Press
Last Update
- June 21th, 2003
US Magazine:
Christian Bale
John Griffiths, US Magazine, December 1998.
When a sultry woman
hits up Christian Bale for a light--and possibly more--at an L.A.
pool hall, he simply flicks his Bic and resumes our conversation.
And he's single yet. "I like my privacy," the 24-year-old
actor confesses. Perhaps that's why Bale has chosen a table at
the back--and why he has mainly eschewed commercial Hollywood
films for heady fair like 1996's 'Portrait of a Lady'.
Bale stays true to
form with this month's 'Velvet Goldmine', a groove on the '70s
glam rock scene starring Ewan McGregor. Playing a journalist long
intrigued by a David Bowie-esque star, Bale goes on a real gender-bender,
enduring hip-huggers and simulating sex with McGregor. "That
was surprisingly easy," says Bale with a wink. "Part
of the enjoyment of acting is doing what you would never normally
do."
Born, he says,
"on the pig's snout" of Wales and reared in the small
town of Bournemouth, England, Bale caught the showbiz bug at age
6 from his mom, Jenny, who was a circus dancer. "I'd be in
a caravan with these beautiful women who would walk around naked
except for fishnets and peacock headdresses," he marvels.
"I just loved it." At 9, he nabbed a Pac-Man cereal
commercial; three years later, Steven Speilberg plucked him to
star in 'Empire of the Sun'. Though Bale hasn't been in any blockbusters,
his Internet popularity rivals even Leonardo DiCaprio's. As his
Web fans know, he digs Steve McQueen and techno bands. What they
may not know, however, is that when Bale was 12 he fumbled a pass
at Drew Barrymore. "She was advanced and I wasn't,"
he says. "I tried to kiss her, and she ran."
Source - The
Bale Collection