The Dark Knight The Christian Bale/Bruce Wayne thread

[Crook]

I personally have about five pics of Bale flicking off the camera (3 of which are professionally shot pics from photoshoots) and one is from a movie. (And quite frankly, I'm sure I have many more photos of myself flicking off cameras--not to mention COUNTLESS pics of other movie stars, sports stars and musicians giving the bird). It's a gesture a lot of people give, and you are deluding yourself if you think pics are shot of people doing that which are not meant in jest. (Do you honestly know the context of this picture is fact? Are you sure it wasn't flicked at a paparazzi? Because honestly I could post one of my Bale bird pics and create a story that he shot it at me, and would you be any wiser?)

Did that really need an entire paragraph? Yes, it's a true story. It was first posted here by a board member (my friend), and later on the wife's husband who is also a poster here, confirmed it.

But, just for the sake of argument, let's say your friend's story is legit. Put yourself in celebrities' shoes. How would you feel if people came up and snapped cameras in your face all of the time?

Terrible, obviously. But there's always a sensible way to handle things.

Please spare me the line that he is 'required' to endure it and is paid enough, etc, because what he is actually paid for is to act. To make movies, not give up 100% of his privacy for anyone he might meet on the street who wants to flash a camera in his face.

You're kidding me. ANYONE that goes in the entertainment business, especially sports, tv, or cinema, knows full well what you have to sacrifice if you end up becoming successful in that branch. On the top of that list is privacy. Anyone that goes into that business thinking, "ooh I'll become famous but I'll avoid all the tabloids and paparazzi" are delusional fools. Bale experienced this first-hand on Empire of the Sun. That's before he was even a teenager. But guess what? He continued acting. He didn't have trouble with all that publicity because even he admits he didn't really break through Hollywood yet. And I guarantee you he knew what was going to come by accepting BATMAN. Not exactly a character no one knows anything about.

He signs for fans all of the time (do a quick youtube check of Christian on the set of Public Enemies, for example.) The man has been in movies for 20 years. I can assure you he knows how to treat his fans, and fully appreciates them. But again, before you start berating someone on their behavior and judging them, maybe you should stop and ask yourself if you are sunny and happy *every second* you are on your job (you know, since that is what this is to him--WORK)

I can only speak for myself, but no I have NEVER blown up (especially like that) at work. Who are you fooling? There are very few occupations existing that you could do what Bale did, and STILL work. I would like for you to test this out and see if your ass doesn't get a verbal beatdown from your boss or just outright fired on the spot.

and then ask yourself how you might feel if you are on your down time away from work and some client pops up and wants you to drop everything you are personally doing and start paying attention to them.

I assure you everyone is aware of stress-inducing circumstances such as these. It is not limited to celebrities. What the people were doing was calling out behavior that wasn't justified and crossed the line. This isn't about blowing up or snapping for a moment. Everyone has done that. This is about tearing a co-worker a new ass-hole, repeatedly after they have apologized to you. And still disrupting the workplace when your boss and other co-workers have tried to calm you down. THAT is unprofessional.

And lastly, who cares if he is a Saint or the biggest jerk on the Earth? You don't work with him. You will probably never meet him. If you like his movies, go to them. Buy them. If you hate him, move on and never give him another thought or cent. A lot of people have attitudes and bad days and tempers and egos. They aren't exclusive to Hollywood, I assure you. It's just that their mistakes get aired allover the net and the rest of us can hide our stuff behind our computer screens. But at the end of the day, we're all flawed humans, even *GASP* Christian Bale.

Thanks for the newsflash. For a second there I thought Bale was a omniscient supergod or something.

People seem to have conveniently forgotten about that picture of Heath Ledger and Michelle Williams flipping off photographers (and Heath holding up the little sign that emphasized the gesture). But I doubt you'll be hearing all these same people talk about how horrible Heath was, and how horrible Michelle is because of that picture.

 

[Anita18]

He does it for the art? Not the buck? Then why the hell is he in a Terminator movie with McG?

You apologists are like Mafia wives.

Well, in the same vein, he shouldn't have bothered eating a snake or losing 68 lbs because nobody saw those movies to appreciate his dedication.

I dunno, I don't get the big deal about this. Yes, the guy is nuts. His utter dedication to acting proves that. Yes, he was being incredibly immature at that moment, but the important thing is, something legitimately set him off.

This wasn't Naomi Campbell accusing an assistant of taking a pair of jeans (not the assistant's fault Campbell is nuts..) and then throwing a phone at her, causing a laceration that required stitches. Nor was it Russell Crowe throwing a phone at a hotel clerk when he couldn't call his family internationally (sure wasn't that clerk's fault..).

