Christian Charles Philip Bale (born 30 January 1974) is an English actor who is known for his intense method acting style, often transforming his body drastically for his roles. Bale is the recipient of many awards, including an Academy Award and two Golden Globes, and was featured in the Time 100 list of 2011.
Born in Haverfordwest, Wales, to English parents, Bale had his first starring role at age 13 in Steven Spielberg's war film Empire of the Sun (1987). Following a decade of leading and supporting roles, including in Little Women (1994), he gained wider recognition for portraying the serial killer Patrick Bateman in American Psycho (2000). In 2004, he lost 63 pounds for his role in the psychological thriller The Machinist (2004). Within six months, he gained 100 pounds to star as Batman in Christopher Nolan's superhero film Batman Begins (2005). He later reprised his role in the sequels The Dark Knight (2008) and The Dark Knight Rises (2012).
Bale continued to take on starring roles, including in Nolan's period drama The Prestige (2006), the western 3:10 to Yuma (2007), the science fiction film Terminator Salvation (2009), and the crime drama Public Enemies (2009). He won the Golden Globe and Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his portrayal of Dicky Eklund in the David O. Russell-directed biographical film The Fighter (2010). This acclaim continued with his Oscar-nominated roles in Russell's black comedy American Hustle (2013) and in Adam McKay's satires The Big Short (2015) and Vice (2018). For portraying Dick Cheney in the latter, he won a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor.
Bale's personal life and personality has been the subject of much public attention, despite his desire to keep a low profile. He is a supporter of Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, Greenpeace, and the World Wildlife Fund, and obtained American citizenship in 2014. Bale has been married to Sandra Blažić since 2000; they have two children.
Early life
Bale was born in Haverfordwest, Pembrokeshire, the son of Jenny (née James), a circus performer, and David Bale, an entrepreneur, commercial pilot and talent manager.[3][4][5] Bale has three sisters.[citation needed] His mother is English and his father was born in South Africa, to English parents. Bale has remarked, "I was born in Wales but I'm not Welsh – I'm English".[6] He spent his childhood in Wales, Surrey and Dorset in England, and Portugal.[7][8] Bale acknowledged that the frequent relocation had a major influence on his career choice.[9] He attended Bournemouth School, but left at age 16.[10]
Bale studied the work of actor Gary Oldman, citing him as "the reason I'm acting".[11] His first role was a commercial for the fabric softener Lenor in 1982. A year later, he appeared in a Pac-Man cereal commercial, playing a child rock star. In 1984, he made his stage debut in The Nerd on London's West End with Rowan Atkinson.[12]
Bale's parents divorced in 1991. His mother and sister Sharon stayed in Bournemouth, and Bale moved with his father to Los Angeles, California at age seventeen.[13]
Career
Debut and breakthrough: 1986–1998
Bale made his film debut as Tsarevich Alexei Nikolaevich of Russia in the made for television film Anastasia: The Mystery of Anna in 1986,[14] which was followed by leading roles in the miniseries Heart of the Country and the fantasy adventure Mio in the Land of Faraway, in which he appeared with Christopher Lee and Nick Pickard. His performance as the boy Jim Graham in Empire of the Sun (1987) earned him widespread critical praise and the first "Best Performance by a Juvenile Actor" award from the National Board of Review of Motion Pictures.[15] The attention the press and his schoolmates lavished upon him after this took a toll on Bale, and he contemplated giving up acting. But Kenneth Branagh approached him and persuaded Bale to appear in Henry V in 1989, which he found to be a good experience.[15] In 1990, he played the role of Jim Hawkins opposite Charlton Heston (as Long John Silver) in Treasure Island, a film adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson's classic book.
