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For any director looking for an actor who will go to extreme lengths to deliver your vision of a character, Christian Bale is your guy. Through his 42-year acting career, Bale has carved out a reputation for being fully committed to the requirements of a character and being brilliant at executing versatile characters.
This English actor’s first role came at the age of 13, starring in Steven Spielberg’s 1987 film Empire of the Sun. Of course, today, he is perhaps best known for his portrayal of Patrick Bateman in Mary Harron’s 2000 film American Psycho. To prepare for the role of the investment banker with a serial killer alter ego, Bale transformed his physique to become more “lean and chiselled”, perfectly capturing Bateman’s unsettling duality.
His most impressive—and concerning—transformation, however, was four years later for Brad Anderson’s 2004 thriller The Machinist. The film follows the story of a severely insomniac, Trevor Reznic, played by Bale in the lead role. His condition resulted in him not sleeping for a year, taking a severe physical toll on his body and making him emaciated. To portray this character and his struggles convincingly, Bale lost significant weight and followed an alarming diet.
Speaking to Stephen Applebaum for the BBC, Bale said before the script of The Machinist arrived, he had not worked in a while because he had not found a project he was interested in. “Then when this one did, I just didn’t want to put it down,” he said. The actor was particularly drawn to the script as it left many subtle clues and created not only an excellent character but also a potentially great movie. Director Anderson described the screenplay as “spooky, elegant, and visual” and immediately decided he wanted to make it. He also explained that Bale getting on board with the project helped them create some more momentum.
Bale’s commitment towards losing weight was fuelled by a look he had envisioned for the character. He stuck to a diet of around 100 calories a day, consisting of an apple, water, coffee, and an occasional whiskey. He also smoked a lot for this transformation and lost 28kg in only four months. During this process, he lost 9kg more than what his nutritionist recommended as a safe amount.
The actor began this process with no idea how much weight he would lose to find what he was searching for. Soon after The Machinist, Bale played the role of Batman in Batman Begins. He switched to the opposite extreme for this role, gaining 45kg of muscle. In fact, the director of the Dark Knight Trilogy, Christopher Nolan, asked Bale to lose a few pounds following this transformation.
This was not the last time Bale underwent extreme physical transformations for a role either. He gained around 18kg for American Hustle in 2013 and again in 2018 for Vice. Although these changes were disturbing for his wife and others around him, his faith in a good script and commitment to bringing the script to life has cemented him as an excellent actor today.
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