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"FacebookPinterest\n\nHe slips into the room without fanfare, rumpled and unshaven, blue hoodie, tan pants, black sneakers, raybans. the shoulders are slumped, the hands buried in the marsupial pocket of the hoodie. Nothing to see here. Did Christian Bale stop to jack a Santa Monica liquor store on his way over to Shutters on the Beach He walks slowly, on his heels, toward the terrace. He does not look right, at the couple taking coffee, or left, at the only other person in the lounge this morning. When I stand, he points at me, or my table, or my general area\u2014still without turning to look at me, his eyes fid on the terrace in front of him\u2014and in his low English accent asks, &amp;quot;We doin\u2019 this here or what&amp;quot;\n\nClick here to listen to audio of Bale&amp;amp;#x2019;s epic onset blowup.\n\nWhat is this Petulance Efficiency Both Christian Bale detests interviews, on the predictable grounds that his offscreen life is nobody\u2019s business, but also because he thinks the whole enterprise of moviestar &amp;quot;journalism&amp;quot;\u2014the appetite for it, as well as the sating of that appetite\u2014corrosive to acting and storytelling. It encourages people to look for the wrong things.\n\nThis opener\u2014&amp;quot;here or what&amp;quot;\u2014is less interesting for what it is than for what it skips\u2014the part where we shake hands and say hello and I thank him for taking the time, and he says, &amp;quot;Don\u2019t mention it,&amp;quot; and\u2026smiles. Or something. Let\u2019s just get through this, right Now he looks at me. Or at least faces me. I can\u2019t see his eyes behind the RayBans and won\u2019t at any point today, because he doesn\u2019t take them off. I walk over, offer up my name and my hand. After a moment, he takes it. Neither limp nor manly, the shake. Al dente, more like. He points his chin at the sundeck. &amp;quot;How \u2019bout out there&amp;quot; Right.\n\nOn the deck, he sits in shadow (makes it harder for Skynet\u2019s aerial searchanddestroy robots), his posture hunched. The hands remain in the pouch, emerging only when needed for the purpose of sipping decaffeinated coffee. (To waiter: &amp;quot;This is decaf, right \u2019Cause I go crazy if\u2026&amp;quot;) He answers a great number of questions thusly: &amp;quot;Yeah. Right.&amp;quot; These yeahrights are most often preceded by a blank stillness, though occasionally by a flubberylipped exhalation that falls somewhere on the gestural spectrum between eye rolling and expectoration.\n\nI ask if I can tape, he says sure, and I\u2019m reaching for the recorder when I notice the mondo BandAid on his left index finger. He shrugs, makes a sawing motion over the finger with his other hand, matteroffactly says, &amp;quot;Cut off the tip.&amp;quot; A kitchen accident, I guess, and am about to move on when it occurs to me: At some point we\u2019re going to talk about his howling fourminute profanirant at the director of photography on the set of Terminator Salvation last summer\u2014the one that went viral (in both its unabridged and danceremix versions) after hitting the Web in early February. Of course we are. He knows it. I know it. By way of going there, and in the spirit of just getting through it, I muster a saccharine Stuart Smalley voice and ask if the wound was &amp;quot;really an accident&amp;quot; and if he &amp;quot;has anger.&amp;quot; He says, &amp;quot;Nah,&amp;quot; but the explanation\u2014and much of what he says for the next few minutes\u2014is so mumblyquiet and sluggishly reserved that only later, when transcribing, do I register the explanation: &amp;quot;motorcycle accident.&amp;quot; Turns out Christian Bale had the tip of his finger surgically reattached several days prior, after lopping it off in a bike crash.\n\nPlease tell us Terminator Salvation is going to rock. Please tell us the title represents what this fourth installment will do for the franchise. \n\n Look, I hate to throw people under the bus for making movies I don\u2019t think are very good. But for Salvation to be considered with any legitimacy, you have to throw number three [Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines] under the bus. It began to spoof the whole thing. To me, that was a sign that the franchise was dead, the mythology was finished.