Sometimes actors get so involved in the scene that they forget about the difference between a reel and a real one. One such incident occurred previously when actor Matthew McConaughey got so engrossed in the scene that he literally hit his co-star Christian Bale.
Even though The Dark Knight Rises actor was injured during the scene, he continued playing his character to get the real shot. Both actors successfully added a very real piece of action to the movie.
Christian Bale and Matthew McConaughey’s passion for work was evident in their work
The two legendary actors, Christian Bale, and Matthew McConaughey, once collaborated on the 2002 film Reign of Fire. The movie performed well at the box office and was critically acclaimed by the audience. The reason behind the success of the film is the efforts of the actors, who didn’t even bother getting hurt to get a perfect and realistic shot.
In the film, there is a fighting scene that was so perfectly implemented that the actor involved was hurt for real. During an interview, Bale explained the scene, which led to some serious injuries. He said that his co-star, Mathew McConaughey, got so involved in his method of acting that he hit Bale for real.
Although McConaughey didn’t do it intentionally and it was a pure accident, the bruises Bale got were indeed real. Recalling the scene, Bale said,
“It dropped me like a sack of potatoes. In the movie, you see me crawl around the ground for a couple of seconds to try to find my bearings – that is real! Then I thought I had to get up and finish the scene or it was going to be no use.”
The moment Bale regained consciousness, he realized that the crew members present were staring to see if he was fine. Later, when the actor finished his scene, he asked his co-star McConaughey if he was fine, and he responded by saying,
“Yeah, you mad b*stard, I headbutted you!”
Indeed, the true identity of an actor is his passion for his work. Both actors didn’t care about themselves and gave their best shot.
Matthew McConaughey’s take on this whole incident
While filming the fight scene for Reign of Fire, Matthew McConaughey dwelled so much on his character that he ended up hurting his co-star. However, both actors took the whole scene sportingly without taking any offense. During an interview, McConaughey explained his version of the incident and how things went out of his control. The actor said,
“That scene where we’re fighting and I headbutt him… it was a complete accident. But in the take, I just put it right on his forehead. He immediately swelled up like a frickin’ tennis ball, but he kept going. I knew I’d screwed up. I looked into his eyes and I saw him go ‘Grrrr!’ and then we kept going. Later he had his moment to be p***ed off at me, which he absolutely deserved. There was no drama about the situation whatsoever, though he wasn’t really happy about it.”
The scene certainly went out of hand, yet both actors handled the whole scene with utter maturity and gave it a realistic shot.
Source: BBC
