The Christian Bale Paradox

people were telling me hey you can't go play Patrick baitman it's career suicide I'm Batman and I was like Bring it on I definitely want to do [Applause] that and the Oscar goes to Christian Bale The Fighter bloody hell what a room full of talented and inspirational people and what the hell am I doing here Christian Charles Philip Bale I think you've already said it many call him Sigma bill for some he's a Godly actor for others he's a beacon of dedication and for very few he's a symbol of toxic masculinity I'm in touch with Humanity but why some say it's because of his iconic roles as Bruce Wayne dick chenny and Patrick baitman others say it's because Society has gone mad but even if that were true there is there is more to the story than that so let's go back faster faster stop right there 1974 Christian Bale was born in PMR Shire Wales and Bale had a very early start to his career his family was always moving from country to Country since his dad was a pilot and his mom was a circus performer through their numerous travels young Bale had seen a lot of the world and so when his sister got cast in a West End musical Christian Bale decided that he would become an actor professionally up until that moment he had just appeared in a fabric sophomore commercial when he was 8 years old following his decision to start acting he took part in a play called the nerd that would serve as the foundation for his future career he performed opposite the legendary Rowan Atkinson before he was Mr Bean on set he took notice of how Rowan embodied the character he was playing outside of scenes Rowan never talked to anyone on the set he was to thoroughly engulfed in his role at all times it wasn't until after the play that Rowan introduced himself to Bale and other members of the cast this mesmerized Bale and gave him a clear template to follow because you see Christian Bale had never gotten any formal acting training everything he did he learned from deeply observing those around him you could say he was very lucky to have Rowan Atkinson as his Muse and through his Newfound method acting style Christian Bale would take what he learned and reach for the stars 1986 following his successful acquisition of a minor role in the television film Anastasia the mystery of Anna Christian Bale received a significant opportunity Amy Irving the film's lead star and spouse of acclaimed director Steven Spielberg went on to endorse Bale for a pivotal role in Spielberg's 1987 film Empire of the Sun he scaled through the auditions and performed exceptionally well during the movie this was a breakout role for him at just 13 years of age and it netted him the inaugural best performance by a juvenile actor award from the national board of review of motion pictures as well as mainstream popularity but all of this came at a cost young Bale loved acting he loved being in the moment of acting and he found it fun what he didn't love though was all the attention that came with it he dreaded the numerous interviews unnecessary attention and worst of all he was getting bullied in school in fact it got so bad that he would sneak away during interviews to use the bathroom then completely vanished the next moment and who could blame him he was still a child with little understanding of the acting world and so much pressure being mounted on him it was the first roadblock in his acting career and the entire experience caused him to take a break from acting as he didn't want to deal with all the media tension ever again thankfully the people around Bale had other plans Christian Bale got dragged back into acting when Kenneth bernau persuaded him to appear in his film Henry 5 despite his personal dread of the media the young Bale felt a sense of obligation to continue acting due to financial reasons and the fact that Kenneth had put effort into persuading him following his performances in Empire of the Sun and Henry 5 Christian Bale went through a highly difficult time in his life his parents went through a divorce which ended with him moving to Los Angeles together with his dad and sister Louise Los Angeles even back then was a good place to focus on his acting career and get his mind off his family issues in Los Angeles Christian Bale's career went through a bit a lull and it seemed like the hype had died down for Bale he either starred in unsuccessful movies such as Newsies or played a minor supporting role in mid movies like the portrait of a lady Christian Bale was putting his all into the movies and they just weren't performing that's not to say that all movies he performed and did terribly I mean he played a smashing role as Theodore Lori Lawrence in Little Women and voice Thomas in Pocahontas which were both received well by audiences and critics alike they let him go they don't want to fight John crazy to think that Leonardo DiCaprio almost snatched a role from him again Bill had previously lost huge roles to DiCaprio in movies including This Boy's Life seed in Gilbo grape and even the Titanic you have to imagine Bale wasn't too happy with DiCaprio coming for his role yet again when bail first auditioned with director Mary Heron she knew he was the perfect fit and refused to take