I think about Christian Bale frequently. I think about him during my morning shower while washing my face with moisturizing soap and exfoliating face wash. I think about him after my shower when I'm shaving. I can hear his voice, like he's standing behind me in the bathroom, advising the use of an aftershave with little to no alcohol because alcohol will dry out my skin and make me look older. At the gym, while jumping rope or doing crunches, I picture him working out next to me. He's in the room every time I pick up the phone to make a reservation at a restaurant. Sometimes, when I'm leaving my office and my boss asks me where I'm going, I turn and snap, "I have to return some videotapes," even though I haven't returned a videotape — let along checked one out — in over two years. I also think of Christian Bale every time I bring a hooker to my apartment, mutilate her genitalia with a clothes hanger, and chase her around naked with a chainsaw . . .

Just kidding about that last part. I guess I'm kidding about all of it, actually, since the image I have of Christian Bale in my mind is not Christian Bale at all, but merely that of his most notorious role as the psychopathic investment banker, Patrick Bateman, from the movie American Psycho. Prior to seeing the movie, I had read about half of the book, eventually giving up on it because I found it redundant, over-stylized, and tiresome. The movie, on the other hand, was unbelievably entertaining. This was for many reasons, including a selective script that gleaned the most satirical parts out of the book and a tremendous supporting cast, including Jared Leto and Chloe Sevigny. But most of its success was due to Christian Bale's performance. Christian Bale turned Patrick Bateman into a cult figure. From the book — and the script — Bale was given the buff body, the clothes, and the lines, but the smugness, the vanity, the desperation, the repugnancy, and the unexpected charisma of the character were all qualities the actor brought to the table. Somehow, I found myself identifying with Patrick Bateman in a way I never was able to while reading the book. My god, I thought, I kind of like that guy, even if he is a maniacal serial killer devoid of any remorse or true feelings for another human.

Admiring a serial killer is not something I ever thought myself capable of. I take some solace in the fact that there are many people out there who feel exactly the same way I do about Bale. These people call themselves Baleheads. They congregate online and write profiles about themselves and their favorite Christian Bale roles, movies, and fantasies. Surprisingly, even though Bale has played dozens of roles through the years where he is not a psychopath, it is his role as Patrick Bateman that most of the Baleheads favor. Why Patrick Bateman and not, for instance, his responsible, good-guy character Sam in Laurel Canyon, or the honorable, reluctant hero Quinn in the post-apocalyptic dragon movie Reign of Fire? Those characters seem far more likeable, especially for the fun-loving girls with names like Jill, Heather, and Tabitha, who make up the majority of the Balehead demographic.

I don't have a good answer, other than that maybe all good girls love bad boys. But I do know that the only reason I bothered watching other Bale movies like Metroland, Reign of Fire, Laurel Canyon, Equilibrium, and The Machinist was that I was hoping to see more Patrick Bateman. I wanted to see that smug smile and hear his sarcastic, scornful voice. Instead, disappointedly, he was either one-dimensional or a total wuss in these movies. In Metroland, he played a simpering suburban husband who moped about all day remembering how much fun it was to be young and carefree in Paris. Wuss. In Reign of Fire, he gets his ass kicked every which way but loose by a much buffer and more studly Matthew McConaughey. Wuss. In Equilibrium, he plays a sort of super cop in a futuristic society who decides to rebel against the very law he swore to uphold. Very Judge Dredd. Very one-dimensional. In Laurel Canyon, he is a doctor attempting to work through childhood issues with his rock-star mother. His mom is trying to be cool and smoke pot and party with her rock-star friends, but all Bale's character wants to do is swim laps and read in bed. He doesn't even want to have sex with his girlfriend, which is hard to imagine, as she is played by the ravishing Kate Beckinsale. I can see why she doesn't want to have sex with him and instead makes out with the mother and the rock-star boyfriend: Bale let his physique slip from his American Psycho days. He's not only boring in this movie, but kind of pudgy as well. Wuss, maybe even a gay wuss. But that's nothing compared to the The Machinist, in which he plays an emaciated insomniac haunted by a tortured past. I read he lost 60 pounds for the role and was so weak he couldn't even do one push-up. Wuss. The only role in which he came close to reclaiming his Bateman persona was as the bad guy Walter Wade, Jr. in Shaft. Unfortunately, in this movie he wasn't so much psychopathic as he was racist, so I couldn't identify with him too strongly.

In an interview last year, Christian Bale remarked that one of the things he strives for as an actor is to avoid stereotypes. People like me, who look for him to be Patrick Bateman in all roles, are his worst nightmare. Choosing to play the emaciated character in The Machinist was partly as a reaction to the Patrick Bateman role. "I'd done American Psycho, and I bulked up purely for that part," he said, "But people start just going 'oh yeah, that guy's a real workout fanatic' and that's not me, that's Patrick Bateman. It was a nice way to kill that dead by just destroying your body completely."

Bale's willingness to push his body to the limit illustrates his dedication to his profession. He has been acting for over 20 years, starting with his role as a wealthy boy forced to endure a Japanese concentration camp during World War II in Empire of the Sun. At 13 years old, Bale was suddenly a star, thrust into the glare of Hollywood's spotlight, a position he didn't find to his liking. Many teen stars end up on the cover of YM and US Weekly, maximizing their publicity. Not Bale. Over the next 10 years, he managed to avoid the spotlight, poking up his head for Newsies and Swing Kids, but mainly sticking to television and supporting roles in small-budget movies. Then came American Psycho, a movie that brought him more exposure than anything else he'd done since Empire of the Sun. More importantly, it identified him as a leading man. From American Psycho on, Bale has headlined almost every movie he's been in, including this summer's blockbuster, Batman Begins.

For a man who claims to hate stereotypes, the choice to play Batman seems a curious one. But Bale is not throwing in the towel and sacrificing his passion for quality roles for money; he believes he can do something worthwhile with the role, a belief buoyed by a high-quality supporting cast and the inclusion of director Christopher Nolan, who made his name with the independent flick Memento and did his best to keep the on-set atmosphere geared towards the small-budget film environment Bale enjoys working in. As an added bonus, doing Batman has given Bale tremendous exposure and allowed him the clout to greenlight several other independent projects that interest him.

I'm hoping Batman Begins will be good, though I have serious doubts about it, as Bale's last big budget film, Reign of Fire, was a total debacle, and the Batman movie franchise in general has been shoddy since Tim Burton stepped down as director. Whatever the case, I'll be there opening night along with the other Baleheads, hoping to glimpse a hint of my favorite character Patrick Bateman. It's possible, you know, especially because "Bateman" and "Batman" are only one letter away from being identical . . . I just hope I don't start seeing Batman standing behind me in the bathroom while I'm shaving.

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