Netflix.
The Hindu
19-05-2025
- Science
- The Hindu
Seeking answers through epistemology!
Epistemology, derived from the Greek words episteme, meaning knowledge, and logos, meaning reason or argument, is a branch of philosophy concerned with the nature, scope, and sources of knowledge. It is also known as the theory of knowledge. It seeks to answer questions such as: What is knowledge? And how do we know what we know? Apart from influencing philosophical thought, these fundamental questions have an impact on a wide range of fields, including science, education, law, and artificial intelligence. Understanding epistemology better At its core, epistemology is concerned with distinguishing knowledge from belief. Traditionally, knowledge has been defined as 'justified true belief'. This definition suggests that for someone to know a proposition, three criteria must be met: 1. Belief – The person must believe the proposition. 2. Truth – The proposition must be true. 3. Justification – The person must have good reasons or evidence for the belief. This definition, long accepted in philosophical circles, was famously challenged by Edmund Gettier in his 1963 paper 'Is Justified True Belief Knowledge?' Gettier presented cases in which individuals had beliefs that were justified and true but arrived at by accident or through faulty reasoning, raising doubts about whether such beliefs constitute knowledge. For example, if someone sees a clock that has stopped but it happens to be showing the right or correct time by coincidence, they have a belief that is both justified and true, but intuitively, we hesitate to say they know the time. They just accidentally got to know the right time by pure coincidence. Sources of Knowledge Epistemologists also examine the sources through which knowledge is obtained. These include perception, reason, testimony, memory and introspection. Epistemology in the modern world Epistemology is extremely important in the 21st Century amid concerns about misinformation, propaganda, and the proliferation of digital media. Questions about who we trust and why we trust them, how knowledge is validated, and the role of expertise all hinge on epistemological principles. Social epistemology, a growing subfield, examines knowledge as a collective achievement and explores how institutions, social norms, and technologies influence knowledge production and dissemination. Epistemology and equality Feminist epistemology argues that one's social position affects what and how one knows certain knowledge. They emphasise the importance of diversity in knowledge practices. For example, taking into consideration the experiences of someone from the queer community is extremely important while analysing the knowledge they have. Epistemology, as the study of knowledge, is both a foundational and dynamic area of philosophy. From ancient enquiries into truth and belief to contemporary challenges like fake news and epistemic injustice, epistemology remains vital to understanding how we navigate the world and make informed decisions. Whether we are evaluating scientific claims, engaging in public debate, or simply wondering what we can trust, epistemological questions are never far away. As such, epistemology not only enriches philosophical inquiry but also empowers individuals and societies to think critically and responsibly. On a more personal level, the philosophy also helps you see knowledge as a journey rather than a destination. It helps you be less quick to judge others, realising that everyone interprets reality through their epistemic lens, built from upbringing, culture, and experience. It helped you stop seeing opposing views as wrong and start seeing them as differently justified. Epistemology teaches one to be curious rather than dogmatic, to listen rather than assume, and to approach every claim, not with cynicism, but with careful, compassionate scepticism. It teaches you that knowing is not about conquering doubt but learning to live with it—gracefully, honestly, and humbly. And maybe, just maybe, that's the truest kind of knowledge we can hope for!