\n\nYou rescued the Batman franchise from spoof by giving us a dark, even dislikable Bruce Wayne. Is Christian Bale now the goto guy when an action franchise needs a booster shot of serious \n\n Look, that\u2019s laughable. How serious can a movie about timetraveling robots be You want it to be cool and fun.\n\nDon\u2019t do that. Don\u2019t apologize for being a serious guy. You\u2019re the first actor playing Batman to understand that he\u2019s as anarchic and freakish as his enemies.\n\n It\u2019s true. I do like taking stuff seriously that a lot of people look at as nonsense. I enjoy the insanity of that. And I like the commitment that is needed for that. But this is a movie about timetraveling robots. I guess I\u2019m always wary of this bullshit where people are makin\u2019 it sound like what you do is far more impressive than it actually is. Everyone always tells you that you\u2019re the only one that can do this or that role right, and if you say no, they go to somebody else and tell them that they\u2019re the only one that can do it right. But when they\u2019re talking to you, you\u2019re always the Best Actor of Your Generation.\n\nActually, GQ has determined that you are the ThirdBest Actor of Your Generation. \n\n Thank you.\n\nSo is that how [Terminator director] McG sold you on the project By dubbing you TBAOYG\n\n At first they wanted me to play another character. I read the script and was like, Nah. But McG, who had a fear of flying, flew to England to meet me. He still didn\u2019t convince me. I was very open with him and said that I hadn\u2019t seen anything he had done before that justified him being the guy to make this. But I\u2019ve always been grateful for people giving me that opportunity to do things I\u2019ve never done before, and I\u2019m always for people transforming themselves. But without the script there, there was no way in hell this could work. Ultimately, McG came back and wanted me to play the Connor role. But the Connor role was small. I said, &amp;quot;This guy has no real role here.&amp;quot;\n\nHow can that be \n\n Exactly. The Connors are the story. But then I was in Hong Kong on the very last week of shooting The Dark Knight. I had been to some teahouse where this local guide insisted I drink this tea he\u2019d made. I don\u2019t know if he\u2019d spiked it, but within half an hour I turned to my wife and said, &amp;quot;Eh, I kind of feel like doing this.&amp;quot; So I called McG up, said, &amp;quot;If we can get a new script, then yeah, let\u2019s go for Connor.&amp;quot; I felt good about it, because we really did have a lot of time. And then\u2026ffff__uck, writers\u2019 strike. I learned a lesson then about movies like The Terminator and Batman. Most people assume that if you\u2019re risking that amount of money, you don\u2019t begin until you\u2019re completely ready. In fact, that\u2019s what they do only with the lowerbudget movies. With the bigger ones, the ones that keep the studios afloat, they have to release it on a certain date. In my na&amp;amp;#xEF;vet\u00E9, I thought, Of course we\u2019ll push back filming. No. Ain\u2019t a possibility. And that strike kept going on, and we were getting less and less time to get it together. In the end, it was a film experience unlike any I\u2019d had before. A real ballstothewall kind of effort.\n\nSo who is John Connor \n\n Well, he\u2019s not a freak like Bruce Wayne. There\u2019s nothing pathological about him. He has a burden. He knows he\u2019s to be the savior of mankind. J.C., right In early versions of the script, they had all these weird paganistic amulets and talismans all over me. I told \u2019em to get rid of that crap. John Connor is all about utility: &amp;quot;There is no fate but what you make.&amp;quot; As far as playing him, I thought of it mainly in terms of his mom. He\u2019s got this mad dog of a mom who everybody thinks is crazy but whose prophecies turn out to be true. I felt that a lot of her ferocity and recklessness had to be passed down.