‘Thor: Love and Thunder’: Christian Bale Didn’t Have Time to Get Ripped to Play Gorr the God Butcher
After portraying Batman in three blockbuster DC films, Christian Bale makes his way into the Marvel Cinematic Universe with Thor: Love and Thunder. The actor worked out extensively for his Dark Knight role. But according to Bale, he had no time to get ripped to play Gorr the God Butcher.
Christian Bale plays Gorr the God Butcher in ‘Thor: Love and Thunder’
Bale makes his MCU debut as Thor: Love and Thunder. In Marvel comic books, his character, Gorr the God Butcher, is a supervillain who vowed to kill all gods when he realized they wouldn’t step in to save his dying family.
The virtually immortal being carries God-killing weapons like All-Black the Necrosword, and the God-bomb. He can turn darkness into an army of Berserkers and manipulate sharp tendrils that can stab and kill Asgardians.
Bale recently revealed how his admiration for director Taika Waititi and co-stars Natalie Portman, Chris Hemsworth, and Tessa Thompson inclined him to take on the project. But ultimately, he said his children pushed him into it.
“There were some potential scheduling conflicts,” Bale told Screen Rant. “I said to my family, ‘I don’t think it’s going to work out,’ and they went, ‘No, you make it work out. You’re doing this, Dad.’ They gave me my marching orders, and I dutifully obeyed.”
Christian Bale had little time to prep for his ‘Thor: Love and Thunder’ role
In the comics, Gorr the God Butcher is a large muscular being that easily takes on a brawny Thor. But fans might find Bale’s version a little less ripped.
Before making Thor: Love and Thunder, Bale was filming another project (most likely Amsterdam) that required him to be on the thinner side. In a recent interview with ET, the actor noted he had just a few days between wrapping that movie and stepping into his role as Gorr the God Butcher, leaving him no time to bulk up.
“I usually like to have a lot more time in between,” Bale explained. “But it was literally like three days between [wrapping] and going down into quarantine in Australia [for Love and Thunder]. I was already quite skinny for the film that I’d made before. So we looked at the comic book character who’s very muscular, and I said, ‘Well, it just can’t happen.”
Instead of focusing on Gorr’s muscles, filmmakers decided to highlight his abilities. And as Bale admitted, that made sense because of how bulked-up Hemsworth is.
“How can you compete with Chris in terms of the muscles?” Bale mused. “So no matter how much I would have worked out, I just would have looked pitiful by comparison.”
Christian Bale’s Gorr the God Butcher was inspired by a music video
In a chat with Screen Rant, Bale revealed that his version of Gorr the God Butcher was inspired by Aphex Twin’s music video for “Call Me Daddy.” The video features a creepy-looking bald man who delivers a terrifying scream.
“I only had absolutely one request, which was that I had referenced the ‘Come to Daddy’ video by Aphex Twin,” Bale recalled. “There’s a character in it that inspired me regarding Gorr, and I did say to Taika, ‘Here’s the deal, I want to have the scream.’ And if you see the video, you’ll understand what I mean. I said, ‘I want to have that scream in the film.'”
Bale did film the scream, but it was eventually cut from the film. “It was, again, something which was just a little too extreme perhaps for the PG-13 [rating],” the Thor: Love and Thunder star explained. “Might have had people running for the exits. But we did do it, and it’s on the cutting room floor somewhere.”
The Thor: Love and Thunder release date is July 7.
