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Post by RhodoraO on Mar 14, 2017 6:36:51 GMT
Bale's own perspective on his massive internet following from an archived 2004 interview: web-beta.archive.org/web/20050208212822/http://www.chud.com/interviews/205Q: Why do you think you have such a cult following on the internet? Christian: I don't know. I think that unfortunately that internet thing kind of went awry. I had nothing to do with it. The original intent of it is that I really wanted to attempt to be an actor that could work without ever having to do interviews. It hasn't worked. But it seemed like a possible option, a way of being able to do something, giving some amount of information about movies and so on so that I wouldn't have to do anything. But unfortunately, I never monitored it very much and it kind of took a course that when I did go back and look at it, I said, �This is not what I thought it would be and I want nothing to do with it any longer.�
Q: Did you create your own website?
Christian: No, I didn't. Someone else did. They said to me, �Look, this is a way that you could actually, potentially give information in terms of you needing people to know that you have movies coming out, and without ever having to do interviews.� At a certain time in my life, I practically had phobias about it really. It just didn't work out to be that way at all. But I think it's more likely that it's certain kinds of movies that I have chosen to do and I see it more as those movies having cult following than myself having that cult following because I've done many different kinds of movies. I mean, you can't look at something like Reign of Fire and say, �That's why you have a cult following.� Or Batman. It's just far too big of a picture, but you look at Velvet Goldmine or American Psycho, or lesser known movies that I've done like All The Little Animals, and Metroland, and they've tended to amass a small, but a very much appreciative crowd of people and imagine The Machinist will probably amass that same kind of feeling in audiences. I think that it's inevitably not going to be everyone's cup of tea by any stretch of the imagination. But I do hope that the people who do appreciate it really appreciate it. I see it myself in comparison to many movies that I've made which I've been disappointed with and everything is obviously a leap of faith and a group of effort, but with this movie, I just adore it. To me it's just some sort of classic movie. It'll be interesting to see if anyone actually shares that opinion or not, or if it'll just have a cult following of me.
Q: How exactly do you expect to be courted less for interviews when you do a movie that you know is going to be as big as Batman? Christian: Well, my theory was that you don't need to do them because it's such a big movie anyway. But I think that I'm going to have a very hard cold reality next year.
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Post by RhodoraO on Mar 14, 2017 6:52:46 GMT
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Post by RhodoraO on Mar 23, 2017 5:46:51 GMT
This window to the past is a detailed discussion of the Baleheads in the 1990s: www.thesimon.com/magazine/articles/old_issues/0090_the_cult_christian_bale.htmlThe Cult of Christian Bale By Liz Goodman, Jan 1, 2000 From the Message Board of www.christianbale.org. From the Message Board of
Hi. I've never posted here before but I've come over here in a state of emergency as a representative of all Star Wars geeks to plea that Christian Bale gets cast as Anakin in episodes 2 and 3!... Besides he would make the perfict older brother. I mean think about, he is soo sweat, he is semi famous, and a guy like that has got to have cute friends who might even be my age...
Christian Bale is now more famous for his fans than for his movies. Undeniably talented, he is the rare case of a child actor who has worked through adolescence and into his 20s. (Robert Sean Leonard, his co-star in Swing Kids, hasn't made a successful movie in years.) But since Bale's career-making turn in Steven Spielberg's 1987 Empire of the Sun, when he was 10, he's played mostly supporting roles in major studio movies, and, recently, starring roles in smaller indie flicks. Even a rabid 14-year-old fan calls him only "semi-famous." But type in "web heartthrob" on any search engine and you'll find that his name pops up. Then type in "rabid internet fan base." Bale again. Sure, lots of 26-year-old working actors have fan clubs. But how many 26-year-olds have fan clubs that are more than a decade old? How many have fan clubs run by a fan who also pet-sits the star's dog while the actor is on location? How many thank their fans on the web site for helping them get a part they wanted? How many, for God's sake, have teen-age fans who have baked them birthday cakes - for six years running? It's the longevity and constancy of his fans' devotion that I admire. A year or more of worship is paltry in Bale terms. There are fans who have followed his career since 1987. There are fans who report needing new copies of 1992's Disney musical Newsies because they've worn out their videotapes. These are fans whose all-time favorite movie is a wholesome little tale about a singing, dancing newspaper boy - yet, 100% of the respondents in an online poll said that they were psyched to go see Christian Bale in American Psycho. Bale has clearly moved lightyears away from the darling tyke of Empire of the Sun, but his fans are willing to go with him. Let's get honest here: How many actors with that kind of fan base can knowingly alienate their fans' tastes by playing a gay glam rock fan who jerks off over posters of his favorite idol - and still keep their love? Velvet Goldmine clearly isn't the favorite movie of the Baleheads, but only two posts out of the more than 200 that I read on the site made any negative reference to its "morals." There were more negative reviews of Portrait of a Lady. More often, his fans - even those who still wished he'd do another movie like Little Women - praised his courage in taking "difficult" roles.
