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  • 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

I find it obsurd that the DP should have been MORE cautious because Bale is a method actor. Who cares what kind of actor he is?!! You don't go walking around during a scene, especially one that is extremely emotional.

Method or not, an actor prepares for a scene. If something distracts him that he/she doesn't expect to happen, i.e. a crew member walking into a sight line, then that will throw them off.

I'm not saying I agree with how Bale reacted, but being an actor myself, I know exactly how he must have felt. It's incredibly hard to pull any role off, especially when it's such a big budget movie that you know many people will see. The pressure on his shoulders was ridiculous.
 
jpp said:
It's not a question of approving of the behavior. If you have no tolerance for the kind of thing described, then you really don't want to work in the arts. It's that simple. Because you're going to get it whether you like it or not, and whether it's right or not.
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No, it's not that simple. I've worked with plenty of fantastic creative people who haven't needed to throw a tantrum, even when things start to go seriously wrong. It's called being professional.

I wasn't saying everything we do is pointless- simply that you have to put an actors "stress" into perpsective. And my main point was simply that someone like Christian Bale gets paid an enormous amount of cash - if somebody walks into his eye he should suck it up and get over it.

Sorry if I came over all aggressive - I get that when I read it back. Sort of shot myself in the foot with that...sorry man!
 
Sorry that should read "eyeline".

If somebody walked into his eye he can shout as much as he likes.
 
It looked to me that there were half a dozen instances where Bale should have been respected as an actor (and wasn't) that led up to this.

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).

Second is the initial instance of Bale's anger with zero support from the Director or 1st. AD at least attempting to defuse the situation on Bale's behalf.

Third is the ongoing failure of anybody to interject on Bale's behalf at about the 1 minute mark (after all, walking into a clean eyeline is Set#101 WRONG).

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.

Fifth is the fact that NOBODY bothered to interject and try to stop this thing, leaving it to Bale to run the course of his anger at the perceived lack of respect for hiimself and his craft.

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.
 
T4 is going to be a screamer! Yes! :holloween:

Bad jokes aside, it must have been a downer for everyone who had to be there, when that happen.
 
I can't believe the moral gymnastics going on in this thread to attempt to ameliorate what was clearly a ridiculously hostile, borderline violent outburst by Bale. Thank God I don't work in movies. To do so must seriously damage your basic concepts of right and wrong.
 
Honestly, I think we're all being gossiping ninnies talking about this but this is just another entry into another long line of leaked rants that, more or less, seem to be fueled by the internet crowd. How many of these things have been leaked already? Wow, it's getting to the point where nobody can say anything on set! Obviously a lot of you are missing the point of this whole rant: DON'T WALK IN THE ACTOR'S EYELINE!!!

I support Christian Bale all the way on this one. In a theatre, a prop man doesn't walk out onto the stage while the actors are performing. Why should the movies be any different? It's obvious to me that the DP needed to wait until the take was over before he went and fiddled with the lights. Heck, what was the DP doing fixing the light himself anyway? I thought that was a grip job or at least one of the cinematographer's crew, never the man himself! It's just weird. I know the DP is rather young but with his reasonably long track record of films, he should have known better. I guess you have to think about it this way, if you're trying to do something impressive in front of people, why do you need everyone to be quiet and/or to give you some room? You need to concentrate, right? Same goes for acting. Hamlet couldn't reminisce about Yorick with Horatio dancing an Irish jig right next to him. Perhaps because it's a movie people often forget that nothing's changed about acting, the audience is just smaller and has a camera and microphone.
 
I had an experience on a feature with an actor lacking the status of Mr. Bale, who rode me the whole shoot.

There was one climactic scene where we had to dolly in to a close up as he walks towards us.

Technically difficult shot to do. We set up. He walked in, looked down at the track, then looked at me and said "you are going to make me walk over track?". I calmly explained that it was a technically difficult shot and had I known his concerns in advance I would have set up a dance floor, etc, etc. Nothing appeased his anger. He begrudgingly "worked around it".

The kicker is - at the wrap party, he was all "buddy buddy" and apologized for his behavior saying that it helped him get to where he needed to be for the character. I shrugged him off and asked myself "why couldn't he just ACT to get where he needed to be?"

On the other hand, I had the pleasure of working with Peter Krause (Six Feet Under) who was the complete opposite. A team player. Understood that we are creating an illusion and sometimes you need to work with technical limitations to get the desired emotional result. We are there to help each other out.

All of that said - I wouldn't walk through an eyeline unless a light was falling towards the actor - in Mr. Bale's case - I probably wouldn't budge.
 
Zack Birlew said:
In a theatre, a prop man doesn't walk out onto the stage while the actors are performing.
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In a theater audience members get up and go to the bathroom in the middle of scenes if they have to.

I think you're missing the real point - there needs to an overriding human moral compass in place on set.

Walking in an actor's eyeline is a screwup if it happened. Cut. Tell the A.D. or Director what happened so they can get the DP to settle and do it again. If the DP keeps doing it then someone else on set should be talking to him or firing him. Not the actor.

Nothing that happens on a movie set (and rarely in life generally) justifies Bale's response. Do people in your family really treat each other like that and it's "normal"? If so, OK your moral compass points a different direction than mine.

Face it, Christian is replaceable. He and his management team need to remember that. Actors don't work without screenwriters and then a whole slew of other people all there to make them look good. When they forget how lucky they are to be the star they deserve to be replaced on the next movie.
 
Matthew Rogers said:
I'm wondering what the full story is behind this. It does seem odd that a DP would fiddle with a light during a take. I am wondering if maybe it was during a rehearsal and not a take..? That would make much more sense.

Matthew
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You are right. That would have made sense but it doesn't sound like it was. If it was a rehearsal then Bale might have been annoyed but not outraged. Apparently that was the second take blown because the DP was in his eyeline.

He says "How was it? I hope it was good because it's useless now isn't it?"
To me that indicates a blown take.

The DP was wrong.
The actor over reacted.
The AD and Director didn't handle it well at all.
 
My two cents:

* We've all felt this way about a DP at one point in our lives.
* Mr. Bale may indeed have had his actor mojo majorly stepped on.
* You still never, ever talk to another human being like this.
* The director's name is McG.
* McG.
* No, really, McG.
 
The first time to you listen to it, it is easy to just point to Bale's pride as the source of the problem. But as an extremely calm individual myself who has been involved in "heated" situations on set, I can empathize how a situation can get escalated to that over a tiring shoot.

It all comes down to results. Bale is a very bankable star right now, and he can get away with outbursts like that and still find work. If you are a B-List actor and pull something like that, your reputation will hurt your career.
 
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....
 
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....
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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 ...
 
jpp said:
...whether he's going to let you do your best work, or whether he even knows how to let you do your best work...
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I`m referring not only to this but all comments that are purely on Bale`s side, but is this the same movie I am thinking of?
Terminator 4?
The successor of the ultimate sleeping pill T3?
T4 - with a guy attached as director calling himself McG?
My point: GUYS, it`s a movie, just a MOVIE, not even an ingenious one as I assume.

BTW: Bale is not a heart surgeon.

It`s not professional walking into the set while cameras are rolling. But it`s even a thousand times more unprofessional and childish yelling and cursing at someone who can`t and won`t defend himself.
This is unacceptable.
 
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