Christian Balehas an award-winning knack for immersing himself into his film roles — chameleon-like abilities which serve him very well as an actor, with the added benefit of occasionally, accidentally, entertaining his family members when certain characters have come home with him.“I do it less now that I have kids because I don’t want to confuse them,” he tells PEOPLE in the latest issue. “My wife definitely had favorites. She was like, ‘Ah, I miss him. He’s gone. You’re a d—. I want you to be that character again.'”And who was his wife’s favorite?“[Sibi] actually really liked Trevor Reznik, fromThe Machinist,” he says. “I think it’s just about him and me just f—— sitting there being too weak to be able to do anything. Totally incapable.”Bale famously lost 60 poundsto play the troubled insomniac in the 2004 drama, before regaining 70 lbs. and adding 30 lbs. of muscle to play Batman Christopher Nolan’s 2005 filmBatman Begins.Rachel Luna/Getty ImagesChristian Bale inThe Machinist.Nicolas Geller/Paramount Classics/Kobal/REX/ShutterstockFor much more on Christian Bale, his costar Matt Damon andFord v Ferrari, pick up the latest issue of PEOPLE on newsstands Friday.“Whatever she told me to do, I did it. I suspect it’s that,” he says with a laugh. “No, he was actually incredibly peaceful, incredibly Zen, no roller coaster. I slept two hours a night. That was it. I couldn’t sleep longer than that. And [when] I was up, I would sit and read a book for eight hours straight, beginning to end, and I didn’t have to shift.”“That was incredibly Zen,” adds Bale. “It was the most relaxed and calm I’ve ever been, and I think she just adored that. But also I know her, she would get really bored.”Christian Bale and Matt Damon.Celeste SlomanThe Oscar winner says that there’s always a piece of a character that lingers after filming wraps, and he has to work to reorient things.“There will be a certain look that you’ve gotten for a part, a voice that you’re doing, and it can take a little while to remind your mouth that that’s not how you normally sound, so that lingers for a while, no matter how much you try,” he explains. “They can return very quickly. That’s the thing that’s interesting. And I always thought, every single role I do, the next role I’m doing, it takes me forever to figure out how to play itnotlike the role I was doing last.”He adds, “Like when I was coming to Ken Miles [forFord v Ferrari], I kept on reading it like Dick Cheney [fromVice] and I was going, this isn’t going to work, ‘Like come on mate, what’s going on here?'”Ford v Ferrariis now playing in theaters.
Christian Balehas an award-winning knack for immersing himself into his film roles — chameleon-like abilities which serve him very well as an actor, with the added benefit of occasionally, accidentally, entertaining his family members when certain characters have come home with him.
“I do it less now that I have kids because I don’t want to confuse them,” he tells PEOPLE in the latest issue. “My wife definitely had favorites. She was like, ‘Ah, I miss him. He’s gone. You’re a d—. I want you to be that character again.'”
And who was his wife’s favorite?
“[Sibi] actually really liked Trevor Reznik, fromThe Machinist,” he says. “I think it’s just about him and me just f—— sitting there being too weak to be able to do anything. Totally incapable.”
Bale famously lost 60 poundsto play the troubled insomniac in the 2004 drama, before regaining 70 lbs. and adding 30 lbs. of muscle to play Batman Christopher Nolan’s 2005 filmBatman Begins.
Rachel Luna/Getty Images
Christian Bale inThe Machinist.Nicolas Geller/Paramount Classics/Kobal/REX/Shutterstock
“Whatever she told me to do, I did it. I suspect it’s that,” he says with a laugh. “No, he was actually incredibly peaceful, incredibly Zen, no roller coaster. I slept two hours a night. That was it. I couldn’t sleep longer than that. And [when] I was up, I would sit and read a book for eight hours straight, beginning to end, and I didn’t have to shift.”
“That was incredibly Zen,” adds Bale. “It was the most relaxed and calm I’ve ever been, and I think she just adored that. But also I know her, she would get really bored.”
Christian Bale and Matt Damon.Celeste Sloman
The Oscar winner says that there’s always a piece of a character that lingers after filming wraps, and he has to work to reorient things.
“There will be a certain look that you’ve gotten for a part, a voice that you’re doing, and it can take a little while to remind your mouth that that’s not how you normally sound, so that lingers for a while, no matter how much you try,” he explains. “They can return very quickly. That’s the thing that’s interesting. And I always thought, every single role I do, the next role I’m doing, it takes me forever to figure out how to play itnotlike the role I was doing last.”
He adds, “Like when I was coming to Ken Miles [forFord v Ferrari], I kept on reading it like Dick Cheney [fromVice] and I was going, this isn’t going to work, ‘Like come on mate, what’s going on here?'”
Ford v Ferrariis now playing in theaters.
source: people.com