Yahoo
11-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
American Psycho: An Oral History, 25 Years After Its Divisive Debut
American Psycho arrived in theaters 25 years ago this week. In honor of that we're re-sharing the American Psycho oral history we first ran in January 2020, with no edits or updates. Enjoy.—MM When director Mary Harron first sent Christian Bale the script for American Psycho, he didn't know much about it — except that it was based on a Bret Easton Ellis novel that made people mad. 'I had no idea what to expect. I had not read the book at that time. I had heard of the controversy, people calling for it to be banned, and I was not expecting what I read,' Bale told MovieMaker. 'As I read it, I was exploding with laughter. And I didn't know if that was Mary's intent.' Related Headlines 20 Behind the Scenes Stories of Airplane, Maybe the Funniest Movie Ever Made 12 Actors Who Held Their Breath Underwater for an Extraordinarily Long Time Dr. No: 12 Behind the Scenes Photos From the First 007 Film Bale proceeded with caution: 'I spoke with her on the phone, and I said, 'I've just got to get this over with, because this might end our conversation and insult you. But I find this to be one of the most ridiculous and hilarious scripts.' And she went, 'Bingo. That's it. Please fly out to meet me.'' Lots of people aren't sure, at first, how to take American Psycho. When the film premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, almost no one was ready to accept it. It was released in theaters on April 14, 2000. 'The amount of hostility at Sundance really did take me aback,' says Harron. 'The audience just sat there and did not know how to react. Because this little group of us, the editor, me, Christian, a few other people—we were laughing away. We knew the scenes that are meant to be funny are funny.' Adds Guinevere Turner, Harron's co-writer on the film: 'I was supposed to have dinner that night with Kevin Smith. And I was listening to a message from him—he'd gone to the screening—and he said, 'I don't feel well, I'm not going to be able to make dinner.' And I was like, oh, that's weird. And years later he told me, 'I hated that movie so much that I couldn't have dinner with you. I didn't know what I was going to say. And then I saw it on cable and I realized it's actually genius.'' Ellis has always explained that his novel American Psycho is a darkly comic satire of the shallow, greedy men he too-often encountered as a young novelist in 1980s Manhattan. Wall Street serial killer Patrick Bateman, the lead character played by Bale in the film, delivers trite Top 40 critiques and catalogues his rapes and murders in the same disembodied tone. No one believes he's a killer because he looks just like everyone else in his coterie of well-dressed, handsome stock bros. He reveres Donald Trump. But long before the rise of cancel culture, the novel stood out for its capacity to divide and offend. Feminist icon Gloria Steinem and members of the National Organization of Women strongly objected to the book in part because of leaked excerpts—removed from the context of the satire that fills most of the pages—that depicted horrific violence against women. Ellis, disappointed in the film adaptation of his first novel, Less Than Zero, was surprised anyone wanted the movie rights to American Psycho, a book he considered potentially un-filmable. 'There was not a line, believe me, of people who wanted to produce this movie,' Ellis says. And yet the book eventually passed through many screenwriters, directors and stars, from Ellis to David Cronenberg to Oliver Stone. At one point, Leonardo DiCaprio was cast as Patrick Bateman. And Harron became perhaps the only movie director ever to quit rather than work with DiCaprio. Here is MovieMaker's oral history of American Psycho. , the novel Objections to the book led to its cancellation by its original publisher in 1990. But the attention helped it become a bestseller when it was published in 1991. Willem Dafoe, who plays Detective Donald Kimball: Everyone was reading the book among my friends… I liked the book very much. It was very postmodern, it was transgressive, and it walked the line between comedy and something very grave at the same time. Chloë Sevigny, who plays Jean, Bateman's secretary: I remember my brother, it was his favorite book, in high school and I think in college. … It was very much ingrained in my psyche, that book, the cover. I thought it was a really powerful story and I guess I wasn't afraid of the controversy. I'd already lived through Kids as my first movie, and after that, everything's kind of easy breezy. Bret Easton Ellis: The media latched onto this story and turned it into something that I knew it wasn't. What was initially unsettling was to be part of a scandal that was being created that you knew wasn't true… To have The New York Times have 14 or 15 stories that are negative about you, that are painting you in a light that is simply not true and are dispensing information that is simply not true—that's a problem. Mary Harron: I was living