Bale starred in the musical films Newsies and Swing Kids, the latter about teenagers who secretly listened to forbidden jazz during the rise of Nazi Germany.[16] Bale was recommended by actress Winona Ryder to star in director Gillian Armstrong's 1994 film Little Women.[15] Bale voiced Thomas, a young compatriot of Captain John Smith, in Disney's Pocahontas (1995). In 1997 he played Arthur Stuart in Velvet Goldmine, Todd Haynes' tribute to glam rock.[16] In 1999, Bale contributed to an all-star cast, including Kevin Kline, Michelle Pfeiffer, Stanley Tucci, and Rupert Everett, portraying Demetrius in an updated version of William Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream.[16]
Rise to prominence: 1999–2004
In 1999, Bale played serial killer Patrick Bateman in American Psycho, director Mary Harron's adaptation of Bret Easton Ellis' novel of the same title. Bale was briefly dropped from the project in favour of Leonardo DiCaprio, but DiCaprio eventually dropped out to star in The Beach. Bale was again cast in the role. He researched his character by studying the novel and prepared himself physically for the role by spending months tanning and exercising in order to achieve the "Olympian physique" of the character as described in the original novel.[17] He distanced himself from the cast and crew in order to maintain the darker side of Bateman's character. American Psycho premiered at the 2000 Sundance Film Festival to much controversy. Roger Ebert condemned the film at first, calling it pornography[18] and "the most loathed film at Sundance."[19] Nonetheless, he gave it a favorable review, writing that director Harron had "transformed a novel about bloodlust into a film about men's vanity." Of Bale's performance, he wrote, "Christian Bale is heroic in the way he allows the character to leap joyfully into despicability; there is no instinct for self-preservation here, and that is one mark of a good actor."[20]
On 14 April 2000, Lions Gate Films released American Psycho in cinemas. Bale was later approached to make a cameo appearance in another Bret Easton Ellis adaptation, The Rules of Attraction, a film loosely connected to American Psycho, but he declined out of loyalty to Harron's vision of Bateman. He believed that it could not be properly expressed by any other director.[21] In 2000, he played a wealthy murderer in John Singleton's Shaft. Bale's first role after American Psycho was in the John Madden adaptation of the best-selling novel Captain Corelli's Mandolin. Bale played Mandras, a Greek fisherman who vied with Nicolas Cage's title character for the affections of Pelagia (Penélope Cruz). Captain Corelli's Mandolin was Bale's second time working with John Hurt, after All the Little Animals.
From 2002 to 2003, Bale starred in three feature films, such as Laurel Canyon (2002), which was generally well received by critics.[22] This film marked the second time he worked with actress Kate Beckinsale, his co-star in Prince of Jutland (1994). Critics generally focused on star Frances McDormand's performance over the rest of the cast, however.[23]
The post-apocalyptic action fantasy film, Reign of Fire, was Bale's first action vehicle. Compared to his previous work, it had an immense budget estimated at $95,000,000.[citation needed] Bale entered into negotiations about starring in the film with reservations, but director Rob Bowman convinced him to take the lead role.[24] Bale played Quinn Abercromby with Matthew McConaughey's Denton Van Zan. They trained for their respective roles by boxing and working out.[24]
Equilibrium was Bale's third film of 2002, costing $20 million to produce but earning just more than $5 million worldwide.[25] In Equilibrium, Bale played John Preston, an elite law enforcer in a dystopian society. Equilibrium featured a fictional martial art called Gun Kata that combined gunfighting with hand-to-hand combat. According to moviebodycounts.com, the character of John Preston has the third most on-screen kills in a single movie ever, with 118, exactly half of the movie's total of 236.[26]
