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Post by RhodoraO on Feb 17, 2017 18:36:14 GMT
A place to post links to full interviews by Bale available online, not dedicated solely to the promotion of a particular film.
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Post by RhodoraO on Feb 17, 2017 18:57:17 GMT
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Post by RhodoraO on Mar 5, 2017 7:22:33 GMT
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Post by RhodoraO on Mar 11, 2017 6:32:15 GMT
This 1997 interview by Bale is a treasure-trove of information: Called " The Mystery of Christian Bale" at movieline.com it's a very long 3 page article, with detailed analysis by author Michael Atkinson as to why in 1997 it's clear that Bale will end up a most distinguished Hollywood carrier. A comprehensive interview with Bale follows. There's tons of tidbits on Bale's casting in Little Women and his subsequent mass following on the internet and their antics, stuff about the Newsies (and all the shady things that were going on the sets), and other trivia. Read the full article at movieline.com/1997/03/01/the-mystery-of-christian-bale/
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Post by RhodoraO on Mar 12, 2017 10:09:00 GMT
According to this old entry at a igaming.com, Christian gave an interview to jackpotradio.com on July 5th, 2002. The website is now defunct. The Way Back Machine's snapshots are blank for this url. Anybody has a transcript of this interview?
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Post by RhodoraO on Mar 14, 2017 5:26:12 GMT
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Post by Admin on Mar 15, 2017 5:30:50 GMT
A really interesting article plus talk on archived CNN page. Excerpts follow: web-beta.archive.org/web/20050617014608/http://www.cnn.com/2005/SHOWBIZ/Movies/06/14/film.christianbale.ap/index.htmlThe new guy in 'Batman' Christian Bale: 'I never had a desire to be well known'
Tuesday, June 14, 2005 Posted: 1:03 PM EDT (1703 GMT)
LOS ANGELES, California (AP) -- Leave it to fringe actor Christian Bale to play a superhero on the fringe.
Bale -- who shot to child stardom in Steven Spielberg's "Empire of the Sun" then moved on to a grown-up career filled with menace and foreboding in such films as "American Psycho" and "The Machinist" -- now re-creates the comic-book dark knight with "Batman Begins."
He's no newcomer to big-budget movies -- breakout roles do not get much bigger than playing the lead in a Spielberg flick at 13. And Bale's credits include the apocalyptic dragon tale "Reign of Fire" and a role as a contemptuous killer in the update of "Shaft."
Yet Bale's general choices and his dislike of the spotlight have left him a cult figure who, at 31, finally is the central player in a behemoth Hollywood production.
"I never had a desire to be well known," Bale told The Associated Press. "There was never enormous ambition, so I think I managed to stay under the radar for most people in the public eye. And consequently, I find myself for many people being, 'Oh, he's this new guy in "Batman." ' I mean, I've been around for 20 years doing this."
Even his higher-profile films -- the musical "Newsies," the World War II dance tale "Swing Kids," the period dramas "Little Women" and "The Portrait of a Lady" -- clearly show Bale's tastes run somewhere south of mainstream.
"If I think a movie is going to make money, it's a surefire way that it's going to do nothing at the box office, and vice versa," Bale said. "I just don't quite get what people see in so many of the big blockbuster movies. They seem so simplistic, they seem so dumbed-down, that I can't see why I would want to pay nine bucks or whatever it is now for going to see that."
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He made a seamless transition to adult roles, avoiding the fate of so many child actors who wind up unable to find a place in show business after their youthful stardom waned.
"I was fortunate enough that I started off playing character roles. 'Empire of the Sun' is not your typical high school comedy. So I started off with nice adult roles," Bale said.
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Aiming for gritty realism compared to the camp and style of earlier "Batman" incarnations, the filmmakers needed an actor who could credibly capture the fanaticism that would drive a man to cloak himself in a batsuit.
"What Christian has, he has this extreme level of self-discipline, of dedication and intensity, and you can see it in his eyes," director Christopher Nolan said. "It allows the audience to accept that this guy can transform himself into a superhero, which is a pretty extreme thing to ask an actor to convey."
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Bale counts on the luster of "Batman Begins" to give him clout on independent movies he wants to do.
"If I can kill two birds with one stone by having made this movie, which I believe is a very good movie, then get to go and make smaller movies because 'Christian Bale' may mean something now, whereas it never meant anything before, then great," Bale said.
