Christian Bale first tasted stardom at the age of 15 in Steven Spielberg’s Empire Of The Sun. He’s since made a name for himself with demanding roles in films as diverse as American Psycho and The Machinist. He’s currently filming Dark Knight, the sequel to Batman Begins, and also starring opposite Russell Crowe in a remake of classic Western 3:10 To Yuma. (Interview Undercut)How was your first Western?
It was a lot of fun being out in the desert, riding horses and shooting guns. It got bloody freezing though on some of the night shoots. We had the worst recorded winter storms in New Mexico history.

Russell Crowe has a certain reputation. Were you concerned about working with him?
We’d never met before and whenever people asked me what I was doing next and I said I was going to be working with Russell, they looked at me and said: ‘You’re going to be in for a tough ride with him,’ and it was absolutely true. I’m joking. A lot of actors complain and whinge and do everything they can to avoid getting on with the work. So it’s nice when you’re working with somebody like Russell, where you can just get to the point and have long conversations about the scenes. He’s a bloody good actor and it’s a pleasure to work with somebody as good as that.

Did he tease you about appearing in Batman?
It never stopped and it continues still. I actually had to buy him his own special rubber outfit.

You maintained your American accent while you were filming Batman Begins. Are you doing the same again now?
Yeah. I always maintain the accent while I’m working and I found myself in the bizarre situation after Batman Begins where, because it took so long to film, it took a really long time for my English accent to come back again. I thought: ‘Oh s*** what’s happened?’ It’s a matter of your muscles changing and if you’re doing something for ten months, your mouth changes completely. I’m in the very schizophrenic position now where I feel as natural speaking American as I do English.

You’ve played unlikeable characters in films such as American Psycho. Do you take those home with you?
I guess I do. I certainly know that my wife and friends have times when later on they’ll say: ‘Man, we just couldn’t stand you around that time, you were an a***hole.’ I didn’t realise I was doing anything different – it’s just the nature of the work. It’s all swimming around in the back of your head even if you’re not working. I have discovered through being told that I do behave differently.

I’m in the very schizophrenic position where I feel as natural speaking American as I do English

Will we ever see you in a frothy romantic comedy?
Probably not. I don’t want to say never but the only movies I’ve never enjoyed are light romantic comedies.

Is there a superpower you wish you had?
Bruce Wayne’s only power is incredible wealth and that’s the only realistic power we have nowadays that can give us the luxury of time to do what we truly desire to do. It sounds incredibly materialistic but I think being born to incredible wealth would be a really nice thing.

Where exactly did you grow up?
All over the place. I grew up in Wales, then Surrey and Dorset. I’ve lived in LA longer than I ever lived in any one place in Britain. I lived in Portugal for a while. I’ve lived in about 15 different towns and houses.

Why did you move so much?
My father had always moved around a great deal as a kid. He was somebody who liked to travel a great deal and then found himself with three kids. He was a very interesting man and sometimes we just had to move.

You guard your privacy. Has living in the US made that more difficult?
The trickiest thing is when people say things that are completely wrong about my friends and family because they didn’t decide to be an actor and they’re suddenly having s*** spoken about them. That makes me mad. I don’t care what anybody says about me, even when it’s wrong.

What do you do when you’re not working?
I like going dirt-biking and my wife’s starting to enjoy that too. I also walk around the streets late at night sort of looking at people strangely.

Source: Metro UK

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