Christian Bale dons the rubber bat suit again for the biggest superhero movie ever, Dark Knight.

Q: Was there any doubt for a second that you would be putting on the mask and cape again?
A: Not in my mind. I don’t know if anybody else had a doubt about that. It’s something to ask Chris (Nolan, director), if he had a doubt. I didn’t, but I definitely only have an interest in playing Batman the way that Chris likes to have him portrayed. I think that this second movie has surpassed the first. It stands as a great movie regardless of genre.Q: Was the suit more comfortable?
A: It was heavier but it was much more comfortable. There’s 110 parts to this one. There were three to the original. I can move my head. It was more mobile. With the Keysi fighting method that we use as the martial art, the suit was compatible with that, whereas with the first one I had to fight against the suit in order to be able to do the fight sequences. In every way it was more advanced. And, also, I think, more in keeping with images that the military have of future soldiers and their gear.

Q: How do you explain the interplay between Batman and The Joker?
A: The Joker is just gleeful to come up against Batman because everyone else has been too easy. He’s an intelligent psychopath.

He’s bent on chaos and destruction, and if that means self-destruction, so be it. It’s impossible to leverage him because he’s not looking for anything but living in the moment and in that anarchy. He’s completely uncompromising, as is Batman.

But Batman does have this one rule: He will not kill. But he’s in conflict also with himself about how far and how violent he can be because he does embrace violence to an extreme degree.

He has to counter that with the altruism of “do good” and inherit the philanthropy of his parents. But the Joker comes closer than anybody has to provoking Batman to break that one rule.

Q: How did the Joker character develop?
A: I knew that the tone of Chris Nolan’s Gotham was one in which we didn’t want to have caricatures. We didn’t want to have the actor kind of peeking through, winking at the audience. We wanted to stay serious and dramatic with the portrayals of every character.

Heath was wonderful with that. He completely immersed himself. He has this kind of anarchic, punk, A Clockwork Orange approach to it.

Heath has done such a good job, and if Chris decides to make the third movie, he has set himself a real challenge of upping the ante with any villain after Heath’s Joker.

Q: Was it mentally and physically easier this time around, when you knew what you were getting yourself into?
A: T his movie is more about mind- games than the first. Clearly we didn’t want to be treading water. In the same way, with the movie, the character had to evolve and did so in a clear fashion.

It was physically less demanding because I was not coming from such a place of weakness as I was before the first one.

Also, just having experience with the fighting styles helped. I was able to do all of the fighting sequences myself and it was easier because of the bat suit. That helps a great deal when you’re doing stunts.

Source: The Times

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