Christian Bale (35 page)
Authors: Harrison Cheung
It didn't help that it took Christian four days to publicly apologize for the rant, and even then he didn't issue an apology directly to Shane Hurlbut but instead went on a local Los Angeles radio show to talk about the incident.
He started off by telling the show's hosts, Kevin Ryder and Gene “Bean” Baxter: “It's been a miserable week for me.” He continued: “The thing that I really want to stress is I have no confusion whatsoever. I was out of order beyond belief. I was way out of order. I acted like a punk. I regret that. There is nobody that had heard that tape that is hit harder by it than me. I make no excuse for it. It is inexcusable. I hope that is absolutely clear. I'm embarrassed by it. I ask everybody to sit down and ask themselves, have they ever had a bad day and have they ever lost their temper and really regretted it immensely?”
Despite Christian's apparent contrition for his outburst, the damage was already done. The movie performed disappointingly
at the box office. While the production cost of
Terminator Salvation
was estimated at $200 million, it grossed only $125 million domestically. Adding insult to injury, the much anticipated reboot of the
Terminator
franchise failed to open at the top of the box office on its opening weekendâinstead, beaten by
Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian
. In just a couple weeks,
Terminator Salvation
would drop off the Top Ten movies, beaten soundly by the similarly budgeted
Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen
. A survey taken by respected trade publication
Ad Age
went as far to suggest that Christian's drawing power at the box office may have taken a hit because of the incident.
He even acknowledged himself that he was worried his behavior would overshadow the movie. Christian revealed just before the film opened in summer 2009: “I was worried that it could completely overwhelm the movie itself. There's so much hard work that's gone into this. We had 77 days of smooth running and four minutes of me just going too farâand that shouldn't characterize the making of the movie. My concern was that people would unfairly judge the movie based on my bad behavior.”
It was also a film that Christian had initially had his own concerns about and had even been warned against taking. Christian revealed he was sent the script while he was still working on
The Dark Knight
in London, and he immediately vowed it would be a movie he would never make.
The movie franchise was being resurrected by director McGânot a huge name in Hollywood with just a couple credits to his nameâthe TV show
The OC
and two
Charlie's Angels
movies with Drew Barrymore, Cameron Diaz, and Lucy Liu.
The game company Halycon had purchased the
Terminator
franchise in 2007 from producers, Mario Kassar and Andrew Vajna, for a reported $25 million. The franchise had been very good to its original star, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and director, James Cameron. And Schwarzenegger's star power could still
propel his third
Terminator
movie (without Cameron at the helm) to outgross Christian's
Terminator Salvation
.
Christian revealed: “I went: âNo, I don't even have to read this.' I just thought, the mythology was dead. I mean, I did flick through it because you can always be surprised. But I wasn't surprised by what I read in that one. I had people telling me: âDon't do it Christian, don't go with that guy.'”
Christian initially turned down the role, wanting instead to concentrate on the
Batman
franchise. But when director McG, who is afraid of flying, got on a plane to London to beg Christian to be his John Connor, the star finally changed his mind. McG believed that Christian was the only actor who had both the “intensity and the integrity” to re-kickstart the sci-fi franchise.
Christian eventually agreed to star in the film, but with two conditions: He got to pick his costar and the script had to be rewritten. He immediately handed over the script to Jonathan Nolan, the screenwriting brother of
Dark Knight
director Christopher Nolan. Nolan went to work on the script, overhauling the story line, fleshing it out, and beefing up Christian's role as Connor. After Nolan worked his magic on the screenplay, it was then handed over to additional writers, including Oscar winner Paul Haggis, who has written such award-winning movies as
Crash
and
Million Dollar Baby
as well as the scripts for
Casino Royale
and
Quantum of Solace
for the newly revamped Bond franchise.
So, by the time the movie opened on May 14, 2009, there were high expectations. Yet
Terminator Salvation
, which cost over $200 million to make, took in just $125 million in the U.S. The movie eventually grossed $372 million worldwide, but with the budget and the millions of dollars spent on marketing it only just turned a profit.
