Christian Bale covers the November issue of GQ to promote his latest film, David O. Russell’s Amsterdam. This is his third film with Russell, and in the GQ piece, Bale calls their relationship a beautiful relationship. Russell has a decades-long history of being extremely problematic, from his toxic, screaming relationship with “muse” Jennifer Lawrence to his emotionally abusive working relationship with Amy Adams. In fact, when Bale and Adams worked with Russell, Russell would scream at her and get in her face to the point where she cried every day on set. Bale intervened and told Russell to back off. Bale downplays that in this interview and I guess it speaks volumes that they still have a working relationship. Oh, and don’t forget that Russell also assaulted his transgender niece. I bring up Bale’s relationship with Russell because it’s sprinkled throughout this GQ piece and Bale doesn’t come across particularly well. Some highlights:
Having three films out this year: “Nobody needs that. I don’t need it. No one else needs to see me that much.”
He’s lived in LA since the 1990s: “You can live here and not be in the middle of the film community. I’m not. I don’t have anything to do with it. I’m here because my wife is from here. If she wasn’t, we probably wouldn’t. But people sort of imagine film people swanning about, hanging out with each other all the time, talking about films, and that just makes me want to slam my head into the table.”
He’s content not to work: “More than content: f–king ecstatic. I’ve always been bent on “When’s this gonna end? This has to end.” I like doing things that have nothing to do with film. And I find myself very happily not playing dress-up, not pretending to be somebody else for long lengths of time.
He was paid the minimum for American Psycho: “Well, in honesty, the first thing was that I’d taken so long trying to do it, and they had paid me the absolute minimum they were legally allowed to pay me. And I had a house that I was sharing with my dad and my sister and that was getting repossessed. So the first thing was: “Holy crap. I’ve got to get a bit of money,” because I’ve got American Psycho done, but I remember one time sitting in the makeup trailer and the makeup artists were laughing at me because I was getting paid less than any of them. And so that was my motivation after that. Was just: “I got to get enough that the house doesn’t get repossessed.” It’s how I’ve supported people since I was 12, 13 years old. So it’s always been there, that element to it. There was never a moment where it was like, “I think I’d like to take four years off.” No. That just isn’t gonna happen. That’s not possible.
He’s gotten tons of roles which Leo DiCaprio passed on: “Oh, dude. It’s not just me. Look, to this day, any role that anybody gets, it’s only because he’s passed on it beforehand. It doesn’t matter what anyone tells you. It doesn’t matter how friendly you are with the directors. All those people that I’ve worked with multiple times, they all offered every one of those roles to him first. Right? I had one of those people actually tell me that. So, thank you, Leo, because literally, he gets to choose everything he does. And good for him, he’s phenomenal.
Why he moved to LA: “I came here for work. And then I would always go back. But I never got any work back in England. And I’d always get work out here. And then I brought my dad out because, for his health, the climate and everything was much better here.
He admires Chris Rock (who is in Amsterdam): I’m literally like: “I can’t do this because I will be the worst actor you’ve ever seen if we keep on chatting.” You know, with Amsterdam, I had to say that to Chris Rock. I had to go there and say that to him. I f–king love his stand-up. And when he arrived I was like, “Ah, wow, great. Yeah, how you doing, man?” Chatting a little bit. And then I went to do a scene, and I went, “Oh, my God. I’m just Christian, standing here, being a fan of Chris Rock.” So I went to him. I went, “Mate, I got to keep my distance.” Have you tried swimming and laughing at the same time? I don’t know about you. I’d drown. I cannot laugh and swim at the same time. It’s that. So I had to, much as I would’ve loved to have kept on chatting and talking. He went, “Oh, you’re pulling the a–hole card. You’re going to be an a–hole and not talk.” And I went, “Yeah. Sorry, mate.” And it was my loss, you know?
Meeting David O. Russell when he auditioned for ‘Three Kings’: “ I love him to death. And it was the beginning of a beautiful relationship.
Russell’s difficult sets: “If I can have some sense of understanding of where it’s coming from, then I do tend to attempt to be a mediator. That’s just in my nature, to try to say, “Hey, come on, let’s go and sit down and figure that out. There’s gotta be a way of making this all work.”
On being the “mediator” between Amy Adams & Russell: “No. No, no, no. No. You’re dealing with two such incredible talents there. No, I don’t let that get in the way whatsoever. Look, if I feel like we got anywhere close—and you only ever get somewhere close to achieving; our imagination is too incredible to ever entirely achieve it—but if you get anywhere close to it, and when you’re working with people of the crazy creative talent of Amy or of David, there are gonna be upsets. But they are f–king phenomenal. Also, you got to remember, it was the nature of the characters as well. Right? Those characters were not people who back down from anything, right?
How he feels he handled that situation in retrospect: “I did what I felt was appropriate, in very Irv style.
I actually don’t get a “mediator” vibe from Bale at all in this interview. He comes across as a guy who’s in his own head to the point where he rarely sees or understands what’s going on with his coworkers. Which makes me think that what went down between Adams and Russell was so bad, even Bale noticed it, which means it was completely obvious and horrible. As for Amsterdam, it’s not like Bale was just an “actor for hire” on the film – he’s the producer, and he was attached to it before Russell. This was Bale choosing to work with Russell yet again, even after all of the sh-t Russell has done to actresses and actors. And his niece.