After a year off, Bale returned in 2004 to play Trevor Reznik, the title character in the psychological thriller The Machinist. Bale gained attention for his devotion to the role; he went to great lengths to achieve Reznik's emaciated, skeletal appearance. He went without proper rest for prolonged periods, and placed himself on a crash diet of generally coffee and apples,[27] which reduced his weight by 63 pounds (4 st 7 lb or 28.6 kg) in a matter of months.[28] By the end of filming, Bale weighed only 121 pounds (8 st 9 lb or 55 kg),[27] a transformation he described as "very calming mentally".[29] His actions prompted comparisons to Robert De Niro's weight-gaining regimen for his role as Jake LaMotta in the 1980 film Raging Bull.[30]
Bale claimed that he had not worked for a period of time before he was cast in the film:
"[I] just hadn't found scripts that I'd really been interested in. So I was really dying for something to arrive. Then when this one did, I just didn't want to put it down. I finished it and, upon the kind of revelation that you get at the end, I immediately wanted to go back and re-visit it, to take a look at what clues I could have gotten throughout".[31]
The Machinist was a low-budget production, costing about $5 million to produce, and was given a limited US release. It was well received, with the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reporting that 77 percent of the critics' reviews tallied were positive.[32]
Bale was a fan of Hayao Miyazaki's Spirited Away.[33] He was cast as the voice of title character Howl in the English-language dub of the Japanese director's fantasy anime adventure Howl's Moving Castle. This is an adaptation of Diana Wynne Jones's children's novel of the same name. Its gross in the US was $4,711,096, a fraction of its worldwide gross ($235,184,110).[34]
The Dark Knight trilogy: 2005–2012
In 2004, after completing filming for The Machinist, Bale won the lead role of Batman and his alter ego Bruce Wayne in Christopher Nolan's Batman Begins, a reboot of the Batman film series. Still relatively unknown, Bale was picked over Jake Gyllenhaal, his closest competitor for the role.[35][36]
After having lost weight for the previous role, Bale had to gain weight and muscle to achieve Batman's muscular physique. He was given a deadline of six months to do this. Bale recalled it was not simple to achieve, "when it actually came to building muscle, I was useless. I couldn't do one push up the first day. All of the muscles were gone, so I had a real tough time rebuilding all of that."[28] With the help of a personal trainer, Bale succeeded in meeting the deadline, gaining a total of 100 lb (45 kg) in six months. He went from 121 lbs to 221 lbs.[37] Discovering that he had gained more weight than the director desired, he dropped 30 pounds by the time filming began.[38]
Bale had concerns about playing Batman, as he felt ridiculous in the Batsuit. He decided to portray Batman as a savage beast.[28] To attain a deeper understanding of the character, Bale read various Batman comic books. He explained his interpretation of the young boy:
"Batman is his hidden, demonic rage-filled side. The creature Batman creates is an absolutely sincere creature and one that he has to control but does so in a very haphazard way. He's capable of enacting violence — and to kill — so he's constantly having to rein himself in." For Bale, the most grueling part about playing Batman was the suit. "You stick it on, you get hot, you sweat and you get a headache in the mask ... But I'm not going to bitch about it because I get to play Batman", he said.[39]
Bale trained in Wing Chun Kung Fu under Eric Oram in preparation for the movie.[40][41][42][43] When promoting the film in interviews and public events, Bale continued to use an American accent to avoid confusion.[44]
Batman Begins was released in the U.S. on 15 June 2005 and was a U.S. and international triumph for Warner Bros., costing approximately $135 million to produce and taking in more than $370 million in returns worldwide.[45] Bale's performance was well received by critics and fans alike, earning him the Saturn Award for Best Actor and the Best Hero award at the 2006 MTV Movie Awards.[46] He also provided his voice and likeness for the video game adaptation of the film.
