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Post by RhodoraO on Mar 18, 2017 9:20:57 GMT
Sure!
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Post by Tuulia on Mar 18, 2017 19:34:32 GMT
An excerpt from Hans Zimmer's interview for Inverse Why Ben Affleck's Batman Spurred Hans Zimmer to Quit Superheroes"I didn’t feel the pain that I felt in Christian’s performance."March 16, 2017... Q: You said last year that you were retiring from scoring superhero movies. How’s that going, and why did you decide to do it? A: Well the retirement is going pretty well because I’m not doing a superhero movie; I’m working on something completely different with Chris Nolan. I’m also going on tour because all my musician friends said to me, “Time to stop hiding behind the screen. Time to actually look the audience in the eye. Time to do things in real time.” I keep thinking about new styles of music and new ways of using technology, new ways of figuring out how to make everything that we do an experience for other people. And I just couldn’t do it anymore with the superhero movies, it’s as simple as that. If you take the three Chris Nolan Batmans, that’s three movies to you, but to you and Chris, it was 12 years of our lives. So sometimes you just have to say, “I don’t know where I’m heading, but I’m going to jump off this cliff.” As soon as I said it, there were a lot of phone calls coming my way going, “Are you crazy?” But I’ve never written music for money; money isn’t inspiring. And I didn’t want to get into it where it became a job. Ron Howard actually said something very smart to me. He said, “Don’t say you will never do a superhero movie again. Wait for somebody to turn up with an amazing script for a superhero movie.” And I suppose that’s what I’m saying: Can I please have the amazing script? It just did my brain in to have written Christian Bale as Batman, and suddenly it’s Ben Affleck [in *Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice*]. And it felt like I was betraying everything Christian had done. So there’s a certain amount of loyalty attached to those movies, as well. Q: It’s interesting that the actor changes the way you do the music when it’s the same character but a different person under the cape and cowl. A: I spent months trying to come up with something for Ben. The Batman that I know and the one I learned is the one that Christian did, and Ben plays it differently. And I can’t quite shake that off. For me, the Christian Bale character was always completely unresolved. It was always about that moment at the beginning of the first movie, where he sees his parents getting killed. It was basically arrested development. The Ben character is more middle-aged; he seems to be grumpy as hell, but I didn’t feel the pain that I felt in Christian’s performance. And it was that pain that made me interested.
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Post by Tuulia on Mar 20, 2017 0:09:03 GMT
Zhang YimouQ: Working with Christian Bale, is there something that stands out, something culturally different about the way he approaches work that you think people from the industry here in China may learn from? A: First of all, he is a brilliant actor. He is beyond my expectations in many ways. He has left a great impression on our team, such that we cannot stop praising him. There are many things we Chinese need to learn from him: He is professional, down to earth, and he keeps a low profile. He has given lots of new perspectives to this role; he has done lots of work for the character. It was simply a role in the script, but he made it very vivid; he added interesting touches to it. He did a lot of homework. ... He shows strong feelings toward this story, the team and this collaboration. He loves children, and there are many children here on the set. He simply couldn't act with children when they were crying. When he left, I told him, your style of work has changed Chinese people's views on Hollywood movie stars. We thought Hollywood stars would have many assistants and be difficult to deal with. sourceQ: That Hollywood pressure you just described -- how much was the casting of Christian Bale in The Flowers of War a reaction to this? A: Because of the history I was describing in this film, the 1930s and the Nanjing Massacre, it made sense to have a foreigner cast in the film. But of course, there were pressures from film investors who wanted to see who your cast will be, so the mention of an actor like Bale did help attract the interest. But actually, he was kind enough to give us a discount on his normal Hollywood rate, so he wasn't even that expensive.[Laughing] source
Ni Ni
