Bret Easton Ellis to be played by Forrest Whitaker?

In this hilarious online chat with college newspaper editors, Bret Easton Ellis suggests that in the movie version of Lunar Park, he would like to see his character portrayed by Forrest Whitaker.

Here’s the full transcript (read the whole thing — it’s highly amusing):

Moderator: We are pleased to have as our guest Bret Easton Ellis, author of AMERICAN PSYCHO, LESS THAN ZERO, THE RULES OF ATTRACTION, GLAMORAMA, THE INFORMERS, and now LUNAR PARK, his most recent national bestseller.

Moderator: Today, we will be discussing his newest novel, LUNAR PARK, which was recently published in paperback. LUNAR PARK is about a man named Bret Easton Ellis whose first novel, LESS THAN ZERO, catapulted him to international stardom while he was still in college. In the years that followed, he found himself adrift in a world full of wealth, drugs, and fame, as well as dealing with the unexpected death of his abusive father. After a decade of decadence, a chance for salvation arises; the chance to reconnect with an actress he was once involved with, and their son. But almost immediately his new life is threatened by a freak sequence of events and bizarre series of murders that all seem to connect to Ellis’s past.

Moderator: Bret will also discuss his other novels, many of which have been turned into popular films, including LESS THAN ZERO, AMERICAN PSYCHO, and THE RULES OF ATTRACTION, as well as GLAMORAMA and THE INFORMERS, both of which have been optioned for film.

Moderator: Bret, why don’t you start off by telling us about your new book, LUNAR PARK?

Bret Easton Ellis: It’s a ghost story. It’s a haunted house. It was my homage to a genre of fiction that I enjoyed as a kid: supernatural stuff; It’s an homage to Stephen King; it’s a kind of mid-career retrospective; it’s a lot of things, I guess.

Q: Bret, Is it satisfying seeing your books turned into films? Or is it a strange experience?

Bret Easton Ellis: It is satisfying. Even when they don’t turn out exactly as you hoped. I love movies and so to see one of your books turned into a film–that’s an exciting thing. Problem is I don’t write books for the movies. If I have an idea for a book–it’s a book. If I have an idea for a movie–I’ll write a movie.

Q: Bret, how much of your own life and your experiences do you include in your writing?

Bret Easton Ellis: Not a lot. Haven’t written specifically about myself until Lunar Park. Emotionally the other books were autobiographical—meaning they reveal a lot about where I was at that moment without me giving too much away about my personal life. But since so much of has been played out in the press….

Q: Do you write with a specific audience in mind?

Bret Easton Ellis: No. I write for myself. I don’t know what that audience is. I just write what I’m interested in the moment and I’m not thinking about readers.

Q: Because some of your subject matter is aggressive, violent and somewhat gory, do people ever confuse you with any of your characters? And if so, are people scared of you?

Bret Easton Ellis: Yeah, I guess some people have an idea about who I am from the fiction. But they shouldn’t. Should they be scared of me? Yes–but for a whole other list of reasons

Q: In your book, Lunar Park, how are you and your character Bret Easton Ellis, the same? How are you different?

Bret Easton Ellis: The same? Well….I just realized that’s too difficult a question to answer. I don’t want to go there.

Q: You started writing books at a young age–while still in college. Did you always know you wanted to be an author?

Bret Easton Ellis: Yes. Or a musician. But the author thing happened faster than the band thing.

Q: Why does Patrick Bateman keep coming up in your books after American Psycho? And is he likely to show up in your next book?

Bret Easton Ellis: Because he haunts me. HIs popularity haunts me. But he’s not going to show up in the next book.

Q: Bret, you’ve written about some very interesting characters, like serial killers, drug dealers, etc., what was it like to add yourself to that list?

Bret Easton Ellis: Didn’t really see much difference

Q: As a mid-career retrospective… why did you cast yourself, or a version of yourself, as the lead character? How does this relate to your previous books and were these prior characters parts of yourself, as well?

Bret Easton Ellis: Cast myself: because it was an autobiographical novel and I was feeling a distance from the material after thinking about it for so long. Every character is a part of me–from Clay to Patrick Bateman to Victor Ward. But I’m a writer and creating them. Big difference

Q: “Lunar Park” is quite a terrifying novel in many ways, at any point while you were writing it did you get scared?

