That’s how one of Nicky Finke’s commentators described the Christian Bale tirade that’s been making the rounds.
His little outburst illustrates a number of things that bug me about actors.
First of all, actors don’t seem to realize this is a collaborative medium. Notice his use of my: “You’re fucking up my scene.” He refers to “your lights,” as though the lighting is somehow separate from the scene.
Secondly, what is this bizarre rule about actor’s eyelines? Why do they have the attention span of squirrels? Everyone else has to put up with distractions at work.
They’re actors. Can’t they just act like there’s not a DP adjusting lights in front of them? They’re already ignoring the camera and sound guy and all of that stuff. How big of a deal is it?
And seriously, that kind of explosive anger is unnecessary in any circumstance that doesn’t involve people dying. I mean, he’s not actually leading mankind in a war against machines. Calm down, dude.
7 Responses
It’s really unfortunate that he exploded like that, but who really knows what else was going on in his life, or on other days of the set? I know I’ve overreacted before, freaked out, at friends, family. Then later I’ll completely apologize. I just think it’s very hard to form a strong opinion on a single, isolated audio clip.
A DP who was a dick? I’m shocked. Stunned, even.
$50,000! How in the world do people let him get away with crap like that? Do they realize he’s not actually a star? Audiences went to see Dark Knight for Batman, not Christian Bale. The same will be true of the Terminator sequels.
He’s the new Hugh Jackman.
I was working on t4 at the time. The DP was kind of a dick but Bale over reacted a lot. For the rest of the film the grips had to build a wall between Bale and the DP as per Bale’s request. as for that day well, first unit called wrap immediately after but since I was on second unit I had to stay at work. All in all I would say that Bale’s tyrant cost the production about $50,000 for wrapping so early.
sigh…
i need a job
I enjoyed how his agent tried to defend Bale’s impassioned speech. They were shooting the most dramatic scene in Terminator: Salvation apparently, so it’s no wonder Bale got so tied up in his EMOTIONS.
I think it is pretty clear from his tirade that he has a few things on his mind and chose the worst possible time to release it.
Stupid? Yes. Unneccessary? Totally. But it was mistake, he is human, and that happens.
he’s still fucking hot….. and oh my god, his anger turns me on.