[IMG:L]Christian Bale’s about to go back to the Knight shift.
The 33-year-old Welsh actor is about to don the cowl and step into the shadows again, reprising his blockbuster role as Batman for The Dark Knight, director Christopher Nolan’s highly anticipated sequel to Batman Begins, the hit film that reinvigorated the film franchise with its atmospheric mood and intense depiction of the Caped Crusader.
In an exclusive chat with Hollywood.com just a few weeks before he goes back before the cameras, Bale talks about re-teaming with Nolan on their third film together, his enthusiasm for new castmates Heath Ledger, Maggie Gyllenhaal and Aaron Eckhart, putting on Bat-bulk and finding fresh angles for the iconic superhero.
Hollywood.com: Between Batman Begins and The Prestige, you’ve developed a great working relationship with Chris Nolan and are about to go back to working with him again on The Dark Knight. Do you see that carrying through both of your careers for a while, or are you sort of enjoying this moment in time with him?
Christian Bale: I’m just enjoying this moment, because I think that both of us have this idea as well that you can’t plan too far ahead in this world. You just have to deal with what you’re doing right now and who knows if either us will even be in a position to be continuing to work together on anything else. Chris may well want to take a breather from me. Who knows? But absolutely I would work with him again. I like the idea very much of working with him. When you find that you work well with people, I think “Repeat it. Let’s go again.” That’s how it is for me with directors, with actors – it’s worth finding those projects again, because it’s rare that it really clicks and that everything happens.
[IMG:R]HW: With the rare chance to explore a character a second time, especially something as iconic as Batman, what are you sort of most psyched up about in the new film? Are you going to be able to explore new territory and find new layers to him?
CB: Yeah, absolutely. Chris writes the scripts along with his brother [Jonathan]. He wouldn’t be interested in doing it if he wasn’t going to be able to explore new depths and new places to go to, taking it further, and knowing that he has the confidence now of having proven himself with the first one. So it’s a very nice thing when you have worked with someone, like I have worked with Chris, when you know that you can really trust them. I mean, obviously I’m reading it and he’s talking to me as he’s doing it, but I know that even if I didn’t, I could literally almost turn up and say “Right, what do you got?” And I know that it would be very good. Obviously, I want to contribute, and he demands that and I should contribute, but I trust that I’m in good hands.
HW: Is there something about the character of Batman that continues to fascinate you?
CB: Yeah. If you strip away all of the preconceived ideas and the kind of iconic status you can always find a really interesting character there, and that’s what you have to do. You have to just strip away every notion that America has about him and reduce it almost down to a character that no one has met before. Once you do that, there is always a lot that you can find, new territory. Otherwise, if you don’t do that you’re just covering old ground and that’s going to get tedious very quick, for everyone involved.
HW: With the cast that’s assembled for The Dark Knight, have you guys had a chance to talk to each other yet and are you looking forward onscreen with Heath Ledger, Maggie Gyllenhaal and Aaron Eckhart?
CB: Yeah, we’ve all met. We’ve got the old crowd of me and Gary [Oldman] and Morgan [Freeman] and then Heath now, and Maggie and Aaron are in there. Absolutely – Everyone really loves it. Everyone really does. It’s not just kind of getting in there for a paycheck. Heath really pursued Chris on this. They definitely like what he has done with it and he wants to be a part of it, and so there is a great new injection of this new blood, and they all want to put their own stamps onto the story.
HW: How are you trying to chart your acting career now? You’ve had a major franchise with a lot of worldwide appeal. You’ve had films that have had a lot of critical acclaim. It seems like you’ve got your pick and yet you’re not stuck churning out the superficial level of Hollywood product that can sidetrack someone. How are you navigating everything?
CB: You know, I don’t have a big plan. I really don’t have a big plan. I know what I like and I go after that and that’s it. There’s never been a grand master plan. I’m just not that good at organizing.
HW: Did you have to resist a lot of that pressure that someone who breaks through to that upper echelon gets with doing a lot of things that they don’t want to do as an actor?
CB: No, because I had very certain ideas. I’d been trying to make Rescue Dawn before Batman [Begins] came along. So I knew that was my priority. There was the movie Harsh Times where I also spoke with the director before Batman came along. So to me I wasn’t even thinking about anything else. I thought, “Right, these are the two. That’s what I need to get done.” Terrence Malick, I met with him and I wanted to work with him [on The New World]. So that got done. Christopher Nolan sends his script: “Fantastic. I want to do that.” Then I read this wonderful script called 3:10 to Yuma and that was it. I wasn’t thinking, “Well, maybe I should be here. In the bigger picture, have I done a romantic comedy?” No. It just doesn’t come into my head. I’m fixed on achieving something and I won’t even consider something else until I’ve done that, so that was Harsh Times or Rescue Dawn. It’s like, “Okay, finished those–” And then it was The Prestige and 3:10 to Yuma. So that’s what has been taking up my time. It’s thing that when you know are right, you are right. You just go after it.
HW: You’ve said that you’re not the biggest fan of the physical conditioning that you’ve had to put yourself through. How do you make peace with that and get the job done?
CB: You just accept it. You don’t rest unless you’re in the middle of actually doing it. So you just make it a part of your routine. You just force that on yourself, and there is really no other way of doing it. You just do it, that’s it. You’ve got to get on with it and convince yourself that you like it and enjoy it. It’s funny because it’s the power of the mind and you’ll start enjoying it after a while even though when it’s done you can just switch it off and go, “F*ck that. I didn’t enjoy it for a second.” During it you can actually find yourself saying, “Ah, I really want to do whatever it is.”
HW: Is it tough when you get the Batman body or the soldier’s body and then you’re done with the film and you don’t want keep up that level of fitness regimen, but you like where your physique is and you know that you have to keep up the hard work to maintain it?
CB: No, it’s not tough. It’s very easy to lose it and I don’t mind it at all, but it’s also a part of what I think is an addiction of mine: I like extreme circumstances, and so for me boredom is the consistency. I like that I’ve got one month and I have to go insane with training to be ready on time. If it’s just my life, I probably wouldn’t even do it. I can’t stand the tedium of repetition. So it’s got to be that it’s something new and that I have to do it in a hardcore fashion by dealing with a deadline, because if you have no deadline in sight – for me it has to feel like you’re sprinting for the finish line and then I take it seriously.
Look for more with Christian Bale on his new film Rescue Dawn soon on Hollywood.com.
