Christian Bale (24 page)

While Christian's career was heating up, so was his personal life. Just days after
American Psycho
premiered at Sundance, Christian eloped with Sandra “Sibi” Blazic in Las Vegas.

The couple began quietly dating in the summer of 1999, after reportedly meeting at a backyard barbeque thrown by Winona Ryder and managed to keep their relationship under the radar of any press. Standing 5 feet 11 inches tall, stunning Sibi had attended USC, did some fashion modeling, and even appeared in celebrity makeup artist Kevyn Aucoin's book
Face Forward
before she began working as a personal assistant for Ryder.

The couple tied the knot on January 29, 2000, just a day before Christian's twenty-sixth birthday.

While David was all smiles to the newlyweds, in reality, he did not take the news well. It was dawning on him that he was losing control of his son. Christian had defied his career advice about
American Psycho
, and it had paid off. And Christian was beginning to question some of the financial decisions his father had made on his behalf.

A few nights after Christian and Sibi got married, David and I sat together at the pub in Barnabey's Hotel in Manhattan Beach. He was wallowing in his fourth pint, bemoaning the fact that his son had married suddenly and secretively. I was doing my best to console him.

“David, I'm sure Christian had his reasons.”

“You don't understand!” David was practically weeping. “I've lost my son! I've lost my son!”

“I'm sorry, David . . .”

But then David angrily shook his head, raised a pint to the heavens, and bellowed,

“HOW MUCH SHARPER THAN A SERPENT'S TOOTH IT IS TO HAVE A THANKLESS CHILD!”

The pub went silent. I wanted to crawl under the table.

The year 2000 would be a major turning point for Christian and David. Adding to David's misery over his son's marriage, David had more problems. The INS (Immigration and Naturalization Service now known as Citizenship and Immigration Services) had discovered that David had long overstayed his six
month visitor's visa. He had been stalling INS proceedings against him begun in 1999 by claiming medical duress. David steadfastly claimed that he was unable to fly and therefore unable to be deported. He produced two doctor's letters—one wasn't even from a doctor—to keep the INS at bay with claims of medical problems that made it impossible for him to board an airplane. But after overstaying his visitor's visa for almost eight years, the INS finally issued a deportation order. It looked like David's California dreaming had come to an end.

Christian and Sibi at the Sundance Film Festival.

 

A
merican Psycho
was the breakthrough role that Christian needed. Thanks to his dedication, he transformed himself physically from the lanky boy from Bournemouth with the peaches and cream complexion and the English teeth to a tanned, muscled American hunk in a movie that garnered critical raves and a cult following. Christian was now getting more scripts to look at as he was clearly an actor who was committed to his roles.

Most importantly, Christian was expanding the Balehead fan base. His fans had previously been mostly college or high school girls, but a role like Patrick Bateman invited Bret Easton Ellis fans and others who followed off-the-wall serial killer portrayals. It
was the old Hollywood maxim at work again. A Hollywood star needed to attract both men
and
women—men who wanted to be like him and women who wanted to sleep with him.

Thanks to the success of
American Psycho
in its limited release and on video, Lionsgate immediately green-lit two sequels, which were released in 2002.
The Rules of Attraction
starred James Van Der Beek as Patrick Bateman's cousin, Sean. Desperate for Christian to make a cameo in his movie, Van Der Beek wrote a letter to Christian but he was unmoved. He didn't want to revisit the part.
The Rules of Attraction
, like
American Psycho
, was at least based on a Bret Easton Ellis novel but odder still was Lionsgate's second sequel project, which was released straight to video—
American Psycho 2: All American Girl
. Starring Mila Kunis (
The Black Swan, That 70s Show
) and William Shatner (
Star Trek
, of course!), this turkey was Lionsgate's none-too-subtle move from artsy independent films to the studio that would produce the
Saw
franchise.

American Psycho
proved that Christian looked good as a killer, particularly in a tuxedo, so it was no surprise that Christian was invited to meet with Barbara Broccoli, the producer of the James Bond movies. Broccoli was looking ahead for the next James Bond after Pierce Brosnan's contract expired. She intimated that the role of 007 would be Christian's for the asking.

The meeting was polite and cordial but Christian was not interested in being committed to a franchise that was very British. He thought that James Bond represented every despicable stereotype about England and British actors. Besides, he quipped: “I've already played a serial killer.”

But Christian was still very keenly aware that an actor had to be competitive. The battle with DiCaprio for
American Psycho
taught Christian a lesson. He could not sit back and passively wait for roles to come to him. His father had coddled him so much that Christian sort of expected that roles would be offered
to the “greatest actor in the world.” And Christian continued to compete for roles against his old nemesis Ethan Hawke. He lost a part in
The Newton Boys
when he was told he looked too English.
Snow Falling on Cedars
was also lost to Hawke. Then came
Training Day
.

Christian was thrilled to announce that he was up for the lead in
Training Day
, the violent police drama directed by Antoine Fuqua and starring Denzel Washington. Originally, word was that the part of Jake, the rookie cop, was supposed to go to Freddie Prinze Jr., who was looking for a gritty comeback role. But Christian auditioned for the part and the producers liked his look and his reading. A few days later, Christian was distraught to hear that they thought he looked too old for the part.