One of his Chinese co-stars, Ni Ni, who makes her big screen debut alongside Bale, praised "the big Hollywood star." Said Ni Ni: "I was quite intimidated when I was to work with this actor. But he is a friendly man and has a very honest kind of smile. He was very nice and down to earth and he helped me a lot." sourcevideo - Zhang Doudou and Ni Ni commenting on CB at Berlinale press conference (5:30-7:14)
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Post by Tuulia on Mar 20, 2017 2:47:45 GMT
Oscar Isaac
Q: ...what was it about the film that appealed to you, that made you wanna do it? A: [...] And then working with Christian who I've admired for such a long time, getting to meet him and talk to him... [...] Q: What was it like working with Christian Bale?" A: It was amazing just to get to see him create a character. You have all these ideas of who he is and how he works, and in this particular situation he just was almost like a statesman. He would come in and be very relaxed, and funny as well. And what I particularly liked a lot was everything beforehand. We would have lots of conversations over the phone, before we even met, about what we were thinking and what we wanted to do, how we could steer certain aspects of the story to try and make them most specific. That was really exciting, collaborating with him. (from a video of a Q&A with Oscar Isaac from TIFF 2016, but the earlier link no longer has the video - one reason to transcribe stuff - and I can't find the video again now, sigh... help, anyone?) ----- Jean Reno (Tribeca 2016): "He's a very good actor, and a very good man. (the interviewer: "Oh he's very nice. Very nice.") He's a very good man, and we had a very good time in Spain. And it's easy to work with him. It's like when you play tennis with a good tennis player, you play good tennis. And it's because the other one is very good, that's why." video (11.30-12.10) ----- Tamer Hassan
"I’ve just finished work with one of the best actors in the world (Bale) ..." [...] One of the highlights in his career was his recent work with Christian Bale in The Promise. “Bale plays a journalist who says things he shouldn’t be saying. We capture him and then if you know the kind of characters I usually play, you can let your imagination run wild with happens next. But working with Christian Bale was phenomenal, he’s not like what he’s been portrayed like in the media, he’s the most generous, intelligent and gifted actor out there, as far as I’m concerned.” Hassan, like many British born actors, dreams of being the next James Bond. He jokes “if me or Idris can’t be Bond, then I’d like to see Christian in the role.” Cyprus Mail, February 14th, 2016
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Post by RhodoraO on Mar 20, 2017 5:43:44 GMT
From a talk with The Carpetbagger by Nick Offerman on his personal Oscar picks, 2011: carpetbagger.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/02/18/oscar-picks-courtesy-of-the-man-behind-ron-swanson/If I was placing a bet right now I’d probably bet on “The King’s Speech” for best picture. If you took away my sort of artistic bent, most of my votes would come down for “The King’s Speech” and “The Fighter.” Those two films moved me in a way far above and away than most of the others.
Q. That’s why you picked Melissa Leo and Christian Bale for best supporting actors?
A. In a major film, [Christian Bale gives] pretty undeniably the greatest performance of the year. I thought it was just a really canny move on his part over all to sort of take this role that – I think that he had become somewhat of a Batman both in sort of the public eye as well as a lot of the roles he was doing, but to turn around and to play this incredibly vulnerable South Boston character. When the movie finished I turned around and said to Megan, you know, he’s Welsh, and she said, “I can’t believe, what an amazing flat-out transformation that was.” You can almost say the same thing about Melissa Leo. I come from the theater and my favorite thing to do is transform using the magic of theater, the artifice, the makeup, the wardrobe and hair, so performances like the two of theirs I find incredibly effective.
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Post by RhodoraO on Mar 20, 2017 21:38:47 GMT
From a Daniel Radcliffe interview, d. MAR 2011: www.nytimes.com/2011/03/06/theater/06radcliffe.htmlAsked to name performers whose footsteps he’d like to follow in, he cited several former child stars who outgrew that label, from Christian Bale to Elijah Wood, as well as his friend and mentor Gary Oldman, the chameleonic actor who plays the wizard Sirius Black in the “Potter” films.