anyone else but him Bo Chi and Bale were kicked off the production team because of it the studio then brought in Leonardo DiCaprio with Oliver Stone as the new director thankfully Leonardo ended up changing his mind about playing the role after receiving some advice from from a journalist that led him to believe that it would affect his image and approval ratings with female audiences which were of course the major part of his audience at the time since playing in the Titanic that journalist was Gloria steinm and she was a feminist who later got married to Bale's father that same year some people speculated that she was actually looking out for her future stepson but no one really knows for sure regardless it was great news for Christian Bale who was rejecting other movie offers and still actively preparing for the role despite being kicked off of the team earlier when the time for production came the crew immediately knew that they were dealing with a serious method actor with his foundations with Rowan Atkinson Christian Bale encapsulated the role of Patrick baitman perfectly even when the cameras weren't rolling he had actually practiced Patrick Batman's routine from the movie every day in real life and was dead set on playing him to Perfection film critic Roger Ebert regard regarded Christian Bale's work as being hero the KN with his wife who he met on the set of Little Women back in 1994 before he met her Christian Bale was very skeptical about marriage as his parents marriage didn't really set a great example for him he and his wife would go on to have two wonderful kids together and are still together over 20 years later the year 2000 was his greatest display of method acting until after his role in American Psycho Christian Bale played some roles he wasn't particularly happy with he wanted to challenge himself to portray a difficult character in Trevor Resnik who is literally being eaten up by guilt so he didn't eat seriously he didn't eat his died in preparation for the movie consisted of an apple a can of tuna black coffee and a whole lot of cigarettes and whiskey each day because of this extreme diet Christian Bale lost 63 lb and was practically a walking skeleton during during filming he had taken method acting to a whole new level for a film that didn't even pay very well it performed dreadfully at the box office but did receive praise from notable film critics particularly praise for Christian's performance in this movie Christian Bale was more concerned about getting immersed in the role rather than the amount of money he was getting paid he thoroughly captured the asense of Trevor's character in the movie and it is still one of his greatest performances to date but it's probably not what you remember him for upon being announced to storying Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight trilogy his friends warned him to avoid the role as he would never be able to play anything else the same thing had previously happened when he was about to play Patrick bitman they told him it was career suicide and it wasn't worth never being able to play a good role again safe to say he ignored them once again affirming that he needed to be good enough to rise about that and the role would provide provide him with financial resources to pay off his house especially since Christopher Nolan was so keen on having him perform the role stating that baale was the perfect balance between light and darkness which he needed for Batman I'm Batman in preparation for the role Christian Bale had to regain his lost weight and put on more muscles so he could truly look the part he weighed 220 lbs at the time of filming and performed a lot of his own stunts Christian once again immersed himself in a role playing both Batman and Bruce Wayne excellently during interviews he would talk in the same manner and accent he spoken from the movie and it came as a surprise to crew members and fans when they finally found out he was British although Christian Bale had Oscar worthy performances in the entire Trilogy he was sadly upstage by heat Ledger who put on an insane performance as a joker this was the first time Christian said he felt inferior in his career I don't even like this seene make it up and I've got to be ready for that and if I'm not ready for that I feel very insecure arriving on the set with the success of the Batman movies new life was given to Bale's career new opportunities were being presented but with it of course came some problems as well on the set of Terminator Salvation in 2008 Christian Bale had an outburst towards a member of the crew the audio of the incident was released the following year and what ensued was chaos in the clip Bale was mouthing off the film cinematographer Shane hbut for walking onto the set in an intense moment of filming it got so bad that Bale threatened to leave if Shane wasn't fired you know shut up for a second all right I'm going to go do you want me to go trash your lights you do it one more time and ain't walking on the shed if you're still hired there was a huge Outreach from the public with some people holding the opinion that the years of method acting had finally broken his mental state he got got too into the role he was