Still need Valentine’s Day plans? See ‘American Psycho’ at the Texas Theatre in Dallas
The Texas Theatre in Dallas is hosting director Mary Harron and screenwriter Guinevere Turner on Feb. 13 and 14 in honor of the 25th anniversary of their controversial but beloved film “American Psycho,” as well as their most recent collaboration “Charlie Says,” about three of the women convicted of participating in the Manson family murders.
The pair first collaborated on “American Psycho,” then in 2005 on “The Notorious Bettie Page,” a film about the 1950s pinup icon, and finally on “Charlie Says,” which premiered in 2018 and was nominated for Best Film at the 75th Venice International Film Festival.
Harron spoke with the Star-Telegram by telephone about the 25th anniversary of “American Psycho,” its possible impending remake, and what intrigued her about telling a story about the Manson family.
This interview has been edited for clarity and length.
Star-Telegram: You’re doing a screening of two of your movies, “Charlie Says” and “American Psycho,” on the 13th and the 14th. Why was the Texas Theatre the place to do these screenings?
Mary Harron: Well, I’m an old friend of Matt Seitz, who programs the theater. He reached out to me directly, and I thought it was a nice idea, and it’d be fun to do the event with Matt. So it was really through that connection, and he said that they would bring Guinevere as well, so that allows us to talk about our collaboration. ‘Charlie Says’ is the most — you know, we’ve done three films together, and we have a third planned, and ‘Charlie Says’ is the most recent, and I’m always happy to draw attention to it.
Star-Telegram: In ‘Charlie Says,’ it focuses on three of the cultists from the Manson family and their rehabilitation. Many movies about the Manson cult focus on him or his victims. Why focus on the cultists’ rehabilitation?
Harron: Because I felt it was — I mean, obviously this was the direction because I didn’t write this script, but I talked to [Turner] about it as she was working on it, and to me, that was really interesting. I wasn’t that interested in doing another replay of the Manson story. But I myself did not know what had happened to the women, cult members, who’d been imprisoned. I had no idea what happened to them, where they went, and I think more importantly, I was interested in the question of ‘Why?’
I think we can understand Charles Manson as much as you can understand sort of psychopathic or sociopathic [individual]. You look at his life story, he had a terrible childhood, he grew up in prison, you can sort of understand his trajectory, but the women who he got to help commit these crimes were pretty normal, were regular people. Could have been my my cousin, my sister or me, you know. I want to know why and how, looking at the process of how they descended into this kind of madness through this cult.
Star-Telegram: ‘Charlie Says’ also doesn’t show the viewers the murders explicitly, only directly before and after. What prompted that decision?
Harron: I also felt like, you know, people don’t need to see this. The crimes are really horrible, horrific, and people, I think, are aware of what happened, and you only need to show enough to get the weight of it and to show the victims. So it was important to me to show the victims and their fear and their suffering. I showed a bit more of the violence than Guinevere would have, because I felt like we have to show some of it because we need to show the impact of it, the weight of it. But I didn’t think you needed an extended scene of violence to get that across.
Star-Telegram: One of the films you’re showing this weekend is ‘American Psycho.’ it was one of the more controversial and critical movies of the 2000s, looking back on it. Now, what do you think that movie’s legacy has been over the last 25 years?
Harron: I’m always amazed at how much more popular it is now than it was when it came out, and how better its reputation is, how intensely some people respond to it. People watch it over and over. I think that politically, at the time, I think it was seen as a film about the 1980s, but it’s really a film that could be a film about now, in a lot of ways politically. With this sort of vulture capitalism, this sort of the cruelty of Wall Street and all the rest, which is kind of a consumer culture, and it’s kind of embodied in this crazy Wall Street guy. I just feel like he’s a synthesis of everything kind of wrong in a society and then also the fact that I think when it first came up, people didn’t realize that it had elements of satire and black comedy, and people understand the tone of it a bit better. So yeah, I’m always still surprised at how well it’s lasted.
Star-Telegram: Talking about that tone of satire, Patrick Bateman in this movie, almost similar to a character like Tyler Durden in ‘Fight Club,’ has become a character that seems to attract a lot of fans who maybe don’t understand that satire. Is that been something that you’ve noticed?