"Before, it was always the directors wanted me, but the financiers were saying, 'No way are you touching that guy.' Maybe they'll say, 'Yeah, wait, we'll touch him this time. We'll use him.' If I can help to get those movies made, then I'll feel like this was really a double whammy of success."
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Post by Admin on Mar 15, 2017 5:52:43 GMT
This archived Yahoo news item describes Bale talking of his privacy concerns following Batman Begins' release: Defunct link: news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=638&e=3&u=/nm/20050616/en_nm/people_batman_dcSource: christianbale.livejournal.com/68204.htmlActor Bale eyes new fame from behind 'Batman' mask
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Perhaps it's fitting for an actor whose breakout role is playing a man with a secret identity. "Batman" Christian Bale can walk along sidewalks and eat in restaurants in relative anonymity.
That may change this week with new movie "Batman Begins." Bale's starring role in a mask that hides his face has the ironic effect of revealing the 31-year-old actor to the world.
"Most of the time, I really blend right in," Bale said in an interview. "I do get to live my life and buy the groceries and do all the usual stuff, and I like being able to do that."
The British-born actor with dark hair, sharp cheekbones and square jaw, began working at age 9 in TV commercials. Before his teens, Bale had landed his first starring role in a major Hollywood film in Steven Spielberg's 1987 World War II drama "Empire of the Sun."
But "Empire" never hit big at box offices, nor did Bale's other youthful movies like "Newsies." As an adult, his roles have been mostly in low-budget, independent movies like "Velvet Goldmine" and "American Psycho," which earned Bale good reviews but failed to ignite ticket sales.
"I've never really had a movie that's been a big success before," Bale said.
His sister teased him about his most recent film, 2004's "The Machinist," telling Bale, "the only place it was playing was some little out-of-the-way theater where they actually had to winch the curtain open."
"Batman Begins" will not have that problem.
The Warner Bros. movie is a $120 million, effects-filled comic book flick of the type that normally generates hundreds of millions of dollars in global ticket sales and creates stars.
'MENACING AVENGER'
The film is the fourth big-budget Batman movie in a series that began with 1989's "Batman." Bale gave a lot of thought to the pros and cons of taking on the same role that has produced mixed results for previous Batmen, Michael Keaton, Val Kilmer and George Clooney.
His wife recently gave birth to their first child, a girl, and the couple talked a lot about the likely intrusions into their personal lives. An everyday life "is something I absolutely need to have," Bale said.
But Bale said he was attracted to the challenge of bringing a new dimension to the familiar character as "Batman Begins" explores billionaire Bruce Wayne's psychological transition from angry young man to cape-wearing crime fighter.
He also hopes the publicity will help him find money in the future to produce low-budget films.
The film's director, Christopher Nolan, said Bale's intensity -- the 6-foot 2-inch tall actor lost 63 pounds (29 kg) to play an insomniac in "The Machinist," then muscled up with 80 fresh pounds (36 kg) in six weeks for his "Batman" screen test -- made him the perfect choice.
Critics seem to agree. The Los Angeles Times calls Bale an "excellent fit" for the character, and The New York Times called him "a superbly menacing avenger."
With reviews like that, there is likely no way Bale can retain his anonymity. In other words, the mask is off.
Posted on Jun. 16th, 2005
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Post by RhodoraO on Mar 22, 2017 21:46:06 GMT
Video interview by The Carpetbagger of NYtimes.com titled: Christian Bale's Character SecretsDiscussion is general with special focus on his 2013 releases: American Hustle and Out of the Furnace.
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Post by RhodoraO on Mar 23, 2017 5:51:48 GMT
A brief, early interview (2002) by Bale mostly for promotion of Reign of Fire but also has some general interesting questions: www.webwombat.com.au/entertainment/movies/reignfire1_int.htmChristian Bale: Interview
Review by By Clint Morris
Interview with Christian Bale Actor in Reign of Fire.
Christian Bale's name has been bandied about for quite a while now as the new 007 and the new Batman. Clint Morris talked to the star of hot new adventure film Reign of Fire and gets to the bottom of those rumors plus the lowdown on his anticipated new role.
Bale stars in his first action project
Clint: What attracted you to the film Reign of Fire?
Christian: I wanted to try something different. I had never been offered a part like this before and I thought it would be interesting to do a big special effects movie.
Clint: Are adventure/action movies something you would like to do more of?
