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Christian Bale: American Psycho
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Intense and versatile, Christian Bale is probably best known for playing caped superhero Batman in the big-budget 2005 film Batman Begins. Bale's first starring role was as the young English boy Jim in the 1987 Steven Spielberg movie Empire of the Sun (based on the novel by J.G. Ballard). Over the next two decades he took roles in a tremendous variety of films: the literary flicks Little Women (1994, with Winona Ryder) and The Portrait of A Lady (1996, based on the novel by Henry James); the glam-rock tribute Velvet Goldmine (1998); Shakespearean classic A Midsummer Night's Dream (1999, opposite Calista Flockhart); the blaxploitation remake Shaft (2000, opposite Samuel L. Jackson); and even as Jesus Christ in the 1999 made-for-TV movie Mary, Mother of Jesus (1998). His 2000 turn as nutso yuppie Patrick Bateman in American Psycho took his fame to a new level, and in 2004 he created a stir when he lost over 60 pounds to play a scrawny and addled insomniac in The Machinist. The next year he gained back the weight, and more, to play crime-fighting millionaire Bruce Wayne in Batman Begins.
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Christian Bale has performed a feat that is astonishing for most Hollywood actors. Although he became a professional performer at age ten and a star at age thirteen when he played the lead in Steven Spielberg's World War II epic Empire of the Sun, Bale did not follow the usual path of the child actor. Many fall prey to the temptations of early fame and quite a few struggle to make the transition to adult movie roles—not the Welsh-born Bale, who shunned the limelight and instead focused on building an impressive body of work. Acting steadily since the late 1980s, Bale has appeared in over twenty-five films, most notably American Psycho (2000), and the critically acclaimed independent film, The Machinist (2004). Even as an adult, the modest actor steers clear of the spotlight; but considering he donned a flowing black cape to appear in Batman Begins (2005), he may not be able to maintain his usual low profile. After all, everyone wants to know the man behind the mask.
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Given Christian Bale's many modest disavowals about his acting career, it's a wonder what a solid and interesting career it's been. Bale had barely hit puberty when he starred in Steven Spielberg's Empire Of The Sun; his roles over the next decade were often smaller, but he generally stood out for his intensity and focus—especially as one of the few saving graces of the largely laughable musical Newsies. He re-established himself as a force to contend with bold roles in Velvet Goldmine and American Psycho, generic action-hero turns in Equilibrium and Reign Of Fire, and a stunning performance in The Machinist, where he stunned the media by losing a third of his body weight to play a tortured man in the midst of an emotional disintegration. He bulked up again to star in Batman Begins, and since then, he's taken on a series of striking projects—The Prestige, Rescue Dawn, The New World, and the new Western remake 3:10 To Yuma, now hitting theaters. While in Chicago filming the Batman Begins sequel The Dark Knight, Bale sat down with The A.V. Club to discuss adventures in filmmaking and career-planning.
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Christian Bale has never been one to play it safe. His biggest role to date was his starring role in "Batman Begins." However, it was his turn as a Wall Street psychopath in "American Psycho" that made him a cult hit. His turn in "The Machinist" gained him much critical acclaim. Work has already begun on "The Dark Knight," the sequel to "Batman Begins."
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Since his feature-film debut in The Empire of the Sun, Christian Bale has charted an innovative path for his film career. Wisely avoiding the typecasting that comes with teenybopper roles in insipid comedies, Bale has played everything from a medieval prince to a young boy infatuated with the glam-rock scene. Now he has his most daring role yet in Mary Harron's adaptation of Bret Easton Ellis' controversial novel American Psycho. Sporting a toned physique and a maniacal grin, Bale will definitely turn a lot of heads as psychopath Patrick Bateman — a role he almost lost to Leonardo DiCaprio. In this exclusive interview, Bale discusses the nature of Bateman's psychosis, the irrationality of American movie ratings, and his upcoming role in John Singleton's update of Shaft.
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For years now Bale had been delivering fine perfomances but, content to disappear into his characters and serve his films rather than promote himself, he was still not recognised as a major talent. What he needed was a showy starring role, and he certainly got that in his next movie - American Psycho. Based on Bret Easton Ellis's controversial best-seller, this concerned one Patrick Bateman, a New York yuppie obsessed with his body, clothes, gadgets, porn, top restaurants and the production quality of his business card. He ... has a unusual hobby - murder - and he commits his crimes with no conscience at all, as if the selfishness of his lifestyle has pervaded every aspect of his being. It was an amazing role, and consequently of interest to most top-line stars. Though director Mary Harron had chosen Bale from the start and Christian was months into training, they were both bumped off the project when Oliver Stone and Leonardo DiCaprio (then, post-Titanic, the hottest property in the world) came calling.
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American Psycho