ack in NW). when twentysomething
('hristian Bale was still acting in the long
shadow of his highly praised big screen debut. aged just l3 in Steven Spielberg's post- colonial epic lint/tire of the Sun. he told Spin magazine: ‘An actor should never be larger than the lilm he's in.'
Bale‘s not kidding. For his latest role. as 'l‘revor
Re/nik. a man being eaten alive by existential dread in the psychological thriller The .llachinist. the actor shed an extraordinary (i3lb of flesh. That's a third of his normal bodyweight. a slimming job that brought Bale down to a bare bones l2()-weight. And having achieved that super-calorific feat. Bale ptrt it all on again. adding l3()lb in jtrst six weeks in order to play the muscular. masked vigilante in his next film. Batman Begins.
It's nothing new for actors to slim down. nor
btrlk out (although your Tom (‘ruises and Keanu Reeves tend towards the more llattering latter). but Bale is taking body transformations to the edge. Is this extreme weight loss and gain not some kind of method-acting insanity'.’ ()r is there. in fact. a method to Bale's madness'.’
‘I‘ve always admired the idea of total immersion.‘ says Bale. ‘But I don't believe in doing it just for the sake of doing it. You do it in the service of telling a great story. and The Machinist called for behaviour at the human extreme. I had to go there to understand this character. Doing IZ-hour days.‘ he says. ‘I wondered if I‘d have the energy to get through it. But it didn't matter if I was nodding off through many scenes. In fact. it was good for my performance: you're exhausted just by walking a few feet across the room. and so I think I was able to authentically convey that this is the state in which Trevor is manoeuvering through a very dangerous world.’
Bale‘s haunting. frequently wince—inducing performance does. indeed. benefit from the emaciated state of body. liar from being a gimmick. Re/nik‘s skeletal appearance goes right to the heart of a story that's heavily
indebted to crime and punishment narratives of
Dostoyevsky. Nevertheless. Brad Anderson. the American director of The .llachinist. says: 'In Scott Kosar's script. Trevor is described as a walking skeleton. but (‘hristian went well beyond the call of duty realising this character. I could make a whole other movie on the subject of guilt just from my experience of watching this man reduce himself to l2l)lb.‘
Bale has said of shedding a third of his weight: ‘I didn‘t eat: that was it.‘ That‘s almost true. In
fact. Bale. who had a nutritionist to guide him. and his wife on hand to support him. took vitamins and ate salads and apples. chewed gum. smoked cigarettes and drank non-fat latte. ()n set and between takes. he would sit wrapped in blankets to keep him warm. conserving the little energy he had for the camera. 'lt’s not about redtrcing your eating.‘ Bale says. ‘lt‘s about changing your whole lifestyle. You have to stop socialising. I would do nothing unless I was on camera. I would just sit down and not move a muscle.jtrst sit there. doing nothing.’
As soon as The .llachinist was completed. on location in Barcelona. where the slimline budget production was shot. Bale plunged into a second super-calorific feat. In addition to returning to his normal bodyweight. he was also beefing tip for Batman. at the request of director (‘hristopher Nolan. who was arguing with studio bosses over the casting — among those Bale eventually beat to the Bat were (iuy Pearce. John (‘usack. David l)uchovny and Jake (iyllenhaal.
‘I should have been slower putting on the
weight.‘ Bale says. ‘but I ignored every bit of
‘I WOULD DO NOTHING UNLESS I WAS ON CAMERA - I WOULD JUST SIT DOWN AND NOT MOVE A MUSCLE, JUST SIT THERE’
advice I'd had. The day we wrapped 'l'he .llachinist l was having bread and pizza. pasta and doughnuts. stuffing my face with everything possible and making myself sick. I put on a lot of weight in two months. which was too quick. That's when I felt unhealthy. when my heart was going like era/y. Barman helped me with that because I had to get very fit. I had to build my strength. go running. eat healthilyf
Batman via The .llachinist might be the furthest Bale‘s pushed his body. but the actor's been transforming himself for years. The narcissistic body sculpting required to play Patrick Bateman in .-lmerican Psycho — which developed with a brawny WWII Greek resistance lighter in Captain (‘arelli's Manda/in
and a post-apocalyptic dragon slayer in Reign of
Fire — was. prior to The .llachinist. the most obvious physical morphing. But Bale has achieved more subtle transformations. such as
using a different accent in. the actor claims. each and every role. from his suburban southerner in .lletra/ani/ to his northern lingland journalist in rat-a (hilt/mine.
As is the way with this kind of dedicated—to— his-art actor. physical transformations are part of Bale‘s method for immersing himself in a role. l‘or Bale. they are also an aspect of his determination not to repeat himself. Which is why he turned down the chance to reprise Patrick Bateman in the film adaptation of The Rules ({fxllfl'tlt'lltfll. the Bret liastern I'illis book that introduced the character. ‘l’ve tried different kinds of movies and genres.‘ Bale has said. ‘lt's not always been successful. btit I like to try them anyway. Why did I start acting in the first place'.’ I didn‘t do it to be mediocre or to please everybody all the time.‘
Interestingly. all those transformatitms for the big screen have had the odd effect of making Bale an invisible man to the cinema-going public. Do you recall him. for example. in The Portrait of a Lady. or A Mir/summer Night's Dream. or even the Shaft remake‘.’ Certainly. Bale llined with stardom with American Psycho, for which he was handpicked by director Mary Harron (but almost lost it to Leonardo DiCaprio). Until now. however. Bale's been a character actor with a leading man‘s looks. (As a result. the actor has. within the space of a few short years. been nominated by Hollywood glossy magazine Premiere as one of the Hottest Leading Men Under 30 and subsequently — and contradictorily — by American showbiz. bible Entertainment Weekly as one of the Top 8 Most Powerful (‘ult Figures.) Only now. getting on for two decades after he began acting (he made his debut appearing on the West Iind stage opposite Rowan Atkinson. no less) is Bale becoming a star.
And this may pose a problem for the man who is. by all accounts. private about his personal life for the sake of his professional one. ‘I don’t want to know about the lives of other actors and I don't want people to know too much about me.‘ he has said. ‘If we don't know about the private lives of other actors. that leaves us as clean slates when it comes to playing characters. That‘s the point: they can create these other characters and I can believe them. I think if you‘re a good enough actor. that‘s the way to longevity in the film business. Keep everybody guessing.‘
Ironically. it may not be familiarity with Bale‘s personal life that is his undoing as an actor with a clean slate. rather his professional one. It hardly colours our view of him to know that be
17—11‘ Mar 2005 THE LIST 15