Christian Bale’s Salary for ‘American Psycho’ Was so Low Makeup Artists Out-Earning Him Laughed at It
There’s no question that Christian Bale is one of the top actors of this era of film. When he joins a movie, the producers know he’s a major audience draw and pay him accordingly. But earlier in his career — specifically, in the American Psycho days — that was decidedly not the case.
That isn’t to say that Bale was seen as untalented. Even when he was a fresh-faced young actor in movies like the 1987 war film Empire of the Sun and the 1992 musical Newsies, his abilities as a performer were obvious. But that critical praise wasn’t enough to get an oddball project like American Psycho off the ground.
Christian Bale was sorely underpaid for ‘American Psycho’
Director Mary Harron went through a difficult path trying to get American Psycho made. The studio kept trying to step in on her vision for adapting the controversial Bret Easton Ellis novel, and at points, the project almost didn’t happen. The biggest sticking point was her insistence on Christian Bale as the murderous protagonist Patrick Bateman.
In an interview with GQ, the Amsterdam actor revealed how Harron got her wish: he agreed to be woefully underpaid.
“They had paid me the absolute minimum they were legally allowed to pay me. And 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,’ because I’ve got American Psycho done, but I remember one time sitting in the make-up trailer and the make-up artists were laughing at me because I was getting paid less than any of them,” Bale explained.
Fans were shocked at the revelation. Some took to social media after the interview to voice their displeasure. But Christian Bale himself doesn’t sweat it. He was happy to work on a project he believed in and quickly leveraged it to find much more work at better rates.
Bale has more than made up for the low paydays early in his career
Bale has always had work, partly thanks to his well-received performance as Bateman. He took on smaller roles, like in the surreal drama The Machinist, and massive blockbuster productions like director Christopher Nolan’s Batman trilogy.
According to Celebrity Net Worth, that collaboration with Nolan had the biggest impact on the now-veteran actor’s fortune. His film appearances and their associated royalties add up to $120 million. An estimated $50 million of that comes from his time as Batman alone — and he reportedly turned down another $50 million to return for a fourth film.
That puts him above the latest actor to step into the cowl. Robert Pattinson may have an overall net worth of $100 million, but The Batman didn’t net him the kind of money Bale’s run did. The Twilight actor earned just $3 million upfront. While he has an undisclosed percentage of the box office receipts coming his way, a pandemic-depressed box office means he’s unlikely to get Batman Begins-level money.
Bale commanded high fees for many of his more recent roles
Bale’s salaries fluctuate heavily, Parade reports. His base pay is never the bare minimum the Screen Actors Guild allows, but there’s a big gap between his roles. For example, American Hustle earned him $2.5 million upfront. Like Pattinson’s Batman deal, he also earned undisclosed points off the box office.
Still, that’s an interesting choice for an actor who could’ve taken $50 million for one more go-around as the Dark Knight. Interestingly, he doesn’t appear to have any issue doing more superhero genre work as long as he finds something interesting about the role.
He recently appeared as the villainous Gorr the God Butcher in Thor: Love and Thunder. The movie has a light-hearted, comedic tone, but the role was demanding. To attain the character’s ghoulish look, Christian Bale spent 3.5 hours per day on make-up alone. He earned $10 million for his dedication to the strange, creepy Marvel antagonist.
