Christian Bale once wanted to pee on a critic’s shoes for commenting on his weight loss in movies
Christian Bale has been known to change his body to fully transform into his characters. He has received many comments about his fluctuating weight over the years, which have mostly been positive.
However, there was one critic who commented on Bale’s “signature weight loss” in the movies. It was a phrase that completely brushed Bale.
Christian Bale once feared that his dramatic weight losses could inspire tragedy among the actors.
Bale’s commitment to his characters has led him to change his body in massive and sometimes unhealthy ways. It has not only led Bale to change physically, but also emotionally. In an interview with The Guardian, Bale spoke about his dramatic weight loss during The Machinist. The role saw him lose over 62 pounds, which was showcased in the critically acclaimed thriller.
The dark knight star insisted that being so skinny put him in a state of mind he hasn’t experienced since.
“It’s an amazing experience to do that. When you are so skinny that you can barely walk up a flight of stairs… you are like a being of pure thought. It is as if you have left your body. That is the most zen state I have ever been in. Sleep two hours, read a book for 10 hours straight without stopping… incredible. You couldn’t irritate me,” she said.
However, in later years he recognized how dangerous this kind of commitment could be. But it is not only dangerous for himself, but also for other actors. He warned other actors not to follow in his footsteps, if only because he feared it would lead to tragedy.
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“I’m worried that this will become a regular conversation because it’s not healthy for people to do that,” Bale once told Yahoo. “And it becomes kind of a marker of commitment to your craft or whatever. I never saw it like this. I just said, ‘Oh, I think I have to do this.’ I worry when it becomes a marker of ‘How committed are you to a role?’ ‘How much did you lose?’ And eventually, there will be some tragedy because of this. It should be an anomaly. You go for the essence of the character.’”
At one point, Bale shared that he had a problem with the way certain critics discussed his weight loss. He felt that he wasn’t doing justice to the extremes of his transformation by talking about it like it was a trick.
“To be honest, I find it laughable that it’s considered a bullshit gimmick, it’s so condescending,” he once said. Empire (via New Castle Herald). “For God’s sake, don’t people understand the pain it is to do? It’s like it’s a comment about, ‘Oh, it’s easy for him, because he’s done it a bunch of times.’ It’s not easy, it’s not fun, it’s horrible.”
In particular, there was one critic who commented on his dramatic weight loss in a way that Bale didn’t like. Criticism focused on the weight he lost in David O’Russell’s film The fighter. In the film, Bale again drastically slimmed down to fit the role. But it was a change that he felt was necessary.
“I would never choose to do that, but it’s a part that I like and he’s a welterweight and he’s a crack addict. I don’t know about you, but I’ve never seen a welterweight with any fat, or a crack addict. So that’s just what you end up having to do. Someone told me someone wrote something about my ‘trademark weight loss’. I would just like to pee on that guy’s shoes,” he added.
Christian Bale finishes transforming his body for the movies
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It seems that the days of Bale fluctuating his weight so drastically are over. The actor once revealed to E-News that he just doesn’t think his body can handle such transformations anymore.
“I’ve become a bit more boring now, because I’m older and I feel like if I keep doing what I’ve done in the past, I’m going to die. So, I’d rather not die,” Bale shared.
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