Christian Bale (30 page)

With that pivotal seduction to the Dark Side in mind, I thought the role of Batman looked like it would suit Christian perfectly, especially as one of the projects was to be a prequel that would be the origin story of how and why a young Bruce Wayne became the Dark Knight.

As mentioned before, I began pitching the
Batman
projects to Christian when he was on location in Ireland. Initially he resisted whenever I brought up the subject. When I called him on set to pitch the idea, the first response I got was: “Are you mad?”

It seemed Christian would never come round to the idea, despite repeated e-mails and calls from me over several months. Christian's reaction was always the same—a vehement: “No, no no!” He frowned on comic book movies and he had a British actor's sensibility that taking on a role like Batman would be selling out for a crass, American, hyper-merchandised commercial “product.”

So to convince him that Batman could be written seriously and darkly, I sent Christian his very first Batman graphic novels: Alan Moore's
Batman: The Killing Joke
and Frank Miller's
The
Dark Knight Returns
and
Batman: Year One
. These two authors (Moore is from Northampton in the U.K., Miller is from Vermont in the U.S.) had revitalized the Batman name with dark, serious and moody graphic novels that had less to do with Batman's pre-World War II American origins and more to do with the anime style coming out of Japan and Hong Kong. With these critically acclaimed Batman interpretations in hand, Christian had a chance to see how this comic book legend could be treated as a serious, dramatic subject.

After a ton of cajoling, I finally managed to convince Christian to at least consider Batman. More to the point, he had also been convinced that he needed to do bigger movies with bigger paychecks. He sent me an e-mail to launch an Internet campaign and to prepare pitch packages for directors Christopher Nolan and Darren Aronofsky. Soon, every major Batman, sci-fi, and comic book Web site was seeded with the suggestion to rent
American Psycho
and imagine Christian in the dual role of millionaire Bruce Wayne and his alter ego, Batman. This seeding was crucial because the highly opinionated and often protective sci-fi and comic fans had to be convinced that
British
Christian could play Batman, a legendary
American
character. At the time, the only other name being floated was Ben Affleck—someone the sci-fi fans scoffed at, thinking he lacked the intensity or gravitas to play Batman.

Like all of Christian's previous Web campaigns, it didn't take long for Internet buzz to convert into mainstream editorial. Almost two years before Warner Bros. made a casting decision, we had key Web sites like FilmForce, Superhero Hype, Batman On Film, and MovieHole reporting that Christian was rumored to be the next Batman. On
Comics2Film.com
, Baleheads and Batman fans were showing off their Photoshop skills, digitally mocking up
Batman: Year One
posters with Christian. And newspapers around the world soon picked up the scent.

Once he decided to pursue the role, Christian wisely leveraged his Web popularity. Internet fandom for Christian translated into clout at the polls, specifically, the many online opinion polls that gave voice to fan speculation on which actor should play the next Superman or the next Batman or the next James Bond. Like an invisible hand moving through cyberspace, the idea of “Christian Bale as the Dark Knight” was intentionally planted on every major Batman fan site. The Baleheads were legion and they had done their job. Soon, every Batman pundit was renting Christian's starring turn in
American Psycho
and
Equilibrium
to check out his muscled body, nude or tuxedo-clad, to see if he was Bruce Wayne material.

Though the major studios were loath to acknowledge that any other medium could influence their casting decisions, the Internet was an easy way to conduct quick and dirty market research to test brands, colors, flavors, and actors. “You don't want to draw too much out of a small group of people talking, but if you look cumulatively across sites, it can start to mean
something,” admitted Warner Bros. Vice President of Interactive Marketing.

And while the studios like to think that they dictate popular culture, to make a movie based on a graphic novel they had to test fandom opinion constantly, using the Internet and attending key conventions like Comic-Con to discover trends and to portend the next possible blockbuster franchise.

In the indie film world, Christian's Internet clout was renowned. By 2001, the tenth anniversary issue of
Entertainment Weekly
crowned Christian “One of the Top 8 Most Powerful Cult Figures of the Past Decade,” citing his incredible and legendary cult status on the Internet as the unknown British guy who had wrestled the lead role in
American Psycho
away from none other than
Titanic
star Leonardo DiCaprio.

Winning the role of Batman was the ultimate achievement for Christian. He constantly worried about ending up trapped, like so many of his compatriots in England, in sort of a Merchant-Ivory-BBC-costume-drama hell. Ever since he had moved to L.A. in 1991, he actively pursued contemporary American roles, anxious to demonstrate his versatility and to avoid being pigeonholed.

Put this casting triumph in perspective. Christian had won a quintessentially
American
role—the antisuperhero, Batman. Imagine the reaction if an American was cast as James Bond? This was years before Brits like Andrew Garfield could win the part of
Spiderman
, Henry Cavill could finally land
Superman
, or Aaron Johnson could
Kick
Ass.

On September 3, 2003, just eight days before Warner Bros. would make its announcement, Yahoo, then the second most popular Web site on the Internet according to Nielsen Netratings, ran an online poll asking who should be the next Batman. Christian won 47 percent of the 10,420 votes, triple the number two choice, Joshua Jackson.

So not only was Christian the first non-American and the seventh actor to play the revered role (including Lewis Wilson and Robert Lowery from the 1940s serials, and Adam West from the 1966 movie and TV series), he also became the youngest to don the cape and cowl at the age of thirty-one. Bale would be perfect for Batman, the fans had overwhelmingly decided. But would Batman be good for Bale?

It was a bittersweet casting victory for Christian. Just a few months after the Warner Bros. announcement, his father, David, would be dead. David, the man who had so desperately wanted Christian to be successful and famous, would not live to see his son starring in his first real blockbuster film.

