Christian Bale was born on January 30th 1974 in Wales, where he lived out his childhood. The future Dark Knight’s first experience with acting was in a Lenor detergent commercial as a 9 year old. His first appearance on the silver screen was in Steven Spielberg’s war drama Empire of the Sun at the age of 13. After his parents’ divorce, he moved to LA with his father, where, aged 20, he met his future wife Sandra “Sibi” Blažić, who at the time worked as an assistant to Winona Ryder at the filming set of Little Women. Christian recounts this to be love at first sight, whereupon he immediately knew he wanted to marry Sibi.
The excellent Patrick Bateman in American Psycho
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This came to pass. However, despite his great success, Christian’s career went through some rough patches. He ended up losing the role of Jack in Titanic to Leonardo DiCaprio. In a brilliant comeback in 2000, Bale stole away the role of Patrick Bates in the American Psycho – a role also sought after by DiCaprio. A curious fact about this is that Christian’s friends tried to talk him out of accepting the role of a psychopathic murderer, assuming it would spell the end of his career. This, as we know, had quite the opposite effect, and Christian’s excellent performance in the film ended up significantly boosting his credentials.
A tin of tuna and an apple a day, chain smoking his weight away
Here’s where Christian’s incredible and famed physical transformations begin. In 2004 he was casted for the main role in The Machinist. He got into his role of insomniac worker so intensely, he lost astounding 28 kg of weight prior to the shooting. When he first appeared on the set, the director couldn’t believe his eyes: the 183 cm tall Christian Bale showed up weighing measly 55 kg. The way he managed this, however, was extremely unhealthy. His daily diet consisted of a tin of tuna, a single apple, and a Herculean amount of cigarettes. Suffice to say, the side effects did not hold back. Christian suffered from constant leg pain, as he had close to no muscle left on his lower body.
Putting on 45 kg in just 6 months
Six months later, Christian was issued an enormous challenge. Having been cast into the role of Batman for Christopher Nolan’s Batman Begins, a new, even more surprising transformation was on its way. As you no doubt know, Batman, being a comic book super hero, excels at physical prowess – a trait, which had to be reflected in the main role actor’s body. For this role alone, Bale put on extreme 45 kilograms in an insanely short span of time – just about half a year.
From fat man to Batman
Christian’s extreme weight gain, of course, meant accumulating a lot of fat, and the film crew did not miss out on the opportunity to joke around, remarking on his figure being more akin to a fat man than Batman. Bale did not bail and lost 20 kg of fat while putting on muscle. His quick bulking was accompanied by a high-carb diet, which consisted mainly of bread and pasta. Later on, he added a high intake of protein, coming mostly from chicken and fish. The key part, of course, were the hardcore strength trainings which took turns with cardio a high intensity interval trainings. He spent 5 days a week in the gym.
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An extremely fast and unhealthy transformation for a role in Fighter brings an Oscar
After all the bulking came another round of weight loss for his role in Fighter. After losing 13 kg, he was awarded both a Golden Globe and an Oscar. Once again, his rapid transformation took place in an unusually quick and unhealthy manner. Shortly before working on Fighter, he starred in Terminator: Salvation, where he still displayed a very athletic figure. Christian Bale is truly an extreme example of a dedicated method actor, undergoing mind-boggling transformations in incredibly short amounts of time. Even though most of these took place thanks to his tremendously unhealthy practices, they sure exemplify the power of an iron will.
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The cycle of transformation becomes ever more difficult as the actor ages
Christian Bale’s incredible transformation feats continued even after working on Fighter. He had to get into the top shape once again for the last instalment of Dark Knight trilogy – The Dark Knight Rises. All of that just to immediately put on a little less than 20 kg of fat for his role in the following year’s film American Hustle, in which he portrayed an overweight con man Irving Rosenfeld. With extra weight came bad posture, which cost Bale considerable back pains. For a short time, Christian’s rollercoaster of body changes came to a halt. He lost his extra weight again and acted in a few pieces which didn’t call for any extreme transformations. However, in 2018 his mastery of shape shifting was once again summoned into action, when he was casted to portray the influential and rather stocky vice president Dick Cheney in Vice.
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To reach the necessary weight goal, he did not resort to the advanced film industry make up technology, but rather to desserts. He put on about 20 kilograms, only to subsequently lose more than 30 for the role of a British sports car racer in Le Mans ’66. As crazy as that is, Christian Bale himself recently admitted that with growing age, his extreme transformations become more and more difficult. On a variety of occasions he therefore stated that this roller coaster ride is finally over. Let’s see if that resolution lasts.
What are your thoughts on Hollywood’s master shape shifter? Does he merit admiration, or is he out of his mind? Let us know in the comment section below, and if you liked the article, support us by sharing it.
[1] Christian Bale Biography – https://www.notablebiographies.com/news/A-Ca/Bale-Christian.html
[2] Tony Spence – How Christian Bale Was Fired And The Rehired For 'American Psycho' – https://www.thethings.com/how-christian-bale-was-fired-and-the-rehired-for-american-psycho/
[3] Brad Nash – The Story Of Christian Bale's The Machinist Transformation Is Insane – https://www.gq.com.au/entertainment/film-tv/the-story-of-christian-bales-the-machinist-transformation-is-insane/news-story/1892292672564838caf2106b38d9115d
[4] Christian Bale Transformation – From Machinist To Batman – https://www.trainmag.com/fitness/christian-bale-transformation/
[5] Christian Bale's 'The Fighter' weight loss and six more drastic actor transformations – https://theweek.com/articles/488594/christian-bales-fighter-weight-loss-six-more-drastic-actor-transformations
[6] Jenna Cartusciello – The Truth About Christopher Nolan's Vision For 'Batman' – https://www.thethings.com/the-truth-about-christopher-nolans-vision-for-batman/
[7] Yohana Desta – Christian Bale Swears He’s Done Gaining and Losing Weight for Roles – https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2019/11/christian-bale-weight-loss