And to top it off, the star getting all the attention from the press this time was newcomer Sam Worthington to whom, ironically, Christian had given his seal of approval for the role. Worthington
then went on to star in another James Cameron blockbuster,
Avatar
, the 3-D spectacular that became the world's biggest grossing movie ever. Then he starred in the hit 2010 remake of
Clash of the Titans
, yet another box office smash. In
Terminator
, the hunky younger star wasn't even top billing. Christian was the lead as savior John Connor. Yet it was the unknown Australian actor in his first big American blockbuster who blew the critics away.
Hollywood
Variety
wrote: “Heath Ledger stole
The Dark Knight
away from Bale and Sam Worthington heists
Terminator Salvation
from Bale for the most ironical of reasons: In a movie that poses man against machine, Worthington's Cyborg is the far more human character.”
In the
San Francisco Chronicle
review, Mick LaSalle noted: “When Christian Bale allowed himself to play Bruce Wayne in
Batman Begins
, he was slummingâand to good effect. But with
Terminator Salvation
, this ostensibly serious actor takes up residence in the action ghetto and it's not a good fit.”
And respected movie reviewer Roger Ebert said: “Edward Furlong was infinitely more human as John Connor than Christian Bale in this film.”
It was as if bad karma haunted the role of John Connor. Edward Furlong, the original John Connor in
Terminator 2: Rise of the Machines
, was replaced by Nick Stahl for the sequel. Another former child actor, Furlong's post-
Terminator
career was ailing after a couple of arrests and incidents. The TV series
The Sarah Connor Chronicles
was canceled just months before the opening of
Terminator Salvation
. Thomas Dekker, who portrayed a teen John Connor in the series, was charged a few months later for
felony DUI. And perhaps creepiest of all, in February 2010, news broke that the New Mexico house where Christian was staying during the shoot of
Terminator Salvation
had a dead body buried in the yardâa murder victim who had disappeared eight years prior.
Christian definitely breathed more life into his next role as FBI Special Agent Melvin Purvis in
Public Enemies
. Starring alongside one of this generation's greatest actors, Johnny Depp, and playing bank robber and Depression-era folk hero John Dillinger would have been nerve-racking for any actor. But Christian stood his own, garnering great reviews for his portrayal of Purvis, who made it his mission to track down and arrest Dillinger in the 1930s.
But it seems as though his
Terminator Salvation
rant may have cost him an Oscar nomination for
Public Enemies
. On the show
Inside Edition, Los Angeles Times
columnist Tom O'Neill said this about Christian: “How a star acts off camera is as important as how they act onscreen.”
The movie fared modestly at the box office when it opened to strong reviews in June 2009.
Public Enemies
, directed by Michael Mann, cost an estimated $100 million to make and took in $214.8 million worldwide. But Christian admitted that working on
Batman, Terminator Salvation
, and
Public Enemies
back to back left him burnt out.
He vowed to take a break from filming after revealing in early 2009:
“Terminator's
coming out, then
Public Enemies
is coming out after that, and then I'll just wait and see for the first time ever. I kind of felt burnt out and just knowing that if I took on any movie right now, I wouldn't be able to commit myself properly. But variety is essential for me. I love watching a Michael Mann movie. I love watching a Christopher Nolan movie. Just to talk about my stuff, I enjoy a
Machinist
kind of movie, a
Rescue Dawn
, a
3:10 to Yuma
, an
American Psycho
, whatever. But I also love watching
Terminator
movies, I love watching Batman
movies . . . For me it's less important that following the
Terminator
that I quickly get
Public Enemies
out there. I'm just not as strategic as that but for my own personal satisfaction I need to vary it up. I couldn't for instance follow up
Terminator
by doing another
Terminator
straight away.”
