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Christian Bale goes off on DP

Matthew Rogers

Matthew Rogers

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Did any one else see this already?: http://www.tmz.com/2009/02/02/bale-went-ballistic

I love how Christian called the DP unprofessional while throwing a fit on the set! I am glad I live in a part of the country where most people don't have egos and crews are all friends for the most part.

The best part is that the audio guy kept rolling on it;)

Matthew
 
yeh I heard it earlier today, Bale sounded highly strung,
maybe tired too.
No matter how much someone is being a dick on set
I think its better to keep your cool.
I hope I never go off the deep end like he did as its
not a good look for anyone.
 
An alternate point of view...

An alternate point of view...

We don't know what kind of scene Bale was in the middle of performing when the DP strolled into his eyeline. It might have been an extremely emotional, angry, frustrating scene. You want good performances? Guess what, the actor does have to "go there." They're not working at a bank. They're not accountants. If you want to cast accountants in your film, then prepare for the reality that no one will watch the result. So maybe Bale was there emotionally, and the DP got in Bale's face. I don't know if Bale is a jerk in the rest of his life. But you have to accept that the best actors keep their emotions very close to the surface. And a DP who wanders around the set in the actor's eyeline during an emotional scene should not be a DP on a dramatic film. He should stick to car commercials. If what Bale says is true, then the DP doesn't care about the scene or the actor's craft, just as Bale states. Yes, Bale went overboard. But he might have been correct. And, well, I'll say it again...he's an actor for gosh sakes. Maybe Bale's an evil egomaniac (weren't his family members trying to intervene in his life a while back?). Or maybe he is trying to do a highly artistic job with huge expectations and a ton of pressure.
 
and this was a mere months after Heath died.

Bad on McG for not stopping this.
 
Sean said:
We don't know what kind of scene Bale was in the middle of performing when the DP strolled into his eyeline.
Click to expand...

I completely disagree. Though I can understand that his emotions are "on the surface," he was completely unprofessional. Bale has proven several times to his fans that he's a very angry person. I will always appreciate his talent and enjoy watching his films, but I will never have respect for him as an individual.
 
Just saying maybe sometimes it goes together: the hothead, emotional trainwreck might be what we find so compelling in his performance. Self-control is probably not at the top of the list of requirements for "professional" actors. For decent human beings, I agree, it's up there.

So combine the emotional time-bomb with a DP wandering around ruining his concentration and you get this result.

Normal people are NOT interesting to watch on a 50' screen.
 
Bale overreacted no matter what was going on - we're talking about making a MOVIE, not curing cancer. I don't know what happened, but considering this is a huge, complicated movie, probably while Bale was doing his dramatic scene there were a million complicated things going on around him with props, lights, etc. so it is a situation where technical problems are bound to intrude on the acting process no matter how sensitive the moment is. If a DP has to get up to look at a problematic light during a big scene, maybe the wind has mis-aimed it, maybe it's flickering, maybe it's gone out, then it's hardly "unprofessional" to be doing what you were paid to be doing. "Unprofessional" would be calling your agent during the scene or snorting coke, something not related to getting the movie made. Dealing with lights certainly falls under the rubric of professional concerns for the cinematographer.

Now (not knowing what happened) maybe the DP's action was mistimed, maybe it was a bad judgement call at that particular moment to not sit still, not leave the problem until after "cut" was called... but such a mistake hardly deserves that level of rage and hostility in response. It's totally out of proportion.

It's certainly within an actor's prerogative to ask for a clean eyeline during a sensitive scene, or to keep the level of fuss and tweaking down once the acting begins... but within reason, because moviemaking is complicated and things go wrong and people do make mistakes. Actors make mistakes too -- imagine if a director yelled at an actor like that for simply flubbing one line?

Ironically, on the extra stuff on the "Empire of the Sun" DVD, you see a huge expensive shot with Christian Bale in the foreground on a rooftop as a hanger is blown-up in the background. Bale is supposed to jump up and down and cheer when he sees the huge explosion... but when the explosion goes off, Bale freezes, mesmerized. Spielberg for a moment is stunned, his big expensive one-take set-up ruined... but quickly grabs a camera and reconceives the whole sequence right on the spot, having the explosion begin a dreamlike slow-motion moment of Bale mesmerized as a fighter jet flies past him, the pilot waving, and then he reacts later to a second explosion, finally jumping up and down (actually I think it was the first explosion just repeated in editing by using another angle.)

Now the "unprofessional" thing would have been for Spielberg to throw a ten-minute fit at a young actor for screwing up an expensive shot... but instead, Spielberg accepted that mistakes happen and found a way to work around it.
 
