Christian Bale and the Art of Extreme Acting

What won�t the best actor of his generation do for a role? Not much.

A A A Comments By Joe Donnelly Tuesday, Jul 3 2007

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There’s only one bit of unfinished business that I feel compelled to address. It’s the question I get asked by every woman whom I tell that I’ve recently interviewed Christian Bale. The question comes accompanied by a raised eyebrow and a sly, carnal grin.

“Well???” they ask.

(Photos by Kevin Scanlon)

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“Well, what?”

“Well, what was he like?” And then they go on to tell me how they’ve loved him since Empire of the Sun, fell more in love with him in Swing Kids, the one about a group of prewar German kids who’d rather dance to the beat of swing music than march to the beat of war drums. And, oh god, they say, that body in American Psycho. And what they mean by the question is, Was he just as hot in person?

Well, ladies, here’s what I remember:

He had more facial hair than Charlie Chaplin, but less than two out of three members of ZZ Top. His eyebrows were luxurious. His cheekbones were noticeable, but not quite as noticeable as they are in the pictures accompanying this article. His hair was thick, but bordered precariously on mullet-esque beneath the baseball cap. He was tall enough to be commanding, but not tall enough to tower or loom. He wasn’t cut enough to chop ice, but I don’t think anyone’s gonna kick sand in his face. His style? More American Apparel than American Psycho.

Would I do him? Well, a good rule is to avoid sex with anyone — no matter how hot — that you wouldn’t want to have a conversation with, and as I learned, Bale is someone you do want to have a conversation with. Or, as Mr. Herzog says, “You see very handsome actors and they don’t have depth. He has so much depth behind what you see on the surface.”?