But (swoony teenage girls aside) the message board is curiously... realistic. There's enough gushing to rival a geyser on the Christian Bale message board, but there's also a fair amount of perspective. As one fan, "Mandi," writes in response to a particularly saccharine posting, "we all want to meet Christian, we all want to stare into his hazel eyes, we are all enthralled with him. join the club." Fans who go overboard with the love, as did one fan named Julie who claimed that "[C]hristian loves only me, not any of you," are politely requested to show some proof or see a shrink. There's relatively little discussion of sex scenes, toned abs, or Christian B's personal life. Maybe it's the knowledge that Bale sometimes visits the message board; maybe his fans are trying to honor their perception of his "reserved" character. More than one fan suggests that a "need for personal privacy" somehow divides the "quality actor" from the "pretty boy." Only the talentless court publicity for their personal lives in the world of the Baleheads.
Seen in this light, a fan's undue curiosity about CB's personal life or a fan's overtly sexual language suggests that the fan regards Bale as little more than just another empty-headed dreamboat and that Bale's relationship with his Baleheads is just as empty as that of the Backstreet Boys with the readers of Tiger Beat. One woman named Meredith was viciously mocked for signing herself (even obviously in jest) "future wife of Christian Bale."
Or a more positive example: A female fan reports meeting C. Bale at a convention. She says that he was very nice and that he smelled good. Three people afterward ask what Bale smelled like, but the first woman never answers. It's typical of the Bale fan base that they'll report something suggestive - but not too revealing.
That's the nature of fandom, as revealed by the archives of the Baleheads. Their rare angry interchanges revolve around the question of what fandom means - what the fan gives; what the fan gets. A particularly heated fight began with this post: "people like us dont become friends with someone like [Bale],we dont date people like him, that isnt they way things go.We can post as much as we want on here but it wont change that fact. It doesn't matter if we are obsessed fans or the nicest people in the world, he has no desire to get to know any of us." Is the anonymous writer overly cynical and/or just realistic? Too cruel and/or too honest? And what about another Bale fan, Donna, who wrote this response: "the only thing that separates you from him is geography and some strange taboo that says stars are more important, or less accessable than we are. We, as fans, have every possibility of meeting up with him, and every right and reason to share with others our dreams of such meetings... .You just sound so hopeless... .If you like Christian Bale enough to come to this website, do you like him enough to go to an award show he's at, as some people who have met him have done? Or to go visit a set where he's working... ? Nothing is impossible. Be happy, Friend." Is Donna delusional or just optimistic? Is she sugarcoating her one-sided obsession or bringing a new meaning to it? Not to make too big a deal of it, but I think Donna's sentiment - which I suspect is shared by many Baleheads - transforms the modern consumption-based model fan/star relationship (star sells personal data and sexual fantasy in the form of magazine articles and entertainment events to a prurient, faceless mass audience) into something healthier: the fan as e-mail-writing advocate, the fan as respectful dreamer, the fan as equal.
Donna's message is simple: we have a right to dream; we have a right to express their dreams; we have a right to attempt to realize their dreams. And she implies further: Dreams are unlimited; actions are finite. The anonymous writer talks about friendships and love affairs; Donna confines her suggestions to brief meetings and open communication. All she wants for her reader - and for herself, and us too - is a little hope, and the small piece of happiness found in hoping. I don't think that's much to ask from a singing newspaper boy or a glam rock teenager, do you?
