Christian Bale's 'New World' Experience
By Lindzi Scharf, Hollywood.com Staff
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Thursday, December 22, 2005
Christian Bale and wife and Sibi Blazic |
Hollywood.com: Is it true that the bulk of your work came in during post-production?
Christian Bale: Yeah. I think that was a product of Terry [Malick] being required to bring the movie down to two and a half hours. A number of the dialogue scenes had to be taken out and many times it was almost like a silent movie, but we were accustomed to that on the set because many times he would say to us, “Here's the scene. Here's the dialogue.” And we might change it at the last minute, or whatever, but he'd also say, “If you don't like saying it, don't say it.” And he really meant it. He didn't say it just say to say it. He really meant that we should do what felt right. “I don't want you saying any of the lines that I've written if it doesn't feel right.” Then with the voice over it was really quite fascinating. I mean, Terry would sometimes send me thirty pages of voice over and it was fascinating. He's a wonderful writer. I stole a number of the pages because I thought that they were just some wonderful comments on life and love and relationships and things. And he just likes to amass as much interesting as possible, and then unfortunately has to condense it and lose a great deal. But I like very much the way that he worked and I liked knowing that it was always going to be somewhat of a surprise of how much each and any of us would end up in the story. I mean, we all knew that this was a linear story and so you have to keep some characters in it, but the first thing that anyone said to me, I was talking to Werner Herzog when Terry first asked me to do the movie and I told Werner, and they're good friends, and he said to me, “Oh, that's wonderful.” He said, “He's a fantastic director, but just don't get upset if you're not in the movie.” I think that most people have heard the Adrien Brody story as well and so you just say, “You know what, this is a highly unusual director. Someone that I very much want to work with and so I'll just enjoy the actual working process and keep fingers crossed that there'll be something of me in the finished product.”
HW: Knowing that, what made you want to do the film? Is it just to work with him?
CB: Yeah. I think that truly with him it is that. He's such an unusual and rare bird that you want to do it. And I just liked him a great deal. We'd met a few times, not actually talking about me being in the movie. Sometimes they just sort of ask actors to go in and read the script through so that the director can sit and listen to it and then we just met up socially when I was in London. Everything with Terry just seems to kind of slide like sliding into warm water. He doesn't make big exclamations. It just kind of happens. It gradually happened, and it was like, “So what would you think if I did ask you to play one of the roles in the movie?” “Oh, yeah? I think that would be quite nice. Yeah.” It's all very low key and quiet, and I think that as an actor that you're not in the editing room unless you're on there as a producer well, but you're not in there. And so it's always part luck about what exactly is going to be in there, and so often you find that your personal favorite scene isn't going to be in the movie. You just have to understand that even if the scene is really remarkable it might not fit the time allowed and it might be absolutely essential to the storyline then it might have to go. So you're always as an actor at the mercy of the director and editor at that point, and hopefully they just make some nice decisions like you didn't waste your time completely. But I really wouldn't have felt like that regardless on this situation. I found his way of working to be so interesting, that it was actually possible to work that way that I think forever I'll be trying to edge other directors of adopting the same attitude that he always had on the set which made it so very easy in each and every scene, and absolutely, truly trusting in the actor. He let us do whatever we felt like. Whereas often other directors say that, but they don't really mean it. You'll end up doing something that you feel like doing and you look at them and their furious with you at the end of it. Well, that's not really being honest about letting the actor have free reign whereas Terry truly is.
HW: This is the sort of relationship that you also had with Christopher Nolan on Batman Begins.
CB: Well, you have to also remember that different styles of movies requires different styles of working. On The New World we didn't have artificial lighting whatsoever. If we did have anything when we were doing interiors they would set it up in the morning and it wouldn't move all day. That was it. So you never had down time like when you're waiting for lights to be reapplied. So what that meant was that you had a real great sense of momentum because you never had to stop filming. You could move around everywhere and do whatever you wanted and you never stopped filming. So I would also just stay on the set the whole time. Terry liked that. Sometimes he would just be sitting there, and you didn't have the regular actor chairs. Everything would be over the period and so you might just be hanging out on a period chair and suddenly realize that they'd been filming you for the last ten minutes and you didn't even realize it. It was very nice. It was very nice working in that way. Obviously with something like Batman it's on a much grander scale and there's the fantasy of the piece which is essential. So there are of course times if I had decided to walk ten feet over to the left it would've been panning over and we would've had an hour of lighting that we would have to do because I wanted to walk over there. But I'm working with Chris on something else now which is very much the antithesis of Batman experience.