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Post by Tuulia on Mar 20, 2017 23:06:30 GMT
Joel EdgertonTaking a break from shooting, Edgerton shares the appeal of working alongside Bale. “Christian manages to make these big blockbuster movies like Batman, and he still manages to do very interesting independent movies and everything in between. He’s very transformative as an actor.” That’s not to say Bale’s intensity extends to the downtime between takes. “He’s very committed to the work that he’s doing,” insists Edgerton, “but he also knows how to have a good time and relax, so we’ve had a fantastic time. Between scenes, we tended to have a laugh and crack jokes about what’s going on around us. There’s a time to be very serious about work and there’s also a time to relax and have fun.” As for how Bale’s approaching such an epic figure? “Christian’s playing it kind of broad comedy...” he grins. Exodus: Gods And Kings Set Visit – 10 Things We Learned(NB: That's the link I have, but I only see part of the article in there now. Eh?) *** Edgerton is almost unrecognisable in the blockbuster as Pharaoh-in-waiting Ramses: his head shaved, wearing eyeliner and a bulk-tub of self-tanner. To top off his full immersion — or so his co-star Christian Bale is telling everyone just across the hall in this LA hotel — Edgerton demanded a gold G-string to wear under Ramses’ gold skirt. “I love Christian,” Edgerton says. “I know he keeps telling everybody I had gold underpants ... I didn’t have gold underpants. He’s just making s--- up. But I did have a rehearsal skirt. I decided if I’m going to be wearing a skirt for four months, I need a skirt to walk around in inside the house to feel what it’s like.” source*** “I found him to be incredibly dedicated, but also very silly and a lot of fun to be around,” he says. “When Christian got the part, one of the first things he did was re-watch Life Of Brian to remind himself what can happen if you treat a movie like this too seriously. The more intense the movie, the more you need to defuse that with a bit of humour in between ‘cut’ and ‘action’.” While they weren’t quite breaking out into Always Look On The Bright Side Of Life after takes, “there was some banter.” source*** Christian is really great. And, you know, there's sort of a general feeling out there for certain reasons that he's incredibly intense, and... yeah, that's true, but the intensity with Christian is his commitment, focus and intelligent approach to his work. The rest of him is kind of like he lives in Monty Python world. Like, when we were on set, we would shoot these... It's a very important story about something very resonant. And then Ridley would call "Cut!" and then we'd be standing there, looking like we looked, me looking ridiculous in my gold armor, and he would crack these jokes. It was very Pythonesque. I was very pleased to see how intelligent he was as an actor, because I believe really great actors are super intelligent people. But I really liked him as a person. video*** I really like Christian as a person. I think he's incredibly funny. And his intensity towards his work is really something to be admired. He really dove into that question of Moses being a guy who wrestles with God, wrestles with the idea of being tasked with a mission - "Why me? Can you please pick someone else?" video*** Christian... Look, it’s always unusual, right, to meet the people that you really admire – and I admire Christian’s performances over the years – so you just hope that when you meet them they’re not just some guy that you’re like, ‘Oh, I wish I had never met him because he’s a bad guy.’ He’s super, super, super lovely. [Super is a word I learnt by living in America for too long, by the way. Sorry about that.] He’s deeply intelligent and I know that instinctually he’s a great actor and transformative and someone I really look up to, and it was great to meet him and realise he’s a really nice guy. Had a great sense of humour and deeply intelligent. video - Exodus: Gods and Kings Premiere - Red Carpet Interview - Joel Edgerton ----- video - Exodus - Gods and Kings premiere: Cast praise main man Christian Bale1:21 Q: What was it like working with CB? Joel Edgerton: Awesome. That guy is one of the greats, the living greats, and it's very rare... you kind of look at those guys, they're the people I want to work with, and then you get the opportunity, and I was pleased to kind of get to the end of that opportunity and realize he's a super, super lovely guy and a really hard working man and crazy intelligent. 2:22 Ben Kingsley: Very well prepared, massively generous. 2:25 Maria Valverde: He makes so many jokes on set, and he made me feel very comfortable from the beginning. And you know, when you are from outside, and you don't speak very good English, and you feel like you are not gonna understand and you have a partner who can make you feel comfortable, it's the best thing that can happen to you. And I admire him so much, so he was very inspiring for me. ----- Exodus: Gods and Kings Behind-the-Scenes World Premiere Footage video / video (the same video) 1:22-1:36 Ben Kingsley: He's deeply thoughtful, very well prepared, generous, and I would say a noble soul. Lovely to work with him." 1:37-1:51 Joel Edgerton: With Christian, I'm just so pleased to see how much of a hard work ethic he had, combined with that great instinct he has as an actor and that intelligence with which he approaches a scene. We had