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Last Update
- January 20th, 2004
The skinny
on Batman
Kevin Williamson, Calgary Sun, January 20, 2002.
The most shocking on-screen transformation in years comes from
the future Batman Christian Bale, who stars in the spooky The
Machinist.
At the film's premiere, audiences were gasping in horror at
the sight of Bale, who shed 63 lbs. to portray Trevor Reznik,
an emaciated, insomniac who may be going insane. In many scenes,
the American Psycho actor is shirtless, letting the shadowy cinematography
pick up every nook, curve and cranny of his skin-stretched-over-skeleton
physique. The result is so startling, it had audience members
wondering if Bale's appearance had been altered using digital
effects.
"We didn't have any money for digital effects," says
Bale, bulked back up for his Caped Crusader gig. "That was
all me. Or wasn't all me, as the case may be."
Bale, who also altered
his body to play the buff serial killer in Psycho, says he
enjoys the challenge: "It's masochistic,
I suppose. But I enjoy the thought of the guitarist who, while
learning to play, cuts up his fingers. It's like that. I enjoy
it. Actually my wife quite enjoyed Trevor. She was a little sorry
when I started to come back."
Still, his devotion
only goes so far. "I'd only do it for
a movie like American Psycho or The Machinist. I wouldn't do
it for everything. I love The Machinist. "
Bale says he signed
on after meeting with director Brad Anderson. "I
read the script, then I met Brad, who'd made a film called Session
9, which I think is just fantastic."
Anderson, who couldn't
attend the premiere because his wife just had a baby, wrote
in a letter read prior to the screening
that cast and crew were "constantly awed" by Bale's
discipline and devotion.
"When you're that skinny, you don't have any energy. I
was exhausted walking down the street," Bale says. "I
just basically sat in my caravan and smoked and didn't say much
of anything except my lines."
Bale begins the next Batman movie, co-starring Michael Caine
and Katie Holmes, next month.
Source - www.canoe.ca.