Christian Bale is intense - Page 2

What about personally? If he thinks he's still going to the pub with the guy after this...

Tom Logan,

Is there some physical impairment that prevents you from hitting the space bar after commas and periods? I don't even try to wade through your posts anymore, which is a simple and easy solution, but it's just so bizarre, I have to ask.

Yeah professionally your screwed but sociallly if you play your cards right we could be BFF's.

"If you'll be my bodyguard,i can be your long lost pal,i can call you Hurly and Hurly when you call me you can call me Bale...wot?!..........shut the fuck up Bryce!!!"




(no problemo Schwartz,I don't bother reading them myself so it's alright.)

As someone with a being mean video on the internet, I can say that the most disturbing part is that Bale seems ready to hit the dude for real.

Ditto

Regardless of fault and propriety, the person I feel the worst for is Howard. She'd have to compose herself after Bale exploded like that in front of her and work on camera to finish up whatever scene they were doing (course they may have been shooting coverage on Bale).

Don't mess up your lines, honey.

Nah, the dude isn't his mother.

Hey-oh!

If I was Howard and Bale exploded like that in front of me and all the other guys on set cowered in fear it would make my panties super wet.

Where I come from if some talks to you like that and you don't fuck their shit up then you are a pussy and deserve to be treated as such. If Bale yelled at me like that we'd have to fucking throw down. I lived in a trailer until I was sixteen for Christ's sake. I wouldn't stand for nonsense like that.

God you're tiresome.

I always knew Bale was bad newsies.

I can't fucking wait for the inevitable Funny or Die parody with Michael Cera as Christian Bale.

Maybe this shit will finally get that Public Enemies trailer rolling.

What's the word on this DP?

Hush, Devin. I for one eagerly await further details of how the ass-kicking Face Man totally would have handed Bale would've theoretically gone down. I bet he would've choked the hypothetical shit out of that bitch.

Really though, as far as angry blow-up recordings go, this is only a C+ at best, even though "I'm not the one walking!" is going into my vocabulary.

Yeah, it seems like the DP was adjusting lights near Bale's eyeline, possibly for the reverse shot or something. Not exactly the smartest move ever, but on a fast-moving set, pretty understandable. I only wish Bale had included the grumbly Batman voice in the accents he modulated between.

According to TMZ, this set incident happened a few days before Mommy paid him a visit in London. If she walked into that room and started adjusting lights, I could see him popping one upside her head.

I listened again after I got home. At work I had to keep it so low that I couldn't hear the DP.

Jesus, Bale comes off as an ass. Now, I could STILL somewhat understand the yelling up to a point. But how many minutes can you go on like that when the guy is apologizing in such a meek, sincere way?

But he crosses the line when like two minutes in he (seems to) lunge at the guy and threatens to kick his ass. Sounds like he's somewhat restrained too. THAT is when it really becomes totally uncalled for and unprofessional in the highest sense.

Berate the guy for fucking up a scene if you want, but fucking hell, don't threaten to beat people up. You'll truly create a bad reputation and a bad environment on set with everyone around you.

And McG comes off like a whimpering Chihuahua in this. He really should've done more on both ends.

/my "wasn't there so I don't even understand the context" rant

That was hilarious, more so by the fact I had "Alison" by Elvis Costello playing while listening to it for so reason.

Face Man, I just want to make sure you understand how a set like this works. If you keep fucking Bale up and crossing his eyeline, and he chews you out about it, you apologize and take whatever he has to dish out without making ANY excuses. This DP made things worse by trying to talk back at all. If you fucked up, you fucked up, and you'd better shut the fuck up and pray you still have a job.

If this DP was even a little bit confrontational like you imply you would be, he might have trouble working for a long time.

- Of course we don't know the context, but Bale crossed the damn line. Yeah, blow up at the guy, let off some steam, but then let it go. Move the fuck on. He just kept going after him verbally and made things much worse than they should have been.

- I think the DP had two options here: 1) sit there and take it the entire time, not muttering any defense except to explain what he was doing; or 2) admit he screwed up but then stand up to Bale when he kept going on and on and on and on. If McG had any control over the set, maybe the DP would have tried option #2, but he probably figured there was no chance of keeping his job if he said anything to Bale.

- McG is a doormat apparently. When Bale asked him if he had anything to say, McG shouldn't have copped out by saying he didn't even see it and turning the floor back over to the star. Say you didn't see it, that it was a mistake, that the DP obviously is sorry and will be more careful and lets MOVE THE FUCK ON WITH FILMING THE SCENE.

- I would have LOVED to hear Bale try this if Cameron was directing. (Well, it wouldn't have happened if Cameron was calling the shots because Cameron would have better control of his set, but still...)



I'm sure my comments are all very unrealistic, considering I have never spent a day on a film set.

Domingo, if McG had more control over the set or was a higher-profile director, do you think that he could keep the DP on if he eventually stood up to Bale after the guy was threatening to kick his ass? Fuck, if Bale swung on the guy, would he be allowed to defend himself without fear of being fired?

Domingo's talking from the position of a PA. Shane Hurlbut is the cinematographer. Bale wasn't yelling at the catering dude here. This is a bigger than average deal.

So how much of a mess is this movie going to be?

I am not. The DP needs to control the situation the same way as a PA, or myself an AD, or anyone on set would. This is obviously more substantial than yelling at some PA, but the DP should have sure as shit handled it like a PA.

I love how this has turned into whether or not "Face Man" is cut out for the movie business.

He's not.

Moving on...