a great time. And he's also a very funny guy. ----- Ben Kingsley Most of my scenes, well all of my scenes were very close to Christian. We played two characters who are very close together. He is a magnificent man to work with, he's very attentive, he's very with you, he's very present in the scene. video - Sir Ben Kingsley Interview - Exodus: Gods and Kings Premiere*** He's a wonderful man to work with. He's very responsive, you can tell, in a sense that he's not prepared [help with word here?] what he's gonna do. He's thoroughly prepared, but in a way that leaves it completely open to the other actors, so he's a wonderful man to work with. video - INTERVIEW - Sir Ben Kingsley on faith, working with Christian Bale - at 1:15 ----- Andrew Tarbet Christian was fantastic. He's an incredibly serious actor, he loves his work. You never know what he's gonna throw at you which is fantastic because everything is always fresh. And he has a gas when you're working, always taking a piss and having a good time. So, it was a wonderful experience. The three of us - because it was often Christian, Aaron and myself - just ended up working hard and laughing as much as possible. video - Andrew Tarbet Interview - Exodus: Gods and Kings Premiere *** Q: CB of course is your brother in the movie - a good brother in real life or what do you think?" A: A fantastic brother in real life. Christian is enormously well prepared, enormously serious about his work, enormously playful out work. You never know what you're gonna get from take to take. Christian was a wonderful partner, he's great. video - Andrew Tarbet on working with Ridley Scott, working with Christian Bale, what it was like on set, the diversity in the film at 'Exodus: Gods and Kings' premiere (0:35) *** Christian really throws curve balls, which is an actor's dream, because you want things to be fresh. video ----- Sigourney Weaver
Christian Bale is charming and funny. He made jokes about the wigs they tried to put on him. He could have been a lot of different Moseses, let’s just put it that way. In the end he didn’t wear a wig. Christian is fearless and incredibly versatile. He’s very serious but he doesn’t take himself seriously. source----- Golshifteh Farahani
“We [Bale] didn’t have scenes together but I hung out with him. He’s a great actor and he’s really funny,” said Farahani. source ----- Aaron Paul"I did think, 'What's he going to be like?' But I think he is very misunderstood and one of the funniest people I've ever met. And so lovely to all the cast and crew." He clocks INSIDER's sceptical raised brow. Really, I ask. "Really," Paul defends. source*** Christian is hilarious. I didn’t know what to expect, I’ve always been a huge fan of his, but off-screen he’s so funny. Always cracking jokes and having a good time. (Archived Source: web-beta.archive.org/web/20141004232844/uk.yahoo.com/movies/exodus-gods-and-kings-set-visit-97667462271.html)
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Post by RhodoraO on Mar 25, 2017 3:59:17 GMT
Cintra Wilson, a journalist, in reply to our tweet about whether she still likes Christian Bale or not (She wrote The Magic Christian on the genius of the pre-batman Bale):
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Post by Tuulia on Apr 2, 2017 22:57:40 GMT
Werner Herzog
Q. How would you compare your working relationship with Christian Bale to the one with Klaus Kinski? A. It’s hard to even try to compare. With Kinski it was always: How can I domesticate the wild beast, and how do I survive his next tantrum where he destroys the whole set? How do I make his utter madness and irresponsibility productive onscreen? This was not so with Christian. He was the most disciplined, wonderful man. And he has great emotion of depth. Christian was so dedicated to this film. He did things that an actor of his caliber normally would not do, like eating maggots or catching a live snake. You just name it. It’s unbelievable. (Interview 2006, New York Times) ----- Steve ZahnQ: You kind of broached it, but I was actually going to follow it up with a question, like, whether he did really get rid of all the creature comforts that are usually associated with a film set. A: There were none. And, I’ve done little movies before where you didn’t have trailers or whatever, but [in this case] there wasn’t anything. Christian and I, thankfully--and it wouldn’t have mattered in the final product--but Christian and I work the same way. When it’s ‘cut’, cut, and we joke and have a good time, man. That fucker’s fun. He’s one of the funniest guys I’ve ever worked with. God, just laughing, we laughed so hard, you know, we’re tired and punchy, but we didn’t go back to our trailers and have to be reminded that we were barefoot and hungry. We just hung out on set and leaned against rocks and fell asleep. There were times we’d fall asleep next to the river. We were so tired, just fall asleep, both of us, and then I woke up, and he woke up, and there was a sound, and there was a camera shooting a few feet in front of us, and Werner was behind it, and he was shooting us sleeping. And, then the makeup person was, like, “He was shooting for, like, 10 minutes.” And, he changed the ‘mag’. It was, like, ‘That’s awesome’. You never knew, and you never when he was going to cover something--or not. We stopped asking, “Can we take or put our shoes on now?”, you know, “Can you see our feet?” We just stopped asking, ’cause it was, like, “Well, we don’t know.”
