This film critic really lucked out. I interviewed Christian Bale before he got too big for his britches.
The actor, infamous for his on-set rant during the making of “Terminator: Salvation,” doesn’t take well to the interview process these days. His new chat with Esquire Magazine proves it.
He spends much of the interview challenging the writer, bemoaning the fact that he has to talk to the press for his gig and navel gazing so intently he likely pulled a few back muscles in the process.
WWTW spoke to Bale a few years ago while he was promoting “The Machinist,” and I don’t recall any prickly behavior during our chat.
Mega movie stars have privileges, I suppose, and he was just an ordinary movie star at the time.
But his feisty Esquire tete-a-tete does tap into something profound about the interview process – by Hollywood standards – and it shouldn’t go unnoticed.
BALE: I don’t want people to know me.
ESQUIRE: Why not?
BALE: Because that buggers up my job.
ESQUIRE: How does it do that?
BALE: Because if you know something about somebody, it gets in the way of just watching the guy as the character.
ESQUIRE: But that’s not really true. If you really disappeared into your role, people wouldn’t realize it was the same guy from movie to movie.
BALE: No! It’s like painting behind the radiator — I’d know about it even if nobody else does.
ESQUIRE: But for the audience, that’s part of the pleasure. “Wow! He’s a great actor! He’s so different than he was in Julius Caesar.“
BALE: Well, it’s also just I’m bored [expletive] with myself.
Take away the actor’s neuroses and he’s got a point. Every time you learn something new about an actor or director there’s a chance you’ll take that information into the movie theater. Some examples aren’t important – do audiences care that Francis Ford Coppola runs a wine company? Others are more extreme – did Russell Crowe really throw a phone at somebody? Why did Sean Penn say those awful things about conservatives?
And, as a result, you’re taken temporarily out of the film and character. And that doesn’t make the movie going experience better.
I used Penn as an example because he’s such a good actor he can make you forget all his baggage. But not always. His work in “Fair Game” proves it. He’s mediocre in it, and his on-screen rants align too neatly with his off-screen behavior.
The opposite example is Jack Nicholson, one of the industry’s most enduring stars. He doesn’t do the chat show circuit and there’s plenty we still don’t know about him – despite tabloid headlines detailing his love life.
Nicholson’s acting talent is considerable, but it certainly helped that we never learned too much about him through the years. It’s a path Bale wishes he could take, but the pressures of modern movie marketing won’t let him.
(Photo: Actor Christian Bale’s intense screen work is often mirrored during his press interviews)
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{ 10 comments… read them below or add one }
CT,
I can agree with him. I think we have this growing and weird infatuation w/actors that is fed by E news and the papparazzi. The guy has a job, let him work. I think who shoudl be interviewed are the director and/or writer. They’re the ones who would provide better insight into a movie. On the flip side, actors do all they can to get noticed, to get the role, to get paid. When they get famous, they bemoan the unwanted attention. Damned if you do……I don’t care if they act like jerks sometimes, as long as they apologize. I don’t care what they’re politics are, as long as they don’t insult their audience. I just want to see a good movie…..
I agree with him too and not just because I have a major crush on the guy!
Honestly, I think it’s one of the best actors of our generation, and I’m not just saying that because I have a major crush on him. But if he wanted anonymity he’s living and acting in the wrong time period.
Did I mention I like him? A lot? Every since he played Laurie in Little Women.
I respect his position on this. He was burned by the meltdown-on-set incident, and I remember at the time he was caught completely off guard by people’s judgments and comments, and the fact that he was instantly re-branded as the unstable, entitled jerk actor. I don’t blame him a bit for his hyper-awareness of his relationship with the press after that, even if he brought it upon himself.
I completely agree with Bale and I wish more of his colleagues realized this. When you see someone like Angelina Jolie or Jennifer Anniston on the cover of the tabloids as well as fashion magazines week after week it’s hard to then believe them when they take on the role of a dowdy department store clerk, etc. Same goes for all of Penn’s and Sarandon’s political activity. I have a hard enough time watching them with all of the baggage, and they could never convince us as a conservative movie character.
Why is it that the entertainment media & their readers and viewers expect to know everything about an actor’s relationships, kids, diet, exercise regimen, homes? The invasive interviews have gotten creepy.
good points, all. Liz – I agree with your thoughts on celeb interviews. If you read the whole Esquire piece the interviewer is shocked, shocked that Bale doesn’t want to divulge all his family history to the press. Why the heck should he? If he wants to chat up his kids … or momma … or great uncle, great. Go for it. If he’d rather keep personal matters personal, that’s A-OK.
I remember being part of a Ewan McGregor interview a few years back. And a young journalist asked him a personal question – it was a mild one, but one that didn’t have to be asked. He gently scolded her … and I silently cheered him on.
If you really disappeared into your role, people wouldn’t realize it was the same guy from movie to movie.
Uh, only if they didn’t see any trailers or other information touting the actor’s name, and kept their eyes closed for the opening credits. Is he kidding?
With all the hype about movies these days, I can’t watch a film performance without constantly remembering who the actor is. Even when I get to watch an unknown give a breakout performance (like Christophe Waltz in Inglorious Basterds) I still had heard all about him in the reviews.
If he doesn’t like having his personal life under the microscope then he shouldn’t have gotten, or stayed in the business he’s in. I’m not completely without sympathy as I do think there is too much intrusion into performers personal lives, but Bale has chosen that life.
An actor is no different than anyone else, if you don’t want your personal life to affect your business life don’t act so stupid in your personal life that it becomes an issue.
As for an actor and their political views, it doesn’t affect my enjoyment on their work if in expressing their views and beliefs they treat me with the same respect that they expect from me.
It’s easy for us to say that he chose this life. And yes, he did. But consider, if for a moment, a world without 24/7 cable, on demand, and the internet. The world of film that Bale grew up with is not the same world that it is today. Granted I think he knew what he was getting into, but then again, how could he.
Really, when you think about it, you’re baiting class warfare when you bemoan actors or singers who complain that their lives are too public. On the other hand, I have no sympathy for those who time and again use these systems and then complain about them. But Bale (and I’m guessing here) doesn’t so for him, I have some sympathy. Lord knows, I wouldn’t want it in my life.
And when you think about it, an actor is required to know so much these days. You ever watch the special features on a dvd and watch the actor talking about a historical event or something, and wonder if he or she is actually qualified to discuss it? They may act, but that doesn’t mean they know any more than anyone else. So why should we care what they think?
I’m tired of this contemporary obsession with acting as anonymous stunt work — that if you forget who the actor really is, then they’ve done their job. The great actors weren’t great because they were so “chameleon-like” they disappeared into their roles. They were great because we enjoyed watching them.
I think the problem with modern actors isn’t how strong their personalities are, but the exact opposite. Too many of them are like interchangeable parts on a machine. You can hardly tell one from the other anymore.
I long for indelible characters like Bogey and the Duke, or Bette Davis and Barbara Stanwyck. When they acted, you knew who it was, but you relished it. Acting is entertainment, pure and simple. If you aren’t larger than life, then why am I wasting my time with you? If you blend in with the wallpaper, you haven’t succeeded, you’ve failed to make an impression. (Important corollary — we have to be fascinated by their persona, not repelled.)
How can you ever have the mystery of films again when “stars” tweet what they had for breakfast or their provocative semi-nude homemade pics?
I wish I knew nothing of any of their personal lives.