Yet despite his proclamation that he was “burnt out” and wanted to spend time away from movies, Christian jumped straight into his next project. After spending just a month hanging out with Sibi and their then three-year-old daughter, Emmaline, in Los Angeles after the premiere of
Public Enemies
, Christian was back on a movie set. (As another example of Christian's uneasy relation with fame and publicity, even his daughter's birthdate and birthplace were not immediately revealed. Emmaline is a public name while Christian has compartmentalized facts among his inner circle. To some members of his family, his daughter is known as Luka Isabella.)
This time he was starring alongside Mark Wahlberg in
The Fighter
. And once again Christian did what he does bestâhe completely transformed himself for the role. Just like he did for
The Machinist
, the star began losing weight for his role as Dicky Eklund, the famous boxer turned crack addict.
The Fighter
opened in limited release in the U.S. on December 10, 2010, just making it eligible for the Academy Award nominations. The movie made just $300,000 in its opening weekend, but it was a huge critical success.
Movie reviewers began falling over themselves to praise the film, in particular Christian and his costar Melissa Leo who played Alice Ward, the mother of Dicky and Micky Ward, played by Mark Wahlberg.
Roger Ebert of the
Chicago Sun-Times
wrote: “The weakness of the film is the weakness of the leading role. That's not a criticism of Mark Wahlberg who has quite a capable range but of how he and Russell see the character. That's not the case with
Dicky, Alice and Charlene and those characters are where the life is. Christian Bale, who has played Batman and John Connor in the
Terminator
and for Werner Herzog played a man who survived the jungles of Laos, so successfully transforms himself that you see a career as a cutup in the Jackass movies.”
Peter Travers of
Rolling Stone
wrote: “After Matt Damon and Brad Pitt turned down the role of crackhead Dickie, Wahlberg lucked out big time with Christian Bale. I have one word for Bale: phenomenal. He dropped 30 pounds to play the skinny, loose-limbed, demon-driven Dickie. But his hilarious and heartbreaking performance cuts deep under the surface. Bale's eyes reflect the man Mickey grew up hero-worshipping and the âpride of Lowell' who might find that pride again as Micky's trainer.”
Claudia Puig of
USA Today
raved: “Bale is astounding as a strangely charismatic weasel, giving probably the best performance of his career. Suave Bruce Wayne of 2005's Batman is long gone, Bale's handsome face is almost unrecognisably gaunt. Bale's knockout performance should not be missed. Dicky steals the show, much like he does his family's attention.”
And Anne Hornaday from the
Washington Post
added: “The title character of the
Fighter
might be Mickyâplayed here in a straight-up, stalwart, hugely sympathetic performance by Mark Wahlberg. But it could just as easily pertain to the hardscrabble Dicky, especially as he's channelled by Christian Bale. Down 30 pounds, Bale is nothing less than revelatory as the skinny, skeeved-out crackhead, who, against all odds, commands the audience's attention and, improbably, a few laughs.”
The buzz around the little boxing movie began to grow and before the end of 2010, Christian was being mentioned as the
front-runner of the awards season. The movie went on to make $93.5 million at the U.S. box office aloneânot bad for a film with an estimated budget of just $25 million.
The rave reviews for
The Fighter
were perfect for the all-important Christmas moviegoers, generating buzz ahead of the award nominations season that would culminate with the Oscars. Christian reluctantly did his publicity duties to promote the film. It was the first time he was in front of the press since his
Terminator Salvation
rant had gone viral. To head off any potentially embarrassing or provocative interrogation, Christian's ground rules about the format of the interview were clear: Q&A format only. No personal questions. Christian's cover interview with
Esquire
would bring his bad boy image back to the forefront with what
Esquire
described as a “testy encounter.”
Esquire
writer John H. Richardson scolded Christian, “There's nothing that's more of a dick movie-star move than to say, âIt has to be printed as a Q&A.' That's movie star. You and Tom Cruise back in the day are the only people who do that shit.”