Bale reprised the role of Batman in the sequel The Dark Knight. He trained in the Keysi Fighting Method, and performed many of his own stunts.[citation needed] The Dark Knight was released in the U.S. on 18 July 2008 and stormed through the box office, with a record-breaking $158.4 million in the U.S. in its first weekend.[47] It broke the $300 million barrier in 10 days, the $400 million mark in 18 days and the $500 million mark in 43 days, three new U.S. box office records set by the film.[48] The film went on to gross more than $1 billion at the box office worldwide, making it the fourth highest-grossing movie worldwide ever at that time, before adjusting for inflation.[49] It also ranks as one of the most critically acclaimed superhero films ever made.[50][51][52]
Bale reprised the role again for the sequel The Dark Knight Rises, released on 20 July 2012.[53] Bale became the actor to have portrayed Batman on film for the lengthiest period. Following the shooting at a midnight showing of The Dark Knight Rises, he visited survivors of the movie theater in an Aurora, Colorado hospital.[54] The film garnered further critical praise and financial achievement, earning more than $1 billion worldwide. Currently, the film is the 27th highest-grossing film worldwide unadjusted for inflation, and the third highest-grossing film released in 2012.[55][56] It was the most financially successful movie in which Bale has starred.
Post-Batman Begins: 2006–2009
After Batman Begins, Bale returned to appearing in independent films. He was cast as one of the two lead roles in the South Central Los Angeles David Ayer-helmed crime drama Harsh Times, co-starring Freddy Rodriguez and Eva Longoria. Bale played Jim Luther Davis, an aloof Afghanistan War veteran afflicted with post-traumatic stress disorder, approached by the Department of Homeland Security and hired as a federal agent. Harsh Times premiered at the 2005 Toronto International Film Festival and had a wide release on 10 November 2006.[58]
Terrence Malick directed The New World, a period piece inspired by the stories of Pocahontas, and Bale was cast as John Rolfe. He shared the screen with Colin Farrell and Q'Orianka Kilcher, who played John Smith and Pocahontas. The majority of screen time was devoted to Farrell and Kilcher; Bale was a secondary character, and only appeared during the last third of the film. The film was a failure at the U.S. box office and its worldwide total of $29,506,437 fell short of turning a profit against the production budget of $30 million.[59]
In 2006, Bale took on four projects. Rescue Dawn, by German filmmaker Werner Herzog, had him playing U.S. Fighter pilot Dieter Dengler, who has to fight for his life after being shot down while on a mission during the Vietnam War. Bale left a strong impression on Herzog, with the director complimenting his acting abilities: "I find him one of the greatest talents of his generation. We made up our own minds long before he did Batman.
Born in Haverfordwest, Wales, to English parents, Bale had his first starring role at age 13 in Steven Spielberg's war film Empire of the Sun (1987). Following a decade of leading and supporting roles, including in Little Women (1994), he gained wider recognition for portraying the serial killer Patrick Bateman in American Psycho (2000). In 2004, he lost 63 pounds for his role in the psychological thriller The Machinist (2004). Within six months, he gained 100 pounds to star as Batman in Christopher Nolan's superhero film Batman Begins (2005). He later reprised his role in the sequels The Dark Knight (2008) and The Dark Knight Rises (2012).
Bale continued to take on starring roles, including in Nolan's period drama The Prestige (2006), the western 3:10 to Yuma (2007), the science fiction film Terminator Salvation (2009), and the crime drama Public Enemies (2009). He won the Golden Globe and Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his portrayal of Dicky Eklund in the David O. Russell-directed biographical film The Fighter (2010). This acclaim continued with his Oscar-nominated roles in Russell's black comedy American Hustle (2013) and in Adam McKay's satires The Big Short (2015) and Vice (2018). For portraying Dick Cheney in the latter, he won a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor.
Bale's personal life and personality has been the subject of much public attention, despite his desire to keep a low profile. He is a supporter of Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, Greenpeace, and the World Wildlife Fund, and obtained American citizenship in 2014. Bale has been married to Sandra Blažić since 2000; they have two children.
