Bret Easton Ellis

At 60 years old, Bret Easton Ellis has this physical status:

Bret Easton Ellis (born March 7, 1964) is an American writer, screenwriter, short-story writer, and director.

Ellis was first identified as one of the so-called literary Brat Pack, which also included Tama Janowitz and Jay McInerney.

He is a self-proclaimed satirist whose main work, as a writer, is the display of dramatic behaviour and opinions in an affectless way.

Ellis' first book, Less Than Zero (1985), was published by Simon & Schuster when he was 21.

American Psycho (1991), his third book, was his most well-received; the literary establishment sluggish and misogynistic upon its publication.

Although many petitions to outlaw Ellis were rejected by Simon & Schuster, Alfred A. Knopf's resounding controversy compelled him to publish it as a paperback later this year.

Ellis' books have gotten more metafictional.

Lunar Park (2005), a pseudo-memoir and ghost story, received favorable feedback.

Imperial Bedrooms (2010), which was sold as a sequel to Less Than Zero, continues to be marketed in this style. Four of Ellis' works have been turned into films.

Less Than Zero was released in 1987 as a film of the same name, but there was no similarity to the novel.

In 2000, Mary Harron's adaptation of American Psychologies received mostly critical feedback.

The Rules of Attraction, a Roger Avary-led adaptation of The Rules of Attraction, received modest box office returns in 2002.

The Informers, Ellis' collection of short stories, was critically panned in 2008.

Ellis also wrote the screenplay for The Canyons, a critically acclaimed 2013 film.

Personal life

Ellis said in a 2002 interview whether he was gay or straight, he was at ease being seen as gay, bisexual, or heterosexual, and he loved playing with his persona, who described him as gay, straight, and bisexual to various people over the years. Ellis said in a 1999 interview that his refusal to categorize his sexuality was for "artistic reasons." "If people knew that I was straight, they'd read [my books] in a different way." "Psycho" would be read as a different book if they knew I was gay. Ellis said in an interview with Robert F. Coleman, he had an "indeterminate sexuality" and that "any other interviewer out there will get a different answer, and it just depends on the mood I am in."

Ellis said in a 2011 interview with James Brown that his responses to questions about his sexuality have varied and were characterized as "bi" by a Details interviewer. "I think the last time I slept with a woman was five to six years ago," he said, "the bisexual thing can only be played out for so long." "I still use it, but I also believe it." Ellis tweeted, "Not to bum everyone out, but can we get a reality check here?" referring to Dan Savage's It Gets Better campaign, aimed at preventing suicide among LGBT people. It's getting worse. Ellis came out as gay in a 2012 op-ed for The Daily Beast, although apologizing for a string of controversial tweets.

Michael Wade Kaplan, Ellis's son, died shortly after finishing the book and to Ellis' father, Robert Ellis, who died in 1992. Ellis described feeling a sense of freedom in the completion of the book that encouraged him to confront unresolved questions about his father in one interview. Ellis addresses his father's "tough case" who left him wounded in the Random House website's "author Q&A" for Lunar Park. Ellis reflects how his father's opinion changed since 15 years ago when writing Glamorama (in which the central conspiracy concerns the relationship of a father and son). Ellis said he based Patrick Bateman in American Psycho on his father earlier in his career, but in a 2010 interview, he denied this explanation. "I didn't want to take responsibility of being Patrick Bateman," he said, "I didn't want to finally own up to the challenge of being Patrick Bateman," he said, so I laid it on my father." The book was "about me at the time," and I wrote about all my rage and emotions at the time. To James Brown, Bateman was based on "my dad a little bit but I was living that lifestyle." Patrick Bateman was not in New York when he was born in the same building, going to the same places as Patrick Bateman.

Ellis named his first book and his latest after two Elvis Costello references: "Less than Zero" and Imperial Bedroom, respectively. In a 2010 interview with NME, Ellis called Bruce Springsteen his "musical hero."