source*** Zahn, whose character mirrored Bale’s side by side, says he was inspired to haul himself out of bed at 5:30 a.m. every day in large part because of the opportunity to work with Bale. “Christian is the real deal. He’s all those things you’re supposed to be when you’re a great actor. He’s simple, direct, intense and one of the funniest mother (sic) I’ve ever worked with. Damn it he’s funny,” Zahn said. “What we were doing could have been difficult. We didn’t need to be reminded that we were hungry and barefoot and POWs when the camera was rolling. That’s our job. It was easy to stay in it. Werner was adamant about no distractions on set. There weren’t M&M bowls, chairs and bored crew members playing high school grabass. It was the most difficult and grueling movie I’ve ever done. I was exhausted daily. As hard as it was to get up every morning, though, I couldn’t wait to hang out with Christian.” source*** - Did you guys trade weight loss secrets? - Yeah. [laughs] Christian, he was like, “I’m going to just smoke a cigarette.” He was just starving himself. I remember just starving himself, and I was like, “Dude…” You know, he did The Machinist, obviously. I was like…He wasn’t at that point. I was like, “You know what I’m doing? I’m just eating all day, but little like bananas and stuff.” He’s like, “Yeah, I’m going to do that, too.” And then we like told the craft…”craft service,” there wasn’t any craft service! We didn’t have trailer or chairs or anything. And we told one of the dudes, we said, “Hey, can we have some bananas? We want some bananas.” And they were like, “Oh. Wow. Whew.” I’m like, “Come on, man, they grow here wild!” And then we had to ask like five times. I swear to God, we had to ask all day, and it was like, “Did you get bananas yet?” He’s like, “No.” “What the fuck? Look, man, we want bananas! I don’t have a trailer or chair! I want some fucking bananas!” And so he brought the bananas finally in like a bunch, and we were like…We wouldn’t let anybody touch our bananas. And you know what? Those bananas, by the way…You can’t even get those here, the small bananas? There’s a whole thing about like the big bananas you can get. The little bananas don’t even taste like bananas, they’re so good. Awesome. - So you both were on a banana diet? - Yeah. You know, it was just fuel, basically. There wasn’t any extra food, it was just fuel to get through. [...] - How do you mentally prepare yourself for playing this kind of role? - I don’t know. I just really…I was…I don’t know. Again, I just had so much compassion for him. It was easy to…In that environment, being there, and being in that state of mind, because of all the work that I had done prior, it was not a hard thing to just flip into that. And being with someone as remarkable as Christian Bale, who’s such an amazing actor…It makes it easy. It makes it fun. It’s not easy, but you know what I’m saying. It makes the job just a blast and fun. It’s not work, you know? [...] - Did you joke a lot on the set? - Oh, we were. Christian is one of the funniest guys I’ve ever worked with, I swear to God. He’s just a fun guy. And we would just laugh. You know, when you’re just tired and you’re just punchy…We were in that kind of weird state. I think partially because we weren’t eating. I mean, it was like you’re stoned all day. It was like, “Whatever, man! Where are we going? Climbing up the waterfall!” And we would just joke. There were times, I remember when Werner would like go, “All right…” [laughs] We were so tired, and he was like, “Here’s what I want you to do.” And he’d go into the jungle, and he would walk. And he would do this thing, he would go like this. [demonstrates funny walk ] And Christian and I would be walking. And he would do the whole walk like for a minute. And we were laughing so hard! And then he didn’t know what we were laughing at. And then we had to do it. And I’m like, “Dude, don’t do it. Don’t.” And Christian would start walking like this. We’re both walking like this and looking at each other. I’m like laughing so hard. And you can’t see it on film, it looks, like, so dramatic. There was one time, too, that we just broke. Rarely did we break during the scenes because that’s the nature that you didn’t get to that part. But there was one in particular where he was pounding the nails trying to…”Okay, when he’s playing his flute.” I don’t know if it’s in the movie. I can’t remember. He’s like, “When…” I forget his name. Like Little Hitler or whatever. “…is playing his flute, that’s when you do it so that they can’t hear you.” And every time… [laughs] Every time, I’d go, “What?” Every time Christian would turn to me and go like, “Wait till Little Hitler is playing his flute.” And I’d just bust out. “Is playing his flute?” Which is a double meaning. “I can’t believe you’re saying flute, man!” “Playing his flute.” Like it’s so…Or, wait. I told him? Did I tell him? [high pitched voice] “Every