Though Tom Cruise doesn't appear in American Psycho, his presence haunts the story.

The author of the novel that director Mary Harron adapted into the 2000 classic, Bret Easton Ellis, actually wove Cruise into the life of his violent, narcissistic protagonist Patrick Bateman. In the book, Cruise and Bateman share an apartment building, a fact that Bateman appears at times both delighted and disgusted by. But when it came time to film the novel, the mercurial Top Gun actor didn't make the final cut.

In a recent interview with Letterboxd, Harron joked she and the creative team behind American Psycho "love the Tom Cruise thing, but we would never have gotten Tom Cruise to be in such a heinous production as American Psycho!"

But she says that Cruise still played a critical role in the film.

Harron recalled how her Patrick Bateman, Christian Bale, drew inspiration for the character from the Jerry Maguire star's demeanor, sharing that Bale "called me at one point and said, 'I saw Tom Cruise on a talk show last night, and there was something about that friendliness, with almost nothing behind the eyes.'"

Cruise makes one prominent appearance in Ellis' 1991 novel, when Bateman steps into the elevator to ascend to his luxe apartment. "Someone gets in right before the doors shut and instinctively I turn to say hello," Ellis writes. "It's the actor Tom Cruise."