The role Christian Bale said he went “too far” playing: “A difficult long process”
For any actor, fully immersing oneself in a role is crucial. While mastering an accent or matching a character’s physique is challenging, method actors often go further, immersing themselves entirely in the world of the movie. This approach demands a complete lifestyle change. Christian Bale, known for his commitment to method acting, reflected that his extreme preparation for The Machinist might have crossed a line.
But Bale had already proven himself to live in every role he played. Although he may have started in films like Empire of the Sun and the Disney production of Newsies, he already had his sights on being a more accomplished actor when he signed on for roles like American Psycho.
Even before securing the role, Bale had already begun training to embody the cold-blooded Wall Street tycoon and serial killer, mirroring the intense exercises audiences would later see in the movie. While this demonstrated his extreme dedication to physical fitness, his preparation for The Machinist required an opposite approach, showcasing his ability to transform by dramatically downplaying his physical presence for the role.
Since the entire core of the character was supposed to be a frail man living with this terrible feeling inside him every day, Bale went from the peak of fitness to dropping four and a half stone for the role. Compared to other actors who put prosthetics on to get the same effect, this is probably the closest anyone will see a zombie in real life, complete with Bale’s soft-spoken demeanour.
Looking back on the risk now, Bale thought that a lot of the weight loss may have been far too over the top, telling GQ, “I would say in hindsight that perhaps I went a little too far. Not in a way that was particularly dangerous but it certainly got, shall we say, interesting, in ways that friends and family noticed – and didn’t particularly enjoy. And for me, just because you finish filming and the sets are dismantled, and you go home, it can be a difficult, long process to find your normal self again.”
It also didn’t help that Bale seemed to have the diet of a starving homeless man when making the film, only sticking to eating an apple, a can of tuna fish and cigarettes throughout most of the production. Then again, there were some benefits that Bale remembered, like all of the energy going into his brain, which led to him reading all the time because he could only sleep two hours every night.
If The Machinist was a fun experiment for him, his next big role would mean that he would have to put on the muscle a lot quicker. Since Bale had been contacted by Christopher Nolan to work on the first in his series of Batman films, that meant having to pound down as many carbs as possible and go through an intense workout regiment the minute the filming wrapped for the film.
There might be a certain method to this madness, but the effects probably did a number on Bale’s body after the fact. It’s one thing to get into the mindset of whichever character you’re playing, but turning yourself into what appears to be a walking corpse is probably a lot more than what the director wanted.
