Christian Bale acted in American films.
Christian Bale . Bale first caught the public eye at the age of 13 , when he was cast in the starring role of Steven Spielberg 's Empire of the Sun ( 1987 ) . In 2000 , he garnered critical acclaim for his portrayal of serial killer Patrick Bateman in American Psycho . Empire of the Sun is a 1987 American epic coming-of-age war film based on J. G. Ballard 's semi-autobiographical novel of the same name .