Christian Bale is known for his insane physical transformations but the process is indeed quite difficult. However, when it comes to eating more, it seems less enjoyable for him than having to lose weight by fasting himself. It is well-known in the industry that he has proven his versatility by switching characters that can leave anyone spellbound.
From losing massive pounds in The Machinist to gaining staggering body mass in American Hustle, he has proven his dedication to his craft. In a past interview, he gave an insight into his physical transformation journey regarding his 2004 film.
Christian Bale’s Views on His Transformational Journey in The Machinist
During an interview with The Guardian, Christian Bale shared his experience while going through the transformation process. Clarifying that he had a great experience while working on himself, he further mentioned which phase he liked more.
Given that he has gone to extreme lengths to transform himself in his pursuit of cinematic perfection, he is quite attached to his fasting era. Talking about his role in the 2004 film, The Machinist in which he lost 62 pounds through extreme fasting, he mentioned.
“It’s an amazing experience doing that. When you’re so skinny that you can hardly walk up a flight of stairs … you’re, like, this being of pure thought.”
He recalled having a calm mental state despite putting himself into an extremely difficult situation. He continued,
“It’s like you’ve abandoned your body. That’s the most Zen-like state I’ve ever been in my life. Two hours sleep, reading a book for 10 hours straight without stopping … unbelievable. You couldn’t rile me up. No rollercoaster of emotions.”
However, his fragile condition didn’t last for too long as he had to gain a ripped physique to play the role of caped crusader for Batman Begins.
Christian Bale Went from 120 Pounds to 220 pounds for His Batman Role!
The English actor further shared that his surreal state soon started to fade as he started to ditch fasting.
“As soon as you start putting the food back in your stomach, the rollercoaster comes back.”
While he could have enjoyed that ‘unbelievable’ state for a while, he already had prior commitments to play the titular role in Batman Begins. For the same, he went from 120 pounds to gaining a massive physique with 220 pounds weight in just a couple of months. His efforts were so insane that he ended up bulking a bit too much.
As per Radio Free Entertainment,
“I was ignoring all advice about ‘you should take it slowly, your stomach has shrunk, just go with soups.’ I was straight into pizza and ice cream and everything, and just eating five meals in a sitting. My stomach, it just expanded really quickly.”
Eventually, he went on a strict regime to lose the excessive weight and ended up playing Bruce Wayne aka Batman in Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight trilogy. His sheer dedication to his profession has thus solidified his status as one of Hollywood’s most versatile actors.
