Is there an actor you can think of who takes their roles more seriously than Christian Bale? The actor began his career working with some of the most prestigious directors in the industry when he was just 13 years old, making his feature debut in Steven Spielberg’s Empire of the Sun. He has since gained recognition and awards for his dramatic and eccentric roles in movies such as American Psycho, The Big Short, and The Fighter. Bale has a history of putting his artistic aspirations ahead of his physical health; he lost weight for Vice and Batman Begins and notably dropped to an unhealthy weight for 3:10 to Yuma and The Machinist.
Even though Bale is willing to go to great lengths to achieve a successful performance, he could not have imagined going all out for his Marvel debut in Thor: Love and Thunder. As the antagonist, Gorr the God Butcher, in Taika Waititi’s Thor: Love and Thunder, the Academy Award winner declared that it would be a “pitiful attempt” to apply Method techniques.
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Method Acting As Thor 4 Villain Would Have Been “Pitiful” For Christian Bale?
Christian Bale is renowned for his Method acting style. He often goes into the head of the character he plays, drastically altering his weight in order to fit the part. He did, however, admit that he was too preoccupied with handling the distractions on set to make any real effort to remain in the role of Gorr in between takes.
In a GQ cover story, Bale responded to the question of whether he applied his Method acting to his first MCU role by saying:
“That would’ve been a pitiful attempt to do that, as I’m trying to get help getting the fangs in and out and explaining I’ve broken a nail, or I’m tripping over the tunic.”
In addition, The Dark Knight star said that the production was monotonous and unremarkable compared to his previous films because of the use of green screens and CGI effects.
“That’s the first time I’ve done that. I mean, the definition of it is monotony. You’ve got good people. You’ve got other actors who are far more experienced at it than me. Can you differentiate one day from the next? No. Absolutely not. You have no idea what to do.”
Bale has undergone dramatic physical transformations throughout his career, ranging from startling weight loss for films like The Machinist to striking muscle gains for American Psycho.
Christian Bale on Taika Waititi, Thor: Love and Thunder, and Deleted Scenes
Christian Bale once had a candid chat with Collider about playing Gorr the God Butcher in $760.9 million Thor: Love and Thunder. The film, which is part of Phase Four of the MCU, was directed by Taika Waititi and opened in theaters on July 8.
Bale talked about why he took on the role in his first Marvel movie as well as the fact that the movie had a ton of incredible deleted scenes. He offered an explanation as follows:
“There’s an awful lot that I wish was in this film, which you can’t have a four-hour long film because there’s so much gold that’s on the cutting room floor, hilarious stuff, and creepy as hell stuff, but that was perhaps pushing it to a realm where maybe it wouldn’t have been able to be family friendly, which we always wanted it to be.”
Furthermore, Bale discussed his preparation process for roles and his dislike of practicing emotionally charged scenes in advance of filming them:
“I’ll go through it a few times, but then I’ll basically go off, and what I want to be prepared for is that I want to be able to turn up on the day and the director says, ‘You know what, forget everything’… I don’t focus on, ‘I’ve got to learn my lines. I’ve got to do that.’ I never focus on that at all…And in terms of emotional stuff, I find it the worst thing in the world to prep for that because you don’t in life the emotions surprise you, right?..”
While opinions on the film’s humor and special effects were divided, critics overall gave it mixed reviews. The action sequences, comedy, and acting of Chris Hemsworth, Bale, and Natalie Portman were all praised; however, the screenplay and tonal inconsistencies were criticized. With a total of $760.9 million earned at the box office worldwide, Thor: Love and Thunder was the eighth-highest-grossing film of 2022.
Stream Thor: Love and Thunder on Disney Plus.
