The character Christian Bale called a “difficult bastard”
With the ultimate American Psycho and his business card kink, and hoarse-throated Caped Crusader and his crime-fighting kink on his CV, no one can ever say Christian Bale is an actor who shies away from abrasive characters. But Bale reserves more colourful language for one far closer to reality than a deluded serial killer or billionaire superhero.
Bale first became infamous as an actor attracted to extremity, both physically and psychologically, when he took on the role of Patrick Bateman in the turn-of-the-century satirical thriller. He packed on muscle to fit the bill as a man as self-obsessed with perfection as Bateman is, even continuing to stay in shape when Leonardo DiCaprio was cast in the part instead. Bale then shrank to emaciated proportions to play a paranoid insomniac for 2004’s The Machinist before bulking up again to fill out the Batsuit in Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy between 2006 and 2012.
Even in today’s movie landscape, where actors are expected to hit the gym hard for action roles, this would be seen as an intense transformation. To date, the payoff has been one Academy Award and two Golden Globes, the former for a trademark beefed-up turn in 2010’s The Fighter.
Between takes, Bale also has an unfortunate reputation for getting too wrapped up in his work. In 2009, a video of him unloading a tirade of abuse at director of photography Shane Hurlburt during the filming of Terminator: Salvation painted a toxic portrait of the British actor. However, he was quick to apologise for his behaviour, calling it “inexcusable” and that he “acted like a punk”. Ten years on, Bale met his match in a similarly prickly but gifted individual: legendary race car driver Ken Miles.
Raised in the grime of industrial Birmingham, Miles took America by storm after moving to the bright lights of Los Angeles in the early 1950s. He designed, constructed and raced his own cars and won back-to-back races, including one against racing wannabe James Dean. Most significantly, he proved unbeatable in the 24-hour endurance test, Le Mans, winning four times between 1966 and 1969. It’s the first of these that became the subject of 2019’s Ford vs Ferrari, or Le Mans ‘66 in some European territories.
Accepting the part of Miles meant yet another severe weight change in a short space of time for Bale. He dropped the 40lbs he gained to play President George W Bush’s controversial VP Dick Chaney in 2018’s Vice to get into race shape. He had just nine months to assuage Ford vs Ferrari director James Manigold’s concerns he wouldn’t fit into Miles’ iconic Ford GT40.
Despite the admitted misery of strict dieting and strains on his health, Bale found slipping into Miles’ shoes worth the pain. He detailed the uplifting experience to iNews: “He would win every bloody race he entered. He was so good… there was one race where he stopped, got out, got himself a sandwich, ate the sandwich, got back in his car and still won. He did things like that; it didn’t endear him to the officials – it would piss them off, and he often ended up getting disqualified – but he was a real racer’s racer.”
It’s easy to see a correlation between Miles and Bale: unbridled ambition, a punishing work ethic and sometimes thorny disposition around colleagues. While the latter may still be hard to disentangle from his more violent roles, it’s probably the Brummie who dominated international car racing for two decades that Bale connects with the most.
“He was a real purist,” Bale says of Miles. “He shot himself in the foot time and again, often by winning the battle but losing the war. Difficult bastard but charming too.”
