He is one of Hollywood’s essential actors, but he suffered too much pressure on one of his shoots.
Christian Bale is, by all accounts, one of the greatest actors alive today. The Welshman has managed to develop a career with commercial successes and renowned works that have earned him several awards. Since he stood out with his role as Patrick Bateman in American Psycho to incredible transformations like that of The vice of power -among many others-, Bale has achieved a balanced and recommendable filmography. But all this almost didn’t happen.
When he was just 13 years old, Bale worked for Steven Spielberg in The Sun’s empire and the perfectionism that was demanded of him was such that he almost considered never devoting himself to acting again. In an interview with The Talks -and as stated on our sister website AlloCine-, the actor admits that he almost forgot his dream because of the pressure exerted by the team – not Spielberg -.
It made me think, ‘I never want to do this again.’ Not him personally, I had a wonderful time with him. But the experience of doing it at that age is not something I would recommend to anyone.
“I think it’s not a good thing for children to go into such an adult profession at such a young age,” Bale continued, “As much as you see it as an enjoyment, you will end up with responsibilities that ideally you shouldn’t have at that age. That experience made me think that I didn’t want to be an actor.. “I didn’t really fully come back until a few years later.”
Warner Bros.
He does not give many details about the pressure to which he was subjected, but Bale himself has always been very self-demanding and perfectionist. In fact, he even surprised the author of the original novel American Psycho. “[Christian Bale] “He wanted to meet me, he wanted my approval, even though he had already been chosen by the studio and the director,” stated Bret Easton Ellis in an interview with Larry King, “He asked me if I could meet with him. He was in a restaurant near Beverly Boulevard, he was sitting at the bar and suddenly I felt a tap on my shoulder: it was Christan Bale, he was completely dressed like Patrick Bateman, he behaved like him, he spoke with this accent“.
Once he let enough time pass, Bale managed to see it in perspective and realized that he wanted to dedicate himself to this little world. “It’s the rollercoaster of doing something creative: when it turns out well and you enjoy the process, then it’s exhilarating and you just want to keep doing it,” he says, “the alternative is when it’s just not satisfying at all and you’re just not working well with all the things.” people you’re with – that just makes you want to finish it and go find something else it does.”
