Christian Bale Once Called Being a Movie Star ‘Embarrassing’
Christian Bale has made a name for himself by taking several memorable and unforgettable roles. Despite his status in Hollywood, however, the actor didn’t like being seen as a movie star. This was because he found being a star altogether in Hollywood embarrassing.
Christian Bale once explained why acting was all about destroying himself
Bale has been critically praised for his ability to immerse himself into a role in a way other actors don’t. But he also took a different approach to his acting than his fellow peers might have. Whereas some actors might believe they have to channel themselves into a performance, the Oscar-winner believed in the exact opposite.
“It’s the opposite of self! It’s actually saying, ‘I don’t stand a chance being myself. I’ve gotta create somebody else in order to communicate,'” Bale once said in an interview with Esquire. “‘If I remove myself from all of my own memories and inhibitions and create another character — holy s***! I can reach out and communicate in that way.’ So to me, it’s actually about trying to f****** destroy the self, and then you might be able to hit something. There’s some quote, I think it’s Oscar Wilde, ‘An artist puts nothing of himself into his art.'”
Bale’s approach to his profession is one of the reasons why he didn’t view himself as a movie star like other big actors.
“Steve McQueen, you wanna f****** be Steve McQueen. What cooler f****** guy in the world than that? I can’t do that. I don’t believe in myself enough to do that. I’ve always thought, if I was in a band, I’d never want to be the lead singer,” he added.
Christian Bale once revealed he found it ’embarrassing’ to be labeled a movie star
Bale has always disapproved of the term movie star. Even back in his younger years when he was just getting started, Bale felt it was embarrassing to be considered a child star. But this was because he didn’t like the idea of being considered a star altogether.
“Well, it’s embarrassing to be a star. Most people look at you like, ‘That’s not a f****** job, is it?’ “And then on top of that, you learn very quickly that you’re just a tool — other people are manipulating everything you do, you’re at the mercy of editors, and there’s nothing you can do.”
But the Batman Begins actor would find that there was some value in his embarrassment.
“But I learned that there’s a certain character that can be built from embarrassing yourself endlessly. If you can sit happy with embarrassment, there’s not much else that can really get to ya,” he said.
Christian Bale pushed himself in ‘The Machinist’ because he felt acting was a sissy job
Many have cited Bale’s extreme weight loss for The Machinist as a testament to the actor’s dedication to his craft. Although he didn’t have to lose that amount of weight, he did so anyway to test himself.
“I have a very sissy job, where I go to work and get my hair done, and people do my makeup, and I go and say lines and people spoil me rotten,” he said. “And everyone has that kind of curiosity of how far can you go, how far can you take it. I think it’s always good testing yourself. With various things that could be incredibly unimpressive to other people, but there’s some meaning to it within yourself — and also stupid, which many people called me during that time.”
In a resurfaced interview with Radio Free’s Michael J. Lee, Bale shared how losing all that weight also benefitted him mentally.
“It ended up being a very nice place mentally to be when you get that skinny. Man, you’re calm, you know? Because you just can’t waste any energy whatsoever. So you just do what’s necessary. I was incredibly happy,” he said. “Other people probably couldn’t have told that because I didn’t really have the energy to smile too much for them. But inside, I was genuinely probably more content for a longer period of time than I’ve ever been in my entire life.”
