Christian Bale is among the rare talents of the Hollywood industry and the director who unearthed the gem was the talented director, Christopher Nolan. Christian Bale started his career at the young age of 13 in Steven Spielberg’s 1987 war film Empire of the Sun. The versatile actor gained wider recognition for the black comedy American Psycho in 2000 and the lead role in the psychological thriller The Machinist in 2004. The actor rose to the stage of stardom and international fame when he exercised the role of Batman in Batman Begins by Christopher Nolan.
The actor garnered vast acclaim for his performance in the Batman trilogy, which became of the highest-grossing film franchises ever in Hollywood.
Christian Bale found previous Batman characters boring
Author Joseph McCabe wrote a book 100 Things Batman Fans Should Know & Do Before They Die, where he shared some interesting facts about the actors of the trilogy. He interviewed the stars of the trilogy, including Christian Bale.
On being asked if he was ever worried about being upstaged, Bale said,
“No, not at all. Because it was exactly the point that I had a problem with in all of the other Batman movies. Especially after reading Frank Miller’s Batman: Year One and various other graphic novels. I asked myself, “Well, how come it’s always been that he’s the most boring character?” I’d never found him to be intriguing at all. Whereas these graphic novels depicted him as by far the most fascinating of them.”
Talking about the impact of Christopher Nolan’s movie, Bale said,
“I feel like we gained that back with Batman Begins — that he’s a character with substance. So I have no problem with him competing with somebody else. Because that can only make for a better movie, if you have these other fascinating characters arriving on the scene, too.”
Beginning with Batman Begins and notably The Dark Knight, Christian Bale, and Christopher Nolan brought the character to a level of realism, that is new in the comic book movie genre. Bale had a serious approach to the character, which was opposite to the Batman seen in Joel Schumacher’s Batman Forever and Batman & Robin.
Christian Bale on working with Heath Ledger in Batman Trilogy
Christian Bale was thoroughly impressed by the commitment and seriousness of the actor towards his role. He recalled,
“Our first scene was in an interrogation room together, and I saw that he’s a helluva actor who’s completely committed to it and totally gets the tone that Chris [Nolan] is trying to create with this. We’re not going for actors revealing their enjoyment of playing a wacky caricature. We’re treating this as serious drama. You go into character and you stay in the character. I love that. I find that so ridiculous that I love it, and I take that very seriously.”
“Heath was definitely embracing that. When he was in the makeup and the garb he was in character the whole time; and when he took it off he was an absolutely fantastic company to be around.”
Bale played the character of Gorr the God Butcher, a villain in the Marvel Cinematic Universe for Thor: Love and Thunder in 2022. His other projects of 2022 include David O. Russell’s period movie Amsterdam and Scott Cooper’s thriller film The Pale Blue Eye.
Source- The Hollywood Reporter