\n\nWould you have unleashed the Rant as intensely, if at all, had you been playing someone other than John Connor\n\n Of course not. And it wouldn\u2019t have happened if we hadn\u2019t been playing that scene, for Christ\u2019s sake, between John Connor and his wife, which is probably the most intense one in the movie.\n\nI\u2019ve been wondering if you\u2019re so Methody that when you kept yelling, What don\u2019t you fucking understand the question between the lines wasDon\u2019t you fucking understand that by walking in front of the lights, you\u2019re putting the survival of the human race at stake \n\n [an irritated sigh] I\u2019d definitely say that that guy who was yelling was at least half John Connor, and the rest was Christian Bale.\n\nSave for a few British inflections in those four minutes of sustained screaming, the Rant occurred in your Americanized John Connor accent. Did you use that voice offcamera throughout filming\n\n I do that because I\u2019m just not very good at switching between two voices. If I had the talent to turn it on and off on cue, I would. But I don\u2019t, so I have to maintain. Otherwise I\u2019m aware that I\u2019m &amp;quot;doing an accent&amp;quot; whenever I\u2019m filming, instead of just speaking. Hey, listen, I don\u2019t make any excuses. None of it is excusable. You know, I feel I already said everything about this that needs to be said when I called up the radio station.\n\n[Four days after the Rant (just audio, regrettably) became public, Bale phoned the Kevin &amp;amp; Bean show on KROQ in Los Angeles. After telling the hosts that during an otherwise &amp;quot;miserable&amp;quot; week, their Rantrelated riffing had made him laugh, Bale launched into a tenminute apology so abject that it might better be described as an autovivisection.]\n\nIn a way, your apology was as intense as the original tirade. You nailed that apology, man.\n\n Oh, really I didn\u2019t listen to it.\n\nIt was like, What don\u2019t you fucking understand I\u2019m APOLOGIZING! \n\n Yeah. Right.\n\nDo people now regard you differently You know, Oooh, there\u2019s Christian Bale. Careful! \n\n Come on. No.\n\nWhat\u2019s your favorite Christian Bale Rant dance remix or mashup \n\n A friend sent me one. They did a bloody good job! I\u2019ve gotta say, what a great impulse, you know To take something ugly like that and make it into a dance That\u2019s a wonderful thing.\n\nHave you seen the mashup with you and the kid who\u2019s just come from the dentist \n\n No.\n\nYou will go home after this interview and plug in &amp;quot;Christian Bale David Dentist&amp;quot; on YouTube. \n\n Hey, look, this was not a little kid. This was a fullgrown man, much bigger than me. There was no bullying going on. He was capable of dealing with it. He did. We reconciled within half an hour.\n\nYou know, I thought you\u2019d look\u2026bigger. Did you bulk up for Terminator\n\n No, I\u2019m roughly the same size in the movie that I am right now. I felt John Connor needed the wiriness of a soldier.\n\nThe bodybuilding and unbuilding you\u2019ve done for your roles is alarming\u2014the former all the more so for its being accomplished without any animal protein. \n\n Actually, I\u2019m in and out of the vegetarianism now. But yeah, the majority of the building up you\u2019re talking about was done when I was still a vegetarian.\n\nWhen did you fall off the wagon\n\n Just after I\u2019d completed American Psycho [for which Bale, as the preening sociopath Patrick Bateman, got furiously ripped].\n\nDietary reasons Or something to do with the character \n\n I was up in Toronto and went to see that movie Life Is Beautiful. By myself. And when I came out, I had a craving for blood unlike anything I had ever experienced since I decided to go vegetarian at the age of 7. It was a compulsion. It was undeniable. I went to several restaurants, one right after the other, and got the biggest, bloodiest steaks I could get my hands on. It was the first time I had tasted flesh in almost twenty years.\n\nLife Is Beautiful. \n\n Yeah.\n\nThat makes sense. \n\n Yeah.\n\nYou once said that if you didn\u2019t commit the way you do, acting wouldn\u2019t feel like a &amp;quot;job.