in London, working for the BBC when it came out. And I was working on an arts show and it was a bit of a scandal… one of the producers wanted to do an item on it. I bought it and started reading it on the subway on the way to work, and as soon as I started reading it, I felt like, this has really been misunderstood. There's a kind of dark satirical work here that reminded me of Evelyn Waugh. Then when I hit the real violence, I had to stop reading for a while. Continue reading our American Psycho oral history on the next page... A Really Subversive, Feminist Movie' Producer Edward Pressman and Muse Productions, founded by Chris and Roberta Hanley, obtained the rights and sought out a team to make the film. They eventually contacted Harron, who had recently directed the 1996 Valerie Solanis biopic I Shot Andy Warhol. Mary Harron: They had had a couple directors attached before. Cronenberg had been attached, Stuart Gordon, the one who did Re-Animator had been attached, someone else had been attached. What occurred to me is that just enough time had passed to make a period film about the '80s, and say things about the '80s, and bring out the satire. And that was interesting to me. When I had my call with Ed Pressman to discuss it further, I said, 'I don't know if you can make a film of this book. But if you'll give me the money to write a screenplay, I'll try.' Because they had sent me another screenplay and I wasn't interested. I could only do it if I did my own version. Also Read: Willem Dafoe Loved Having Nowhere to Hide in The Lighthouse (Podcast) I can't remember when Guinevere came up, but pretty early, because we were already working on what became TheNotorious Bettie Page. I felt it would be a lot more fun to work with her on this. And because I had just done I Shot Andy Warhol, which was about a radical feminist, and she had just done Go Fish, an indie lesbian romantic comedy, no one could tell us what was and was not misogynist. Guinevere Turner: I had never heard of it, even. … She said they keep trying to find writers to adapt this book, and we were the sixth team to be hired. And she said you're gonna hate me—because she knows I don't like scary things—but I think we can make a really good movie out of this book. So I read it, and I was like 'Ewww, I hate you—but I see what you mean.' It's actually really funny in addition to being horrifying. And with the right spin it could be a really subversive, feminist movie. Bret Easton Ellis: I never saw it as a feminist book. It was definitely a criticism of male values that were around me, and it was easier for me, I think, to witness those male values clearly because I was gay—I am gay. And I think that gave me a distance and a perspective as to noticing them more than if I was heterosexual and participating in the society at that time. I was definitely participating, but being gay really is a distance. You are four percent of the population. You do not share a lot of the same feelings and experiences that straight men do. Certainly not in late '80s Manhattan. I think I was watching a lot of this behavior on the sidelines, and I wanted to criticize it. And a lot of it had to do with money above all else. Greed is good, the ethos of that era, that was bothering me. And just the attitude of the cocky young stockbroker, which really had spread among so many men. It was really apparent to me as a young man, struggling with the notion of becoming an adult finally, and not wanting to become an adult in that society. And then where else was there to go? Guinevere Turner: Bret, when I first talked to him about it, he seemed genuinely hurt. Like it was a big surprise to him that there was any kind of outcry, and like he felt misunderstood. Bret Easton Ellis: Hardly hurt. That is not true. I do think enough people understood the satirical element of it, and I always knew they would. … I always thought there was an audience that was going to get it. Believe me, there's plenty of people who don't. I've lived with someone for 10 years who can't finish that book. Casting Patrick Bateman Guinevere Turner: Billy Crudup was attached before Mary met Christian. He was attached for about a month and a half. And then he called Mary one day and said, 'I don't feel like I can get this character.' Which I just think is so incredible for an actor, to be that honest. Mary Harron: I sent Christian the script and then he didn't respond for ages. And then I talked to Christine Vachon about it because she was making Velvet Goldmine with him. … And so she called him and said, 'You should really read this,' and he did and he was like on a plane right away. Our oldest daughter was about three weeks old, I think, and Christian came to our place in the East Village to audition. My husband, John, had to take our daughter into the next room so that I could do the audition. Christian Bale: I couldn't finish the scenes because she was laughing and shaking the camera, and I was laughing as well. Mary Harron: It was a summer's day and the windows were open and I made him do the Paul Allen axe murder