Christian Bale is widely known for his method acting skills which play a huge role in his movies. The realistic approach taken by him elevates his performance even more. He has been a part of some of the iconic movies like American Psycho, The Machinist, and The Prestige. He was recently seen playing the role of a war veteran in the David O. Russell multistarrer Amsterdam.
Shockingly, method acting was turning out to be fatal for The Dark Knight fame in this David O. Russell directorial. Christian Bale almost lost his eye during the making of the movie as the lens he was using had its own adverse effect.
How did Amsterdam put Christian Bale’s eye in jeopardy?
Amsterdam consisted of a large cast starting from Christian Bale, John David Washington, Margot Robbie, Chris Rock, Robert De Niro, and various others. While the movie couldn’t live up to the expectations of the audience, the performances were heavily praised.
Bale’s role as Burt Berendsen in the comedy-thriller movie was heavily applauded by everyone. The Thor: Love and Thunder actor helmed the role of the traumatized and injured war veteran with sheer brilliance. The factor that makes it more praiseworthy is the use of practical effects by the actor rather than relying on CGI. But at one point, this turned out to be fatal and almost led the actor to lose his eyesight.
The character of Burt Berendsen possessed a glass eyeball in the movie and according to Bale, his eye was adapting to the lens as if it is a part of the body. Prolonged usage of the lens could have led him to lose his eyesight forever.
“I had a lens in the whole time. I couldn’t see out of that eye at all. There was a lens technician, Bob, who was great. He was always looking out for my eye. If we left it in too long, he’d come and look and go, ‘Oh God, we got to take it out.’ He would say the eye is literally growing around the lens. It’s like egg whites and the protein starts to grow because it starts to say, You’ve had this lens in for so long, we’re gonna make it a part of your eyeball.”
Although it sounds very scary to the fans, it is nothing new for the actor. His method acting also led him to lose a drastic amount of his weight for his role in The Machinist. He survived on a very strict diet of an apple, water, and a cup of coffee each day to gain that physique that is talked about to date.
Was Christian Bale’s method acting enough to save Amsterdam?
Quite surprisingly, despite the magnificent performances, Bale’s terrific method acting, and a star-studded cast, Amsterdam failed both critically as well as commercially. The David O. Russel directorial was criticized for its script and direction. Even the shining line-up couldn’t save the movie from becoming a box-office bomb.
The failure of Amsterdam also marked Christian Bale becoming a part of two back-to-back projects as Thor 4 released before Amsterdam also received the same fate. Both the movies were criticized for their direction and screenplay despite his well-praised performance. Now the Ford V Ferrari star is going to be seen in The Pale Blue Eye which is going to be released in selected theaters on December 22 this year before paving its way to Netflix in early January 2023.
Amsterdam can be streamed on HBO Max.
Source: Inverse
