ON Christian Bale’s resume of dark, interesting, indie film choices, one project stands out like a sore thumb: a little comic book adaptation called Batman Begins.

Nestled in among The Machinist, American Psycho and the Bob Dylan biopic I’m Not There, the Batman movie, and its forthcoming sequel, The Dark Knight, seem incongruous choices.

“I think it’s nice to have sore thumbs sticking out,” Bale interrupts.“This is a really interesting Batman. I just couldn’t get my head around why they’d never made this version and had instead made those ridiculous versions,” Bale says.

But if Bale has stepped into the realm of the Hollywood superhero with Batman, he’s steadfastly stuck to his philosophy with his other choices.

His latest, Rescue Dawn, is a gruelling true story shot in the jungles of Thailand. Bale plays Dieter Dengler, a US pilot shot down over Laos and captured in 1966.

His determination to escape forms the basis of Rescue Dawn. Directed by Werner Herzog, it was a strictly no-frills affair.

Rescue Dawn was shot in reverse to allow the actors – Bale, Steve Zahn and Jeremy Davies – to begin the shoot thin and gradually put on weight and shorten their hair and beards as it progressed.

“That was my idea. Knowing from experience it’s a lot easier to put on weight,” Bale says.

That experience includes Bale’s famous efforts to lose 28kg from an already thin frame to play the chronic insomniac character in 2004’s The Machinist.

“Being a low-budget thing (Rescue Dawn), it’s not like we could stop and take a break and gradually lose the weight,” he says.

“But also, from my point of view, I preferred doing it that way because you have the joy of putting on weight during the movie instead of the horror of, ‘Oh my god I’ve got to lose weight’.”

Rescue Dawn caps off a good year for Bale, following on from the success his western – 3:10 To Yuma with Russell Crowe – has enjoyed in the US.

“I like the way he works,” Bale says of Crowe. “We got along really well. Because of that it was one of the best working relationships I’ve had with another actor and I like him personally. He’s a good guy.”

And Bale is happy to put his money where his head is.

“I was walking round for some time with a baseball cap that has the South Sydney Rabbitohs all over it. I’m kind of a sandwich board,” he says with a laugh.

A rugby league fan then?

“It takes somebody who I know personally, who has an interest in it and love for it like Russell, to perk me up for it. I follow it whenever I’m with Russell.”

* Rescue Dawn opens today

Source News Australia

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