over and over. Oh my God, the neighbors. What must they have thought? This crazy yelling. Christian Bale: I think the thing that united us on it is I had no interest in his background, childhood—and she didn't either. We looked at him as an alien who landed in the unabashedly capitalist New York of the '80s, and looked around and said, 'How do I perform like a successful male in this world?' And that was our beginning point. And we didn't want to talk about why was he this way, what happened in his childhood—there was none of that between Mary and I. Mary Harron: He saw the part the way that I did, and he got the humor of it. He didn't see Bateman as cool. I sort of had the feeling a lot of the other actors kind of thought Bateman was cool. And he didn't. I met with a lot of actors about it but Christian was the only one who was right for it. Even though it was a gamble, because he hadn't done anything at all like that before. The first time I'd seen him was in Little Women. But at one point I talked to [Velvet Goldmine director] Todd Haynes about him, and Todd Haynes said, 'Christian Bale's the best actor I've ever worked with.' So I had a lot of faith in Christian. When he did the audition, I felt like he hadn't quite got the right energy, because I think he was having trouble with doing the accent because he'd been doing a different British accent—he's British and he'd done a different British accent for Velvet Goldmine, so he wasn't quite getting that coiled kind of American energy. But I thought, he's a great actor. He'll get it. Christian Bale: I don't know if you're familiar with how bloody long it took us to get this film made? I had a lot of time to practice. Dinner With Bateman Christian Bale: There was a dinner in L.A.—certainly Mary, Bret and myself. I believe Guinevere as well. Bret Easton Ellis: He was in full Patrick Bateman mode in terms of the hair, the suit and the way he was talking. And it was incredibly distracting. And amusing, but then it became less amusing as he kept it going… I told him, at a certain point, you know you can stop this. It's unnerving me. But jokingly. It was kind of like—it was unnerving in a way. I felt he didn't need to keep it up, though I think he's just that kind of actor. Christian Bale: I don't recall doing that, but I wouldn't put it past me. It does sound like that would have been fun. Mary Harron: He might have been doing the American accent, yeah. Other British actors I know do that. It's just too hard to switch back and forth, so you start in it and stay in it for a long time. That was the problem I had initially: You've got to get that American rhythm. I don't remember being unnerved. Bret Easton Ellis: If I was completely, adamantly against Christian Bale, I really hope she would not have listened to me. Because really no one knew what Christian was fully capable of, and the great performances hadn't come yet. He was still the kid from Newsies and Empire of the Sun. … This was the pre-Batman Christian Bale. He was sort of a well-known Welsh actor who I'd seen in a couple things. It wasn't like it was Leonardo DiCaprio, who was a giant international star from Titanic. Speaking of Leonardo DiCaprio In May 1998, Lionsgate (then called Lions Gate) agreed to pay DiCaprio more than $20 million to star as Patrick Bateman in American Psycho. Guinevere Turner: It was announced in the trades before anyone told us. And then Mary, amazingly—I always will be impressed with her for this—she's just like, if they want it to be Leo DiCaprio, I'm not doing it. I was like, you're not? He was the biggest movie star in the world. Continue reading our American Psycho oral history on the next page... Christian Bale: She really threw herself on the sword for me. I will always appreciate that, so much. She has incredible integrity and just stuck with me throughout. Mary Harron: Obviously, I think DiCaprio's a great actor, but I thought he was wrong for it. I thought Christian was better for it, and I also thought, and I think my instinct was right on this, he carried enormous baggage because he had just come off Titanic and I thought you cannot take someone who has a worldwide fanbase of 15-year-old girls, 14-year-olds girls, and cast him as Patrick Bateman. It'll be intolerable, and everyone will interfere, and everyone will be terrified. It would be very bad for him and very bad for the movie. Because everybody will be all over it. They'll rewrite the script and all the rest. And I knew I could only make this work if I had complete control over it, over the tone and everything. The other thing is, a lot of the plot depends on people mistaking Bateman for someone else. Not a lot of people look like Leo DiCaprio. They called me and said we're going to offer him $20 million, but the budget of the movie will remain $6 million. You're giving the star enormous power over this project, and basically taking it away from the director if you're making it that disproportionate. So that just didn't interest me. I'd only done one movie, so it was a big thing to do. But I'd seen lots of movies that have gone awry because they cast a huge star that they shouldn't have cast. I thought people would respect that and say, oh wow, integrity. But actually I think a lot of people thought I was crazy. So I went through a period after they fired me, of thinking, God, my career's really ruined, because everyone's going to think I'm out of my mind for walking away from this. 