time he plays his flute!” Werner was like, “Stop it!” And then finally we were all laughing so hard he was laughing. Which isn’t a funny story, but… - This is almost like a love story at points… - Yeah, it really is. I agree. - This wasn’t like a lot of your comedic sidekick roles… - No, not at all. - Can you talk about the connection between you and Christian? - Oh, it was just very simple. I mean, there were moments…There was one in particular. [laughs] I’m forgetting what room I’m in. “Have I said the same story three times in this room?” “I think he’s drunk.” There’s the moment where I’ve given up completely, and I’m sitting there. And this was shot early on. And the chopper’s coming. He gets up, and I get up, and they see us. And we hug and we’re jumping and we’re like…This moment when they let us go…You know, this great little movie where you can really do a moment like that, and we’re on the ground crying. And I remember both of us just going, “That was awesome. If we can reproduce that, this is going to be good, man.” We both felt it. Unfortunately, in a movie like that, it doesn’t really…You know, you didn’t light it, it was backlit, we were chasing the sun and it doesn’t really play. But it didn’t matter. It didn’t matter, because you get it, that they really do love each other, you know? I mean, I don’t know… [...] - You’ve got such a great sense of humor. Did you ever tease Christian about being Batman? - Oh yeah, constantly, sure. Yeah, we gave each other a lot of crap.
source (article) / audio*** Tell us about being in the universe of Werner Herzog with Rescue Dawn.Oh, that was totally different from anything I’ve ever experienced. He’s just an artist, pure and simple. There’s no defining him or figuring him out. The minute you think you have him pegged, he’s different the next day. And the trap is to be preoccupied with trying to figure him out. And once you give into that, and just say ‘You know what, that’s just the way he is, and this is going to be kind of chaotic,’ then you’re good. And Christian (Bale) and I understood that right off, and we work really similarly and became really close, which helped make that film a really great, fun experience. I was so into that film. We didn’t get paid a lot. It was a small movie, but I felt very connected to it. source
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Post by Tuulia on Apr 3, 2017 11:26:13 GMT
Jeff Waxman (Out of the Furnace executive producer) When asked how the dream cast came on board, producer Jeff Waxman said, two words, Christian Bale: “Once we got him, everyone else came.” source-----Scott CooperThe casting for this picture has far exceeded my expectations. And it all starts with Christian Bale. Christian is an actors' magnet. Every actor wants to go toe to toe with Christian Bale, because he's so wildly admired. video***Scott Cooper compares directing Bale to driving a Maserati: "All you have to do is feather the accelerator - a note or an adjustment - and he's off!" Entertainment Weekly 2013 [Fall Movie issue] November? -----Casey AffleckPeople have always said that you work with good actors and it makes you better. I never really understood quite what that meant until I worked with Christian. I think he's just one of the very very very very best of anyone today, and he really does seem to make everyone better. Anyone that's in a six-foot radius, he's making them better by improving on the script, by just being very present, by just being incredibly focused and hard-working, and then on top of it also being really talented. You just can't help but be rooted in the scene, be grounded and be paying attention to what he's doing because it's moving and it's impactful. I can't think of anybody better. It's been a treat to work with him. I really admire him, I think he's terrific. video***JoBlo: I was talking with Christian, I was talking about the bond, and it shocks me that you guys didn't have a ton of rehearsal time, because there's a real chemistry between you two as brothers. CA: Man, he's just so damn good. I think he makes any relationship work in a movie. He's just a uniquely gifted actor. It was easy to create a rapport. He just delves into the character, and I just dive in, and you just sort of find each other, it's like hitting it off on a first date or something. I really think he makes everyone better around him, and any part of that relationship that works, I give him credit. video***I would say that he's almost underrated because he's incredibly gifted. I've never really worked with anybody quite like him who can inhabit a part so fully and is so committed and works so hard and makes really interesting choices. video***So when Affleck started shooting “Out of the Furnace,” an ambitious film about two brothers in steel-town Pennsylvania, he was looking to regain something. During a scene, sitting across from his co-star Christian Bale, he realized what that thing was. “What