‘American Psycho’ casting director thinks Austin Butler is too beautiful to play Patrick Bateman

It seems that the casting director for the 2000 film American Psycho has a bit of an axe to grind amid reports that Austin Butler will be playing the lead role in director Luca Guadagnino’s new adaptation of the Bret Easton Ellis novel.

Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter, casting director Kerry Barden suggested that Butler might be too attractive to portray Patrick Bateman, the wealthy New York banking executive with psychopathic tendencies who was memorably played by Christian Bale in the 2000 film. Rather, Barden said Butler is better suited for another role: Bateman’s rival Paul Allen, who was played by Jared Leto.

“I would cast Austin in Jared’s role because he’s that beautiful, and that’s why we cast Jared, is because he’s that beautiful,” Barden said. “Jared is certainly a great actor as well, and obviously, Austin has a lot of depth as an actor, too. But not every person has that kind of beauty.”

In the 2000 film, directed by Mary Harron, Allen constantly one-ups Bateman and eventually ends up on the receiving end of an axe. In addition to Leto and Bale, the film stars Reese Witherspoon, Willem Dafoe, Chloë Sevigny, Justin Theroux, and Matt Ross. (Ross told THR that Guadagnino and his collaborators “have their work cut out for them, for no other reason than Christian’s performance is exceptional.”)

Guadagnino’s American Psycho adaptation, which features a script from Scott Z. Burns, was first reported last fall and is said to be a new take on the novel, rather than a remake of Harron’s film. Guadagnino, fresh off the release of Challengers and Queer, teased his version in a video segment during Lionsgate’s presentation at CinemaCon earlier this month.

“We are really working hard to bring to the screen a new adaptation of Bret Easton Ellis’ American Psycho, a book that I deeply love that is something that influenced me so much,” he said. Burns’ script “is coming out very handsomely,” Guadagnino noted, adding that he is currently in “conversation with very exciting performers to play the leads.”

Want more movie news? Sign up for Entertainment Weekly‘s free newsletter to get the latest trailers, celebrity interviews, film reviews, and more.

Butler most recently appeared in the films Elvis, The Bikeriders, and Dune: Part Two, as well as the historical miniseries Masters of the Air. His upcoming features include Darren Aronofsky’s crime thriller Caught Stealing and Ari Aster’s contemporary Western Eddington.