Bale looses it during filming... (1 Viewer)

[George_W_K]

Or a marketing device to hype up the film.

 

[Michael Reuben]

Leaving aside any disagreements I might have with your comments, I notice that you didn't address the point about "rubbernecking".

And I'm not excusing anything -- including the easy indulgence in moral superiority that so often crops up in threads like these.

 

[Nick Martin]

Since this is a thread dedicated to this:



Now we can all sit back and laugh at this. As we all should.

 

[Arild]

That's not really a fair comment, is it?

 

[Brent M]

Yeah, Bale should star in a film directed by Russell. That would be a fun set.

I Heart Huckabees - David O. Russell Flipping Out

 

[Steve Christou]

Great stuff I hope it was filmed too and we can watch the whole thing as an easter egg on the dvd.

Well Bale probably has anger management issues, didn't he scream and push and shove his mother and sister over something or other last summer, and was hauled in by police? It was in all the papers.

Reminds me of nutjob director David O'Russell losing his rag at Lily Tomlin(?) during the filming of I Heart Huckabees, hurling abuse at her, calling her a c*nt too if I remember right and the video was circulated all over the internet. George Clooney famously punched Russell on the set of Three Kings after he saw him abusing one of the extras, I'd love to have seen that.

 

[Elizabeth S]

Yes, I hope Bale apologized afterward, as the people on the set shouldn't have been subjected to this. But he's only human, and something must have been happening in his life back in July, as this was days before the incident with his sister and mother.

 

[BrettB]

Dude's got issues.

 

[Mark Hawley]

Hopefully it wasn't "roid rage". There's speculation that stars who bulk up for roles may be taking steroids.

I don't know why as Batman he chose to speak in that silly growl as he comes across as far more intimidating during that incident.

On the other hand, he does have a tremendous singing voice!

 

[Steve_Pannell]

I can't say that I blame Bale for going off on the guy - to a point.

But I can't help but wonder what this thread would be like if it had been a less popular actor than Bale.

 

[ThomasC]

The Dark Knight premiere. Some reports back then said that Heath's death hit him really hard and might have caused him to go into depression.

 

[Brent M]

I can understand him being pissed off about the situation, but the level he took it to was completely unprofessional. Someone really should put him in his place one of these days.

 

[Steve_Pannell]

Exactly. That's why I said "to a point".

 

[Nick Martin]

That's what the incident with his mother and sister was entirely about!

They made up that crap about him getting violent with the two of them just to put him in his place, and they did it by talking trash about his wife to set him off. He didn't get violent, he got verbal. They made up the rest just to get him arrested.

In other words, it's been done.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

I really don't think it's fair to draw conclusions one way or the other from a video clip taken entirely out of context. You don't see what happened before this clip was taken to set him off, and you don't see what happened after the clip ends and how the situation was resolved. I'm not taking sides one way or the other, and something like this never should have been leaked. Being a creative person, be it in front of or behind the camera, onstage or anywhere else, isn't easy, and I think they have a certain right to privacy during the making of the film or show or whatever it is. How can anyone, in any job, be expected to do their best work, to take risks and chances, if they have to live in fear that their worst moment is going to end up as public fodder?

 

[TravisR]

Absolutely true. However, based only what I heard (as I said before, I don't know the full situation), he's a guy who goes way beyond tortured artist trying to create his art and ends up in asshole land.

 

[Joe Karlosi]

What a jerk. Even though I didn't like THE DARK KNIGHT much, I did like Bale in many things I saw him in (loved THE MECHANIC). But it looks like another case where somebody's gotten too big for his britches. Sorry to learn it's him...

 

[Will_B]

This is nothing unusual. Actors are trying to produce a particular emotion, and if something is interrupting their ability to do that, well, that happens. It is no different than Lawrence Fishbourne telling the audience member to stop talking on his cell phone. Well, it's a bit louder.

Bear in mind that the actor may need to "vent" in order to get back to whatever emotional state the scene requires. Bottling up the anger or rage caused by a distraction, when you're trying to do a scene that needs an emotion other than rage, is not going to work. So you let it out. People let the actors vent because the actors have to get back to whatever emotional state is required for the scene, and it is better to let them vent than to have it simmer.

They wouldn't let a crew member vent like that, because the emotional state of the crew doesn't have the immediate effect on the film that the emotional state of the actor does.

And we all know that the context could be that this was the middle of the night after 30 takes.

Film crews are family because this kind of stuff *is* able to happen -- sometimes *needs* to happen -- and it is not considered unprofessional (if the distraction was truly distracting).

 

[Michael Reuben]

I was thinking about how that might apply in other contexts.

• Jon Favreau to Robert Downey, Jr. on Iron Man: "Who cares about your performance? This is a CG-heavy comic book franchise! Hit your mark and get on with it."
• Christopher Nolan to Morgan Freeman, Michael Caine, Heath Ledger and, oh yeah, Christian Bale on TDK: "Who cares about your performances? I didn't hire you for your Oscars and nominations. This is the sequel to the reboot of a comic book franchise. Shut up and do as I say!"
• Peter Jackson to Ian McKellen, Viggo Mortensen et al. on Lord of the Rings: "Who cares about your performances? This is a CG-heavy fantasy epic. The audience comes for the orcs and the battles. You guys are just scenery."
• James Cameron to Sigourney Weaver on Aliens: "Who cares about your performance? This is an FX-heavy sequel to a monster movie. Just hit the mark." (Her Oscar nomination must have shocked him.)
• And let's not forget Cameron to Kate and Leo: "Who cares about your performances? People are only coming to see the damn ship sink!"

In fact, the more a film depends on CGI, the harder the actors have to work, because there's so little on set for them to react to. And the performances have to be good, or the CGI just lies there, no matter how pretty it may be.

 

[Michael Elliott]

Well, if he was less popular then he'd been fired and kicked out of Hollywood.

I was watching that documentary on Polanski where they plead and moan for Polanski, a rapist, to be given another shot. The filmmakers are bending over backwards to give the man a break yet I'm sitting here wondering if the filmmakers would go to the same trouble if some bum living in a trailer had taken his twelve-year-old neighbor, drugged her up and then slept with her. Hollywood wants Polanski to be forgiven but I wonder how much sympathy they'd have for the trailer trash.

In other words, the bigger they are the more their issues will be overlooked.