&amp;quot; Was that the kind of winking acknowledgment movie stars make about the absurdity of making millions to, you know, dress up in a cape Or was it something more earnest\u2014that you need to endure not just to play a role correctly but to test yourself \n\n Definitely the second one. Look, I was doing that long before I could ever have had any guilt about getting paid. I learned a long time ago that if I don\u2019t commit completely, I\u2019m not very\u2026content. And yeah, it\u2019s bizarre but true: The easier the role, the more they pay you for it. I\u2019m into a realm now where it doesn\u2019t matter what you do, you don\u2019t deserve to get paid that. It\u2019s fair, because if you\u2019re not, someone else is gettin\u2019 it\u2014and they didn\u2019t do what you did for it. But do you deserve it Hell no.\n\nYou once described what you did for The Machinist\u2014starving off a third of your body\u2014as &amp;quot;calming.&amp;quot; Can you elaborate\n\n I guess you just sort of have to focus on other\u2026pleasures than food. So you focus on things of the mind. It really is almost mind control. And I found that very calming. Usually, you\u2019re getting nervous energy from what you\u2019re taking into your body. Since I wasn\u2019t putting anything in, I was left in a lowenergy state. I didn\u2019t even have the energy to sleep much at all, if that doesn\u2019t sound too strange. But that absence of energy was replaced with an ability to focus in a very slow and steady way for hours and hours. Physically, I was incredibly relad\u2014I really didn\u2019t have a choice\u2014but mentally very acute. It was very nice to be in that state while it lasted. My family enjoyed that one as well, after they got over the horror of looking at me.\n\nYou enjoyed it because\u2026 \n\n It was uncluttered. The Machinist changed me. I learned that I really enjoy, literally, not saying a damned word for days at a time, except for what was in the scene. Whole days of\u2026nothing. Just\u2026standing still. I know a lot of people found it bizarre, because they\u2019d be standing right next to me thinking, Why aren\u2019t we talking What\u2019s going on Hours would pass and I wouldn\u2019t say a word, not even to Brad [Anderson], the director. And then it would be like, All right, I think I heard &amp;quot;Action.&amp;quot; Talk now. The purity of that, the satisfaction. Now I fall asleep on sets all the time. I\u2019ve done it in the middle of scenes where they\u2019ve had to shake me because I\u2019ve missed my cues.\n\nReally \n\n In Batman Begins, in the first scene I had with Michael Caine and Morgan Freeman, I fell asleep. In the scene, I was meant to be waking up, so I laid down and just fell asleep. And I didn\u2019t hear &amp;quot;Action.&amp;quot; So Michael and Morgan were talking, and I was supposed to join in. I woke up with Michael Caine poking me in the ribs and going, [pitchperfect Michael Caine accent] &amp;quot;Look at \u2019at! \u2019E\u2019s bloody fallen asleep, \u2019asn\u2019t \u2019e \u2019E\u2019s bloody fallen asleep!&amp;quot;\n\nsleeping on the set of Batman Begins, screaming on the set of Terminator Salvation; there\u2019s a similar polarity between the earlymorning Bale of our first interview and the lateafternoon Bale who shows up in the same spot the next day. Yesterday, the skulking fugitive. Today there are no RayBans. He\u2019s shaved. His skin is taut and braced, the lapidary facets of his face standing out in bold relief. His clothes are freshpressed and cut to fit. Even a man just rescued after thirty years on a desert island could tell you: That there\u2019s a movie star.\n\nHe approaches, makes eye contact, smiles. Today the only topic Bale won\u2019t brook is his alleged assault on his sister and mother the day before The Dark Knight premiered in London last July\u2014the same month he delivered the Rant while shooting Terminator Salvation in New Mexico. He cuts off the subject with a casual chop of the hand. It is worth noting, though, that verbal abuse can fall under the legal definition of assault in England\u2014and that the complaint was subsequently dropped for lack of evidence. On all other subjects, Bale holds forth amiably on everything from his childhood film acting to his abhorrence for photo sessions.