Cover and IG courtesy of GQ.
“I get crying artists to shut up and execute the VISION” is not the flex you think it is, dude.
Yawn…honestly he sounds like a douche canoe.
Agreed. This article could have been titled “Christian Bale is Up His Own Ass.”
Clearly he doesn’t care about anyone, but himself and has no problem working with problematic people.
I think it’s the opposite. Here’s my take. Having survived childhood trauma myself, all I see here is the same patterns mapped out in my own family.
Christian comes from trauma; anyone who felt they had to take on the responsibility of providing for their whole family at the age of 12 likely sees and mitigates life challenges differently than the norm. His fawn response, which is also evident in his willingness to take a bad pay deal, feels normalized to him, it meant his survival. He’s used to feeling the vibe of people who off-kilter, so personality disorders like DOR’s don’t ruffle him in the way that they do others. He’s used to those feelings. And when it gets too much, his fight response kicks in. Either way, his psyche is attuned to what he has to do to survive.
Unfortunately, if someone doesn’t deal with this trauma response, they become an enabler of abuse. Bale’s had his own screaming fits on set too. He’s been an adult for a while. If he were trying to change his behavior, I’d say good for him and I understand messing up sometimes. But he’s apparently not. Which means he’s become part of the problem.
I hate when extremely wealthy privileged actors say things like “my job sucks, I’m so glad when I am unemployed”
In his case, I sort of get why he’d say this.
I didn’t realize he’s been supporting his family since he was 12.
Acting might simply be a job for him that coincidentally he works hard at and has talent in. But if he’s grown up to see acting as an occupation that pay his family’s bills, I can see why he’s happy when he’s away from it.
Because he’s talented and goes to the extreme for roles, I thought he was one of those people who chose acting because he loves it. Now I’m not so sure.
Didn’t he also have a screaming match on set of one of his movies? Sounds like two toxic dudes who only have respect for each other and screw everyone else.
Exactly.I like Christian the actor but I have a problem with Christian,the human being: he is super problematic.He berated or screamed on a staffer working on one of his set and had a big fight with his mother/ sister. And how is David O Russel still allowed to work?!!!!SMH
Sometimes you hear stories about people in the business who are just lovely & everyone gushes about them. And that’s always nice, but it also really makes it seem like those people are the exception to the rule in Hollywood. It’s an industry that has elevated abusers for a century–if you wanted to work, you found ways to function around abusers. If Bale has been working since he was 12, I’m guessing he sees this sort of behavior as more normal than not.
I found his comments about Leo sort of funny. If given the choice, I’d prefer to see Bale onscreen & I’m sure he’s cheaper to hire.
I found the Leo comments funny too, just that Leo is basically the gatekeeper of all roles or something. Every role is offered to him first. It’s funny to think of Batman Begins with Leo, LOLOLOL.
and I agree, I think Bale probably has seen a lot over his career and thinks a lot of bad behavior is just how it is. And he does get so in his head on a set. So what happened between Russell and Amy Adams must have been BAD for him to see it.
I really love him as an actor, but dude…don’t be a mediator for an abuser, instead don’t be in the abuser’s films.
Bale famously had his own on-set screaming incident, so it’s not at all surprising that he continues to work with Russell.
If you know he’s an abusive asshole who needs “mediating” in order to run a smooth set, why are you working with him in the first place Chris?
Oh wait, “prestige”. They always tell on themselves.
I never can figure why anyone with mondo other options wants to work with creeps like Russell. Moviemaking is hard enough with dealing with abuse from the top. Why does Bale need the extra stress of “mediating.”
I enjoy Bale very much as an actor. He’s excellent. He doesn’t come across as a good guy, though.
+1 very good actor but too intense as a person .
Sigh. He makes it so very hard for me to like him as much as I like his acting.
So yeah. A MAN actorsplaining how abuse by a male director toward predominantly female leads is no biggie.
DO mostly only seems to yell at men standing up for his victims, so of course CB is silent and smug and thinks he’s above it because it’s artistry that he understands.
tysm 🖖 ❤️ infinity
Ugh I can’t stand him. I also think he’s massively overrated as an actor. As Robert Pattinson said, “I always say people who do method acting, you only ever see people do the method when they’re playing assholes. You never see someone being lovely to everyone while they’re really deep in character.”
How were his parents okay with him supporting their family when he was twelve? Yikes on bikes.
What were they doing?!
This is what happens when you grow up in this business and didn’t have a normal childhood. I think people tend to forget he actually has been doing this since he was 12. I think nobody ever took him aside and explained that this business is f*cked. None of the screaming and gaslighting and making actors (especially women) suffer is okay or necessary for The Art. He wasn’t super famous until what, 30? He sounds like he has imposter syndrome but frankly, none of it excuses the support and adulation of an abuser anymore. We’re in the metoo era, the jig is up. Move with the times and educate yourself or you will sound like an absolute ass. Like he does here. Oh and also, we heard you scream on tape. Get your shit together.