Christian Bale has earned a standout reputation as an actor by disappearing thoroughly into his characters, whether by losing weight, learning sleight-of-hand, eating worms, or spending hours with someone to absorb his mannerisms. “I like the idea of movies having a magic element,” he once said. “How many times have you seen an actor in a movie who you know only as the character? It’s wonderful, isn’t it?”
Bale’s immersive style returns to theaters twice this month, first in “Out of the Furnace,” opening December 6, for which he worked inside a steel mill to portray a laborer seeking the truth behind his younger brother’s disappearance. Scott Cooper (“Crazy Heart”) directed and co-wrote the thriller, which co-stars Casey Affleck, Woody Harrelson, Forest Whitaker, and Willem Dafoe. (Watch the trailer below.)
For “American Hustle,” opening December 18, Bale gained more than forty pounds, acquired a comb-over, and herniated two disks by slouching to embody a conman forced to work for an FBI agent (Bradley Cooper) in this fictionalization of the late-1970s ABSCAM scandal. Amy Adams plays his sexy partner and Jennifer Lawrence his wild-card wife. The film re-teams Bale with David O. Russell, the director behind 2010’s “The Fighter,” which netted Bale an Oscar. Acting, to Bale, is about empathy. “It’s got to do with putting yourself in other people’s shoes and seeing how far you can come to truly understand them,” he’s said.
Learn more about Bale in my piece at Word & Film here.