Christian: Yes, but I've always sought a variety of work. If another adventure/scifi/action movie was offered to me, I'd judge it on its merit. Would I want to see this movie?
Clint: How did you and Matthew McConaughey get along?
Christian: Very well. He's a fascinating fellow. He often stayed in character - sometimes to great extremes. Everyone has heard about the infamous headbutting scene. Matthew and I have a fight scene and Matthew decided to headbutt me for real! It was a perfect example of how involved Matthew would be with his character.
Clint: Is this the first film you've done that you've had to act alongside special effects?
Christian: Yes, pretty much. There were a few special effects in Empire of the Sun and Velvet Goldmine, but if you mean acting opposite CGI effects, yes, this was my first FX movie.
Clint: What's your favourite moment from the film?
Christian: Well, there's a certain scene that is a homage to 'Star Wars' that always gets great laughs. I can now say that I've finally fulfilled a lifelong dream to play Darth Vader!
Clint: How different was this to Equilibrium?
Tanks a lot - Reign of Fire is all action
Christian: Very different. Reign of Fire was a major studio film with a very large budget. Equilibrium is a much smaller film budget-wise. The emotional scale is also steeper in Equilbrium, which is about a cop of the future who rediscovers his humanity.
Clint: Is there a sequel possibility to Reign of Fire?
Christian: Possibly. I told Scott Moutter, who plays my stepson in the movie, that he's well positioned to take the sequel from me because of the way the movie ends!
Clint: How much did American Psycho help your career? Or did it?
Christian: It definitely helped. Before American Psycho, I was mostly offered costume dramas and I felt I was headed to Merchant Ivorydom. After American Psycho, I get more American roles, darker roles and physical roles. American Psycho has become my calling card in many ways. I am forever in Mary Harron's debt!
Clint: Why didn't you cameo as Bateman for Rules of Attraction?
Christian: I'm very loyal to Mary Harron - she wrote and directed American Psycho. I felt that her Bateman - our Bateman - was in his entirety in the first film. I've been offered a number of cameos as Bateman in other related films and I felt that it would be a disservice to take the character out of the context we had developed.
Clint: The net is abuzz that you're about to be offered the parts of Batman and 007. Are you interested? And if it came down to a choice, which character would you play?
Christian: No, that's Bateman, not Batman! Actually both characters would be a dream come true, wouldn't it? James Bond is every British actor's Holy Grail in many ways - the most recognised British character on the big screen.
I've also been a big fan of Tim Burton's Batman movies. His almost gothic approach brought a wonderful cinematic feel to an American hero. I'd love to do either part but I'd also worry about being typecast. James Bond in the new Millennium has so much potential - in the new movie xXx, the Bond character is skewered as being out of step for our times - Bond is in dire need of updating.
And Batman is a wonderful character - the duality between his alter ego, Bruce Wayne, and the dark knight could be a fascinating character study.
Reign of Fire opens in October.
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Post by RhodoraO on Apr 2, 2017 14:35:01 GMT
THE BIG BALE INTERVIEW from The New York Times www.nytimes.com/2010/12/05/movies/05bale.html[NOTE: Since it is less about The Fighter and more about his attitudes towards his profession in general, I'm posting it here.] Letting His Role Do the Talking By DENNIS LIM DEC. 3, 2010
Christian Bale in Beverly Hills, Calif. Credit Kevin Scanlon for The New York Times
BEVERLY HILLS, Calif.
WHILE most actors cultivate a polite illusion of intimacy when facing the news media, Christian Bale has no problem exposing the celebrity interview for exactly what he thinks it is: a quaint ritual, a professional duty, a business transaction.
“There’s only one reason to talk about a movie ahead of time, and that’s to let people know it’s coming out,” Mr. Bale said during a recent interview at the Four Seasons Hotel here, swigging from a bottle of Heineken as a weekend press junket for his new movie, “The Fighter,” wound to a close. “I want people to go see movies that I make. If I knew they’d go see them anyway, if I knew that I’d keep working, I’d never do another interview in my life.”
As he made clear in the course of a 90-minute conversation, during which he was more or less good-natured though not exactly approachable, Mr. Bale does not like to talk about himself, his life, his work and certainly not about the notion of craft as it applies to what he called “the extremely silly profession” of acting. But he is putting up with the scrutiny for the sake of “The Fighter.”