I saw Christian doing was, I felt like, some of the best acting that I’ve ever seen,” Affleck says. “You know when you sort of forget what you like about movies, and then you see a movie again that reminds you of why you fell in love with them in the first place? That was the experience.” After his first day of shooting, Affleck called Matt Damon, whom he has known since he was 5, and who happened also to be nearby, in Pittsburgh, making a different film, “Promised Land.” “He came over for dinner, and he was bummed out,” Damon told me. “Casey has always been very hard on himself. But he was 35, he’s not a kid anymore and he was genuinely disturbed about what had happened. He had just done a scene with Bale, and he had been so blown away by what Christian had done — and it wasn’t anything remarkable; it was a difficult scene, but what Christian had to do was relatively simple, he wasn’t pulling any tricks. He was genuine and honest and real.” According to Damon, Casey told him that, by comparison, “I was just pulling faces.” [...] Sitting across from Bale acting their scene, Affleck says, he recognized something he’d temporarily lost touch with. “I didn’t even realize it, but I had become disillusioned with acting a little bit. What he was doing made me think, Oh, that’s what I’ve always wanted to do. I wanted to do that.” source (The New York Times Magazine, Nov 21, 2013) ***Casey Affleck on Ratatouille and Christian Bale: ***(Casey Affleck talking at Santa Barbara International Film Festival 2017:) I hadn't worked in a while, it was a couple of years doing other things, I guess. Christian Bale was in that movie and the first day of shooting was the scene where I go to visit him in jail and... I didn't know Scott, I didn't know much about him, but I saw his movie and I really liked it, and we talked about the script and so forth, but I was feeling rusty a bit, like Michelle was talking about earlier. I was feeling sort of self-conscious and rusty, and we're doing this scene, and like with so many movies there's no rehearsal period, so you just show up there and you're sort of expected to be the guy. We did the first half of the day, and I was just terrible. And Christian Bale - who's really one of my favorite actors - was great and very grounding. It was nice and comforting to be in the scene with him, because he just seemed like the person sitting there. It was easy to have a conversation with him, there wasn't any artifice or hoopla around it, he was just sort of talking to me. But still I felt like I wasn't there. So I just told him. I said, listen - I just met him - I said "I'm really sorry, the scene isn't going well, I feel responsible, I just feel, like, very lost." He kinda perked up, and he said "oh man, lost is great, lost is a great place to be, just stay lost!" And it was encouraging, I though, like, "okay, I'm lost, boom, I'm killing it now! Christian said I'm on the right track..." I think what he meant by that was not to be so know-what-you-do-all-the-time and sort of watching yourself in that way, and he was totally right, and that's why he's one of our best actors. And then I started working more on that movie and I really had a great time with those guys. video - SBIFF 2017 - Casey Affleck Discusses "Out Of The Furnace" & Christian Bale
-----Zoe SaldanaI've been a fan of his work, but also his work ethic, for as long as I can remember, sort of learning about it and realizing that this man is very committed. It's 150 % and no less. And then you meet him, and his generosity as an actor, when you're working with him, is overwhelming, and you feel really, really safe. video***He’s in character, so the feelings that he’s able to give, not just to you, to the story, are genuine. So that gives you the permission to say, “Fuck off, I’m really going to just be this person, and not jump into her and then jump out.” I’m really just live in and try as much as I can to live in her space. And it was very painful, because there’s such a pure love between these two characters, and there’s so many circumstances between them, and you know they will never be able to be together, but they’re gonna feel very strongly about each other for a very long time. And to know that you’re working with an actor that is incredibly talented, super respectful, and will be in that zone — ‘cause you’re always worried, like, ‘Oh God, I don’t want him to feel that maybe’ — like sometimes you are, because you sense in the actor that you’re working with that they’re not gonna be in that pretend place for a long time. They’re gonna keep jumping in and out of it, so you have always have to be then jumping in and out with them sometimes, because we are working. You know, we are not these characters. We are who we are, and I’m very professional, but I’m also an artist, and whenever I get the opportunity to work with people that will go there — the little girl in me that would get lost in the worlds that I would create gets to come out and be safe, and I love doing that. So that’s why working with amazing actors and an amazing director is like the icing always on the cake of your life’s career, because you really get to believe that you are that person without having to care about what happens after, you know? So he provides that, because that’s who he is. Whether you do it now, that’s what he’s going to do, and that to me is a true artist. Actors like him and Daniel Day-Lewis and Viggo Mortenson and Casey Affleck, they can’t help it: they become what they are. When they say yes to a part, they start shedding their skin and putting on that suit until it’s the end, and that’s amazing. source-----