Harron: I’m aware of it. It’s surprising the way it’s been embraced by a certain kind of bro culture. I’m always surprised by it because it is making fun of the character. One of the things that I really liked about Christian Bale’s take on the character was he presents him as being kind of dorky and absurd, kind of a loser. But then there’s, I guess if there’s something aspirational in it, maybe it’s the apartment and the and the clothes and the sense of entitlement, or the idea of someone getting away with all this terrible behavior. I can’t quite explain it.
Star-Telegram: I know you used to be a music writer earlier in your career. Can you talk a little bit about the use of music in the film? It seems to be one of the only things that Patrick genuinely cares about.
Harron: That was true in the book, they were actually just separate chapters of like, music criticism. Like you go some terrible murder and then you just have a chapter of Patrick talking about how much he liked Phil Collins or Huey Lewis. I thought it was really funny and clever at the time, he’d chosen this very sort of glossy mainstream pop music and Patrick Bateman writes about it with an absolute sort of passion, like it’s where he sees his soul reflected. It’s the most emotional in the book, you know and I thought the idea was that if you turn some of those what he’s saying into monologues, and he does the monologue just before he just before he kills someone, or at least just before the first murder, then every time he starts to talk about music, the audience is going to get anxious, and they’ll think that something bad is about to happen, you know. So that was that thinking.
Star-Telegram: They’ve also announced an ‘American Psycho’ remake, rumored to be directed by Luca Guadagnino. Is that something that you would be excited to see?
Harron: No, not really. I don’t really know what that would be. Because the film is not that old, and it’s so I don’t know what there is left to say about it, really. And they’re saying it’s not a remake, it’s something completely original, but who knows? But I’ve been approached over the years to do a TV series based on ‘American Psycho’ or do some other kind of sequel and I’ve never found that at all interesting. I mean, the film’s the film; that’s all I would want to do.
Star-Telegram: You’ve been in the film and television industry for over 30 years. What’s the biggest change in the industry you’ve seen from when you started to now?
Harron: Oh, I think, I mean, obviously the internet, online, streaming, has sort of changed everything in a way that we are still coping with. It made a lot of things possible, and then it also made a lot of overproduction of content, certain things kind of inundated. At the same time, It’s still as hard as it ever was to get an independent movie made, and then, obviously, there’s AI, but I don’t think we really entirely know what, but obviously, that will create huge changes, but it’s so new that it’s sort of hard to say.
Star-Telegram: Do you feel like the industry is a better place for a director like you were when you started your career?
Harron: I think it’s probably a better place for a woman director because there are more women directors. But, I mean, right now, the industry is in a kind of retrenchment because of just a lot of economic anxiety, and so any kind of minority filmmakers I think always suffer in that kind of downturn.
But it’s definitely — you know, when I started when I was growing up, I didn’t know, I couldn’t have named a female director. So obviously, there’s a lot of role models for young women coming out of film school. Right now I think it’s pretty hard to get a film made. To get an independent film made is very difficult right now. When I made my first film, “I Shot Andy Warhol,” it was really the early days of independent film, and it was very exciting, but it was still hard to raise money. But I think it was new and exciting, and now it’s definitely been harder in the last few years, for a lot of reasons, to get a film made, but it was never easy.
Star-Telegram: Texas is trying to compete with powerhouse states like California and New York in the film and television industry. What have you made of the entertainment industry in Texas? And could you see it getting to the stature of somewhere like in New York or California?
Harron: I mean, for me, it would just depend on the setting. I film quite a bit in Atlanta, and you’re trying to make certain places look like other cities, and I always want to shoot where something is set. ‘, harlie Says,’ we actually shot it in Los Angeles, which for a low-budget film is very rare. But to me, that was one of the great advantages, is that we had the real landscape and the real location.
I think what Taylor Sheridan has done, is this is where he’s making his focus about, which is great. I mean, I think that tax credit is great and will definitely help and when you take it away, then the local film industry dies. This happened in Canada, in Nova Scotia, where they had great film industry and for political reasons, they removed the tax credit, and everyone just had to move to Toronto or Vancouver. So I’m sure we’ll create something, and then you need the writers and the directors to make the films.
Catch Mary Harron and Guinevere Turner at the Texas Theatre for Q+As after screenings of “Charlie Says” and “American Psycho” on Feb. 13 and Feb. 14, respectively. Both movies start at 7:30 p.m. on their respective dates. Buy tickets online here or in person at the Texas Theatre box office.