Directed by David O. Russell (“Three Kings”), the film, opening Friday, is a long-nursed passion project of Mark Wahlberg, who served as producer and stars as Micky Ward, a former boxing champ and local hero in the working-class city Lowell, Mass. But the meatiest role in this story of suffocating family bonds belongs to Mr. Bale, who plays Micky’s ne’er-do-well trainer and half brother, Dicky Eklund, whose own career went off the rails when he developed a drug habit.
Dicky is a departure of sorts for the Welsh-born Mr. Bale, 36, who has put together an intriguing series of haunted, inward performances, even — or especially — when in the company of showboaters. In Christopher Nolan’s “Prestige” (2006) he was the workmanlike conjurer to Hugh Jackman’s flamboyant illusionist. In James Mangold’s 2007 remake of the western “3:10 to Yuma” he played the laconic hero with Russell Crowe’s charismatic robber. In Michael Mann’s “Public Enemies” (2009) he again filled the less conspicuous good-guy role, as the federal agent in pursuit of Johnny Depp’s John Dillinger. And in Mr. Nolan’s two Batman movies, “Batman Begins” (2005) and “The Dark Knight” (2008) — they are teaming up for a third — Mr. Bale made for a stoic, even recessive superhero both in and out of his Batsuit, content to cede the theatrics to the villains played by Cillian Murphy and Heath Ledger.
“One of the great things about Christian is his refreshing lack of ego,” Mr. Nolan said. “He figures out how he can be useful to the storytelling. That often means he’s a very generous performer, somebody who’s playing the part with integrity, not to show what he can do.”
It was Mr. Wahlberg who thought of Mr. Bale for the part in “The Fighter” — they knew each other because their daughters attended the same preschool, and Mr. Bale’s characteristic intensity seemed a good fit. “He has a willingness to go to places other people seem reluctant to,” Mr. Wahlberg said.
Mr. Bale tends to disappear into his roles, but he has a gift for flashy disappearing acts. His transformation into the wiry, weathered Dicky — a onetime welterweight contender who also happens to be, for part of the film, a crackhead — is of a piece with Mr. Bale’s other physical feats: embodying the buff, preening lunatic of “American Psycho” (2000) or the emaciated insomniac of “The Machinist” (2004), for which he famously lost more than 60 pounds.
He has played real-life figures before, but in the effusive Mr. Eklund, Mr. Bale had for the first time a living, breathing model before his eyes, and one with highly distinctive mannerisms and speech patterns to boot.
“To do me it’s hard because I talk so fast,” Mr. Eklund said by phone. (Besides speed, there are also the complicating factors of a broad regional accent and extensive dental work.) “I sort of have my own language,” he added. “They call it Dickynese.”
Mr. Eklund showed Mr. Bale around his old haunts in Lowell, while the actor took notes and recorded conversations. Mr. Russell pointed out that Mr. Bale’s task involved far more than mimicry. “Dicky has a whole rhythm to him, a music,” he said. “Christian had to understand how his mind works.”
Mr. Russell and Mr. Eklund both marveled at Mr. Bale’s dedication to staying in character throughout the shoot. “I don’t know what I do,” Mr. Bale said. “If other people look at that as staying in character, I’ll take their word for it.” (Last year a recording of Mr. Bale exploding at a crew member on the set of “Terminator: Salvation” was leaked, endlessly spoofed and even remixed; the obscenity-strewn 10-minute tirade is delivered in the American accent he adopted for that film.)
“David would say a couple of times, ‘O.K., be Dicky,’ and that’s just not the way I work,” Mr. Bale said. Instead he offered a curiously gruesome analogy: “I kind of slowly do it, like a frog that you stick in cold water and slowly turn up the heat so it never knows it’s being boiled alive.” He added: “Eventually it’s just happening but it’s vague, the line where you started. And when you’ve done it that way, it can take a bit of time to wear off.”
The most vivid example of Mr. Bale’s deep-dive approach to character immersion remains “The Machinist,” which introduced him to what he called “a commitment level which I discovered I greatly enjoyed.” Shedding a third of his weight for a part might seem the ghoulish ultimate in actorly masochism — with his sunken cheeks and alarmingly visible rib cage he resembled a famine victim — but Mr. Bale speaks of it almost as a purification rite. “I needed that,” he said. “I’d felt a real staleness in the work and that rejuvenated me.”
