Welcome to our community

Be a part of something great, join today!

Log in
  • Hey all, just changed over the backend after 15 years I figured time to give it a bit of an update, its probably gonna be a bit weird for most of you and i am sure there is a few bugs to work out but it should kinda work the same as before... hopefully :)

Christian Bale goes off on DP

jpp said:
You guys need to try performing before, say, one or two billion people, never knowing whether the director is going to make you look ridiculous, whether he's going to let you do your best work, or whether he even knows how to let you do your best work.

Then see what it does for your nervous system and sweet temper, when you can't do your best work, and know that you can't do your best work, because of conditions on the set, which the director has apparently failed to address.

You may yet prove to be more reasonable than Christian Bale and keep your calm. In which case, congratulations. Until then, however....
Click to expand...

Sorry, I don't buy that. There is such a thing as Mr. Bale mentioned in his rant called "Being a professional." A "professional" doesn't need to throw hissy fits like a 5 year old. There are plenty of actors that perform lead roles with emotional scenes that they get into character for and don't feel the need to draw attention to themselves in this manner. It's just plain rude and unprofessional.
This is not McG's first film however it is his largest. After listening to the rant again I blame McG for not stepping in and letting it get out of control. Shows just how small he really is as man to let your lead actor, intimidate and escalate a show like the one Bale performed on his set. His leadership was in question at that point and being threatened as well IMO and he put his tail between his legs and did nothing.
 
Mark L. Pederson said:
however ... what?

It's hard to be actor, sure.

It's also hard to be a doctor, or a fighter-pilot.
Click to expand...

Bad analogy with doctors. They are notorious for throwing tantrums. My cousin is a surgical nurse and told me stories about surgeons throwing impliments and having fits. They a "god complex" moreso than probably any other job.


Again for the record, he did over react. Even if you omit the tone and the expletives he still was out of line. Had he been less agressive then the DP may have been less defensive and the whole thing wouldn't have escalated to threats.

If he had said "CUT! Shane you're killing me. Sit down." Probably would have been the end of things. But could he just switch off from an intense scene?

The DP was wrong. The AD should have had him in check.
 
Mark L. Pederson said:
however ... what?

It's hard to be actor, sure.

It's also hard to be a doctor, or a fighter-pilot.

So ... if you have achieved a level of success where say, one or two billion people watch your work it's okay to react that way?

Because unless you have been in his shoes you don't know if you could remain calm?

huh?

and sure ... sometimes mom & sis can really get under your skin ...
Click to expand...

I guess nobody here has ever encountered an insufferably arrogant doctor, an infuriating check-out clerk or a shop steward who loses his cool over a broken drill-press. And nobody here has ever yelled at anyone unreasonably.

What do you guys want from the guy? He blew up after a long day. If the tirade is out of proportion to the importance of the movie, tell that to the producers, who must be spending $150 million on it.

And if you consider the whole enterprise ridiculous --it's only a movie, after all, why should he get so upset? -- then why are we even talking about the off-camera behavior of an actor?
 
As said, you have to see what all the circumstances were. Seems as if the DP had done that once before and Bale had enough of it. He has the right to get pissed but should have handled it better, especially when you are getting paid that much money. If anyone spoke to me like that, I don't care who they were, it wouldn't be a movie set anymore but a fighting arena.

I hope he's not shocked this tape leaked out. If you are around $100,000s of visual and sound recording equipement... there may be a chance it's being recorded and there may be a chance it'll end up on the internet. Haven't people learned from the sex tape epidemic. You film yourself having sex... good chance it'll end up on the internet. So that's a given.

McG should have taken charge better. Frankly I don't think he's a good director, definately not a visionary director, that that is what is needed for an epic movie like T4. I think he's better off doing music videos again. Come on, if he can't control Bale, how can he control the machines? ;)
 
mikeburton said:
Sorry, I don't buy that. There is such a thing as Mr. Bale mentioned in his rant called "Being a professional." A "professional" doesn't need to throw hissy fits like a 5 year old. .
Click to expand...