“That,” I teased him, “is because you spent too much time on the tanning bed for
American Psycho
!”

Christian was not amused. Worse was when he heard that the part ended up going to Ethan Hawke who was four years his senior! It was a bitter pill to swallow when Hawke earned his first Oscar nomination for his performance in
Training Day
.

Unlike the career lag after
Little Women
, Christian had a lot of opportunities
post-American Psycho
. He signed on for a number of follow-up projects; 2000 and 2001 were going to be very busy for him. Adding to my day job, I wore a number of hats for Christian, including personal assistant. All calls and e-mails had to go through me, even while I was working my full-time job.

First up was
Shaft
, Christian's first big popcorn movie, a $50 million Paramount Pictures movie that he landed in the afterglow of the rave reviews he got from
American Psycho
. The lean years of indie films were over! To Christian's delight, he would play an American
and
a bad guy, Walter Wade Jr., in a reboot of the popular 1970s
Shaft
movies, which had starred Richard Roundtree. This time, Samuel L. Jackson starred as the titular character, a tough-talking New York detective hot on the trail of
a racist rich kid (Christian) who had killed a black man at a club. Directed by John Singleton (
Boyz n the Hood), Shaft
ended up a moderate summer 2000 box office success, grossing more than $70 million domestically.

The production was not without its problems as Jackson had issues with director Singleton and the script. Jackson told the
New York Daily News
at the time that: “I told him point-blank that I refused to say that white man's [screenwriter Richard Price] lines.”

Critics were lukewarm on the movie. The
Shaft
of the 1970s was bold and blatant and defined the blaxploitation movie genre. Roger Ebert summed it up: “Too much of it is on automatic pilot, as it must be, to satisfy the fans of the original
Shaft.”

When he was single, Christian, concerned about being distracted or jarred out of character, barely tolerated set visits from family and friends. Though untrained, Christian's method-like acting required focus and a prickly professionalism. He told a reporter just a year before he got married that he enjoyed staying in character. “I just actually find it enjoyable to do that. And it's part of my pleasure of making films, in a way, that I can go away and pretend to be somebody else, to all these people who don't know any different, you know? Which is why I dislike having family or friends visit the set.”

But that was before Christian got married. After they were married on January 29, 2000, Sibi and Christian were inseparable, and she followed him on location everywhere.
Shaft
was shot in New York City,
Reign of Fire
in Ireland, and
Captain Corelli's Mandolin
in Greece. And
Equilibrium
was shot in Germany. Sibi's presence on location was constant and unique.

After
Shaft
, Christian and Sibi packed up to go to the remote Greek island of Kefalonia for
Captain Corelli's Mandolin
. This was the highly anticipated follow-up project for director John Madden after his tremendously successful
Shakespeare in Love
,
which had earned Oscars for both Gwyneth Paltrow and Dame Judi Dench.

Based on the novel by Louis de Bernieres,
Captain Corelli's Mandolin
is a tragic love story set on Kefalonia during the Second World War when the island was occupied by Italian and German forces. I was looking forward to this project as I had been following the book since it was brought to me by my former English high school teacher, Jean McKay, back in Toronto as a possible project for Christian. Of course, David and I were hoping for Christian to snag the title role but by the time the book was optioned and a screenplay written, the juicy starring role went to Nicolas Cage. However, Christian wanted the morally corrupt (and more dramatically interesting) part of Mandras, the Greek fisherman.

In typical Hollywood fashion, here was a big $60 million movie set in Greece without any Greek actors in the lead roles. Spaniard Penelope Cruz played Cage's love interest, Pelagia, while Christian's
All the Little Animals
costar, the very English John Hurt, played Dr. Iannis. Christian landed the role of Mandras.

While shooting on Kefalonia in the summer of 2000, Christian and Sibi were overwhelmed by the heat. WENN (The World Entertainment News Network) reported that Christian was having a miserable time during the shoot. WENN noted that a friend of Christian's said: “He hates the food and I get e-mails every day from him saying that he's lost another 5 pounds because he can't eat anything. He says the weather is too hot as well, he's not enjoying it at all.”

Of course, WENN was also the news outlet that reported that Christian had a private jet for his use during the
Corelli
shoot!

Christian was furious at the report. He e-mailed me: “It makes me sound like a bitchy, faggot actor!” I had to laugh when I read his e-mail, as Christian often complained about any location that wasn't Italy. He blamed his mother for the possible leak, thinking that she may have shared their correspondence to the press.

The truth of the matter is that Kefalonia is such a remote island, it took a charter plane to get cast and crew to a major airport. I personally organized flights for Christian whenever he had work on a shoot. And Christian was also busy flying around Europe to promote the release of
American Psycho
in those countries.

Christian was disappointed with two omissions in the final film. His character, Mandras, was supposed to swim with the dolphins but budget and timing constraints cut that scene. Also, Mandras attempts to rape Pelagia but that scene was cut, so Mandras oddly disappears halfway through the movie with no explanation.

Captain Corelli's Mandolin
was an expensive bomb for Universal Pictures when it was released in August 2001, grossing just $25 million domestically. The critics laughed at the watered-down adaptation of the book and the casting choices.