Latest news with #HasanMinhaj
Yahoo
a day ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
‘American Psycho' Director Mary Harron Is Surprised by Movie's Lingering Relevance
American Psycho director Mary Harron admitted that the cult classic film is just as relevant today as it was when it was released in 2000 while celebrating its 25th anniversary during a conversation with Hasan Minhaj at the 2025 Tribeca Festival on June 7. The horror film, which takes place between 1987 and 1989, follows investment banker Patrick Bateman (Christian Bale) as he deals with murderous fantasies. Harron told Minhaj she believed that Wall Street employees were 'dinosaurs' at the time of filming and that we would 'never see' men like that in the future. More from The Hollywood Reporter What Sold Gerard Butler on Reprising His Role in the Live-Action 'How to Train Your Dragon' 'Twelve Moons' Director Victoria Franco Has Been Waiting for Her Tribeca Moment How Ticket Resellers Caused Drama at Miley Cyrus' 'Something Beautiful' Tribeca Film Premiere 'Not that there wouldn't be rapacious Wall Street behavior and greed,' she continued. 'It was true, actually, for a few years after the film came out. It was much better hidden.' However, Harron pointed out that people are still 'reveling in bad behavior' and 'the joy of being overly racist' today. She continued, 'I would never have thought you would see that.' Minhaj said that Bateman seemed to say 'the quiet part of loud' in his voiceovers, while people in the present day seem much more comfortable using hateful and offensive rhetoric. Harron agreed and explained that she viewed Bateman more as a symbol than as a person. 'Patrick Bateman is like if you took everything terrible about, like, 20th century capitalism and about the Reagan era,' she said, listing cruelty, despising the poor, sexism and racism as some of the issues he wasn't afraid to glorify. Meanwhile, she said that the character also represents the 'triumph' of 'male dominance and money.' When Minhaj asked if 'reality now is oddly mimicking' the plot of the movie, Harron admitted that her views of the world have changed since it was made. 'I would've said when we were making [the] film, you know, the arc of history bends towards justice. And now I think maybe the arc of history is like a corkscrew or maybe it's a rollercoaster,' she said. 'Maybe it doesn't just bend towards justice. I would like to think that we'll get through this and find better times.' After noting that she never would have imagined the state of the world would look like it does in 2025, Harron added, 'It's so much worse than when I was making the film. You know, open fascism.' She also pointed out that the direction of today's society may be 'why people still like this film' today. Harron, who also co-wrote the screenplay with Guinevere Turner, reflected on the popularity of Bateman today after Minhaj pointed out that there are some people that view the character as aspirational. 'I know the film is very popular with Wall Street guys and Guinevere and I were, 'Wait, what? Like, we're making fun of this,'' she said. 'I don't know. I can't explain it.' She then theorized that people may find the character to be aspirational because he 'has everything materially that a person would want' and that he 'does whatever he wants.' The movie also includes several mentions of the Trump family, while Donald Trump is mentioned in the 1991 Bret Easton Ellis novel of the same name that the movie is based on. 'It was as a quasi-celebrity,' she said of Trump being mentioned, noting that Bateman's fiancée Evelyn Williams (Reese Witherspoon) complained about his obsession with the now-president. 'That, I thought, was part of his dorkiness, really. 'Cause Donald Trump in the 80s, you know, New Yorkers did not really think of him as cool. He was just, like, he was kind of a joke.' Also during the interview, Harron reflected on why Bale was the perfect person to play Bateman after the role was re-cast several times. 'It was very strange because he hadn't actually done anything like that before in his work,' she said, adding that Leonardo DiCaprio briefly had the role. Harron explained that Bale was the only actor up for the role who viewed the script as 'funny' as she did, which gave her confidence that he was the perfect person to play Bateman. 'It was basically that we had the same sense of humor,' she said of why he ultimately got the role. 'The other actors I met, some of them well known and certainly better known than Christian at the time, I could tell that they thought Bateman was sort of cool. And to me, it's like there's nothing cool here. We're not doing the coolness. We're doing the absurdity of him. So, I knew that it was very important we be on the same page.' The conversation concluded with Harron recalling how difficult it was to get the film made until Lionsgate agreed to produce it. 'I would never have imagined that it would be so embraced,' she said of the film's legacy. Best of The Hollywood Reporter 13 of Tom Cruise's Most Jaw-Dropping Stunts Hollywood Stars Who Are One Award Away From an EGOT 'The Goonies' Cast, Then and Now
Wall Street Journal
07-05-2025
- Business
- Wall Street Journal
TikTok Assures Advertisers It's ‘Confident in the Future'
TikTok hosted a presentation for advertisers in New York on Tuesday. Photo: dado ruvic/Reuters TikTok tried to persuade advertisers of its confidence in the platform's future in the U.S. during its sales presentation to marketers in New York City on Tuesday. 'If there's one thing I want you to take away, it is that we are absolutely confident in our platform and confident in the future of this platform, so we're going to continue to invest in it,' Khartoon Weiss, vice president of global business solutions at TikTok, said during the event, where the company wooed the crowd with cucumber canapés, cocktails and jokes from MC Hasan Minhaj.
