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Last Update
- June 21th, 2003
'Newsies':
Striking Boys Caught Singing and Dancing
Kevin Koffler, Seventeen Magazine, 1992.
Christian Bale lumbers
into a conference room on a rainy Saturday morning. He plops down
in a chair, yawns, and wipes sleep from his eyes. Dressed in black
jeans, a sweatshirt, and sneakers, he apologises for being late.
"Im just getting over the flu and Im still jet-lagged,"
he explains, "so Im moving a little slowly."
But the six-foot-two
British-born actor, best known for his film debut as a young school
boy in Steven Spiebergs epic Empire of the Sun and more recently
for Kenneth Branaghs Henry V, need not apologise. For the past
few weeks, hes been flying round and round from L.A. to London
to Prague and back again.
"Ive been doing
reshoots for Newsies here, doing preproduction work on a new film,
Swing Kids, in Prague, and visiting my mom, sister, and girlfriend
in England. And I dont even like to fly!" he says with a
slight shudder. "Before I came here, I flew on a plane that
sounded like it had a window open the whole time."
When Bale first heard
about Newsies, a live-action musical recounting the tale of the
New York newsboys strike of 1899, he claims he had no interest
in auditioning for the project. "Id never sung of danced,
and I didnt think I could do a musical," he says. "I
read for the film in England, and then Disney flew me to Los Angeles
for a screen test. But before I signed a contract, I met the director
(Kenny Ortega) and told him I wasnt comfortable with the dancing
and singing and I didnt want to be a bloody Artful Dodger in
a remake of Oliver!, jumping down the street with a big smile
on my face. But he told me it wouldnt be like that, and he lied
to me about all of these different actors who had done musicals,
like Al Pacino."
After he was cast as
Jack Kelly, the head newsie, Bale joined the rest of the films
actors and dancers in two months of "Newsies school."
He studied dancing, speaking with a New York accent (circa 1899),
gymnastics, and karate. "We had a kung-fu master," he
recalls with a laugh. "Thirty of us would be in a room doing
something like tai ching to this humming music. Its very relaxing,
but when you see yourself in the mirror, its really funny."
"Filming Newsies
was a blast," he says. "By the time the cameras started
rolling, we were so prepared we were ready for anything. The blend
of technically great dancers and actors with great charaterizations
made it all work perfectly." And what about his Oliver! Fear?
"Sure, were singing and dancing in the streets," he
says, "but we dont always have smiles on our faces."
Immediately upon finishing
Newsies, Bale flew to Prague to begin Swing Kids, which costars
Robert Sean Leonard and Frank Whaley. "Its set in 1930s
Hamburg, Germany," the eighteen-year-old explains. "There
was quite a big culture then among teenagers who liked to dress
in zoot suits and go to swing clubs. The story is about three
friends from different backgrounds who love swing music. I play
the bad seed."
In between movies,
Bale tries to squeeze in time with his family and girlfriend.
"Ive been going with the same girl for three years,"
he says shyly. "But shes going to a university in England
and Im relocating to Los Angeles, where my father lives. If I
had nothing to do with the film industry, Id stay in England,
but Bournemouth [the city where hes lived for the past five years]
isnt exactly the film capital of the world."
If he never
made another movie, however, Bale says he wouldnt mind a non-celebrity
life. "I love making movies," he concludes, "but
I also like my privacy. If it all ended tomorrow, Id just live
by the sea and be perfectly happy."
Source - The
Bale Collection