The movie Christian Bale called the “definition of monotony”
Outside of his stint as Batman in Christopher Nolan’s genre-defining trilogy, Christian Bale has never been one to sign on for effects-heavy studio blockbusters with anything approaching regularity. When he has, though, the results have been less than stellar.
His first-ever leading role in a big-budget studio movie came in 2002’s Reign of Fire. It underperformed at the box office and was greeted tepidly by critics and crowds alike, even if the preposterous fire-breathing fantasy has become something of a cult favourite in the years since.
Since then, excluding his trio of outings as the Dark Knight, Bale has only returned to that particular arena three times. Terminator Salvation was another commercial disappointment that saw the actor’s on-set rant become its lasting legacy, while Ridley Scott’s Exodus: Gods and Kings faced whitewashing backlash before Thor: Love and Thunder failed to arrest the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s gradual decline.
There was a lot of hype surrounding Bale’s return to superhero cinema in the latter, but he left rather underwhelmed by the experience. “I mean, the definition of it is monotony,” he said to GQ while talking about acting almost entirely in front of a green screen. “You’ve got good people, you’ve got other actors who are far more experienced at it than me. Can you differentiate one day from the next? No. Absolutely not.”
Bale did call antagonist Gorr the God Butcher “an intriguing character”, but that wasn’t enough to stop him being left out of sorts by his surroundings. “You have no idea what to do,” he continued. “I couldn’t even differentiate one stage from the next”. Being directed between various cavernous soundstages that were equally barren, the Academy Award winner was bemused, simply trying to navigate his way around the set.
Ironically, Bale’s performance is one of the highlights of Love and Thunder, even if it’s clear from watching Taika Waititi’s sequel that there were plenty of his scenes left on the cutting room floor. In fact, he knew that certain takes weren’t going to end up in the final cut, but decided to have some fun with them anyway.
Admitting how “we kind of knew that some of the stuff we were doing probably wouldn’t end up in the film”, Bale worked alongside Waititi “to just push it and see”. Of course, making a PG-13 film for Marvel Studios under the watchful eye of Disney was never going to let them push the envelope, but the star “had a lot of fun in there doing certain scenes and takes on certain scene choices” regardless.
In the end, Bale’s hotly-anticipated return to comic book adaptations left a lot to be desired, and that even extended to his own time, doing his best to find his way around the “monotonous” environment he was placed in.