playing eventually Christian apologized publicly and said he had made amends with Shane saying that what he did was inexcusable shortly before that on 22nd July 2008 Christian Bale found himself detained by authorities in London this followed a report filed by his mother and sister Sharon alleging an assault at a hotel subsequently Christian was released on bail he flat out denied the accusations and referred to the incident as a deeply personal matter ultimately on 14th August the crown prosecution service announced a decision not to pursue the case any further due to insufficient evidence that could reasonably lead to a conviction one could say that his characters were beginning to affect his personal life which he keeps very private these situations greatly reduced his public perception and gave him a lot to think about in years to come 2009 Terminator Salvation was finally released and it was said to be one of Christian Bale's worst performances and a far cry from the reju ination Bale had hoped to bring to the franchise after the movie's less and successful run Bale realized that this was just a small hurdle in his career and so he picked himself up dusted off and went for the next movie 2011 Christian Bale won the Academy Award for best supporting actor and the Golden Glow for the same category as well these were awards that eluded him for years and he won them doing what he was best at at method acting Dicky ekland was a character that couldn't be played by just anyone there needed to be a sense of authenticity and comedy to the performance and that's exactly what Christian Bale delivered prior to the role he had lost 30 lb so he could look as close to dicki as possible during filming he was regularly hanging out with dicki ekant in order to play his role to Perfection they became close friends and Bale thoroughly understood the mind of dicki all of that enabled him to perform exceptionally well in the role but Christian Bale wasn't done that same year he would start in a historical drama film The Flowers of War which became the highest grossing Chinese film of that year shortly after that he would return to Batman to finish off the trilogy the last installment of Christopher Nolan's Dark Knight trilogy The Dark Knight Rises grossed over $1 billion worldwide surpassing its predecessor by a landslide Bale's performance in the trilogy was regarded as the best portrayal of Batman on film but Bale still felt he could have done better After the Dark Knight trilogy Bale stepped into the next phase of his career he starred in films such as Out of the Furnace The Big Short and American Hustle he was nominated for an Academy Award and a Golden Globe award for his work in American Hustle in preparation for the movie he gained 43 L shaved part of his head and adopted a bad posture which reduced his height by 3 in and caused him to suffer a herniated disc it was just another day at the office for baale as he would put his mind and body through any form of torture in order to play a character to Perfection happy to say that it paid off though as he was also nominated for an Academy Award and a Golden Globe award for his work in The Big Short in 2016 in the movie Bale portrayed Michael bur a socially awkward hedge fund manager said in the 2008 financial crisis Bale once again met up with the real Michael bur in order to understand his role better it led him to deliver an outstanding performance that received critical Acclaim Christian Bale's career was almost complete and after his role in Ford versus Ferrari where he had to lose 70 lb and got another nomination for a Golden Globe award Christian Bale announced that he was no longer going to go through weight fluctuations for movies it seemed like time had finally caught up with him as as the frequent weight fluctuations were beginning to cause him heart palpitations although that might seem like a sad story it was not the end of his career Christian Bale would go on to appear in multiple movies after that most recently in Amsterdam and his role in Thor love and thunder where he played Gore the god butcher throughout his entire career Christian Bale held a unique acting philosophy he never considered himself a method actor but rather someone who is willing to completely immers himself in a role he always took challenges headon regardless of the opinion of others for him it was fun for him it was Art and the critic's choice is Christian Bale the big [Applause] sh that was just a lovely make out session with my wife and with Adam and with Charles oh my lord your Empire is already ended

Channel: Biography Breakdown

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Keywords: christian bale, christian bale interview, christian bale movies, christian bale american psycho, christian bale weight loss, christian bale transformation, the prestige, the machinist, american psycho, batman begings, batman dark knight, batman dark knight rises, patrick bateman, sigma edit, sigma male, christian bale edit, christian bale moments, christian bale batman, the big short, biography, documentary, christian bale paradox, biography breakdown, christopher nolan

Id: Qd8HbuXGBn8

Length: 16min 0sec (960 seconds)

Published: Fri Sep 15 2023