'There's Other People Making the Film Now' Oliver Stone came in to direct, and Cameron Diaz briefly joined the cast. Harron and Turner heard that there were plans to take a Jekyll-and-Hyde approach to Bateman, which would have allowed DiCaprio to be sympathetic in at least some scenes. Bale, meanwhile, was certain he would somehow get the role back. He kept calling Harron with ideas, and working out to maintain Bateman's ripped physique. Christian Bale: I had to. I'm English. I had never gone to a gym in my life. You lose that quicker than you gain it. I said to her, 'I'm still gonna make this, and I'm still gonna keep prepping on it.' And I would call her to talk about scenes, and she would be on a family vacation and she'd say, 'Christian, please, I'm trying to have dinner. And I don't know if you've noticed, but there's other people making the film now.' And I'd say, 'Mary, just stop being so negative. We're gonna do this.' Everybody thought I was crazy, but it became a crusade for me. Bret Easton Ellis: I think I would have regretted it if Oliver Stone had made it with him. I don't think Oliver Stone would have been the right director for this at all. Something about Mary's style—the restraint she showed—is what makes the movie effective. I don't think Oliver Stone is good at restraint. … And I don't know if Leo, who is the greatest screen actor of his generation, would have survived it. And I know that Leo really, really wanted to do it and I know he was talked out of it. Guinevere Turner: Gloria Steinem… as legend would have it, took him to a baseball game and said, 'Please don't do this movie. You're the biggest movie star in the world right now, and teenage girls are living for you, and I really don't want them all to run to the theater to see a movie where you're a man who kills women.' Also Read: Quentin Tarantino: Things I've Learned as a MovieMaker Ironically she later married Christian Bale's dad. I always wondered what those Thanksgivings were like. Bret Easton Ellis: Ultimately I think Christian Bale, in that moment, was the better choice. And of course Leo got to play a version of this as Jordan Belfort in The Wolf of Wall Street, and he was spectacular. 'The Potential to Be Iconic' When DiCaprio and Stone opted out, Bale and Harron returned to American Psycho. Shooting began in Toronto and New York, with a cast of stars and soon-to-be stars that included Dafoe, Sevigny, Matt Ross, Reese Witherspoon, Jared Leto, Justin Theroux, Josh Lucas, Samantha Mathis and Cara Seymour. Christian Bale: I had the book with me all the time on-set. Mary stayed true to a majority of the dialogue within it, so every scene I would kind of be skimming through it and looking at it and finding little bits and conferring in the corner with Mary on it. Chloë Sevigny: I remember us shooting things that were more extreme so they could have that in the film to take out, and being like, 'Hmm, that's cool, that's good. That's a good strategy.' The '90s were a constant battle with the censors, the ratings board was such a big thing then—or it was just the movies I was making. Sex vs. violence. And of course American Psycho has both, so. Willem Dafoe: When I entered the movie I remember they were already in production. … When I arrived for my first scene with Christian Bale, he was fantastic. And I think he's excellent in the movie. It's one of his best roles. He was like a machine. And I mean it in the best way. … His rhythms, his clarity, his control were just incredible. Mary Harron: We were filming the business-card scene and I remember that Josh Lucas and Justin Theroux came up to me after one of the takes and said he breaks into a sweat at the same time… every time. Matt Ross, who plays Luis Carruthers: With the business-card scene, I think we all knew we were participating in something that had the potential to be iconic. Christian Bale: Josh Lucas and I did a film together recently and he opened my eyes to something that I had been unaware of. He informed me that all of the other actors thought that I was the worst actor they'd ever seen. [Laughs] He was telling me they kept looking at me and talking about me, saying, 'Why did Mary fight for this guy? He's terrible.' And it wasn't until he saw the film that he changed his mind. And I was in the dark completely about that critique. Chloë Sevigny: Working with Christian was pretty hard because I didn't know this whole Method thing. I was pretty fresh. I hadn't done that many films before, and that an actor would lose himself to such a degree and was so consumed by the part, I was having a hard time kind of… just wanting to socialize with him, but feeling that he didn't, and then my ego being like, 'Does he not like