Tell that to Beethoven, Tarkovsky or Van Gogh. They weren't professionals either, by your standards, since they all threw fits and were borderline sociopaths.

I can't say much one way or the other about Christian Bale, but at some point you may have to choose between professionalism and art.
 
jpp said:
I guess nobody here has ever encountered an insufferably arrogant doctor, an infuriating check-out clerk or a shop steward who loses his cool over a broken drill-press. And nobody here has ever yelled at anyone unreasonably.

What do you guys want from the guy? He blew up after a long day. If the tirade is out of proportion to the importance of the movie, tell that to the producers, who must be spending $150 million on it.

And if you consider the whole enterprise ridiculous --it's only a movie, after all, why should he get so upset? -- then why are we even talking about the off-camera behavior of an actor?
Click to expand...

Just because people loose their cool in those situations, it doesn't make it acceptable behavior. No one here is saying that they've never lost their cool. No one knows the circumstances of the incident either. Regardless, all it needs is an apology from both sides. Maybe it's already happened, maybe not. Who knows.
 
Roger Morris said:
First off is the repeated walking into his eyeline without any input from those who should be preventing such instances (or at least commenting on them after the first time it happens).

Fourth is the DP staying in Bales face during his rant and talking back to him. Even though he was putting forth a calm front, he was still making a bad situation much worse by engaging in discussion with Bale, and offering up what to Bale obviously sounded like poor excuses as to why he was apparently unable to stay out of Bale's eyeline during filming.

Lots of folks appear responsible for this incident before you get anywhere close to Christian Bale.

Personally, I always consider that I'm only working because actors need technical and artistic support in the pursuit of their craft.
It seems some technician/craftspeople/artists may tend to forget this at times.
Click to expand...

A: Didn't hear that he "repeatedly" walked into his eyeline.

B: The DP apologized and Bale wouldn't let it drop.

C: Others may bear some responsibility, but for the over the top response you get to Bale right away. Occasionally ACTING LIKE AN a--hole doesn't necessarily MAKE you an a--hole (sometimes it is even necessary) - but repeatededly acting like an a--hole ultimately does make you one. And it seems like Bale is getting pretty close to that point.

D: And actors are only working for these huge sums of money because someone figured out the technology of movies and how to turn that into multibillion dollar sales - otherwise these actors would be working for pennies in some regional theatre or maybe a little more if they made it to broadway. Movies are a cooperative effort, and yes there is and maybe needs to be a bit of a pecking order, but out and out abuse isn't right. Frustration and short term outbursts happen in any difficult profession, but taking it that far and for that long is probably indicative of a larger problem that shouldn't just be glossed over.
 
Haha I like how lots of people here are saying that they would fight Christian Bale on set.

Yeah right. That's probably the thing to do, smack the lead actor of a 150 million movie into the face on set in front of everybody.
 
XiaoSu Han said:
Haha I like how lots of people here are saying that they would fight Christian Bale on set.

Yeah right. That's probably the thing to do, smack the lead actor of a 150 million movie into the face on set in front of everybody.
Click to expand...

that and the fact that he scares the piss out of me.
 
R. Schorman said:
He's not actually Batman.
Click to expand...

He still had to learn to be Batman though. Most of the training he had wasn't choreographed fight scenes, but actual combat training of various mixed hand to hand combat styles. Probably not someone to pick a fight with...
 
What great publicity all of this bad publicity has turned out to be...
 
Behavior like what I am lead to believe comes from Bale, strongly suggests the use of drugs/narcotics/not-so-good-for-you-things.... I have seen it on set more than once, normal functional sober people don´t get off like this.

but for all I know, this thing could be staged, so I am not drawing any conclusions - other than if someone goes ballistic like what´s on that audio it´s really likeley a) No sleep for a very long time b) Drugs c)A very bad/unsocially personality - which I doubt in Bales case.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top