I admit it. After reading 200 plus posts on the Christian Bale fan club message board, I'm a fan of his fans. I love their kooky obsession with a 1992 Disney musical about labor agitation and their half-embarrassed, half-proud defense of their fantasies of his friendship. It tickles me that they knew his dog's name and breed but nothing about his upcoming wedding. And it just about kills me that the web site marshals fans to flood writers of negative reviews with e-mail, as if the reviewers will then print retractions. As if fan devotion matters at all to the film industry.
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Post by RhodoraO on Mar 23, 2017 5:56:37 GMT
A 1996 gem from E! Online. A brief Q&A with questions posed by Baleheads: Found quoted in full at christian-bale.narod.ru/en/press-e/eonline1996-e.htmlWhere your favorites answer you: Christian Bale E!Online, 1996.
Move over Brad Pitt. Step aside Tom Cruise. Twenty-two-year-old Welshman Christian Bale has a fanatical group of cyberfans dedicated to converting the rest of the world into "Baleheads." So enthusiastic are they that Entertainment Weekly recently declared, "If the Internet is the ultimate democracy, Christian Bale has been elected its biggest star."
As Jim in Steven Spielberg's Empire of the Sun, a 13-year-old Bale received rave reviews. In the 10 years or so since, he's been selective in choosing roles, holding out for quality and diversity. He's done a couple of musicals (Newsies and Swing Kids), Shakespeare (Henry V) and brought several literary classics to life (Little Women, Prince of Jutland). In fact, he's added two more films to that latter category: Joseph Conrad's The Secret Agent, with Bob Hoskins; and Henry James' Portrait of a Lady, with Nicole Kidman, opening this week.
He normally keeps a pretty low publicity profile--but we've landed him. So, in his own words, heeere's Christian...
From Droppy: I'd really like to know what you think about us Baleheads.
Christian Bale: I'd sure like to know who coined the phrase! It's wonderful. I'm very impressed by you all.
From Curiousjaime: What's your favorite role that you've done, and how do you choose which parts to take?
CB: Those are difficult questions. The most satisfying for me to see is between Empire of the Sun, Murder of Quality, Little Women, and The Secret Agent. I expect Portrait of a Lady to join these. I choose a role on the basis of how well the script is written. It is always encouraging when the film has some really good actors already interested in the project. And, of course, my decision is based on who is doing the catering.
From Karekate: Your Web page says you are an avid reader. What are some of your all-time favorite books?
CB: I have an eclectic choice when it comes to novels, but Martin Amis has always been a great read.
From Fiorella: What is your type of girl?
CB: A good sense of humor, intelligence and great eyes. I'm also partial to ones with a pulse.
From Phoebes: Do you ever doubt yourself as an actor, and if so, how you deal with this?
CB: Of course everyone goes through hard times of doubt in all professions, and it is hard to deal with, naturally. The most important thing is to stay focused and keep your morale up. Alternatively, I get myself drunk and do silly dances around the pool with my dog.
From Harriett: Who was your favorite little woman?
CB: Jo March, played by Winona Ryder.
From Florin: Who was your best onscreen kiss?
CB: I'd have to try them all again to give a fair answer.
From Gwenllian: What actors would you most like to work with, and which actors do you most admire?
CB: There are many talented actors I would like to work with, including Glenn Close and David Thewlis. As for whom I admire, I guess Steven McQueen was a past favorite of mine.
From LkBwitched: What novel would you love to do for the screen?
CB: Brendan Behan's Borstal Boy is a great book about an interesting man that I think would make a really great film.
From Bailey: What are your hobbies?
CB: I read a lot, paint, snowboard, surf, go out with friends, play video games--you know, normal stuff.
From Chrystal: My friend and I read that you snowboard and ski a lot in California. Where do you go, exactly?
CB: Mammoth and Big Bear have great conditions for skiing. California has a lot of great places to ski, and it only takes a few hours to get to them by car, unless you're going to Mammoth, which takes a little longer. The best skiing is around February and March, but last year there were good conditions right up until June.
From Crowanb: What type of snowboard do you own?
CB: A Nitro Flux 6, made in Austria.
From Mileena: What did you do this summer?
CB: I went to the opening ceremonies of the Olympic games in Atlanta with my sister, Louise, as a guest of Kenny Ortega, who directed Newsies. Kenny also did the choreography for the opening ceremonies.
