Christian Bale - Pushed To The Limit

You started acting as a child and have become one of Hollywood's biggest stars, including an Oscar. Is this profession your purpose in life?

That would be a bit pompous. I wouldn't feel comfortable making a statement like that either. The people I spend my time with - that is, my family - are the ones who give my life meaning. Acting is simply something I do for a living, it's also fun, sometimes even great fun. That's how you could describe it.

But it's not a profession like any other. After all, you have to put your heart and soul into your roles. Isn't acting also part of your identity?

Yes, definitely. That's absolutely true. I wouldn't know what to do if I couldn't do it. This job is important to me. But I don't want to sound pretentious. Because the rest of the people around me don't really care.

But now it's about you. What does acting give you?

There are different aspects. I'm interested in people. That's the most important prerequisite for my job. And that's also why I love observing people. This job gives me the opportunity to do that and I can also justify it. If someone complains that I'm staring at them, I just have to explain why I'm doing it. I also like stories. I love telling them, especially through the medium of film. I don't know much about the technical side of things, I don't watch many films, but that's not my job, it's the director's job. Apart from that, I find a certain pleasure in possibly making a fool of myself and humiliating myself in the process. If it happens to you, you can learn a lot about yourself from the way you deal with it. And an experience like that makes you feel even more alive.

But you are also a master of understatement. You are known for going to extremes for your roles. For "The Machinist", for example, you lost thirty kilos in weight and then had to build up huge muscle mass for your first "Batman" role.

I admit that it wasn't particularly healthy. But I like to push myself. And I just want to do my best. That's also a pleasure. And I believe that you should always push yourself to the limit. My body is also the only thing in a film that I can control, everything else is controlled by the director. But ultimately it's all just an illusion. No matter how realistically you approach it, a film is a fake. That's why I don't like it when actors talk about the truthfulness of their job. If you're jumping around in a black rubber suit – what truthfulness is associated with that?

You once let a snake bite you during a film shoot. Was that a fake too?

The snake wasn't poisonous and we had organised the scene very well. So the example doesn't fit. The only case where a role mixed with reality was with Jesus, who I played in a TV film many years ago.

You actually walked on water?

I had nightmares and hallucinations. One night, for example, I had the feeling that something was dripping on both my palms. I woke up, looked at the ceiling to see if there was any water - nope. But then it started dripping again and only stopped when I put both hands under the covers. Something that extreme never happened to me again. Apart from that, I keep a healthy distance from my job. Just like my daughter. She made fun of it when she was little. She just said: "Daddy, you keep doing the same thing, over and over and over again."

What is the particular challenge of this job - apart from the role itself?

When I have to deal with colleagues I can't stand. Of course, I can't say that openly, otherwise the situation gets out of hand. I have to say to myself: "How do I deal with this? Does everyone really need to know how I feel about this person?" I then think to myself that the film is more important. We should just accept each other for who we are and avoid stepping on each other's toes. Otherwise we torpedo the whole project with our egos. Every film is a team effort. You have to be able to rely on each other and not get in each other's way. Which isn't always easy, because filming can be very intense.

And when do you absolutely not enjoy your job? 

When a film fails. That's certainly unpleasant. I won't deny that I've also done terrible things. You usually notice it during the shoot. Somehow the communication doesn't work properly, or you realise that you've made a complete mistake in choosing this role. That's when I'm bad myself. The worst thing is that you're wasting your time and that of everyone else involved. But conversely, it's particularly satisfying when you feel a sense of harmony when you interact with others. Although this may not quite come close to the experience of writing, composing or painting something. That's a completely different level of artistic expression. However, the worst thing about my job is something else ...

Namely?

I hate being the centre of attention. I don't want public attention. I realised that as a child when I played my first film roles. From that point of view, acting is a pretty perverse job for someone like me because the framing phenomena that are automatically associated with it are perverse.

In other words, you also find this interview perverse?

In a certain sense, yes. But I am aware of the contradictory nature of this whole situation. And I can certainly enjoy the irony of it.

Does acting give you something for your personal development?

Absolutely. Because it makes you understand that we humans are very radical beings who can react in absolutely unpredictable ways. With this understanding, nothing can knock you down. Most people can understand this through interaction with their family and friends, for example. Everyone asks themselves: Why did this person behave this way? Why did they do something good? Why something bad? Why do I love someone in a certain way? - You don't have to do my job to understand this. But you usually only think about something like that for a few hours. I, on the other hand, have the chance to do this for months. If they let me.

Why shouldn't they let you?

Because there are films that are designed in such a way that you don't even get to think. They're connected to a huge machinery that makes you feel like you're part of a small army. And the bigger the film, the more difficult that becomes. That kind of thing naturally prevents a really intense experience and profound insights.

You were and are repeatedly confronted with life and death situations in your films. Even if they're not real - what do you learn from them?

I know that I could kill. And that is if (...)

→ Read the full interview with Christian Bale in rampstyle #23