“Christian kept the accent for 24 hours a day”: Christian Bale, Whose Method Acting Put His Life at Risk During a Scary Transformation, Freaked Out His Family With His Character
Christian Bale is known for his exceptional dedication to his films. The actor goes to great lengths to embody his characters to the fullest. Gaining and losing weight, changing appearance, mannerisms, and accents are all part of being an actor and Bale’s versatile vitae proves that he excels in all aspects of the craft.
However, this is not to say that The Dark Knight Rises star’s can-do attitude, especially in his line of work, has not put him in risky situations. The ones who were affected the most were his family.
Christian Bale’s Scary Transformation
Christian Bale‘s transformation for the 2004 psychological thriller The Machinist is uncomfortable to see. The Thor: Love and Thunder actor plays an insomniac who hallucinates. During the filming, Bale lost 63 lbs in just four months and was only eating an apple a day with some coffee.
Bale emancipating himself really worried his wife, who held his hand through this drastic transformation. There are multiple risks involved in doing something like this.
Bale was fully aware of what he had gotten himself into but he had to reassure his wife. As he said in an interview (via Female First):
“It was tough. Although my wife was with me the whole way, so it was a gradual decline, it wasn’t very pleasant for her to be around and witness. She did get pretty worried, and I promised her that if I ever felt something bad might happen, I’d just quit.”
However, this isn’t the only instance where Bale’s job affected his family.
Christian Bale Freaked Out His Daughter with His Character
Another one of Bale’s remarkable performances is in Michael Mann’s Public Enemies. In the 2009 biographical crime drama, Bale plays the FBI Agent Melvin Purvis. Although he plays a supportive role in the film, Bale couldn’t help but perfect every nuance of his character. Most notably, Purvis’s southern drawl.
To nail the southern accent Bale used it even off-camera, which freaked out his young daughter. As director Mann once mentioned Bale’s way of working, saying (via Contact Music):
“Melvin Purvis was really a southern gentleman. So Christian kept the accent for 24 hours a day. It freaked out his young daughter. She said: ‘Daddy doesn’t talk like that!’ he replied: ‘Well, ah’m sorry, mah dear, but daddy’s studying for a part, and ah’ll be speaking like this for the next four months.’”
They say greatness comes with a price and it seems for Christian Bale, it is watching his family getting unnerved by the roles he takes on.
The Machinist is available for streaming on Prime Video and Public Enemies on Netflix.
Source: Contact Music and Female First
