The movie Christian Bale would never make again: “I never had any interest”
Christian Bale has had the opportunity to do pretty much everything in the world of Hollywood. He’s been a child star in the likes of Empire of the Sun, an axe-wielding serial killer in American Psycho, many people’s favourite version of Batman in the ‘Dark Knight’ trilogy, and myriad other incredible roles that have earned him fame and fortune across his incredible career.
However, as with all great actors, not every performance has been a hit. His 2022 film Amsterdam was a critical disaster and a box office flop to the tune of around $100million and he also fronted the controversial and financially unsatisfactory Ridley Scott movie, Exodus: Gods and Kings. In Bale’s own personal view, though, there is one job from his early career that continues to haunt him.
Speaking with Movieline Magazine, the Welsh star admitted that he had some regrets about making the 1992 live-action Disney film Newsies. “I never had any interest in doing a musical,” he said. “I still don’t. In fact, when I first read the script, I thought it wasn’t a musical. Later, after I realised it was, I asked Kenny (Ortega) if maybe I could duck over here into the pub while the numbers were going on, and then come out when it was over. I hoped I could be the lead in a musical without doing any singing and dancing! Eventually, I said, ‘fuck it, let’s just do it.’ But I had a lot of doubts about it – I never liked musicals, and even then, I knew I’d never do anything like that again.”
Newsies, which was directed by legendary 80s choreographer Kenny Ortega, is a musical film based on a newsboys strike in New York City in 1899. Bale, who was 18 when the movie was released, stars as Jack Kelly, one of the boys who organise the strike and serves as its figurehead. Other cast members include Bill Pullman, Ann-Margaret, and Robert Duvall.
Despite a stellar roster of actors and songs written by the legendary Alan Menken, Newsies was a total failure. Critics praised its ambition but lambasted its lack of originality or the staying power of any of its music. Bale got decent reviews as the lead, but that was about it. It was nominated for several Golden Raspberry awards, including ‘Worst Original Song’, which it won for ‘High Times, Hard Times.’ Things weren’t much better at the box office, where the film made just $2.8million on a $15million budget.
It wouldn’t be until Bale stepped into the expensive shoes of Patrick Bateman that his career properly recovered from this singing and dancing debacle. However, with the power of hindsight, the actor was able to repair his relationship with the project. “I look back on it rather fondly now,” Bale admitted. “It was either go to college or go to California and do Newsies. I decided to [do] the film. Which was an education.”
As further proof that time heals all wounds, even Newsies is looked back on a lot more fondly nowadays. After gathering a cult following on the home video circuit, the film was adapted into a stage show in 2011. It opened on Broadway the following year and was nominated for eight gongs at the Tony Awards, including Best Musical. Not bad for something that very nearly killed the career of a future megastar.
