The role that allowed Christian Bale to change the course of his career: “Nobody wanted me for anything”
Christian Bale’s performance as the serial killer Patrick Bateman, a yuppie with a love of Huey Lewis and the News and clear raincoats, was one of the most unforgettable cinematic moments of the 2000s. American Psycho helped the actor break into Hollywood as an adult, initially impressing viewers with a teenage performance in Steven Spielberg’s Empire of the Sun over a decade prior.
The actor harnessed both a cold exterior and over-the-top ridiculousness, moving between the two to create a satirical portrait of a soulless businessman, much like the kind you could find in America at the time. Bale proved his greatness with the performance, even though he’d appeared in some fantastic movies beforehand, like Little Women, Velvet Goldmine, and The Portrait of a Lady. He’d even lent his voice to Disney’s Pocahontas and demonstrated his musical talents in Newsies when he was 17. Yet, these roles just didn’t catapult him to widespread fame the way that American Psycho did – he wasn’t even the first choice for the role because he wasn’t considered well-known enough.
However, once he broke through, Bale soon booked several movie roles, including Shaft, Captain Corelli’s Mandolin, Reign of Fire, and Equilibrium. None were as successful as American Psycho, however, and soon he realised that his opportunities weren’t half as exciting or frequent as they’d previously been. How could this be when he’d demonstrated his sheer range and versatility over the previous decade and had an award-winning role in American Psycho?
Eventually, he landed a leading part in The Machinist, his first movie in two years, and he earned significant acclaim for his performance, which he prepared for by losing 60 pounds. He then rose to greater prominence when he secured the role of Batman in Christopher Nolan’s trilogy, appearing in Batman Begins, The Dark Knight, and The Dark Knight Rises. The successful movies cemented Bale’s place in Hollywood for good, and he could be seen in many other popular films in the meantime, like The Prestige, I’m Not There, The Fighter, and 3:10 To Yuma.
Talking to ONTD, Bale revealed that the reason for his taking on many impressive roles after a period of no work was not by chance. “It came from a year and a half before The Machinist, where I didn’t work at all. Nobody wanted me for anything. Well, a couple of people did, but for pretty bad things. So, it was kind of realising that I had to reevaluate and reinvent at this point.”
When he was cast in The Machinist, he decided to go all the way, trying his hand at some drastic method acting that garnered significant controversy but also impressed many viewers. He knew that he had to prove his talent and dedication – perhaps rather unhealthily – but it seemed to work.
He concluded, “I always have this feeling in the back of my head that I’ll be back there again. I’ll be sitting there, staring at the wall and saying, ‘How did this happen?’ I’ll have to reinvent myself again at some point.”
