Why Christian Bale turned down the chance to play James Bond: “Despicable”
Say what you will about that on-set tirade on Terminator: Salvation; Christian Bale really seems like one of Hollywood’s good guys. Working with McG would be grating for anyone, after all, and based on some of his off-screen actions, it’s hard to deny that his morals are in the right place. In fact, there is a case to be made that he is Hollywood’s most genuine male feminist, one who walks the walk even if he doesn’t go out of his way to performatively talk the talk.
Let’s start with the fact that he understood the memo when he took on the role of Patrick Bateman in Mary Harron’s American Psycho. Patrick is a punchline, a woman-hating misogynist who, in 2000, we could all laugh at but who, from a 2025 perspective, is a bit too spine-tinglingly familiar to dismiss. Harron shot Bale with a distinctly female gaze, lingering on his tanned, toned body with an aesthetic reverence that helped make the movie as much a manifesto on the deceptiveness of physical beauty as on capitalism.
In the years since that film’s release, Bale has repeatedly downplayed his role in making the movie a cult classic and emphasised Harron’s contributions. “By the way, what a talent she is,” he said in a 2022 red carpet interview in which he singled out the comedic elements of the movie. “Let’s see more movies from Mary Harron, please.”
Then, there were the rumours that he helped intervene on the set of American Hustle when David O Russell (one of Hollywood’s most notoriously tyrannical directors) took aim at Amy Adams. Having worked with Russell before, Bale had a knack for diffusing tension.
Perhaps his greatest and quietest act of admirable subversion came in the early 2000s. It didn’t have to do with deciding to work with a certain director or leaping to the defence of one of his co-stars; it had to do with a project he decided not to make. Following the success of American Psycho, Bale was approached by James Bond producer Barbara Broccoli about taking over the role of 007 from Pierce Brosnan, and he wanted nothing to do with it.
At the time, he was just coming into his own as an actor but had yet to become the Oscar-winning superstar that he is today. Taking on such a high-profile role was guaranteed to turn him into one of the most famous stars in Hollywood and an undying icon, but he wasn’t swayed by such enticements. In fact, he said that the role represented “every despicable stereotype about England and British actors” and that he had “already played a serial killer.”
Now, if you were being cynical, you could argue that playing Batman was not miles away from playing Bond. Bruce Wayne is also a serial killer masquerading as a hero and a stereotype if ever there was one (albeit an American one rather than a British one). However, his ballsy rejection of the 007 franchise in 2000 is, in itself, heroic.
Bond is a relic of the 1960s that glorifies colonialism and sexism as casually as it glorifies tailored suits and fast cars. Daniel Craig did his best to update the character, but even when the franchise made a desperate attempt at modernity by practically making Lea Seydoux the protagonist of the final film, Bale was spot on when he determined that the character was irredeemable.