me? Does he think I'm a terrible actress?' Guinevere Turner: He was just so 100 percent committed as an actor to being this character, to a disturbing point. He never spoke in his real accent and he never socialized with anyone while we were shooting. Christian Bale: Yeah. I start laughing if I know people too well. I start laughing in the middle of scenes. Especially with a character like that. Matt Ross: I also remember that after every day he would go work out for hours and hours and hours to get into that incredible shape. I remember Mary and I talking about just what an incredible work ethic he had. Chloë Sevigny: I remember as a wrap gift I gave him a 45 of 'Psycho Killer' by Talking Heads, which I thought was the greatest wrap gift, in the world, ever. But then when we went to festivals and stuff after, like Berlin and whatnot, he was very friendly then. When we were not shooting, doing press and stuff, he couldn't have been a nicer guy. In addition to co-writing the film, Turner played one of Bateman's victims, Elizabeth. Guinevere Turner: When you do a sex scene with someone and they kill you, actor-wise, you learn a lot about them. There's so many ways that that could suck. And he was so incredibly great to work with. He's not a diva actor. Decisions Chloë Sevigny: I remember Mary and the DP fighting a lot, and I remember feeling really empathetic for her. … I just remember it was tense. My coverage was always kind of held for last. So I felt kind of bitter, because I was like, of course it's Christian's movie, and they should focus on his performance, but I wanted an opportunity as well, and sometimes I felt like I got the short end of the stick. And I felt like I was hyper-aware of what was going on with the camera because I was always watching that, because I was always like, are they gonna give me my due time? Which is a very actorly thing to do. Mary Harron: The date scene might be my favorite scene, when Chloë comes over to Bateman's apartment. I remember she was so upset that she only got one take for her close-up. I felt really bad for her. But she was so great in that scene. She's so beautiful and vulnerable. Chloë Sevigny: Aww, god bless her. She's so sweet. Matt Ross: The DP shot Reservoir Dogs… He seemed to be a relatively kind of gruff, tough guy. My memory of it was that I think he was setting up shots that in Mary's mind may have been cool shots, pretty shots, but didn't tell the story she wanted to. Guinevere Turner: A cool thing that Mary told me relatively recently is that in the scene where the detective that Willem plays and Christian are having lunch at Smith & Wollensky's—and it's really tense, and Bateman's sort of losing his mind—she directed Willem to do several takes where he was sure that Patrick had done it and then several takes where he absolutely didn't think he'd done it. And then she intercut the two styles. That, I think, is genius. Willem Dafoe: I remember her telling me to play it those different ways. And then she cut it together in a way that was ambiguous where she kind of had her cake and ate it too. … That lifted up the scene. Mary Harron: I've done that with a few other things… when you're really on the edge of ambiguity, when you're not sure what a character's motivation is. Guinevere Turner: There's a little thing that Reese Witherspoon does in the movie that always makes me laugh because she just invented it on the spot. They're in a restaurant where Patrick breaks up with her and he's saying I kill people and I'm losing my mind, and she's like Whaaa? But then she just looks across the room and she waves at someone and goes like this [pointing at her wrist]. She's just telling some woman all the way across the room that she loves her bracelet. Matt Ross: I asked if I could wear adult braces, and Mary very intelligently said no. President Bateman? Following the logic that Bateman is like an alien, Bale reasoned that he would have been inspired to imitate both Tom Cruise and Donald Trump. Christian Bale: I mean, look, if someone had landed at that time and he was looking around for cultural alpha males, business-world alpha males, et cetera, than Tom Cruise certainly would have been one of those that he would have looked at and aspired to be and attempted to emulate. And he's still a leading man now. So yeah, I had pictures of him inside the trailer, as I did other people, and '80s models that Bateman probably would have looked at and tried to imitate. And certainly that megawatt smile with the perfect teeth. Likewise, Donald Trump would have been somebody he would have looked at and said, 'Ah, right. I need to have a little bit of that as well.' … If Bateman were around today he'd probably be inspired to run for president. Continue reading our American Psycho oral history on the next page... The End People still ask Harron and Turner if Bateman's murders really happened, or take place in his imagination. Mary Harron: I would never answer that. As Quentin Tarantino says, 'If I tell you that, I take this movie away from you.' I will say there's a moment where it becomes