Early life
Bale was born in Haverfordwest, Pembrokeshire, the son of Jenny (née James), a circus performer, and David Bale, an entrepreneur, commercial pilot and talent manager.[3][4][5] Bale has three sisters.[citation needed] His mother is English and his father was born in South Africa, to English parents. Bale has remarked, "I was born in Wales but I'm not Welsh – I'm English".[6] He spent his childhood in Wales, Surrey and Dorset in England, and Portugal.[7][8] Bale acknowledged that the frequent relocation had a major influence on his career choice.[9] He attended Bournemouth School, but left at age 16.[10]
Bale studied the work of actor Gary Oldman, citing him as "the reason I'm acting".[11] His first role was a commercial for the fabric softener Lenor in 1982. A year later, he appeared in a Pac-Man cereal commercial, playing a child rock star. In 1984, he made his stage debut in The Nerd on London's West End with Rowan Atkinson.[12]
Bale's parents divorced in 1991. His mother and sister Sharon stayed in Bournemouth, and Bale moved with his father to Los Angeles, California at age seventeen.[13]
Career
Debut and breakthrough: 1986–1998
Bale made his film debut as Tsarevich Alexei Nikolaevich of Russia in the made for television film Anastasia: The Mystery of Anna in 1986,[14] which was followed by leading roles in the miniseries Heart of the Country and the fantasy adventure Mio in the Land of Faraway, in which he appeared with Christopher Lee and Nick Pickard. His performance as the boy Jim Graham in Empire of the Sun (1987) earned him widespread critical praise and the first "Best Performance by a Juvenile Actor" award from the National Board of Review of Motion Pictures.[15] The attention the press and his schoolmates lavished upon him after this took a toll on Bale, and he contemplated giving up acting. But Kenneth Branagh approached him and persuaded Bale to appear in Henry V in 1989, which he found to be a good experience.[15] In 1990, he played the role of Jim Hawkins opposite Charlton Heston (as Long John Silver) in Treasure Island, a film adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson's classic book.
Bale starred in the musical films Newsies and Swing Kids, the latter about teenagers who secretly listened to forbidden jazz during the rise of Nazi Germany.[16] Bale was recommended by actress Winona Ryder to star in director Gillian Armstrong's 1994 film Little Women.[15] Bale voiced Thomas, a young compatriot of Captain John Smith, in Disney's Pocahontas (1995). In 1997 he played Arthur Stuart in Velvet Goldmine, Todd Haynes' tribute to glam rock.[16] In 1999, Bale contributed to an all-star cast, including Kevin Kline, Michelle Pfeiffer, Stanley Tucci, and Rupert Everett, portraying Demetrius in an updated version of William Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream.[16]
Rise to prominence: 1999–2004
In 1999, Bale played serial killer Patrick Bateman in American Psycho, director Mary Harron's adaptation of Bret Easton Ellis' novel of the same title. Bale was briefly dropped from the project in favour of Leonardo DiCaprio, but DiCaprio eventually dropped out to star in The Beach. Bale was again cast in the role. He researched his character by studying the novel and prepared himself physically for the role by spending months tanning and exercising in order to achieve the "Olympian physique" of the character as described in the original novel.[17] He distanced himself from the cast and crew in order to maintain the darker side of Bateman's character. American Psycho premiered at the 2000 Sundance Film Festival to much controversy. Roger Ebert condemned the film at first, calling it pornography[18] and "the most loathed film at Sundance."[19] Nonetheless, he gave it a favorable review, writing that director Harron had "transformed a novel about bloodlust into a film about men's vanity." Of Bale's performance, he wrote, "Christian Bale is heroic in the way he allows the character to leap joyfully into despicability; there is no instinct for self-preservation here, and that is one mark of a good actor."[20]
On 14 April 2000, Lions Gate Films released American Psycho in cinemas. Bale was later approached to make a cameo appearance in another Bret Easton Ellis adaptation, The Rules of Attraction, a film loosely connected to American Psycho, but he declined out of loyalty to Harron's vision of Bateman. He believed that it could not be properly expressed by any other director.[21] In 2000, he played a wealthy murderer in John Singleton's Shaft. Bale's first role after American Psycho was in the John Madden adaptation of the best-selling novel Captain Corelli's Mandolin. Bale played Mandras, a Greek fisherman who vied with Nicolas Cage's title character for the affections of Pelagia (Penélope Cruz). Captain Corelli's Mandolin was Bale's second time working with John Hurt, after All the Little Animals.
