Guinevere Turner, co-writer and actor of this film, has publicly stated that she hates the novel American Psycho and even threw a glass of water at the novel's author Bret Easton Ellis' face when she first met him, yelling at him, asking why he wrote such a "disgusting" book and has even called the book "trash". She herself has admitted to being offended by the graphic nature of the book and often asked 'Mary Harron' how could she make a film of such a "sexist" novel. Harron would argue that she doesn't find the book sexist and that she found it to be a satire of the behavior of men and the upper class. Turner has also admitted to only agreeing to write and actor in the film mainly because she couldn't find other work at the time and her Bettie Page project she was working on with Harron fell through.