Christian Bale: A Biography
Christian Bale was born named Christian Charles Philip Bale on January 30, 1974. He is actually from Wales which comes as a surprise to most people because they do not hear a hint of accent in his voice. In actuality, he does have an accent but many his more well-known movie roles have required him to have an American accent. The manipulating of accents is actually one of Bale’s many talents which critics see as a characteristic of a great actor. As a child, he spent time in many different countries which perhaps is the reason why he is able to effortlessly switch his accent on and off depending on the role. During his interviews and promotion for Batman Begins, Bale continued with his American accent because he didn’t want movie-goers to get confused and wonder if Batman was being portrayed with an accent or from some foreign country.
As a child, Bale was encouraged by his father, David Bale, to endulge himself in theatre and acting. His father is also the one who intially began managing his now fruitful career. His mother was a circus performer and his three older sisters were all involved in the theatre and showbusiness world. It helps to have a family so involved in entertaining because it basically opens the door and entitles you to a permanent support group.
Bale’s film debut was in a made for T.V. movie, Anastasia: The Mystery of Anna as Tsarevich Alexei Nikolaevich. The movie was released in 1986. Although this film marks the beginning of Bale’s movie career, it is the role that allowed Steven Spielberg to pick Bale to play the role of James Graham in Empire of the Sun. This film gained him much critical acclaim and he was presented with the award of “Best Performance by a Juvenile Actor.” On top of that, this award was especially created by the National Board of Review of Motion Pictures to give credit to Bale’s performance.
Throughout the next decade, Bale came across many movie roles that did not portray his acting ability in the best light. He took part in many movies that did have the promotion they needed, thus allowing him to be overlooked, or the movies were just not up to par with a great storyline, allowing the movie to fend for itself in the clutches of critics waiting to rip it apart. The first movie I ever saw Christian Bale in was Little Women, the movie adaptation of the book by Louisa May Alcott. Bale was given praise for his work and seemed to mark a possible turning point for his drought-filled movie path thus far. He received general warm praise for his role as Demetrius in A MidSummer Night’s Dream which was released in 1999. Still, Bale wasn’t receiving the acclaim his talent was asking for.
Finally, the break for Christian Bale was 2000’s American Psycho. The director, Mary Harron, specifically wanted Bale for this role because she believed he was able to portray both the demeaning and crazed alongside the savvy businessman for the title role of Patrick Bateman. If you have not seen this movie, let me warn you – it is not for the faint of heart. It is very gruesom and disturbing. But, when you get past all that and look at Bale’s role, you realize this man is extremely gifted! He’s able to hold these two worlds simultaneously and allow this natural talent to shine in this role. Although many critics believed this movie to be gruesome and ruthless in its depiction of the novel, Bale’s acting job did get the recognition it deserved.
Bale continued to do movie through the next few years without major success. His roles were very diverse in choice which helped to give his resume a varied nature – always helpful in being able to ward off a stereotype. His cult following began more than likely with the movie release of Equilibrium. This movie has a Matrix feel to it, especially with the fight scenes. Although this movie tanked in its earning numbers, the fanbase for this movie began to grow exponentially.
Due to the past decade of many disappointing movie choices, Bale disappeared from the movie scene for a little over a year and returned in 2004 to star as Trevor Reznik in The Machinist. Bale is best known for this role for losing so much weight and resembling a toothpick. He was very passionate about the script and the character and was determined to do whatever possible to make this role work. The movie did fairly well considering the budget was not very big but did earn most of its money overseas. The critics did approve of Bale’s acting job and when commenting on his dramatic weight loss, compared him to Robert DeNiro in Raging Bull. However, Bale’s next movie role is what caught many critics attention and acclaim.
The highly anticipated return of The Caped Crusader was to be played by Christian Bale. Even though he had just finished filming The Machinist and barely weighed anything, he was extremely motivated and goal-oriented in bulking up for this movie. He was extremely frail but put on the weight and converted it to muscle with the help of a coach. He beat out Jake Gyllenhaal for the role of Batman and thank God he did! Bale’s version of the The Dark Knight could not have been more accurate to all movie-goers alike! His role of the troubled and angry Bruce Wayne converting into the menacing and dark Batman was exactly what the previous Batman franchise should have been. Needless to say, this movie did extremely well at the box office and received very high acclaim for Bale’s portrayal of the complex character of Bruce Wayne and Batman.
Currently, there is a sequel in the works which is set to start filming in 2008. I know, it’s so far away but knowing that movie is in good hands with Christopher Nolan directing and Christian Bale starring, I won’t have any problems! But until then, Nolan and Bale are teaming up again with a cast that includes Michael Caine, Hugh Jackman and Scarlett Johansson titled, The Prestige. Adding another book adaptation to his resume doesn’t sound like a bad idea considering he’s got the support from critics and fan alike.
Bale has proven to be an extremely versatile actor and has created a name for himself that everybody recognizes and knows what kind of acting job they will receive when sitting in one of his movies. Personally, I’m glad that Bale was around to play the role of Batman because someone had to do it right and I can’t think of anyone who could’ve done it better!
In 2000, Bale married Sibi Blazic and reside in Los Angeles with their 1-year-old daughter, born on March 29, 2005.