less realistic, and that's the moment when the ATM says Feed Me a Stray Cat. Guinevere Turner: To me and Mary, the book left it up in the air, too, what was real and what was not real. We didn't think that everything was real because some of it is literally surreal. But we just decided, together, that we both really disliked movies where the big reveal is that it was all in someone's head or it was all a dream. We just both find that annoying. We just said we're going to make a really conscious effort to have it be real, and then at some point… he's sort of perceiving things differently, but they're really happening. Like he shoots at a cop car, and it just bursts into flames, and she just directed him to look at the gun like, Hmmm, how did that happen? But we did want it to be, at the end, that you really did think that he did these things. '? American Suck-o' Harron said a friend overheard someone on the ski slopes in Park City, during Sundance, proclaim: 'American Psycho? American Suck-o!' After the premiere at the festival, and a fight with the ratings board over the film's three-way scene, American Psycho made its way into theaters on April 14, 2000. Mary Harron: The tone just completely confused people. When you do something that mixes genres, in this case you're mixing social satire and horror… people don't know how to take it at first. I think it took years for people to think it's okay to find these scenes funny. Christian Bale: I was totally oblivious to any reaction to the film. I didn't notice. I was happy. Mary Harron: The New York Times review had a huge impact on the reception, I think. And Entertainment Weekly, Owen Gleiberman's review, that was a big thing. There were certain key reviews that were very favorable and that really helped. Times critic Stephen Holden wrote in his review of American Psycho:'In adapting Bret Easton Ellis's turgid, gory 1991 novel to the screen, the director Mary Harron has boiled a bloated stew of brand names and butchery into a lean and mean horror comedy classic.' He and added that the film 'salvages a novel widely loathed for its putative misogyny and gruesome torture scenes by removing its excess fat in a kind of cinematic liposuction.' Bret Easton Ellis: I think that could be the flourishing of woke-ness in the culture—me being the dark prince of literature, and I write this book that upsets so many people, I need to be put in my place. And what better narrative is there than that two women did it? That's very appealing. …When I first saw the movie, and whenever I see parts of it now, I like it. It's about half an experience for me, because I wrote the novel. And it's not the full American Psycho. It is kind of the greatest hits. … It's in some ways a complicated movie for me. But overall I like it. Willem Dafoe: Years before branding and recognition by your average person about how things were being sold and how society was becoming so obsessed with surface reality and consumerism… here was this strange movie about this psychopath businessman that really touched upon that. And also the ugly aspects of capitalism. So it had real politics to it, in a very present way, but not in a didactic way. … It was a movie that was weirdly entertaining and disturbing at the same time. I think the movie is a scathing critique of a certain kind of lifestyle, a certain kind of society, a certain kind of point of view, and that includes attitudes towards women. Sometimes in depicting those lives you have to show things that are ugly. It's not enough just to say, oh, this is a forbidden image, we can't show it… Sometimes we have to show negative behavior to see other possibilities. Christian Bale: Everyone had told me it was career suicide, which really made me want to do it. And I guess I was a little bit disappointed that it didn't end up being career suicide. I kind of hoped that maybe that was it, and I'd have to find something else to go do… I'm perverse. They told me I shouldn't, so of course—that's human, isn't it?—you want to even more. Harron and Turner have made two more films together: The Notorious Bettie Page, released in 2005, and Charlie Says, released in 2018. Guinevere Turner: What happened recently is our film Charlie Says premiered at the Venice Film Festival, a year ago, and our out-of-the-gate, next-day reviews were not particularly good. And Mary and I were in Venice sort of pouting in the lobby of the hotel and Mary's husband was there, and he's like, 'Hey you guys—Google, Google, Google—I'm gonna read you a review of American Psycho when it first came out.' And he read one of them and it was so similar that we were like, 'Oh! We're just ahead of our time. We have to get used to being misunderstood.' This story was originally published in January, 20 years after the Sundance debut of American Psycho. It was updated on April 14, 2020. Related Headlines 20 Behind the Scenes Stories of Airplane, Maybe the Funniest Movie Ever Made 12 Actors Who Held Their Breath Underwater for an Extraordinarily Long Time Dr. No: 12 Behind the Scenes Photos From the First 007 Film
