Clay

The character of Clay varies widely from text to text.

Versions of Clay

 * Less Than Zero and The Rules of Attraction both feature a blonde-haired Clay who is passive to a fault. Although in the real world, this "1985" Clay is of course written by Ellis, in Imperial Bedrooms, he was written by The Author, who portrayed the "real" Clay as but a dazed cipher that serves merely as narrator. The appearance in TRoA87 is a cruel joke at Clay's expense.
 * In the 1987 Less Than Zero film based on the above, Clay (Andrew McCarthy) is an anti-drug crusader and a radically different character. The 'real Clay' and his friends watched the film in 1987 and commented that unlike the above character, McCarthy (although, only physically) resembled him more closely.
 * The Real Clay appears for the first time in Imperial Bedrooms. His moral complicity and his calculated passivity have hardened into downright cruelty, partly as a result of his extreme narcissism. Blair, however, is still in love with him.
 * Clayton is a character who appears in Lunar Park (2005). At different points, he is described as resembling Fictional Bret Ellis, his son Robby Ellis, the 1985 Clay and and also Patrick Bateman, whom the character dresses up as at Bret's Halloween Party, early in the novel.
 * Another character named Clayton (played by Kip Pardue) appears in All That Glitters, a parody of Bret Easton Ellis starring the author. Ostensibly, Clayton is a character from a novella called All That Glitters by Bret Easton Ellis which has been adapted into a CW TV show. He is a dumb, wealthy playboy who lives with his brother (and, unbeknownst to either of them, they are both serial killers).

Significance of name

 * Clay has very little personality. Blair and The Author both 'mould' him in their own image.
 * It evokes the character's utter blandness.

Themes

 * Autobiography

Essays

 * Essay: Mould your own Clay