Total Number of Ratings: 3
You WANT Christian Bale to Freak Out
Tuesday, February 3, 2009 2:44 PM
Christian Bale's tirade is making the rounds out there on the web. The short story is, while working on Terminator Salvation, the Director Photography, Shane Hurlbut got in the way of the shot, taking Bale out of the scene, and Bale went off .
Of course, like Alec Baldwin before him, and countless others, a dude who's job it is to be constantly catered to doesn't act like normal people. In Baldwin's case, he won an Emmy. So guess the taint didn't stick.
But, of course it didn't. We want our celebrities to be nut jobs. Well, some of them at least. We also want the ones who we thing "are just like us." It all comes with the package. Eventually it will become either forgotten or Hollywood legend, depending on his Bale's career pans out. It's happened before, and it will happen again. In the short term, I think the producers of Terminator Salvation should be fairly pleased, because I still think it's about 17 years too late to try to make anyone really care about Terminator again.
Does Bale have to worry about this ruining his career? Hardly. In addition to Baldwin's public meltdown, so many stars images have been buoyed rather than tarnished by erratic behavior. Marlo Brando is loved for his craziness. In 2001, he refused to wear pants, and wouldn't talk to Frank Oz, who was directing The Score. Brando famously showed up late, completely unprepared, and grossly overweight for his highly paid role in Apocalypse Now. Jack Nicholson, Matthew McConnaghey, Dennis Hopper, Sean Penn, Mariah Carey, Russell Crowe, Tom Cruise, and countless othes, not to mention king of the super crazies, Harvey Weinstein have all made careers of having less than honed senses of humor, and hair triggers. It could easily be argued that it's helped more than hindered. Peter Biskind has made a career writing about legendary celebrity tantrums, among other things, in his books Easy Riders Raging Bulls and Down and Dirty Pictures, both boks containing countless stories making Bale's tirade seem downright docile. Orson Wells beat him to it decades ago, producing countless drunken rants during his commercial days.
At the end of the day, is anyone really surprised that Bale went a bit nuts? This a guy who went down to skeletal levels for his role in The Machinist, a film no one's ever mentioned again, unless talking about how creepy Bale looked, and in explaining how he went from concentration camp skinny to hulking as Bruce Wayne in no time. This is a guy who decided to speak in an American accent (he's Welsh) during the entire filming and promotional process of Batman Begins, and didn't think it was weird in the least. This is a guy who played Patrick Bateman in American Psycho, which is, frankly, creepy enough on its own.
So is he crazy? Sure, probably a bit. But do we want him that way? Hell yes we do. We need him that way. It makes him more fun to watch. All celebrities can't be Greg Kinnear cuddly, and artists aren't historically the most well tempered and adjusted individuals on the planet. I say, bring on more crazy. It makes for great film.
But this is Christian Bale we're talking about.
The pre-teen trapped deep inside me is still struggling with the idea that he's not all that great of an actor and must now concede that Laurie is one of "those guys" as well.
she is understandably bummed.
I'm just now coming out of my winter stand up hybernation. and I once got into a bar fight with a heckler who ripped into a first timer on open mike night. I hate when people disrepect work. Have a drink, boo if you must, but do not heckle.
Dave Smash! So I'm behind Mr Bale on that this one.
Honestly I think the DP got off easy. Bale's fury was totally warranted. People make judgment calls on this, but how many of them have actually been on a film shoot? Stress runs high. This shouldn't be shocking.
You know... in July, he was arrested for beating up his mom. Given the reaction to this, I think his biggest sin was being recorded.
I believe that that assault situation involving his mom and sister was shown to be not quite as clear cut as originally reported.
I'm pretty sure (don't quote me) that the arrest incident was within a couple of weeks of this incident. Perhaps it was just a bad time to be Batman.
Still. I don't particularly care that he went off. It's not going to make me boycott his movies or anything. That just seems useless.
Apparently that was a "verbal assault". If I got arrested for screaming at my mum, (and she did for yelling at me), we'd both be locked up for the rest of our lives. I don't know what the story is, but as the product of a shouty family, I think it's unfair to brand him as a "mom-beater" because of this.
Seeing as to how we give so many celebs a pass for the nuttiness, I think we require one or two who seem normal and level -- but unfortunately, I think Bale counted as one of the "good ones."
The reactions to this drive me a bit off the wall. It wasn't a prima donna hissy fit over there not being enough blue M&Ms on the craft services table. The DP (for pete's sake) walked into a shot. Several times! When you're in a difficult place for a scene and things get disrupted because of carlessness, I can see getting pissed. Now, no one deserves to be treated the way Bale flew off, but really now...
As the man being crazy? Oh yeah. I'm with you on that one. He's outta there. Let's not forget he was a child actor either, that's recipe for mental disaster right there. I just don't think this was a show of it.
I agree with you. Acting is really strange and difficult. What must it be like to have to emotionally bare one's soul in front of 30 people with cameras and lights etc, while trying to forget they're there? I can't imagine it's easy, so if an actor gets miffed when someone interrupts that process, that seems fair enough to me.
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