Committing to a movie role to the extent of Christian Bale is not always a cakewalk. The actor has gone through incredible and scary body transformation on more than one occasion including his scary weight loss in The Fighter and Rescue Dawn. However, those were nothing compared to what he did for The Machinist.
Several actors have gone through incredible pain to achieve perfection as the script of the movie demands. Matt Damon in Courage Under Fire, Tom Hanks in Philadelphia and Cast Away, and several actors including, Michael Fassbender, Natalie Portman, Anne Hathaway, Chris Hemsworth, and who can forget Jared Leto and Matthew McConaughey’s extreme weight loss for their roles in Dallas Buyers Club?
Christian Bale’s Incredible Physical Transformation in The Machinist
It is almost impossible for any other actors to go through the physical transformation as Christian Bale molds himself for the roles he plays. Bale has been losing and gaining weight for several movie roles but he pushed himself to the edge of the limit in Brad Anderson’s The Machinist. The movie was released nearly two decades ago but it is still the talk of the town when it comes to physical transformation for a movie role. Speaking with IGN, the director revealed that even he was shocked by Bale’s extreme dedication.
“He had to lose the weight, but I didn’t realize he ended up losing sixty-three pounds. We never talked about it. I didn’t hire him because he said he would lose sixty-three pounds. It was apparent in the script. We both loved Scott [Kosar]’s script. And the character that he plays is described as kind of a walking skeleton. It was described as a walking skeleton,” Anderson said.
The director further said that anyone would have to lose some weight. “So, it was pretty implicit that whoever played the part was going to have to lose some weight,” Anderson added. However, it would be beyond imagination for other actors to go to such heights of insane dedication.
Also read: “I can’t do what he does”: 1 Actor Even Christian Bale Admits is Superior to Him
The Unexpected Christian Bale
To Anderson’s surprise, Bale went through the most extreme diet to play insomniac Trevor Reznik in The Machinist. The director revealed that Bale was interested in the role. “Christian expressed interest in it, and he wanted to do it,” he told IGN.
“I also knew that as an actor he’s the kind of guy that takes those kinds of chances. He’s done it with his other movies. He sort of transformed himself physically, I think, when he played the character in American Psycho as well. I knew that he would do something, but I didn’t expect him to lose sixty-three pounds. And I don’t think he did either. He said he kind of pushed it maybe even beyond where he was intending to go. I just thought he’d lose a few pounds and then we’d put him in baggy clothes,” Anderson added.
To achieve his incredible transformation, Bale revealed that he had to resort to smoking cigarettes and drinking whiskey and later he extended his diet to Black Coffee, an apple, and a tin of tuna every day. Interestingly, right after finishing the movie, Bale had to get into the shape of a superhero to play Bruce Wayne in Christopher Nolan’s Batman Begins.