\n\nBut not before duly (and yes, intensely) apologizing for being fifteen minutes late. (&amp;quot;No excuses\u2026just shabby\u2026sorry, really\u2026&amp;quot;) By this point, I\u2019ve listened to the Christian Bale Rant so many times that its capacity to appall has thinned; it now registers as opera. My favorite lyric, twice sung (both for emphasis and to overcome the oddness of issuing such a sentiment in a hateful shriek): You\u2019re a nice guy. Shouting just won\u2019t do, not here, so I lock into those black eyes and assume a confidential tone.\n\nYou\u2019re a nice guy, Christian. You\u2019re a nice guy. But seriously, man, you and me, we\u2019re fuckin\u2019 done professionally. \n\n [Bale issues a half smile and a nod to acknowledge that the shot is legal.]\n\nSo\u2026\u2026outside of your roles, do you have a history of putting yourself in situations where you have to test yourself physically or even court danger \n\n Definitely. Though the one that stands out to me wasn\u2019t physically demanding or dangerous. One of the places where we lived when I was growing up had this big wood out the back. And starting when I was about 8, I used to enjoy just walking alone through the wood late. Eleven p.m. Midnight. Later. Deep into the woods. It was terrifying. And I wasn\u2019t allowed to look behind me, no matter what noises I heard. That was the point. That thing. The fear. To go into some deep place, a well of fear, that you\u2019ve never been to before and that you didn\u2019t know the way out of. Not looking behind, not turning around, just going deeper and deeper into those woods. I always enjoyed that.\n\nThat\u2019s the word Enjoy\n\n I learned something about myself, didn\u2019t I\n\nWhat \n\n That I don\u2019t want to be comforted. That I want to be able to face the hell I\u2019m in.\n\nOn its face, that\u2019s patently unbelievable. I mean, come on: an 8yearold And yet that impulse was fully realized in your performance in Empire of the Sun, which was when you were\u2026\n\n Thirteen.\n\nYour childhood film acting blows Haley Joel Osment\u2019s out of the water. How did you feel about it\n\n Extreme. It was always either &amp;quot;I\u2019m done with this, I\u2019m gonna quit&amp;quot; or just loving every second of it. But even hating it the way I did, when I did, indicated to me that I was destined to keep doing it.\n\nHuh \n\n Because feeling that strongly about something\u2014it signaled to me that it was something I needed to pay attention to. You know, when you first get recognized by anybody, it\u2019s a very uncomfortable thing. I really used to just try to be invisible. A teenager usually wants to try to get people to notice him in some way, to feel like someone gives a damn. Me, all that attention, I just wanted to fade into the background. Be invisible. Disappear.\n\nThe pencil, the orange. [The boy Bale famously responded to questions at a publicity event for Empire of the Sun in Paris by silently stabbing a pencil into an orange and then fleeing.]\n\n Yeah. Right. But you know what Who gives a crap Who doesn\u2019t have bad times Nobody can stand whiners.\n\nBack to the woods. That parallels what you\u2019ve done for your most committed roles. The Machinist. Rescue Dawn. You\u2019ve taken it all the way just\u2026to see if you can \n\n In part.\n\nWere you enjoying your fear during or after you were in the woods \n\n Both.\n\nSo for that 8yearold boy it was two things at once: I am afraid and that is unpleasant; at the same time, I am enjoying this. \n\n But it was also I am staying. I am not running. There\u2019s a beautiful epitaph on the gravestone of Melvin Purvis, the FBI agent I play in Public Enemies [the story of J. Edgar Hoover\u2019s pursuit of John Dillinger, played by Johnny Depp, which will be released in July]. All that man went through, the gun battles, being a highpriority target of underworld figures\u2026 One time he was in Al Capone\u2019s hotel room, meeting with him, and bullets started flying through the window, the two of them duckin\u2019 down, firing back, looking at each other, and Capone says to him, &amp;quot;They after you, or they after me&amp;quot; And neither knew. True story. So many situations like that the man went through. And on his gravestone it\u2019s written\u2014in Latin, so I had his son translate it for me\u2014&amp;quot;I was often afraid, but I never ran.