Christian Bale was a guest this past week on Variety’s “Playback” podcast to discuss his new movie Hostiles as well as his career in general.
Bale, who generally likes to avoid the spotlight where possible, explained how the popularity of his Dark Knight Trilogy changed everything for him:
“Mixed emotions about it,” Bale said. “I’m always eternally grateful to Chris [Nolan]. For instance, ‘Rescue Dawn,’ Werner [Herzog] and I had been trying to put that together for a few years. ‘American Psycho,’ Mary Harron and I had been trying to put that together for a few years. No one was interested. Why? Me. Suddenly everyone said, ‘Yeah, alright. We’ll go with him.’ It did change everything. It was the first time I had done a film of that magnitude. That was a real learning curve for me. I wrestled with it for a long time. I still do on occasions. But I’m just learning, hey, accept the good things.”
Christian Bale and Heath Ledger shooting a scene for The Dark Knight.
This is not the first time Bale has expressed mixed emotions regarding the Dark Knight Trilogy. He stated last year that he was disappointed in his portrayal:
“I didn’t quite manage what I hoped I would throughout the trilogy,” Bale told Yahoo. “Chris [Nolan] did, but my own sense of self is like, ‘I didn’t quite nail it.’”
In the same interview with Yahoo, Bale also commented that Heath Ledger “kind of completely ruined” his plans due to his incredible performance as the Joker.