We all know Bale's personal history with anger management... but forgetting that for a moment, in his defense... this sort of thing happens (unfortunately) all the time on movie sets, just not to this degree so much.

Moviemaking is a pressure-cooker environment with long hours in uncomfortable places -- now combine that with emotionally-stunted actors who never really got out of adolescence emotionally, not to mention some other key people with a similar level of maturity, and now and then, people throw fits or become nasty over something trivial. I've had even some of the nicest directors or actors say something unpleasant to someone out of frustration, usually followed by an apology. It's not a healthy environment to work in, but the lack of maturity of some folks doesn't help.
 
It's possibly an overreaction and maybe even unprofessional. This is no different than "losing it" on any other sort of job site. But it seems we don't know the full circumstances surrounding the event. I can't say that Bale is justified, but as an employer myself and growing up in the family business of heavy construction, I've seen a lot. I've seen everything from fist fights to knife fights to one employee running over another employee on the job (a husband and wife, no less!). So I don't see what all the fuss is about...

I have to say that what is truly unprofessional here is the fact the audio was leaked by the sound crew, production office, etc..

If it were my set or production and the sound crew leaked it, they would be looking for a new job tomorrow morning.

Sean said:
Guess what, the actor does have to "go there." They're not working at a bank. They're not accountants. If you want to cast accountants in your film, then prepare for the reality that no one will watch the result. So maybe Bale was there emotionally, and the DP got in Bale's face.
Click to expand...

Fair point. Note to self... Do not hire postal workers if I plan to get in their face about their performance.
 
Jeff Kilgroe said:
I have to say that what is truly unprofessional here is the fact the audio was leaked by the sound crew, production office, etc..
Click to expand...

The Execs sent the audio to the insurance company in case Bale bailed. Maybe the insurance company leaked it somehow. I kinda doubt the sound dept did it.
 
I don't know what happened but if Jesus Christ himself was yelling at me in front of the entire crew like that I don't think I could just stand there and take it. That DP is a better man than I!
 
That was unbelievable! I heard about this but didn't imagine Bale had gone off this crazy.

Good points in the thread; Bale definitely was way out of line to go as far as he did, but of course we don't know the full account of the circumstances which led up to this. Sounds Bale was having problems with the DP several times before.

Since non of us are actors here (I think?) it's safe to say we have no idea what it takes to do what they do, and especially at Bale's caliber. Most actors have their own approaches to handling emotional scenes; anyone ever see the Ed Harris leaked meltdowns? He goes off pretty good, yelling at someone in the background, nothing as long as what Bale did here, but my point is maybe it was a scene in which Bale needed to be particularly angry in, so instead of politely and professionally dealing with the situation, he stayed in character. Who knows? Definitely not a good way to handle it regardless, but I guess it's just one of those things we have to live with. Good acting definitely comes with a price, and not always by the dollar unfortunately.
 
Maybe Christian wasn't acting in an "American Psycho". Joke...:)

Guys, here is classic from back in the day... from the set of "Fitzcarraldo" by Werner Herzog. Klaus Kinski goes ape shit on the DP... watch how Werner handles it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yITx7txr-7M&NR=1

Here is the offer that the Indigenous Indians from the film made to Werner after the incident and look how he used to better his film.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v4uE5F0WXic&feature=rec-HM-fresh+div

Sorry if this is off topic but I thought some would appreciate a historical reference on an Epic film where the talent blows up on the DP. I just thought David and others would appreciate this...
 
Joel Kaye said:
The Execs sent the audio to the insurance company in case Bale bailed. Maybe the insurance company leaked it somehow. I kinda doubt the sound dept did it.
Click to expand...

Whoever let it out, doesn't really matter... The only reason to let this out is for the sensationalism. Kinda makes you wonder if whoever let it out actually had the rights to do so. Now, if the production company who owned the rights let it out, that's a different matter.

As for the DP, I'm impressed he took it. I don't think I could've stood there and let someone yell at me like that. Don't care who they are. I suppose I could take some abuse if I knew that I screwed up, but this guy takes a load.
 
Christian Bale did go off a little bit but who knows what's happening on set. Personally I don't like McG and I think he's going to screw this movie up. But I guess we'll just have to wait and see...wish I could say more, damn those NDAs.
 
wireless mic

wireless mic

As I listened to this I thought. Wow, what a clean recording, probably no sweetening. I don't suppose a boom guy would hold a mic over an angry Christian Bale.

I was following the wireless mic thread- G2's vs. Lectrosonics. Which mic were they probably using?
 
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