Sorry that I have not been posting as frequently. I am currently recovering from a collapsed lung and just have not had a lot of energy recently. I should be able to be back to posting pretty regularly withing a day or so. I hope you enjoy the Top Five Christian Bale Roles
With a mother who performed in the circus and a father that was a commercial pilot, who ever thought Christian Bale would become one of the biggest actors of his generation. Arguable the best active method actor, Bale still plays a huge role in Hollywood. While he may be annoying to work with (see my list of the hardest actors to work with: http://bit.ly/1IDTiUK), here are Bale’s best five acting roles:
#5: Trevor Reznik (The Mechinist-2004)
Considering how buff we know Bale is now, this picture shows the crazy lengths he will go to in an effort to get into character. In The Mechinist, Trevor Reznik is an engineer that suffers from long-term insomnia and hasn’t slept in over a year. He is blamed for a workplace incident that results in a coworker losing an arm. We see the insomnia’s effect on him as delusions and hallucinations plague his life. While it can be a tough movie to watch, The Mechinist was one of Bale’s best performances.
#4: Irving Rosenfeld (American Hustle-2013)
From Trevor Reznik to Irving Rosenfeld, Bale has shown that he is not concerned for his weight when it comes to acting. Shortly after filming The Dark Knight Rises, he began working on gaining weight for his role in American Hustle. Bale does a great job of portraying a man who has found himself forced to commit fraud and break the law to support himself. When he meets Sydney Prosser (Amy Adams), he wants to start his life over and leave New York, but he cannot bring himself to leave his wife (Jennifer Lawrence) and his son. Who ever thought that he would look like this: http://bit.ly/1hsiliD
#3: Dicky Eklund (The Fighter-2010
Bale won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor in The Fighter. In a movie based on the true story of “Irish” Micky Ward (Mark Wahlberg), he plays Ward’s half-brother, Dicky Eklund, who helps train Ward into the boxer he is. Bale once again showed his method acting as he stayed in character during the entire filming process. The Fighter was another movie where Christian Bale had to drop a ton of weight for his character. It is definitely a must-see movie and one of the best sports movies created.
#2: Batman (Dark Knight Trilogy-2005-2012)
Christian Bale was the perfect choice for Batman when Christopher Nolan decided to make a realistic depiction of the superhero. He convinced everybody that a man could dress up as a bat and run around stopping crime. In the three movies, he has everybody convinced that he is Bruce Wayne, not Bale. While everybody focused on Heath Ledger’s performance in The Dark Knight, Bale’s performance goes under the radar as he plays an effective Batman.
Honorable Mention
Dan Evans (3:10 to Yuma-2007)
Alfred Borden (The Prestige-2006)
#1: Patrick Bateman (American Psycho-2000)
Successful businessman by day, ruthless serial killer by night, Patrick Bateman is a take off of Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho. The movie does a great job of showing us inside the mind of a murderous sociopath. This movie skyrocketed Bale into the mainstream and made him a hot commodity. While the movie touches on some darker matter and includes a few graphic scenes, American Psycho is a solid movie that is a good horror-comedy flick. It is, by far, Bale’s best performance (just watch the opening monologue http://bit.ly/1mSd1s).
As a method actor, Christian Bale has given us many great performances. He is willing to do just about anything for a role. This picture shows what he is capable of doing in only a few MONTHS:
and there is no way that I could leave you guys without a link for his outburst on the set of Terminator: Salvation (warning: it’s pretty explicit: http://bit.ly/120lkeo).
Which actor or director should I do next? Comment and let me know!
CinemaStickler 