Born into a nomadic family — his father was a pilot, his mother a circus performer — Mr. Bale has been acting since he was a child. His breakout role came when he was 13, in Steven Spielberg’s “Empire of the Sun.” As a young man Mr. Bale found himself pegged as a costume-drama heartthrob (in “Little Women,” “The Portrait of a Lady,” “The Secret Agent”). He proved his range in collaborations with indie auteurs — Todd Haynes on “Velvet Goldmine,” Mary Harron on “American Psycho” — only to slip into another mini-rut with B-grade action movies like “Equilibrium” and “Reign of Fire.”
When Mr. Nolan first met Mr. Bale, he was preparing for “The Machinist” — and so skinny that Mr. Nolan recalled seeing his spine through his shirt. “I remember Christian was worried because he was meeting to play a superhero,” Mr. Nolan said. “But I came away from it feeling I’d never seen such focus and dedication from an actor.”
His Batman alter-ego gave Mr. Bale new clout. Financing started to fall into place for tougher, smaller movies like Werner Herzog’s P.O.W. drama “Rescue Dawn” (2006). Shooting that film in the jungles of Thailand was not just a challenge — he ate maggots and wrestled snakes — but an adventure. Which is as good as it gets for an actor, Mr. Bale said: “I can’t control the end result, so I look at the process as an incredible opportunity to have experiences and test yourself.”
Adventure has always been a lure for Mr. Bale, who was not yet a teenager when he was off on far-flung film shoots in Russia and China without his family. His impatience with the promotional rigmarole was apparent even then. During a junket for “Empire of the Sun,” the young Christian unnerved his interviewers by stabbing at an orange with a pencil, then walked out of the hotel. As a child star, Mr. Bale has said, he was an object of both fascination and ridicule among schoolmates, and he still seems a little embarrassed to be an actor. “Nuclear apocalypse — who do you need?” he asked, launching into a half-joking rant. “Actors are probably not top of the list. What can I do for you? I can pretend to be somebody who can grow you some nice crops.”
Mr. Bale’s views on artistic privacy are related to his faith, perhaps a naïve one, that an anonymous actor is a more credible shape shifter. “I like the idea of movies having a magic element,” he said. “How many times have you seen an actor in a movie who you know only as the character? It’s wonderful, isn’t it?”
To the extent that Mr. Bale can approximate a blank slate in his films, he said, it is because he is an actor, not a movie star. He guards his personal life — he and his wife of 10 years, Sibi Blazic, have a 5-year-old daughter — and save for the “Terminator” blow-up and allegations of verbal assault on his mother and sister in 2008 (the charges were dropped), he has not gotten much tabloid attention. “A movie star is someone people look at and go, ‘I want to be like that person,’ ” Mr. Bale said. “There’s the responsibility of desire. It’s not something I’m interested in trying. I would fail miserably at it, so why even bother?”
It is hard to imagine the prickly, plain-spoken Mr. Bale, a serious actor who does not want to be seen as taking his job too seriously, throwing himself into the glad-handing circus of the Hollywood awards season. He all but flinched at the mention of the Oscar campaign that likely awaits. (He has been called a front-runner in the best-supporting-actor category.) “I’m human,” he said. “I love it when people say you did good work. It makes me all happy and shiny.” Professing ignorance of Oscar politics (he has never been nominated), he added, “I’ll campaign for the movie, but I won’t campaign for myself.”
Several times during the conversation Mr. Bale seemed to correct himself — dismissing his chosen profession one minute, declaring his love of acting the next. “It’s a paradox and maybe I don’t articulate it very well,” he said. “It’s fun and I’m not knocking it. I love it, otherwise why would I be doing it?”
For an actor who often seems sheepish about what he does, he has a pretty heartfelt take on what it means to act. “It’s got to do with putting yourself in other people’s shoes and seeing how far you can come to truly understand them,” he said. “I like the empathy that comes from acting.”
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Post by The Low Dweller on Nov 25, 2017 22:26:54 GMT
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Post by ripley on Dec 26, 2017 21:48:31 GMT
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Post by RhodoraO on Dec 27, 2017 14:00:25 GMT
Oh my God!!!! I'm bursting with excitement at all the topics mentioned!!!!! Could somebody please transcribe this? Please please pretty pleaeaeaeaease?
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Post by fernanda on Dec 27, 2017 14:31:00 GMT
Oh my God!!!! I'm bursting with excitement at all the topics mentioned!!!!! Could somebody please transcribe this? Please please pretty pleaeaeaeaease? I second this, pleeeease!!!
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