thou shalt not conform when thou could blaze thy own path..

Interview Pieces on Bale

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Still fresh from The Machinist, it became necessary for Bale to bulk up to match the powerful physique of Batman. He was given a deadline of six months to do this. Bale recalled it as far from a simple accomplishment: “…when it actually came to building muscle, I was useless. I couldn’t do one push up the first day. All of the muscles were gone, so I had a real tough time rebuilding all of that.”

Christian Bale's career has been marked by as many commercial failures as artistic successes, and frequently at the same time. So why then is he one of the industry's most in-demand actors? The answer to that is easy: the 30-year-old actor has talent to burn. And burn it he has, in such varied projects as Empire of the Sun, Newsies, Velvet Goldmine, American Psycho, and Equilibrium; remarkably, he seems to still have plenty of fuel left.

Do you think you'll continue pushing yourself and choosing challenging roles as much in future?
I can't bring myself to say, 'I can't be arsed to do it.' Because if it's a really good role, I can be arsed. I'm going to kick myself in the arse because one thing that I particularly loathe seeing is actors who've got some kind of reputation and seem to just ride it out and take it easy. It ends up becoming very boring. But then I think anybody can find a comfort zone and start settling back on little tricks.

Where does the need to stretch yourself stem from?
I think it's partly because acting is viewed by some as being a very sissified, comfortable profession to choose. Maybe it's my way of protesting against that a bit, purposefully making myself very uncomfortable in the process of preparing for a role.

Since he is granting interviews, however, Bale reveals what he'd like the audience to know before watching "Machinist."
"Ideally, I'd like them to know nothing because I love ... to be completely surprised," he says, adding, "It's quite rare that you get a group of filmmakers who are absolutely making a movie solely for their own viewing pleasure. This is what we all want to watch, but without it being some kind of masturbatory exercise."

He also thinks that Nolan - whom he first met just before beginning The Machinist shoot - must have batted hard for him. "I can't help but think he thought, 'Hmm, he commits himself. This actor bloody goes there. He goes the distance'.
"I'm a great believer that if you want something, you go for it. If you're really into a project, you bloody contact (the director). And you tell 'em that. To me it's not in any way begging. I think it's a strange thing that more people don't do that - but apparently they don't, because a number of directors have said to me, 'You called me, and I've realised how much you love this project. And I wanted an actor who loved this project'. I think a lot of actors are fearful that they're going to bare their throat then be told, 'We don't want you'."

Even at the dawn of Bale's lengthy career, he was displaying serious cool. He landed himself an agent at the age of nine, after hanging about backstage in London's West End, where his sister Louise (now a theatre director in Los Angeles) was in the cast of Bugsy Malone. He has three older sisters. At the age of 12, and with a smattering of television and theatre work behind him, he beat 4000 other hopefuls in the seven-month audition process for the lead in Steven Spielberg's Empire of the Sun. His performance drew favourable comparisons with 10-year-old Tatum O'Neal's Oscar-winning turn in Paper Moon. But even then he was proving media-shy, briefly disappearing in the middle of a round of promotional interviews in Paris.
Back home in Bournemouth, he would later reflect: "Girls were all over me, boys wanted to fight me, and I was being asked to open local fetes when all I wanted to do was ride my BMX bike in the woods. I told my parents I wasn't interested in doing anything again because the attention ruined it."

"My dad would never have stayed in England had he not had us," Bale says. "So there was always that discontent with being stuck. And also a real hatred of any of us thinking that we were being pigeonholed into any class. He wanted us to think we could mix with absolutely anybody that we chose to and not to feel inferior to anybody or that things were not possible. I credit him completely with my not having any fear or trepidation - 'Yeah, I f---ing can go and be a film actor'. Even if you don't do it, give it a bloody shot. He was totally my motivation for thinking in that way."

And if it doesn't (on havin movies made the way they want it to happen)? A whole franchise will come crashing down, the fan message boards will light up and Christian Bale will go on being the greatest British actor with no hits to his name. "I tell you, even you saying that excites me a little bit!" he says of the suggestion of box-office peril. "I'm thinking, 'Yes, wouldn't that be something else?'"

Yea, delicious fellow, isnt him?

I just love the whole social-standing-defiant thing. Being able to do things the way u want it being done without compromising on the very original pieces of the franchise?

How many ppl can actually pull it off, yet at the same time, living life the way they want it, without compromise of self and be marked both a rebel and maverick at the same time in their field?

I guess I'm just into defiance in a person, but not in terms of law, just in terms of stature in the society, never succumbing to changing oneself to suit another, but in terms of living in harmony and disbelief that we actually hav a choice or sayings in our life.

It's nice to know and be reminded.

Labels: Inspiration, Motivation

posted by M.E. # 6:23 PM

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thou shalt not conform when thou could blaze thy own path..

Interview Pieces on Bale

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