Christian Bale covers the November issue of GQ to promote his latest film, David O. Russell’s Amsterdam. This is his third film with Russell, and in the GQ piece, Bale calls their relationship a beautiful relationship. Russell has a decades-long history of being extremely problematic, from his toxic, screaming relationship with “muse” Jennifer Lawrence to his emotionally abusive working relationship with Amy Adams. In fact, when Bale and Adams worked with Russell, Russell would scream at her and get in her face to the point where she cried every day on set. Bale intervened and told Russell to back off. Bale downplays that in this interview and I guess it speaks volumes that they still have a working relationship. Oh, and don’t forget that Russell also assaulted his transgender niece. I bring up Bale’s relationship with Russell because it’s sprinkled throughout this GQ piece and Bale doesn’t come across particularly well. Some highlights:
Having three films out this year: “Nobody needs that. I don’t need it. No one else needs to see me that much.”
He’s lived in LA since the 1990s: “You can live here and not be in the middle of the film community. I’m not. I don’t have anything to do with it. I’m here because my wife is from here. If she wasn’t, we probably wouldn’t. But people sort of imagine film people swanning about, hanging out with each other all the time, talking about films, and that just makes me want to slam my head into the table.”
He’s content not to work: “More than content: f–king ecstatic. I’ve always been bent on “When’s this gonna end? This has to end.” I like doing things that have nothing to do with film. And I find myself very happily not playing dress-up, not pretending to be somebody else for long lengths of time.
He was paid the minimum for American Psycho: “Well, in honesty, the first thing was that I’d taken so long trying to do it, and they had paid me the absolute minimum they were legally allowed to pay me. And I had a house that I was sharing with my dad and my sister and that was getting repossessed. So the first thing was: “Holy crap. I’ve got to get a bit of money,” because I’ve got American Psycho done, but I remember one time sitting in the makeup trailer and the makeup artists were laughing at me because I was getting paid less than any of them. And so that was my motivation after that. Was just: “I got to get enough that the house doesn’t get repossessed.” It’s how I’ve supported people since I was 12, 13 years old. So it’s always been there, that element to it. There was never a moment where it was like, “I think I’d like to take four years off.” No. That just isn’t gonna happen. That’s not possible.
He’s gotten tons of roles which Leo DiCaprio passed on: “Oh, dude. It’s not just me. Look, to this day, any role that anybody gets, it’s only because he’s passed on it beforehand. It doesn’t matter what anyone tells you. It doesn’t matter how friendly you are with the directors. All those people that I’ve worked with multiple times, they all offered every one of those roles to him first. Right? I had one of those people actually tell me that. So, thank you, Leo, because literally, he gets to choose everything he does. And good for him, he’s phenomenal.
Why he moved to LA: “I came here for work. And then I would always go back. But I never got any work back in England. And I’d always get work out here. And then I brought my dad out because, for his health, the climate and everything was much better here.
He admires Chris Rock (who is in Amsterdam): I’m literally like: “I can’t do this because I will be the worst actor you’ve ever seen if we keep on chatting.” You know, with Amsterdam, I had to say that to Chris Rock. I had to go there and say that to him. I f–king love his stand-up. And when he arrived I was like, “Ah, wow, great. Yeah, how you doing, man?” Chatting a little bit. And then I went to do a scene, and I went, “Oh, my God. I’m just Christian, standing here, being a fan of Chris Rock.” So I went to him. I went, “Mate, I got to keep my distance.” Have you tried swimming and laughing at the same time? I don’t know about you. I’d drown. I cannot laugh and swim at the same time. It’s that. So I had to, much as I would’ve loved to have kept on chatting and talking. He went, “Oh, you’re pulling the a–hole card. You’re going to be an a–hole and not talk.” And I went, “Yeah. Sorry, mate.” And it was my loss, you know?
Meeting David O. Russell when he auditioned for ‘Three Kings’: “ I love him to death. And it was the beginning of a beautiful relationship.
Russell’s difficult sets: “If I can have some sense of understanding of where it’s coming from, then I do tend to attempt to be a mediator. That’s just in my nature, to try to say, “Hey, come on, let’s go and sit down and figure that out. There’s gotta be a way of making this all work.”
On being the “mediator” between Amy Adams & Russell: “No. No, no, no. No. You’re dealing with two such incredible talents there. No, I don’t let that get in the way whatsoever. Look, if I feel like we got anywhere close—and you only ever get somewhere close to achieving; our imagination is too incredible to ever entirely achieve it—but if you get anywhere close to it, and when you’re working with people of the crazy creative talent of Amy or of David, there are gonna be upsets. But they are f–king phenomenal. Also, you got to remember, it was the nature of the characters as well. Right? Those characters were not people who back down from anything, right?
How he feels he handled that situation in retrospect: “I did what I felt was appropriate, in very Irv style.
I actually don’t get a “mediator” vibe from Bale at all in this interview. He comes across as a guy who’s in his own head to the point where he rarely sees or understands what’s going on with his coworkers. Which makes me think that what went down between Adams and Russell was so bad, even Bale noticed it, which means it was completely obvious and horrible. As for Amsterdam, it’s not like Bale was just an “actor for hire” on the film – he’s the producer, and he was attached to it before Russell. This was Bale choosing to work with Russell yet again, even after all of the sh-t Russell has done to actresses and actors. And his niece.
Cover and IG courtesy of GQ.
ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7pLHLnpmirJOdxm%2BvzqZmcHBnZ4V5e8KhqaKrpJ6ur6vBmqOel5Ohrqq50pifnquPqbWmq8yem6KZpKS%2FoLvNmJuarpmZrLCr0a6qrJ2cocCgrcGuqqKulZTApsDSaA%3D%3D