From Corgi: Did you do all of your own singing and dancing in Newsies and Swing Kids?
CB: Yes, I did weeks and weeks of dance and vocal training for both films. In Newsies, we learned a martial-arts style of dancing, while on Swing Kids, I learned to do the lindy hop.
From Newsie: In Swing Kids, did you find it hard to play the role of someone who turns against his friends and even almost kills one?
CB: That made the part more interesting.
From Aloha: How have you changed and grown as an actor since your debut in Empire of the Sun?
CB: I'm a lot taller.
From Miss_scarlett: You are so convincing as the characters you portray. How do you prepare yourself for a role?
CB: That depends on the nature of the character. It's helpful to know a little about the period, or style of the period of the film, as people may have acted differently. To portray Stevie in The Secret Agent, I studied some videos and visited a school for autistic children.
From Questie: If for one day, you could forget all your responsibilities and do whatever you wanted, what would you do?
CB: Probably go for a long drive in my car with my dog and my snowboard. Oh yeah, and a bunch of music.
From Jers: Who are your favorite musicians?
CB: Depends on my mood, as I listen to a number of artists. Techno is a favorite of mine, and such bands as Underworld and Electronic.
From Launa: Of all the people you have worked with onscreen, who would you like to work with again?
CB: I'd love to work again with Winona Ryder, Robin Williams and Kenneth Branagh.
From Harrisonc: Which director would you most like to work with?
CB: There are so many great directors out there. Of course, working with Martin Scorsese or Oliver Stone would be a great experience.
From Jaclyn: What was it like working with Winona Ryder?
CB: Winona is wonderful. She is very professional and intelligent and has wonderful instincts.
From Stephbrm: I've read that you don't want to have the typical celebrity lifestyle. How is that possible with the thousands of fans that go so far as to have Christian Bale conventions, newsgroups, etc.?
CB: I'm very flattered that my fans are that active, but it doesn't really affect my lifestyle.
From Dweadpiwate: If you were God for a day, what would you do?
CB: Wow, that one is a little too heavy for me!
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Post by RhodoraO on Oct 7, 2018 4:49:26 GMT
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Post by RhodoraO on Jan 22, 2019 5:06:48 GMT
Placing this temporarily here: An interesting Telegraph article on Bale post GG win 2019: From ranting method actor to likeable leading man: is this Christian Bale's greatest transformation yet? www.google.com/amp/s/www.telegraph.co.uk/films/0/ranting-method-actor-likeable-leading-man-christian-bales-greatest/amp/the real Christian Bale please stand up? In cinemas this season, he’s Dick Cheney in Vice, looking nearly double his own age, with the fastidious twitches and circumventions down pat. The cosmetics of the portrait – Bale fortes, all – are squarely on the money, including the snug skullcap of white hair, the hand-clasping, the oddly horizontal way Cheney drips evasions when talking. His head isn’t just more bulbous but peculiarly more spherical – some alchemical achievement of both prosthetics and performance. Playing guess-the-actor from a distance, you’d swear it was Jeff Daniels or Chevy Chase. But no, it’s Bale. And then he gets on stage, to receive his Golden Globe for said part, shocking the internet by reminding everyone he’s British (well, Welsh-born) with a geezery accent more than one Twitterer compared to a cockney chimney sweep. His tidy, Guy Fawkes-y beard and bushy tache look almost calculated to undo the Cheney-ness of that Cheney. Such moments are rare peeks at Bale in the wild, back in the skin of his most elusive character: Christian Bale, of Los Angeles, via Bournemouth, via Gotham, and goodness knows where else. Bale clearly takes pride in transformation as an actor, notoriously starving himself to scarily emaciated degrees for some jobs (The Machinist, Rescue Dawn, The Fighter) then larding up to De-Niro-in-Raging-Bull dimensions for others (American Hustle, and now Vice). But the biggest switcheroo he’s managed might be the turnaround of public perceptions in the last decade. Ten years ago, he was that ranting, maniacal workhorse whose tirade against a lighting engineer on the set of Terminator: Salvation went viral, turning “we are done professionally” into a household synonym for going ballistic. He lost his rag around the same time with his mother and sister at a Dorchester hotel, and was questioned for four hours by police about the incident – an old rap-sheet charge that