When you've got an $100 million movie riding on your performance, and when each shot costs thousands of dollars and hours of people's time, you're a walking bucket of stress. I've only worked on a very small, very short film shoot, and by the end of the last day of filming, everyone was on edge because it was 3am, our lead actress needed to be on another set at 7am, and the DP wanted to set up another shot, which he claimed would take 20 minutes but had already taken an hour. On a set, people just want to do their jobs, and when someone is keeping you from doing your job, yes, you most certainly do get pissed off.

No, it doesn't excuse the continuous 4-minute raging, but it isn't like he'll go off on you in the middle of a coffee shop. He's nuts, but he's not THAT nuts.

 

[Ibn]

Im just hearing this. Ok. Lets just say he is a sociopath, insane, prick hollywood diva. REGARDLESS, he just delivered one of the funniest pieces of candid audio EVER. Can we all at least agree on that? I mean that was so funny, theres no way everyone on set wasn't laughing at him at the time. Even the guy being yelled at had to be fighting back chuckles. I mean

Guy : "I was looking at the lights"

Bale : "OOOOOOOOOHHHHHHH GOOD FOR YOU. HOW WAS IT!?!?!"


I mean theres so much gold in this **** its unbelievable.

 

[Ferd]

You're kidding me. ANYONE that goes in the entertainment business, especially sports, tv, or cinema, knows full well what you have to sacrifice if you end up becoming successful in that branch. On the top of that list is privacy. Anyone that goes into that business thinking, "ooh I'll become famous but I'll avoid all the tabloids and paparazzi" are delusional fools. Bale experienced this first-hand on Empire of the Sun. That's before he was even a teenager. But guess what? He continued acting. He didn't have trouble with all that publicity because even he admits he didn't really break through Hollywood yet. And I guarantee you he knew what was going to come by accepting BATMAN. Not exactly a character no one knows anything about.

If you took the time and actually went back and READ what I typed, you'd see I said a star shouldn't have to give up 100% of their privacy because they are paid to act. How do you fail to get that? Trust me, all celebrities (most especially someone who has been in the industry since they were a child) are well aware of the sacrifices they must make to live their lives while reaping the benefits of stardom (like people snapping pics of them, their wife and their child if they step a toenail outside of their house) but your eluding to the fact that fans are OWED something by celebrities is entirely off base.

I can only speak for myself, but no I have NEVER blown up (especially like that) at work. Who are you fooling? There are very few occupations existing that you could do what Bale did, and STILL work. I would like for you to test this out and see if your ass doesn't get a verbal beatdown from your boss or just outright fired on the spot.

You should've stopped with the first sentence. Yes, YOU can only speak for YOURSELF. Period. You do not know the behavior of anyone else on their job and how they might be treated if they happen to vent. Take a second and ask yourself if prison wardens and preschool teachers act the same way on their jobs. If football coaches and ballet teachers conduct themselves in the same way when they're on their jobs. And yet, they're all professionals. Don't be closed minded enough to compare your desk job or whatever to someone in the 115 degree heat playing an intense role amidst a scene supposedly in the middle of a post-Apocalyptic war. Do you think they don't use four letter wars on Marine bases? What part of 'HE WAS IN THE MIDDLE OF PLAYING A ROLE' don't you understand?

(and BTW, in a very heated fight at my work (a desk job in marketing) I went after a co-worker to the point my boss had to physically step in between us. My co-worker got written up. Two months later I was promoted.)

This isn't about blowing up or snapping for a moment. .

Um, yes it is. It is less than four minutes of a person's 20 year career. You know nothing that came before and nothing that came after. You do not know who the DP might've yelled at the day before or three weeks later or how many times Bale might've apologized. The fact is you know nothing except what you heard on a tape released by TMZ.


And lastly, your "Oh yes, I know it's true, he was one of the first posters here and his wife confirmed it" still doesn't make it so. But go ahead and keep believing everything you read on the internet.

And PS. Here's another TDK actor flicking a camera off.

 

[Bat-Mite]

Guy : "I was looking at the lights"

Bale : "OOOOOOOOOHHHHHHH GOOD FOR YOU. HOW WAS IT!?!?!"

That was hilarious. It reminded me of his role in American Psycho.

 

[hatebox]

I love the way on day 1 of its release there was genuine outrage.

A couple of days later and few creative changes to it, and it's an internet 'phenomenon' and interpreted humorously. And that's what it'll be remembered for, which might be lucky for Bale.

 

[Ibn]

That was hilarious. It reminded me of his role in American Psycho.

OH ****!! HAH! "YOU WANT ME TO ****IN TRASH YOUR LIGHTS?!!?"

Oh my god. THIS CRAAAAAZZYYY MOTHER ****ER!!!