Yahoo
21-02-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Murphy says he believes ‘the entire American political system is corrupted by money'
Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) discussed the influence of money on the political system in the U.S., implicating his own party in the corruption he said it causes. 'I think the entire American political system is corrupted by money,' Murphy said on a Wednesday episode of the 'Hasan Minhaj Doesn't Know' podcast. Murphy also told comedian Hasan Minhaj that his party isn't exempt. 'I think Democrats have been corrupted by money as well, much less than Republicans have been, [and] in a much less overt way, but I'd think it'd be silly to pretend as if Democrats, not everyone, but some Democrats … ultimately, are impacted by the fact that they're spending a lot of time with donors.' 'But is that a real message, 'Hey, we're less corrupt than the other guys?'' Minhaj questioned. 'No, you have … to show how you're gonna fix the problem,' Murphy responded. In the wake of the 2024 elections, Murphy offered his thoughts on Democrats' losses in a thread on the social platform X. 'We don't listen enough; we tell people what's good for them,' Murphy said at the time about the American left on social media. 'And when progressives like [Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.)] aggressively go after the elites that hold people down, they are shunned as dangerous populists. Why? Maybe because true economic populism is bad for our high-income base,' he added. Sanders also alleged around the same time that Democrats had mostly ignored working-class priorities, saying that ignorance was a major factor in costing them the White House and Senate in the recent elections. 'The country is in a revolutionary mood today because they see that the whole game is rigged, that if you have money and power, you are in a position to just get more and more of it, and everybody else is left treading water,' Murphy told Minhaj. The Hill has reached out to the Democratic National Committee and Republican National Committee for comment. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
The Hill
21-02-2025
- Politics
- The Hill
Murphy says he believes ‘the entire American political system is corrupted by money'
Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) discussed the influence of money on the political system in the U.S., implicating his own party in the corruption he said it causes. 'I think the entire American political system is corrupted by money,' Murphy said on a Wednesday episode of the 'Hasan Minhaj Doesn't Know' podcast. Murphy also told comedian Hasan Minhaj that his party isn't exempt. 'I think Democrats have been corrupted by money as well, much less than Republicans have been, [and] in a much less overt way, but I'd think it'd be silly to pretend as if Democrats, not everyone, but some Democrats … ultimately, are impacted by the fact that they're spending a lot of time with donors.' 'But is that a real message, 'Hey, we're less corrupt than the other guys?'' Minhaj questioned. 'No, you have … to show how you're gonna fix the problem,' Murphy responded. In the wake of the 2024 elections, Murphy offered his thoughts on Democrats' losses in a thread on the social platform X. 'We don't listen enough; we tell people what's good for them,' Murphy said of the American left on social media at the time. ' 'And when progressives like [Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.)] aggressively go after the elites that hold people down, they are shunned as dangerous populists. Why? Maybe because true economic populism is bad for our high-income base,' he added. Sanders also alleged around the same time that Democrats had mostly ignored working-class priorities, saying that ignorance was a major factor in costing them the White House and Senate in the recent elections. 'The country is in a revolutionary mood today because they see that the whole game is rigged, that if you have money and power, you are in a position to just get more and more of it, and everybody else is left treading water,' Murphy told Minhaj.
