LOS ANGELES

On the 20th anniversary of Christian Bale-starrer movie "American Psycho", filmmaker Mary Harron has revealed how she initially lost the project due to her objection towards Leonardo DiCaprio playing the central character Patrick Bateman.

The film, based on Bret Easton Ellis' 1991 novel of the same name, was released in April 2000. It featured Bale as Bateman, the wealthy New York investment banker and a serial killer.

Though Bale was always the first choice of Marron for the lead, things changed when DiCaprio expressed interest in the project.

"I didn't agree with that partly because he was such a big star but also because he had a teenage girl fanbase. I just didn't think he was right for it so I was fired from the movie for a while," the filmmaker told Little White Lies in an interview.

After she was removed from the project, the studio, Lionsgate, roped in Oliver Stone to direct the movie. However, the film couldn't take off.

"They couldn't agree on the script, so they brought me back and I was able to cast Christian,' Marron said.

The filmmaker was particularly impressed by the dedication of Bale, who has often gone to extreme lengths to pull off his characters in films.

His physical preparation was beyond what I expected. I thought he might have to visit the gym, because Bateman works out, but he went through a complete physical transformation. He only ate grilled chicken," Harron said.