a peeved Liz Cheney resurrected on Twitter, after Bale gave Satan a shout-out for inspiring that Vice performance. This angry, forbiddingly intense, Bad Bale, from the mid-Bruce-Wayne years, suddenly feels like an old character he’s managed to detach himself from with discipline and a lot of graft. First there was his Best Supporting Actor Oscar for The Fighter in 2010 – a key role which reasserted his willingness to look scuzzy and alarming as a Method character actor and co-operate beautifully in a top-notch ensemble. Not that he’s ever seemed airbrushed or some kind of coasting star – he might be the polar opposite of George Clooney in that regard – and he’s always been very adventurous in his choice of directors: Terrence Malick and Todd Haynes twice each, for starters. 2000 was the year he really pushed forward, but it was by playing a pair of outright psychopaths – a smirkily unhinged Patrick Bateman, and also the preppie racist baddie in John Singleton’s Shaft. It’s fair to say he’s never had any problem playing some deeply unsympathetic men, and occasionally drifted into being one. But now here he is devoting a majority of his speech unsentimentally to his wife, Sandra, and their two children, spoofing celebrity entitlement by nicknaming them “Banana and Burrito” for public consumption, and sending up his edgy reputation by dubbing himself the go-to-guy for playing “a charisma-free asshole”. Even the quip about his “so-so career” had a winning humility. The speech hit some obvious but robust bases – he loves his work, he loves his wife, he’s thankful – without seeming grovelly or at all pre-rehearsed. Bale may take the Method thing to bizarre lengths sometimes – he’s been known to maintain whatever American accent he’s most recently adopted during promotional interviews – which is probably why this man-of-the-people Brit routine caught so many American viewers off-guard. Acting and being for Bale are perhaps more slippery distinctions than for most other actors of his generation, but he gets real and makes sense whatever part he’s playing. Geezer Bale is one of his best.
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Post by RhodoraO on Jan 22, 2019 5:10:37 GMT
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Post by RhodoraO on Jan 1, 2021 1:43:02 GMT
Just found another gem to go here for the old-timey Cult Figure Bale: www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-1996-10-06-9610060288-story.htmlJUST WHO IS CHRISTIAN BALE ANYWAY? Moira McCormick. Special to the Tribune CHICAGO TRIBUNE In Entertainment Weekly magazine's recent fall movie preview issue were two brief, harmless descriptions of the films "The Portrait of a Lady" and "The Secret Agent." But right after the issue was on the newsstands and in mailboxes, EW was besieged with e-mail from irate readers. Their beef? In the descriptions for each picture, the magazine had ignored supporting actor Christian Bale. "It was the biggest groundswell of support we've ever gotten for any actor," an EW editor said. "We were all stunned." This raises two questions: First, what's the story behind Bale's phenomenal electronic following? And, second, who is Christian Bale, anyway? Bale, 22, was born in Wales and raised in England. He started acting at age 10 and debuted on screen three years later in Steven Spielberg's 1987 epic "Empire of the Sun." Since then, he has appeared in "Newsies," "Swing Kids" and "Henry V" and last appeared as Laurie in 1994's "Little Women." (For 1995's "Pocahontas," he provided the voice for the sailor Thomas.) Bale's two upcoming roles are in two classic-lit films: as the mentally handicapped, fatally trusting Stevie in "The Secret Agent," which opens Nov. 15; and as foppish antique collector Ned Rosier in "The Portrait of a Lady," which opens on Christmas Day. Despite this relatively subdued film career, Bale has consistently placed among the top 10 most-discussed actors on America Online's bulletin board "Talk About Actors," for the past two years. In a recent ranking, Bale was No. 7, with 12 active electronic folders (each with 500 messages), well ahead of Val Kilmer, Mel Gibson, Leonardo DiCaprio, Tom Cruise and even Hollywood's newest flame, Matthew McConaughey. There are even nine World Wide Web sites dedicated to Bale, more than most any other actor. What gives? Simply put, it's anti-hype. Bale avoids the Hollywood celebrity scene and has no publicist, thus receiving scant press. Yet for years Bale has been steadily accumulating online admirers, who enthusiastically deconstruct his work. "If I could compare myself to a product," he says, self-deprecatingly. "I'm being sold word-of-mouth."
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