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| Birth Name(s) : Christian Morgan Bale |
Date of Birth: January 30, 1974 |
| Status:
Married
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Partner:
Sibi Blazic |
| Profession:
Actor |
Official Site
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Full Christian Bale Biography
| Christian Bale has easily proven his versatility in acting mediums and genres since his career started -- from Shakespeare on stage, to "American Psycho" (2000) on the big screen. He also has an uncanny ear for accents and has used a different one for each of his films to date. |
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Additional Christian Bale Biography
Christian Charles Philip Bale (also known professionally as Christian Morgan Bale; born 30 January 1974) is a British method actor who is known for his roles in the films American Psycho, Shaft, Equilibrium, The Machinist, Batman Begins, and The Prestige, among others. Bale is also known for his versatility as an actor, including mimicking nearly any English-language-based accent, harsh regimens of shedding and gaining weight (particularly for The Machinist, Batman Begins and, most recently, Rescue Dawn), and generally inhabiting the characters he plays. Before he found success in playing Batman, he was heavily involved in independent films.
The film diverged from the novel in some instances, but was generally faithful. Bateman was, on the outward, a stereotypical yuppie, but underneath the public image he had created for himself he was actually a murderous psychopath. Bale researched Bateman by studying the novel. He prepared himself physically for the role by spending months tanning and exercising rigorously in order to achieve Bateman’s Olympian physique, even going so far as to distance himself from the cast and crew in order to preserve the darker side of Bateman’s character. American Psycho premiered at the 2000 Sundance Film Festival to much controversy. Famed American critic Roger Ebert seemed to condemn the film at first, calling it pornography” and “the most loathed film at Sundance,” but gave it a favorable review, writing that Harron “transformed a novel about bloodlust into a movie about men’s vanity.” Of Bale’s performance, he wrote, “Christian Bale is heroic in the way he allows the character to leap joyfully into despicability; there is no instinct for self-preservation here, and that is one mark of a good actor.”
Still fresh from The Machinist, it became necessary for Bale to bulk up to match the powerful physique of Batman. He was given a deadline of six months to do this. Bale recalled it as far from a simple accomplishment: “…when it actually came to building muscle, I was useless. I couldn’t do one push up the first day. All of the muscles were gone, so I had a real tough time rebuilding all of that.” With the help of a personal trainer, Bale succeeded in meeting the deadline, gaining exactly one hundred pounds (45kg) in six months. He then worked toward building muscle.
In the "Fresh Air with Terry Gross" radio interview first aired June 13, 2005, Bale admitted to Gross that because Batman is "such an American icon", he decided not to perform promotional interviews for the movie Batman Begins(2005) in his natural mixed Welsh/British accent. He instead spoke to Gross in an almost-inflection less mid-American accent, only revealing his dialectic roots with a few words.
"It's like I was saying to Chris -- I'll be probably doing this in dinner theatre somewhere in my 50s, so I won't knock it. Because who knows where I'll end up?"
"No, there’s been no talk with me about ‘Justice League’; it’s only who mention this to me."
In 2006, Bale took on a trio of projects. Rescue Dawn by German filmmaker Werner Herzog had him playing a U.S. Fighter pilot who has to fight for his life after being shot down while on a mission during the Vietnam War. Bale left a strong impression on Herzog, with the director complimenting his acting abilities: "I find him one of the greatest talents of his generation. We made up our own minds long before he did Batman." In The Prestige, an adaptation of the Christopher Priest novel about a rivalry between two Victorian stage magicians, Bale reunites with Michael Caine and director Christopher Nolan. The cast of The Prestige also included Hugh Jackman, Scarlett Johansson, Piper Perabo, and David Bowie. I'm Not There, a film that has Bale working with Todd Haynes and Heath Ledger once more (Ledger plays The Joker in the 2008 film The Dark Knight), is an artistic reflection of the life of Bob Dylan, and also includes Cate Blanchett, Richard Gere, Julianne Moore and Charlotte Gainsbourg as part of the cast. In an August edition of Entertainment Weekly, Matt Damon commented at how Bale was able to handle so many different projects in one year, given his method ethic.
Like his father, David, Bale is known as a conservationist and an animal lover, and is a supporter of conservation and animal welfare groups like Greenpeace and the World Wildlife Fund. The famous feminist activist, Gloria Steinem, became a first-time bride (at age 66) and Bale's stepmother, when she married David on September 3, 2000, before the elder Bale's death in 2003. |
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