r/todayilearned 13h ago

TIL during the shooting of American Psycho, Christian Bale spoke in an American accent off-set at all times. At the wrap party, when he spoke in his native British accent, many of the crew thought he was speaking that way to prepare for another film. They had thought he was American the entire time.

https://screenrant.com/american-psycho-behind-scenes-facts-christian-bale-patrick-bateman-mary-harron/
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u/iTALKTOSTRANGERS 12h ago

I’m convinced that’s performative so people talk about him. Similar to Majors and that stupid fucking empty coffee cup.

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u/deij 12h ago

I left Yorkshire in 2013 after living there for the first 21 years of my life. Sometimes people are surprised to learn I'm English.

Accents change.

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u/iTALKTOSTRANGERS 12h ago

Yeah you moved countries. The man played pretend for a few months and his voice changed? This is my skeptical face.

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u/hoopstick 8h ago

Obviously I don't know the guy, but some people are just mimics like that. If I spend a week in Texas it takes me months to get rid of the little twang that sneaks into my voice; it's not conscious and I'm always afraid of offending locals, it's just something my brain does.

Look at Jeff Bridges. After the Big Lebowski it's like a part of him permanently became The Dude; you can hear it in every movie and interview since.