Bret Easton Ellis: Well, not really, because by the time I’m writing the book (after a long outline and making notes) I’m in the technician phase of the process and so, no, don’t reallt get scared or bothered by stuff. Though sometimes sex scenes can be arousing to write

Q: How have your experiences throughout life shaped your writing style and stories, and has your more recent work been impacted by having hindsight of those experiences?

Bret Easton Ellis: Well, of course. How? My experiences shaped me into the man I am. Since novels are reflections of that man—it’s inevitable. As you get older, yes, you tend to draw more heavily on the past. Because you have more of one.

Q: Do you feel your writing style, technically has changed over the course of your career?

Bret Easton Ellis: Yeah.

Q: In LUNAR PARK, there is less satirical humor than in your previous books. Why is this? Is it part of the mid-career retrospective and a consequence of getting older…?

Bret Easton Ellis: What’s there to satirize? Ghosts?

Q: Would you ever consider writing a children’s book? or writing about dragons, you know just different stuff to mix it up a little

Bret Easton Ellis: I have no desire to answer this question but I just wanted to post it anyway

Q: Lunar Park is somewhat non-fiction. Do any of your characters from previous novels appear in it?

Bret Easton Ellis: Yeah, one: Mitchell Allen–who was a supporting player in The Rules of Attraction.

Q: One of your recent books, GLAMORAMA, approached the topic of international terrorism. The issue is approached in Lunar Park but the overriding subject is one of stark terror. How does this relate to what’s happening in the world/culture and in the media right now?

Bret Easton Ellis: How many points do I get for answering that question? Will someone send me money if I answer it? Or, like, a new iPod?

Bret Easton Ellis: I do think that Glamorama was prescient in some ways. I think the videotaping of bombings and killings was prescient.

Q: Bret, who are some of your favorite contemporary authors? Who do you admire and respect out there?

Bret Easton Ellis: Philip Roth, Don DeLillo, Cormac McCarthy, Joan Didion, Bruce Wagner….hmmm, that’s off the top of my head right now….There are a lot. I admire and respect anybody who attempts a novel.

Q: I thought American Psycho was pretty terrifying. Does it bother you that people dress up like Bateman at costume parties (Halloween was recent so I saw some of this)? Bring Bateman dolls at book signings… this may be a touchy question but how does that feel and is that the haunting you were talking about?

Bret Easton Ellis: Yeah, I was haunted by that. And I can’t tell you how many times some dude has flipped open his cell phone to show me HIS Patrick Bateman costume. It’s weird but I did resent PB’s popularity at one point and I think that’s what worked its way into Lunar Park.

Q: Are you worried at all that in taking so much of your influence from your current point in life that as you get older your material might become uninspired?

Bret Easton Ellis: Yeah.

Q: Is there a certain type of music you listen to when writing, such as the ’80s influence with ‘American Psycho”

Bret Easton Ellis: I don’t listen to music when writing. But recently I heard Solsbury Hill and why do I now hate a song I loved? That was a bummer moment. Also have been accused by friends lately of liking “sad gay music” aka “Boston” by Augustana and “Lost Without Your Love” by Bread. Thoughts?

Q: What types of books do you read in your free time? Who is your favorite author?

Bret Easton Ellis: I read a lot of galleys–I have a lot of friends who write and I know a lot of editors so don’t have that much free time. But I like all kinds of books. But am mainly a novel and short story guy. My favorite author is Gustave Flaubert.
Q: Would you ever consider adding Mel Gibson into your roster of characters? I think he would fit in nicely.

Bret Easton Ellis: Haven’t I already?

Q: Bret, what authors do you find yourself being compared to?Who among them do you find flattering? insulting?

Bret Easton Ellis: I don’t find myself being compared to anyone. I would like to be compared to someone. But, no. Compare me. Go ahead. I would be flattered if I was compared to Don DeLillo or Didion or Roth. I would not be flattered to be compared to Mitch Albloom (sp?)

Q: If Lunar Park gets made into a movie, what actor would you like to play you?

Bret Easton Ellis: Patrick Wilson

Bret Easton Ellis: Tom Cruise

Bret Easton Ellis: Peter Saarsgard

Bret Easton Ellis: Forest Whitaker

Q: Can you share with us that first moment when you knew you had arrived and life would never be the same. 

Bret Easton Ellis: I was in Kindergarden and I was wearing a black turtleneck and thought all my classmates were idiots and I was walking in the rain and that was the day: back in 1970 when I knew it was downhill from there

Q: What is your writing routine like? Do you stick to a schedule or do you just write when inspired?