Forest WhitakerHe's a great actor. He's so focused, so dedicated, and I really wanted to work with him, so it was an amazing opportunity. Because this character that he plays goes through so many different journeys inside this movie it's pretty special. video-----Woody HarrelsonChristian... yeah... he's amazing. He stays, kinda, really close to the material and in character throughout the whole process. You'll talk to him outside the filming, but he never... It's not that he's always in character, but he never breaks... like, for example, he never talks in his native voice, he talks in the character's voice. It's great watching him, see him standing, studying a scene, just being in the character's head and seeing what the character is seeing, like, staying with it for long periods of time when me, I might be off doing something else. He just really stays focused, and about as committed as you get. video
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Post by Tuulia on Apr 3, 2017 19:40:30 GMT
An addition to the above Out Of The Furnace post. The audio isn't great, but I tried my best. But what did the lady say? (Also, any corrections welcome like always.) Scott CooperChristian is incredible. Remarkable. And he's one of the smartest, most thoughtful actors I've ever worked with. He understands character, story, and emotion. The performance that he gives here... The reason I wrote the part for Christian - I didn't know Christian - was because I wanted to see this sense of vulnerability from him in a way that I've never seen, his gentleness, soulfulness, combined with the sense of character and strength that he has, that he displays. I couldn't ask for a better partner, because he is the glue in this film, and he has the most difficult part in the film. It isn't the showiest, but those are always the toughest to play. I found myself stripping away dialogue, because Christian could say so much non-verbally with a look, a glance, the way he moves that it's astounding just how talented he is. I recall after our premiere, I think the lady was French, which made sense, she said to me "Christian Bale [unclear] Marlon Brando", and I said yes, I think he is. He's doing his best work. I think you'll see in the David Russell movie coming out that you'll see a whole other facet to him. So on set he was of course maintaining this character from the moment he arrived in Pennsylvania until I saw him a week later in my house. He's fully, fully committed in every way. People forget that he's Welsh (sic), has a bit of a British dialect, because he's just so talented. I can't speak highly enough of Christian. Or anybody in this cast. They elevate the material in ways you could never really hope. video
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Post by RhodoraO on Apr 3, 2017 21:02:29 GMT
With regards to this last mention by Scott Cooper, Cooper really is successful in bringing out all those softer sides of Christian which I believe were last fully scene as Laurie of Little Women. I strongly wish that Cooper can make himself into a stronger director in storytelling aspects as he already is a great one for actors. Chris was awards worthy in OOTF and if the story and it's direction had been at least as good as Crazy Heart, he would have gained serious attention for that film instead of Am Hustle. I seriously hope that Hostiles is strong in all aspects of filmmaking and makes respectable bucks and does well with critics.
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Post by Tuulia on Apr 3, 2017 21:31:54 GMT
Yes, Cooper is apparently great with actors, and Christian's performance in OOTF is one of my favorites from him. I'm happy they worked together again and I hope all the best for Hostiles, and I'm really looking forward to it.
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Post by The Low Dweller on Apr 6, 2017 14:38:27 GMT
sylvester stallone:
leonardo dicaprio:
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Post by RhodoraO on Apr 10, 2017 13:22:44 GMT
Bilge Ebiri is a journalist at The Village Voice: I asked him re his tweet earlier about a dream he had with Bale in it and he replied this in return:
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