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Life and career

Ellis was born in Los Angeles in 1964 and grew in Sherman Oaks, California's San Fernando Valley. Robert Martin Ellis, his father, was a land developer, and his mother, Dale Ellis (nee Dennis), was a homemaker. In 1982, the couple divorced. Ellis, the author's third book, said he was abused and was the source of the book's most popular character, Patrick Bateman. Later Ellis said the character was not based on his father, but that Ellis himself said that all of his work came from a specific place of suffering he went through in his life. Ellis claims that although his family life was somewhat difficult as a result of the divorce, he had a "idyllic" California childhood.

Ellis was educated at The Buckley School in California; he later attended Bennington College in Vermont, where he first studied music and then gravitated to writing, which had been one of his passions since childhood. Donna Tartt and Jonathan Lethem, who later became published writers, were among those who met and befriended Donna Tartt and Jonathan Lethem.

Ellis wrote a book at Bennington College that had been on hold for many years. Ellis was born in 1991 and is still in college, and it brought him to instant fame. Ellis is marketed by literary agent Amanda Urban. Ellis became closely associated and good friends with fellow Brat Pack writer Jay McInerney in 1985 after the success and controversies of Less than Zero: the two became known as the "toxic twins" for their well-publicized late-night debauchery.

Ellis became a pariah for a while after the release of American Psycho (1991), which later became a critical and cult hit, more so after the 2000 movie version. Ellis' magnum opus is now recognized by a variety of academics, earning widespread praise. During Glamorama's long-writing history, the Informers (1994) was offered to his publisher. Ellis wrote a screenplay for The Rules of Attraction's film version, but it was not used. In the first chapter of Lunar Park (2005), he presents a fictionalized version of his life story up to this point. Ellis was inspired to finish Lunar Park with a new sense of wistfulness after his lover Michael Wade Kaplan's death and inflected it with a new sense of humour. Ellis was approached by young screenwriter Nicholas Jarecki to turn The Informers into a film; the script was reduced from 150 to 94 pages and given to Australian director Gregor Jordan, whose light-on-humor vision of the film received critical feedback when it was first published in 2009.

Ellis, despite setbacks as a screenwriter, collaborated with respected director Gus Van Sant in 2009 to turn the Vanity Fair article "The Golden Suicides" into a film of the same name portrayed celebrity artists Theresa Duncan and Jeremy Blake's tumultuous final days and suicides. As of 2014, the film has never been produced. Van Sant appeared on The Bret Easton Ellis Podcast on February 12, 2014, he said he was never attached to the project as a writer or a producer, but only a consultant, arguing that the script was too complicated for him to properly render on screen. Naomi Watts and Ryan Gosling were approached by Ellis and Van Sant to appear as Duncan and Blake. Ellis and his production partner Braxton Pope are still working on the project, with Ellis revisiting the screenplay from time to time. Gaspar Noé, a radical filmmaker who had been attached to direct if the film were to be produced, was still struggling to direct due to his erratic behavior.

Ellis published Imperial Bedrooms, the sequel to his debut novel, in 2010. Following Ellis' return to LA and fictionalizes his contribution to The Informers' film version from the perspective of Clay. "Ellis fans will revel in the characters and Ellis' quick hand in manipulating their destiny," according to Publishers Weekly, and although the novel's synchronicity with Zero is sublime, it also works as a magnificent stand-alone." Ellis expressed an interest in writing the screenplay for the Fifty Shades of Grey film version. He spoke to his followers, and even mentioned visiting with the film's designers, as well as noting that it went well. Kelly Marcel, Patrick Marber, and Mark Bomback followed him as the job progress went. Ellis wrote the screenplay for the independent film The Canyons in 2012 and raised funds for its production. The film was released in 2013 and critically panned, but it was still a modest financial success, with Lindsay Lohan's role in the lead role receiving some glowing reviews.

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