Christian Bale
"Bale's Final Batman Bow"
English actor Christian Bale first made his mark in American Psycho and garnered a Best Supporting Actor Oscar for The Fighter, but his greatest success became the role of a lifetime as the titular hero in Christopher Nolan’s Batman films, Batman Begins and The Dark Knight.
Now the 38 year-old returns one last time as Bruce Wayne and his caped crusading alter-ego in The Dark Knight Rises. This time out, Batman must emerge from his self-imposed exile to battle the criminal thief known as a “Catwoman,” played by Anne Hathaway, and a monstrous terrorist known as Bane, played by Tom Hardy. Bale talks about doing fight sequences with Hardy.
“The final fight sequence, we started that in Pittsburgh and we finished it in New York,” he recalls, “So it took a fair bit of time to get from one place to the other, punching each other all the way. But there was the excitement of…I don’t know how many extras were there, everybody punching each other, but it really invigorated myself and Tom Hardy, who is a formidable actor and formidable opponent. He‘s obviously the first adversary of Batman that you know could probably whip his butt, which we’d never seen before. The thing that I liked so much about the fight sequences with Batman were that they’re never just knock-down fight sequences, you learn something more about each character throughout each fight, which is the mark of a good fight.”
“You are learning about what Batman has had to go through, from the beginning of the movie until the end, in order to be able to try to defeat this man,” Christian continues, “You are learning about Bane as well and the changes that have come over him. That is always essential with any fight. That’s what you’re really looking for, we’ve seen so many people punching each other non-stop, who cares? But you’re looking for, ‘What are the changes, what are the weaknesses, what are the
Christian Bale
"Bale's Final Batman Bow"
Christian shared his journey of having donned what had been previously worn by Adam West, Michael Keaton, Val Kilmer, and George Clooney from the beginning of shooting Batman Begins to the end of shooting this film.
“I think the very first time I had the costume on, it was at the audition, it was Val Kilmer’s Batman costume. It’s didn’t fit very well,” Bale recalls, laughing, “The first time that I ever put on the actual one myself, I thought, oh, Chris has to recast, because the claustrophobia was just unbelievable. And I stood there and I thought, I can’t breathe, I can’t think, this is too tight, this is squeezing my head, I’m in a panic, I’m about to have a nervous breakdown. I’m having a panic attack right this second! So, I breathed deeply and I asked for 20 minutes by myself. I said, ‘Could everyone just leave me alone for 20 minutes.’ So everyone left me alone for 20 minutes and I stood there and thought, ‘I’d really like to make this movie, I‘d like to be able to get through this moment here.’ So I just stood for 20 minutes by myself, called everyone back in and I was like, ‘OK, lets all talk very calmly and quietly please. Maybe I can get through this,’ and I learnt to.
“Then, similarly, after 20 more months of wearing that cowl, it became in the same way that Bruce Wayne improves the suit, we improved the suit for ourselves, and it became far more comfortable,” he adds, “And primarily, that panic attack aspect, that was lost because I was able to rip it off myself if I ever did start seeing stars and I couldn’t breathe. But it was a very similar thing at the end of shooting The Dark Knight Rises.
Christian Bale
"Bale's Final Batman Bow"