&amp;quot; Back in the day, he would admit to being scared. It was a bravery in and of itself just to admit that in that era. The papers called him Nervous Purvis. But that\u2019s exactly what I was enjoying in those woods as a kid. I am afraid for my life, but I will not run and I will not look back. I will just go deeper. Until I come through.\n\nIt\u2019s funny. The impression a person gets listening to the Rant is that you\u2019re the biggest prima donna of all time. Maybe you are. But you\u2019re also a Hollywood leading man who\u2019s comfortable playing a supporting part or letting someone else be the most charismatic guy on the screen, as in 3:10 to Yuma. \n\n Yeah, Russell [Crowe] and I had the same amount of screen time, but he was definitely the scene stealer, and I have to say I enjoyed that. I find something fascinating about the quiet man in the background who has no desire to be the center of attention. And you know, as Russell\u2019s character starts to understand what my character is up to, the weight of our characters, I guess you might call it, starts to shift. He remains the alpha guy, but he also starts to appreciate the quest I\u2019m on and to realize that it\u2019s going to kill me\u2014that in the end I\u2019m more of a lunatic than he is. I\u2019m a supporting role in Public Enemies, too. Purvis was important in bringing down Dillinger, but it\u2019s the story of Dillinger.\n\nDo you think in terms of whether you\u2019re entertaining an audience when you\u2019re working out a character Or do you think of it purely from within the skin of the character \n\n It\u2019s always from the inside out for me. You know, there are movies where actors aren\u2019t characters but movie stars, being cool beyond belief throughout the whole movie. That is what it is. And we reveal ourselves when we act, very often without noticing. But if I can manage to do a character without showing anything of myself, then that\u2019s the ultimate goal for me. No leakage. Hey, you know, I\u2019m really startin\u2019 to sound like a wanker, talking about acting and all this Can we stop this\n\nThat antimoviestar sentiment is funny coming from someone who\u2019s now carrying two of the biggest actionmovie franchises on the planet. \n\n Yeah, I\u2019m perverse. I know.\n\nWhich preBrando, preMethod actors do you most admire \n\n I don\u2019t have any answer for that. I watch so few movies. I didn\u2019t get into this because I love movies. I got into it because I love putting myself in other people\u2019s shoes and investigating.\n\nIt\u2019s not the product, it\u2019s the immersion.\n\n Exactly.\n\nHave you ever considered comedy \n\n [defensively] I think American Psycho is a very funny movie.\n\nRight. Let\u2019s end on that. \n\n No, wait\u2014can I say something I want to say that I\u2019ve got this long history of just, I can\u2019t stand havin\u2019 my photo taken. Can\u2019t fuckin\u2019 stand it. Which is why in half the photos you see of me, I look like I was gettin\u2019 a tetanus injection when they took the picture. Okay And there was a [fashion] campaign during The Dark Knight in which they used me, in which I had no fuckin\u2019 sayso. I would never have done that had I had any fuckin\u2019 sayso.\n\nOkay. \n\n This campaign\u2014it wasn\u2019t Batman. It was Bruce Wayne. I said, &amp;quot;Look, that\u2019s Bruce Wayne in that suit. He\u2019s no different than Christian Bale in a suit except for he\u2019s got stuff, goo, in his hair, okay&amp;quot; I just want to go on record as saying I did nothing for that. In fact every time I saw it anywhere, I felt nauseous.\n\nOkay. \n\n What I\u2019m tellin\u2019 you is that I will not ever be a model. If I\u2019m ever modeling, you\u2019ll know I really fucking need the money. Okay\n\nOkay.\n\nAndrew Corsello, a GQ correspondent, profiled entrepreneur Elon Musk in February 2009."^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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