Willem Dafoe Had It Both Ways
Willem Dafoe in American Psycho
Dafoe’s character, Detective Donald Kimbal, is investigating the murders that Patrick Bateman appears to have committed. Did he suspect Bateman? It depends. Guinevere Turner told MovieMaker: “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.”
Dafoe loved it. He told MovieMaker: “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.”
The Pale Blue Eye, starring Christian Bale and directed by Scott Cooper, is now streaming on Netflix.
Main image: Mary Harron directs Chloe Sevigny and Christian Bale in a scene from American Psycho. Courtesy of Lionsgate.
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