Casper Van Dien Says His Leopard G-String Scene in “Rules of Attraction” Was Cut to Avoid a NC-17 Rating (Exclusive)

The actor played a version of Patrick Bateman from 'American Psycho' in the 2002 movie — and reveals to PEOPLE what went down in the unseen footage

In October 2024, it was reported that director Luca Guadagnino was planning to helm a new adaptation of the Bret Easton Ellis novel, American Psycho. The movie would mark the first time the story has been brought to the big screen following the 2000 horror cult classic starring Christian Bale as Patrick Bateman.

While everyone has ideas for who should portray the Wall Street investment banker who claims to lead a secret life as a serial killer — from Jacob Elordi to Robert Pattison — it's worth remembering that Casper Van Dien once offered his own take on the famed character.

Although his scenes ended up on the cutting room floor, Van Dien was cast as Patrick, the older brother of college student and drug dealer Sean Bateman (James Van Der Beek), in the 2002 adaptation of The Rules of Attraction. While speaking with PEOPLE, the 55-year-old actor looks back on filming his scenes, which were ultimately deleted in director-writer Roger Avary's final cut in order for the movie to avoid a NC-17 rating.

"I had a lot of fun doing those two scenes," the Starship Troopers actor says now, revealing what went down in the two unseen moments, with Patrick being on the receiving end of phone calls from Sean.

Related: Christian Bale's American Psycho Costars Initially Thought His Acting 'Was Terrible' While Filming

In the first scene, which has since been released online by Avary, Patrick is decked out in a fancy suit as he paces around his Manhattan office and dictates notes about his violent dreams when Sean calls collect to ask his brother to wire him money. Needless to say, the conversation doesn't go well as the two siblings spar over the phone.

"I'm giving him hell," the actor says of being "on the phone with James Van Der Beek, my brother."

The second one, which has not made its way online and has only been rumored about, is far more scandalous. According to Van Dien, "I'm on the phone with him too." But this time, it starts off as a closeup shot and Patrick is seen idly tapping his fingers on something before the camera "pulls back [to reveal] a severed head in a plastic bag."

"And then, I get up and I dance with it in a leopard Speedo G-string with blood everywhere," the actor says, adding that the second scene "was really disturbing and it was a very lifelike head that they had. It was a woman's head. So it was very disturbing."

He adds, "They were pretty graphic scenes … I can't fully describe the scene 'cause it was a little bit more gross than that, too."

Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE's free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer​​, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories. 

In fact, according to the actor, the second scene was one of the director's favorites from the movie, which also starred Shannyn Sossamon, Ian Somerhalder, Jessica Biel and Kate Bosworth as various college students in overlapping stories of events taking place in the months leading up to the campus' "End of the World" party.

"Roger literally told me, he goes, 'That's my favorite scene from the movie.' And I go, 'I don't believe you. You cut it out.' He goes, 'No, I didn't want to. For rating-wise, I had to,' " Van Dien recalls, noting that "it was a lot of fun to work with him."

But the actor agrees that the scenes "would've put it over into NC-17 for sure."

While he acknowledges that Bale, 50, is "such a phenomenal actor" who "left big shoes to fill," Van Dien couldn't confirm the rumor that production originally wanted Bale to reprise his role from American Psycho for Rules of Attraction. But the actor says, "If it had been Christian Bale, they probably wouldn't have cut it out."

Noting that Patrick is "a great literary character," he says "to be able to play something like that — and also after it had been played so well so well by Bale himself — you're like, 'Ooh, that's big shoes to fill.' But I went for it and I did it."

Related: Why Sleepy Hollow's Casper Van Dien Was Warned That Kissing Christina Ricci Would Be Like 'Kissing Your Cousin' (Exclusive)

Although Van Dien's G-string moment was left unseen in the final cut of Rules of Attraction, he reveals it's not the first time he's had to wear such a particular costume accessory on set. While making 1998's Tarzan and the Lost City, he wore something similar — but had a very different experience.

"When I was Tarzan, they handed me a leather G-string and they were like, 'Here, wear this.' And I'm like, 'I don't wanna wear that.' And they were like, 'You're gonna need it because you're swinging around and everything like that. You gotta hold everything in,' " the actor recalls.

Of course, then one day while filming a swinging scene, he experienced a mishap as he went from rope to rope. "I did five swings. And we did a second take of it and as we're doing it, the rope from when I'm letting go of one and grabbing onto the other, it got caught between my legs," he shares.

That's when, instead of doing the famous Tarzan yell, the actor was left screaming for real because the rope "really burned right between my legs," leaving every man on set thinking the worst happened.

But after checking everything out down there, "the leather G-string that was holding me in place was burnt but I was okay." While he didn't want to wear one initially, "I'm so grateful I did because, yeah, I was all right. That leather G-string saved me, saved my life," Van Dien says.