Bret Easton Ellis: Writing routine: well, if I’m inspired I have a routine. But it’s not a routine because I want to write the book. Writing a book is not a job. At least not for me. It takes me a long time to commit to an idea, to figure out, to outline it, etc. It’s not a routine. It’s a way of making a novel

Q: What is your writing routine like? Do you stick to a schedule or do you just write when inspired?

Bret Easton Ellis: When inspired. That goes for emails to

Q: You wrote a piece a few years ago on why the Teletubbies were evil due to their prefabrication and sterile environment. You talked about how those in your generation who have become parents emphasize too much with their children. Is this addressed in Lunar Park and could you expand on that?

Bret Easton Ellis: Yeah, it’s addressed in Lunar Park but expanding on would just be too depressing.

Q: With younger generations discovering your novels, has any of that particular audience suprised with you in their relation to your works?

Bret Easton Ellis: Yeah, it is a surprise when I give a reading and there are very few people my age or older and the overwhelming majority are college kids. I used to be the youngest guy in the bookstore when I gave a reading when Less Than Zero came out and now I’m around the oldest (at 42!). I could have parented most of the kids who come and see me. I guess the books were more universal and less specific than I thought

Q: When you write your books, although you probably don’t have it mind that they might be optioned for movies, do you have actors in mind for your characters? Do you feel the characters the movies that have been adapted from your books have been miscast?

Bret Easton Ellis: I don’t think of actors because I’m not writing a movie. It’s a book. And I only have a vague idea of what an abstraction like Clay or Victor Ward or Bateman would look like. There has been some miscasting–Less Than Zero had some problems; but overall I thought American Psycho was brilliantly cast and I loved the cast of The Rules of Attraction so much that I became friends with them

Q: What is your favorite book that you have written and why?

Bret Easton Ellis: Glamorama. Because it took so long. Because it doesn’t answer anything. Because it’s the book that took the most out of me. And went through so many emotions while writing it. Some might say a folly; but I think it’s my favorite book because of that

Q: What are your thoughts on the film adaptations of your books?

Bret Easton Ellis: All good. Even Less Than Zero–saw it recently late at night and thought it looked gorgeous and the only movie to capture that period of LA youth culture in such a painterly way (sure Fast Times and Valley Girl are better movies but the look and noirish fatalism of LTZ is cool). American Psycho: very respectable. And I thnk Rules was a knockout.
My favorite one.

Q: Do you plan to write a memoir?

Bret Easton Ellis: Don’t know

Q: Is it true that the follow up to Less Than Zero is tentatively titled Teenage Pussy?

Bret Easton Ellis: Actually I think it’s going to be another Elvis Costello title….

Q: Growing up, who was your favorite author?

Bret Easton Ellis: Stephen King, Hemingway,

Q: Brett, wondering what your thoughts are about the translation of your novels into Movies. Christian Bale absolutely mastered American Psycho, while James Van Der Beek nearly drowned Rule of Attraction. Do you think the movies have done your writing justice?

Bret Easton Ellis: First of all — if you’re going to name yourself off a character from one of my books, please spell my name correctly. James Van Der Beek was AMAZING in Rules. I couldn’t have been happier with that casting decision. I thnk the movies and the books are two separate things and I don’t think about it

Q: Hello Bret. I was curious as to how much of your work is derived from your life, newspapers, daily happenings, etc., how much is derived from what is going on in your head. Do the two often meet?

Bret Easton Ellis: No. Not really. Sometimes. Not aware.

Q: You said in an interview that Stephen King was an idol of yours and that you wrote Lunar Park hoping to pay homage to that genre. Do you feel as though you accomplished that?

Bret Easton Ellis: To a degree. It changed a lot from inception to completion. It became both a novel that mimicked that genre but also something more personal. I always have regrets about the books when they’re done. But overall I feel that I emotionally got to a place with Lunar Park that I wanted to get to

Bret Easton Ellis: On that note. Thank you everyone.

Moderator: This concludes today’s newsmaker conference with Bret Easton Ellis, author of AMERICAN PSYCHO, LESS THAN ZERO, THE RULES OF ATTRACTION, GLAMORAMA, THE INFORMERS, and his latest work, LUNAR PARK.

Moderator: On behalf of Bret Easton Ellis, thank you for attending, and thank you for your interest. And, on behalf of the college journalists attending this event, and those reading about it, our thanks go out to Bret for taking time out of his busy schedule to chat with us today.