“Absolutely nothing to lose”: the co-star Christian Bale called incredibly intense
For better or worse, Christian Bale has been labelled as one of the most intense actors in the industry. However, even someone who dedicates themselves fully to their craft can meet their match on occasion.
The positive side of Bale’s trademark intensity is that he’s been celebrated as one of the very best in the business. He has won an Academy Award and a pair of Golden Globes by immersing himself as deeply as possible into his characters, whether the transformation required is physical, psychological, or, in many cases, both.
On the other hand, his infamous rant at the director of photography on the set of Terminator Salvation highlighted that Bale’s commitment could cause him to lose his cool, even if he’s profusely apologised for the incident and correctly admitted his behaviour was unbecoming of the first name on the call sheet.
It’s hard to argue with the results when Bale has given so many incredible, transformative performances over so many years. However, he found himself up against a genuine tour-de-force when he was pitted against Heath Ledger’s Joker in Christopher Nolan’s superior superhero sequel, The Dark Knight.
While Bale is known to go to extreme lengths to get into the required mindset, the role of Bruce Wayne hardly pushed him to the limit in a manner similar to his turns in American Psycho, The Machinist, The Fighter, or Vice. He was the stoic straight man to Ledger’s freewheeling ‘Clown Prince of Crime’, which made him an excellent foil for the scene-stealing villain.
In an interview with Adam Higginbotham, Bale reflected on the stark differences between Ledger the performer and Ledger the person, describing his scene partner as “incredibly intense in his performance but incredibly mellow and laid-back”.
Ledger took his preparations for the part very seriously, but he was able to switch it off when the cameras started rolling, although Bale was suitably impressed either way by what he was doing with the character. “Certainly, there was this great anarchistic streak to it, just getting dirtier than anybody’s envisioned the Joker before,” he continued. “This character has power because he has no limits; absolutely nothing to lose.”
It’s undoubtedly one of the all-time great performances in any comic book adaptation, to the extent Ledger’s Joker now casts a shadow over anyone brave enough to follow in his footsteps. Joaquin Phoenix’s Arthur Fleck was a worthy successor, making the ‘Jester of Genocide’ just the second character in history to be played by two different actors who both won Oscars for it. This placed the clown-faced antagonist in the same pantheon as Vito Corleone.
Things didn’t go quite as well for the maligned Jared Leto in the equally maligned Suicide Squad, while the jury remains very much out on Barry Keoghan following his brief introduction in The Batman.