 

[Ferd]

An article written about working with Bale from the AD of 'Rescue Dawn.'

http://open.salon.com/content.php?cid=99060

 

[YsoSerious]

Maybe Bale needs to spend a little time in Arkham.

 

[I Am The Knight]

She looks like a fawking clown. HAHA

 

[Anita18]

An article written about working with Bale from the AD of 'Rescue Dawn.'

http://open.salon.com/content.php?cid=99060

Very cool stuff. And yeah, they're all nuts.

 

[Showtime]

There are a good amount of actors who let the fame go to their heads and all of a sudden they find themselves picking on "the little people". This seems to be one of these cases. It was a ridiculous thing for Bale to do, there were many better options for handling the situation. He chose to act like that and it is what it is. It has been reported that they have long since made up, but that wasn't Bale's finest moment.

 

[Anita18]

There are a good amount of actors who let the fame go to their heads and all of a sudden they find themselves picking on "the little people". This seems to be one of these cases.

Not exactly. He wasn't picking on a PA who failed to bring him his Diet Coke. He was attacking a DP who was doing something that DPs don't typically do. A director of photography is not "a little guy" on a film shoot, not in the least.

Yes, there were many, many ways to approach the issue, and Christian chose the most immature possibility. But he isn't as much of an ass as some people are making him out to be.

 

[Franklin Richards]

If Christian were a real actor he'd go do some Children's Theatre. Talk about distractions.

 

[RakuMon]

There are a good amount of actors who let the fame go to their heads and all of a sudden they find themselves picking on "the little people". This seems to be one of these cases. It was a ridiculous thing for Bale to do, there were many better options for handling the situation. He chose to act like that and it is what it is. It has been reported that they have long since made up, but that wasn't Bale's finest moment.

Er... but this wasn't Bale blowing up at one of the "little people." It's not like he was biting off the heads of one of the gaffers or something; it was the frickin' Director of Photography. I mean, if the cinematographer can't get his act together... I was only half joking about how frustrated Bale must have been to go from a tight ship like the Nolan/Pfister shoot to working with McG and this clown.

 

[Showtime]

Not exactly. He wasn't picking on a PA who failed to bring him his Diet Coke. He was attacking a DP who was doing something that DPs don't typically do. A director of photography is not "a little guy" on a film shoot, not in the least.

Yes, there were many, many ways to approach the issue, and Christian chose the most immature possibility. But he isn't as much of an ass as some people are making him out to be.

In that situation he was most certainly an ass, there is no way around it. In that situation he was because he didn't make the right choice and made the worst one possible. Sure what the guy was doing is unorthodox, but the way it was handled was simply ridiculous. There is no way you can really justify it in my opinion.

 

[Showtime]

Er... but this wasn't Bale blowing up at one of the "little people." It's not like he was biting off the heads of one of the gaffers or something; it was the frickin' Director of Photography. I mean, if the cinematographer can't get his act together... I was only half joking about how frustrated Bale must have been to go from a tight ship like the Nolan/Pfister shoot to working with McG and this clown.

Certainly is a little person when you compare Shane to Bale. So it is ok to flip out on him in that manner because of Shane's stature? I find it ironic that Bale was calling the dude unprofessional.

 

[I Am The Knight]

It was 4 minutes. Nuff said. He could have simply said "Fawk You" and stormed off the set. But he...Didn't.

 

[gqxsensazn]

What the DP did was unprofessional. You can't go messing around with lights in the middle of shooting a scene. I would imagine they need to already be in place before. If it doesn't look right in the shot, wait until after the scene is filmed to fix it.

 

[hatebox]

This argument is going in circles.

 

[Showtime]

What the DP did was unprofessional. You can't go messing around with lights in the middle of shooting a scene. I would imagine they need to already be in place before. If it doesn't look right in the shot, wait until after the scene is filmed to fix it.

It certainly was unprofessional, but Bale's diva like flip out attack was as well. It doesn't mean that Bale acts like that all the time or is a bad guy, he just made the wrong choice in that situation. As I said, and as was reported, the two men have long since put it behind them.

 

[I Am The Knight]

Is it an argument? The general consensus seems to be that Bale was an ass-hole.

 

[hatebox]

Whoopi Goldberg (of all people) defends Bale. Please don't judge me by the website, I saw it under a google news section:

http://perezhilton.com/tv/index.php?ptvid=aaeb3534e8368

 

[terry78]

Now that she defends Bale, all those people that used to despise her, their heads are going to explode.

 

[Doctor Jones]

I'm glad she stuck up for him.

Frankly no one should be taking sides with them. It's the DP's fault for interupting and after constant Bale's warning and if you actually listen closely it was his second time doing it abd Bale for going off too much.

People should actually hear what he's saying instead of just posting on here taking sides.

Read what happened and do the homework, listen to both sides.