From the landscapes of England, to the skyscrapers of the US, there existed a guy named Christian Bale, which became one of the best actors in the history of film, and the greatest actor in his generation (in my opinion). Delve into the following reasons so you will know why.
He can transform his body into whatever a role requires.
He is widely known as an action star and for that reason, we have seen him a lot in his bulky, beefy shape. But what most moviegoers may have not known yet is that there are roles that Mr. Bale has played… as super-frail, super-thin characters.
If you haven’t seen The Fighter, Rescue Dawn and The Machinist, you should go ahead and check those movies out. You can almost forget that he portrayed Batman and as warrior cleric John Preston in Equilibrium as you binge-watch those movies.
Director Christopher Nolan picked Bale for his Batman Trilogy because of the latter’s performances in Equilibrium and American Psycho. But Christian had a huge problem with that offer: He just finished his work with his role as Trevor Reznik in The Machinist in which he played the role of a 120-pounder guy who hasn’t slept for a year.
If you’re more than 6-feet tall, making yourself so thin to be under 130 lbs is a very hard undertaking to achieve! When he got the Batman offer, he was given a few months of deadline to achieve the bulky, muscle-bound physique that the superhero must possess, so he underwent through some super-strict health regimen.
After the deadline has passed, he appeared to the film’s crew and showed himself as a 220-pounder. He was even asked to cut on some weight so that Batman wouldn’t appear to be too large on-screen. Bale went from lanky to bulky in just a few months. Is there an actor who’s capable of getting such an achievement?
He has already reached superstardom as a child.
His first major movie appearance was when he played Jamie Graham in Steven Spielberg’s, Empire of The Sun. In that movie, critics and viewers alike were unanimous in saying that the movie was a success due to the performance of 13-year old Bale which can be declared as a perfect mixture of compelling and heart-warming.
Due to the intense positive reaction to the movie, a special category called Best Juvenile performance was created on the Academy Awards just to make it possible for the talented child which was Christian, to receive an award.
He can play any type of action hero.
Before the first decade of the millennium came to a close, he already played two major Hollywood action characters: Bruce Wayne and John Connor. The former role needs no explanation in terms of greatness as we know that it is about the most notable superhero with no powers – Batman.
But since Bale nailed the role so perfectly that it’s too hard for any other actor to take on the role in the next generations, let’s do some explaining anyway. While adopting the mantle of the dark-caped crusader, Bale perfectly embodied the lonely-billionaire playboy persona required by the role of Bruce Wayne.
For the role, he studied carefully how rich men act, dress, and speak. In addition to it, he also studied a new hybrid form of Martial Arts called Keysi Fighting Method, just to effectively play the role of a superhero with no powers.
But even if we set his Batman role aside, there are movies like Equilibrium, 3:10 To Yuma, and Public Enemies that really showcased his talents as an excellent action hero as well.
He can convincingly become a villain.
He is a protagonist in most of his roles, but if we get to see him in Shaft and American Psycho, we can also seem to forget that he is a nice guy… because he is a very complex bad-ass villainous character in those movies.
He appears to be kind-hearted in most of his movies, but there are a few exceptions in which he is brutal, heartless, and ruthless, just so he can antagonize any lead-character that’s tasked to get entangled with him.
Many people actually think that he is a person with a bad set of attitudes in real life, although that claim is not really affirmed by his Hollywood buddies. Speaking of it…
He makes mistakes, and makes up for them nicely.
During the filming of Terminator Salvation more than 10 years ago, there was a particular scene he did with his leading-lady Bryce Howard Dallas in which he believed it to be the main emotional driving force of the movie. But just as the cameras were rolling to capture that scene, some film crew walked into his line of sight, which greatly distracted him.
What happened next was an extreme array of sharp, and painful stream of words from Bale to that poor film crew. The argument escalated so badly that Bale threatened to walk out of the film if that film crew member wouldn’t get fired.
The incident went viral which nearly gave some bad publicity for the production team of Terminator Salvation. But thanks to Mr. Bale’s gentlemanly attitude, he admitted his mistake and apologized to that film crew member who suffered the loss of his temper at that moment.
Since the incident attained such very wide publicity, Bale also apologized publicly and even studied the previous work of that person whom he hurt, and gave appropriate compliments on how good the guy is in doing his work in other movies.
He has played all kinds of roles while still young.
As of this writing, Christian Bale is only 46 years old – still a relatively young guy. But the roles he portrayed are on a very wide range already that he can be found to appear in characterizations that are very very far from the typical persona that he projects in most of his movies.
He played the roles of fat, rich guys, hunky action heroes, thin food-deprived fellas, and anything else in between. Truly, the guy is the perfect acting machine, and it is so hard to think of any Hollywood actor that can be on the level of his greatness.
He's really a versatile actor. He also played as a mortician-turned-priest on a Chinese War/Drama film. That film is based on true events during 1937. Try to check that one. The scenes are brutal though 🥺💔