I don't think a star throwing a hissy fit dooms any movie to being a mess, especially something like this. If this were Edward Norton, I imagine that'd be more of a question.

Should I be impressed the tape didn't surface sooner, since the articles indicate this is from July? Or is it more of a fluke that it got out? We've seen this and the I <3 Huckabees fights, but not really a flood of high-end embarrassment, not counting celebs who seem engineered for tabloids.

Edit: Yeah, where's my Ed Norton youtubes? And on the "mess" tip, you'd never know about those Huckabees fights from watching the movie. When you rewatch the movie, you convince yourself you can feel it, but those folks did all right.

I disagree 100%. DP is below the line, but he doesn't get treated like a PA. At all. It's a position of respect (especially for actors - you get the DP pissed at you and he will literally make you look bad in the film), especially since Hurlbut worked with McG before. And I know that he and McG have been working together very closely on the look of the film, something McG is very proud of.

Maybe not, but combined with what we've seen of the film and McG's track record (to say nothing of his inability to man up and diffuse this situation) it leaves one to wonder.

This story has been out since July, but I don't know why the tape only now surfaced. Maybe because the bond company filed it away since the film is done.

Unruly graceless talent, a weak director, and an unacceptably careless DP... I bet that was a slog for everyone else in the production. What a nasty gig that must have been.

Weather conditions sucked as well. They were hosing down the set to keep everyone from choking on dust, and it was hot as fuck. Oh, and they were writing the film as they went.

My point isn't to say he doesn't deserve respect and that Bale was right, my point is that the DP didn't help his situation by trying to explain to Bale what had gone wrong, or what light needed whatever flag or scrim adjusted. Bale wanted to vent, instead of going to the first AD and suggesting he stop the DP from crossing his eyeline he did this. Very bad. But then the DP didn't help out his own situation.

Jesus christ. It still amazes me that films with such an inconceivable amount of money on the line are actually allowed to go forward with an amorphous script. The fact that it happens on a regular basis (seemingly)... unbelievable.

That empty hole on their summer schedule ain't gonna wait for a script.

Bale should watch Herzog's 'My Best Fiend' to learn how to really throw a set fit.

Bale is already signed for the sequels, right? This just sounds like it was a cluster fuck of a film to get made. If this is a hit, I wonder if he'll try to pull an Oldman and get out of the next two films? Imagine what will happen to the next poor DP once he's found out that he can't.

Looking at the DP's resume, it's likely he is not used to having to tiptoe around this particular acting approach. You can probably wander all around Kirsten Dunst's eyeline, and Matthew McConaghey would probably give you a friendly nod without breaking character.

The DP's excuse, that he was checking a light, seems off in that there's nothing he can do about said light until the take is over. He's not (or shouldn't, at least) be adding a scrim during a take. Check the frame during the take.

That don't make it right. You'd have to weave some major fucking context indeed before Bale starts to look sympathetic here.

I will be curious to see just how much more this turns people off to him than the "use your own imagination to hear him" version/police business last year. My guess is lots, and not in a "second strike" kind of way. Ungentlemanly.

Bale's problem is that he's never been quite a star, and part of that has been because he's been undefined. He's not good with the press, he doesn't show up at lots of wacky events, he doesn't end up in the gossip column. Stars need narratives to be stars, otherwise there's nothing to hold on to. Now he has a narrative, but the narrative is that he has anger issues. It would be one thing if Bale was delivering performances that were getting noticed by the Academy or if he was also gregarious - ie, Russell Crowe is a big cock but it seems to be part of his big personality - but Bale seems to be just an unfun asshole.

I've been saying that he needs to do a couple of roles where he smiles and jokes. This should be priority 1 for his agent RIGHT NOW. If he keeps being dour guy and has one more outburst, he's toxic.

But then he's still only Hugh Jackman. Or Mcconaghey. (and I like em both just fine, but there are limits to how much you can make the public care about certain figures.)

Yeah, but Hugh Jackman's not considered a cocksucker. Even though rumor is that he literally sucks cocks.

Sorry, this just doesn't seem that bad to me. It was a blow up on set. Get over it.

Also, if Bale was known already to be an asshole, even more reason for people to be walking on eggshells. And sorry, the DP has no reason to be in the actor's eye line. That's the first thing I learned on set.

This should have never been released. I am sure a lot more than this happened on that set - as it does on every set.

Homophobe!

I waited in line with him (and by with, I mean 10 people down) for 40 minutes for the Rudo y Cursi premiere at Sundance and he just kinda looks like a miserable guy. Can't say I saw him smile.

I'm with Phil and others who've said that while the DP certainly did fuck up here, Bale just took it a little too far. I was with him for the first minute or so, but jesus christ man. Move on.

Maybe, but it comes off as an enormous overreaction on his part. He sounds like the South Park parody of Russell Crowe wanting to fight everybody because "his scene" was ruined. It's not like he's curing cancer.

Whenever Bale has smiled or laughed on screen, I've never bought it. Something has always been a bit off about it. It seems like it takes an actual effort on his part to contort his face into a smile. Putting Bale into a lighthearted comedic role just sounds like it would be a disaster.

Bale certainly isn't known as the life of the party, but until this July he wasn't known as a raging asshole. It sounds like he's had some personal problems and had a meltdown. It's not good and doesn't excuse him, but he's got a long way to go before he's labeled "toxic".

And Bale being 'funny' just reads as scary. I don't think that will work. He's just not funny. If he behaves himself, he'll be fine.

The public at-large heard about him being an asshole this past July, but I have a feeling he had a history of this kinda shit behind the scenes well before then.