From 2002 to 2003, Bale starred in three feature films, such as Laurel Canyon (2002), which was generally well received by critics.[22] This film marked the second time he worked with actress Kate Beckinsale, his co-star in Prince of Jutland (1994). Critics generally focused on star Frances McDormand's performance over the rest of the cast, however.[23]
The post-apocalyptic action fantasy film, Reign of Fire, was Bale's first action vehicle. Compared to his previous work, it had an immense budget estimated at $95,000,000.[citation needed] Bale entered into negotiations about starring in the film with reservations, but director Rob Bowman convinced him to take the lead role.[24] Bale played Quinn Abercromby with Matthew McConaughey's Denton Van Zan. They trained for their respective roles by boxing and working out.[24]
Equilibrium was Bale's third film of 2002, costing $20 million to produce but earning just more than $5 million worldwide.[25] In Equilibrium, Bale played John Preston, an elite law enforcer in a dystopian society. Equilibrium featured a fictional martial art called Gun Kata that combined gunfighting with hand-to-hand combat. According to moviebodycounts.com, the character of John Preston has the third most on-screen kills in a single movie ever, with 118, exactly half of the movie's total of 236.[26]
After a year off, Bale returned in 2004 to play Trevor Reznik, the title character in the psychological thriller The Machinist. Bale gained attention for his devotion to the role; he went to great lengths to achieve Reznik's emaciated, skeletal appearance. He went without proper rest for prolonged periods, and placed himself on a crash diet of generally coffee and apples,[27] which reduced his weight by 63 pounds (4 st 7 lb or 28.6 kg) in a matter of months.[28] By the end of filming, Bale weighed only 121 pounds (8 st 9 lb or 55 kg),[27] a transformation he described as "very calming mentally".[29] His actions prompted comparisons to Robert De Niro's weight-gaining regimen for his role as Jake LaMotta in the 1980 film Raging Bull.[30]
Bale claimed that he had not worked for a period of time before he was cast in the film:
"[I] just hadn't found scripts that I'd really been interested in. So I was really dying for something to arrive. Then when this one did, I just didn't want to put it down. I finished it and, upon the kind of revelation that you get at the end, I immediately wanted to go back and re-visit it, to take a look at what clues I could have gotten throughout".[31]
The Machinist was a low-budget production, costing about $5 million to produce, and was given a limited US release. It was well received, with the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reporting that 77 percent of the critics' reviews tallied were positive.[32]
Bale was a fan of Hayao Miyazaki's Spirited Away.[33] He was cast as the voice of title character Howl in the English-language dub of the Japanese director's fantasy anime adventure Howl's Moving Castle. This is an adaptation of Diana Wynne Jones's children's novel of the same name. Its gross in the US was $4,711,096, a fraction of its worldwide gross ($235,184,110).[34]
The Dark Knight trilogy: 2005–2012
In 2004, after completing filming for The Machinist, Bale won the lead role of Batman and his alter ego Bruce Wayne in Christopher Nolan's Batman Begins, a reboot of the Batman film series. Still relatively unknown, Bale was picked over Jake Gyllenhaal, his closest competitor for the role.[35][36]
After having lost weight for the previous role, Bale had to gain weight and muscle to achieve Batman's muscular physique. He was given a deadline of six months to do this. Bale recalled it was not simple to achieve, "when it actually came to building muscle, I was useless. I couldn't do one push up the first day. All of the muscles were gone, so I had a real tough time rebuilding all of that."[28] With the help of a personal trainer, Bale succeeded in meeting the deadline, gaining a total of 100 lb (45 kg) in six months. He went from 121 lbs to 221 lbs.[37] Discovering that he had gained more weight than the director desired, he dropped 30 pounds by the time filming began.[38]
Bale had concerns about playing Batman, as he felt ridiculous in the Batsuit. He decided to portray Batman as a savage beast.[28] To attain a deeper understanding of the character, Bale read various Batman comic books. He explained his interpretation of the young boy:
"Batman is his hidden, demonic rage-filled side. The creature Batman creates is an absolutely sincere creature and one that he has to control but does so in a very haphazard way. He's capable of enacting violence — and to kill — so he's constantly having to rein himself in." For Bale, the most grueling part about playing Batman was the suit. "You stick it on, you get hot, you sweat and you get a headache in the mask ... But I'm not going to bitch about it because I get to play Batman", he said.[39]
Bale trained in Wing Chun Kung Fu under Eric Oram in preparation for the movie.[40][41][42][43] When promoting the film in interviews and public events, Bale continued to use an American accent to avoid confusion.[44]
Batman Begins was released in the U.S. on 15 June 2005 and was a U.S. and international triumph for Warner Bros., costing approximately $135 million to produce and taking in more than $370 million in returns worldwide.[45] Bale's performance was well received by critics and fans alike, earning him the Saturn Award for Best Actor and the Best Hero award at the 2006 MTV Movie Awards.[46] He also provided his voice and likeness for the video game adaptation of the film.
Bale reprised the role of Batman in the sequel The Dark Knight. He trained in the Keysi Fighting Method, and performed many of his own stunts.[citation needed] The Dark Knight was released in the U.S. on 18 July 2008 and stormed through the box office, with a record-breaking $158.4 million in the U.S. in its first weekend.[47] It broke the $300 million barrier in 10 days, the $400 million mark in 18 days and the $500 million mark in 43 days, three new U.S. box office records set by the film.[48] The film went on to gross more than $1 billion at the box office worldwide, making it the fourth highest-grossing movie worldwide ever at that time, before adjusting for inflation.[49] It also ranks as one of the most critically acclaimed superhero films ever made.[50][51][52]
Bale reprised the role again for the sequel The Dark Knight Rises, released on 20 July 2012.[53] Bale became the actor to have portrayed Batman on film for the lengthiest period. Following the shooting at a midnight showing of The Dark Knight Rises, he visited survivors of the movie theater in an Aurora, Colorado hospital.[54] The film garnered further critical praise and financial achievement, earning more than $1 billion worldwide. Currently, the film is the 27th highest-grossing film worldwide unadjusted for inflation, and the third highest-grossing film released in 2012.[55][56] It was the most financially successful movie in which Bale has starred.
Post-Batman Begins: 2006–2009
After Batman Begins, Bale returned to appearing in independent films. He was cast as one of the two lead roles in the South Central Los Angeles David Ayer-helmed crime drama Harsh Times, co-starring Freddy Rodriguez and Eva Longoria. Bale played Jim Luther Davis, an aloof Afghanistan War veteran afflicted with post-traumatic stress disorder, approached by the Department of Homeland Security and hired as a federal agent. Harsh Times premiered at the 2005 Toronto International Film Festival and had a wide release on 10 November 2006.[58]
Terrence Malick directed The New World, a period piece inspired by the stories of Pocahontas, and Bale was cast as John Rolfe. He shared the screen with Colin Farrell and Q'Orianka Kilcher, who played John Smith and Pocahontas. The majority of screen time was devoted to Farrell and Kilcher; Bale was a secondary character, and only appeared during the last third of the film. The film was a failure at the U.S. box office and its worldwide total of $29,506,437 fell short of turning a profit against the production budget of $30 million.[59]
In 2006, Bale took on four projects. Rescue Dawn, by German filmmaker Werner Herzog, had him playing U.S. Fighter pilot Dieter Dengler, who has to fight for his life after being shot down while on a mission during the Vietnam War. Bale left a strong impression on Herzog, with the director complimenting his acting abilities: "I find him one of the greatest talents of his generation. We made up our own minds long before he did Batman.
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