HW: Did you have any misgivings about being cast opposite a 14-year-old girl since you were going to have love scenes? Did you wonder if she could carry such an important role?
CB: I think that it was rather hard of a journey for them to find the right person to play Pocahontas because the reality of it was I believe that she was more like twelve years old at the time. Relationships during that time of that nature weren't frowned upon like they are now--they're incredibly frowned upon now. I had already agreed that I wanted to play Rolfe and with Q'Orianka [Kilcher] they found someone who had equal parts the youth and exuberance of that, but also the ability to play the pain and the maturity that was required. I love working with unknowns. I really do, and obviously it's a crap shoot, but every movie is anyway, but I very much like that because you can absolutely believe in them and believe in the character. I trusted that the people caring for her, her parents, were around all the time. Terry included who is a very maternal man and very considerate that there wouldn't be any situations that wouldn't be inappropriate and I don't believe that there were. And I was very surprised as well at just how remarkable Q'Orianka was at being able to adapt to this character. I think that she was also very spoiled frankly, as we all were, but especially since this was her first experience at working with Terry. It's not something that I think she'll find that she'll be able to repeat too often, myself included in that. I don't think that I'll be able to find this experience again.
HW: What was it like working with Colin?
CB: I saw him twice. We don't have any scenes together. We literally just crossed paths, and I had a few nice conversations with him. He's a good guy. As to what he's going through now I haven't spoken with him in more than a year, but I wish him all the best.
HW: With him not available to speak with us, is there more pressure on you to be the star that sells this movie?
CB: No. Because that would be inappropriate. I mean, you've seen the movie. I think that you can see that it would be kind of inappropriate for me to be the kind of front man when I'm so clearly not the front man. I don't come into the movie until after something like two hours or something into it. So I think that it would only be appropriate to do the amount of press that is appropriate to the character that I'm playing. Otherwise I think that you're misleading the public. So that's been my position on that.
HW: It sounds like you had a great time on this film. Were there any challenges at all for you?
CB: I think that the nicest thing that Terry brought out of me was just having the confidence that he did in me. I always prepare greatly before any movie, and he was really appreciative of that as well because I was able to tell him little bits of information that we ended up including in certain scenes. There were nice little character traits and ideas that I had about him. I certainly don't like turning up absolutely cold, but being able to have that relaxation, being able to say, “You know what, don't worry about it. You're in really good hands here.” It's that. When you have a director that you truly trust and truly think that they're a brilliant filmmaker and I do think that about Terry. He's just one of the finest around. So you really can just kind of lay back and go, “Okay, you know what, there are no worries here.” If I can recreate that kind of working environment on another movie I think that we could get some really great stuff from all the actors… if every director could be like Terry I think that we would see the bar really being raised across the board.
HW: Have you heard anything about the next Batman? A script? Or a story?
CB: Yeah. But it's all that kind of deal where I'll get it in the head if I talked.
HW: Is there any sense that you go into a second one with more confidence?
CB: Yeah. Of course. We know now that people have supported what we achieved. I have to say though that I always like the idea of not knowing if people are going to like it and then that gives me a certain drive to improve what I believe the correct way of bringing the character about. I like the slightly self-destructive notion of like, “You know what, I'm going to do this regardless and if people don't like it then well I'm out. That's it.” I'm kind of enjoying that possibility and that will always be there, but we can't help that recognize that we're probably on slightly safer ground now with the second one. But in doing that there's the great danger of becoming too comfortable and obviously with the second one you have to outdo the first one. You have to keep on moving forward and pressing on and finding new and impressive character points and storylines, but I've got real confidence. I think that Chris is such a smart man and when I did finally get into the game I would have certain questions about why he was doing something and not quite understanding it. He would explain it to me and it would be like, “Now that he's said it's so obvious. That really works. Yeah.” So I have great faith in him that he will be pulling something out of the hat that will be even better than the first one.
Photo(s) by Adriana M. Barraza- © 2005- Hollywood Media Corp.- All Rights Reserved