Similar to Lionsgate's strategy with
American Psycho
, Warner Bros. beefed up the
Batman Begins
cast to surround Christian with talent that had both box office clout and indie credibility. Michael Caine stepped into the role of Alfred Pennyworth, Bruce Wayne's trusted butler. Liam Neeson was cast as villain Henri Ducard. One of Christian's personal favorites, Gary Oldman, was Sgt. James Gordon, an uncorrupted cop who had been there the night Bruce Wayne's parents were murdered. Morgan Freeman was Lucius Fox, a Wayne Enterprises employee who provides Bruce with all the gadgets and vehicles that Batman needs. Cillian Murphy was cast as the villain, The Scarecrow, while Katie
Holmes was Bruce's love interest, Rachel Dawes. All Christian had to do now was convince everyone that he was Batman, one of the longest running superheroes ever created.

In 1989, the Batman movie helmed by eccentrically goth Tim Burton (
Heathers, Edward Scissorhands
) grossed over $251 million. A new franchise was born. If Warner Bros. had wanted a dark movie, they got it. Michael Keaton, hot off a string of hits (
Mr. Mom, Gung Ho, Clean and Sober
, and
Beetlejuice
), played the first Batman. Keaton returned in
Batman Returns
(1992), which pulled in $163 million. But Keaton wasn't interested in donning the cape for a third time. “I wasn't very inspired when I read the third installment,” he admitted.

Though the first two
Batman
episodes were box office hits, the critics derided the movies as product merchandising over substance. Still, Batman soldiered on, seemingly flop-proof. For the third movie, Warner Bros. revamped the franchise with a new Batman and a new Batman director. Val Kilmer was paid a reported $7 million paycheck to star as the next Batman. But
Batman Forever
was not a happy experience for Kilmer. Disaster loomed even during filming, when he kept searching for deeper motivation to Batman's scenes, prompting director Joel Schumacher to brand him “childish and impossible” and snap: “Well, you're Batman. Just you do it.”

Next up to bat was George Clooney. The fourth film,
Batman & Robin
, brought back Chris O'Donnell (who also appeared alongside Kilmer) as the Boy Wonder and starred Alicia Silver-stone as Batgirl. This time, Uma Thurman and Arnold Schwarzenegger played the villains. Though Clooney was
People
's Sexiest Man Alive that same year,
Batman & Robin
was a major box office disappointment, grossing only $107 million, less than any of the previous Batman movies. Adding insult to injury, this Batman earned an unprecedented ten Razzie Award nominations, including one for Worst Remake or Sequel, while Alicia
Silverstone won her Razzie for Worst Supporting Actress. Razzie Awards dishonor the worst achievements in film for the year. His Batman experience prompted Clooney to quip: “I am single-handedly responsible for killing Batman!”

In all seriousness, Clooney was thoughtful in his postmortem over the
Batman & Robin
disaster: “It was just too big. By the time we made our Batman movie, they were just about selling toys. They got $25 million from Taco Bell before we started shooting. It's a moneymaking machine. They say I was a bad Batman, that it was my fault. They say I buried the franchise. But the truth is, it was a $150 million film and they paid me $10 million. I was pretty intimidated in that world.”

Like Kilmer, Clooney did feel that Batman was a smart career move to shore up an actor's profile and bankability, adding: “I've now got money in the bank and there's no reason to do any movie unless it's one that I really want to do. With money in the bank, it is easy to be more selective, to make smarter decisions.”

As for advice for Christian, Clooney joked: “Hopefully he won't tank the franchise the way I did. I set the bar so low he shouldn't have a problem.”

Christian might've been ready for the movie after his months of Internet campaigning to get the role, but was this private actor really ready to deal with his face splashed all over the Batman merchandise? Was he ready for his Balehead army to grow dramatically to include the Batman fan boys who had very high expectations? Christian had his own philosophy about acting: “If you're an actor, there have to be times when you're ready to step up to the plate and make a fool of yourself and possibly embarrass yourself.”

However, at Comic-Con 2004, Warner Bros. promised a sneak peek at
Batman Begins
to the eager fan community. They would be disappointed as the promised trailer was not available and there was only “a half-hearted videotaped greeting from
Chris Nolan and a distracted/annoyed Christian Bale.” Although Warner Bros. told Comic-Con attendees that a trailer was not available, just five days later, it appeared online. Not the nicest way to treat the hard-core fans! When Christian won the role of Batman, he had just five months to prepare himself for the role and threw himself into pumping up his body and getting it into superhero shape.

Christian had to look good for the part of Batman—a man who has no superpowers but a man who can fight crime with martial arts and weapons skills and an unlimited fortune to fund his gadgetry. But once again he went overboard.

This time he went completely the opposite, bulking up too much. Christian revealed: “I was in a really pathetic state after
The Machinist
. But Batman has no superpowers so we couldn't get away with him looking like some Joe Schmo who never works out. Losing the weight was more of a mental discipline, which actually leads to a place of great calm. It was far less healthy putting on the weight because I was just stuffing myself. A doctor actually said to me: ‘You're nuts, you're going to do some real damage.' I went from 120 lbs. to 220 lbs. within five months. I turned up in England, bearded, long hair and I was walking toward Chris Nolan. I was like: ‘Hi Chris,' and he had absolutely no idea who I was. When I got closer he went: ‘Holy, f * * * ! You look like Grizzly Adams what's going on?' Then he was like: ‘Ok, you did a good job, you got really big like I asked you to but maybe we should try slimming you down a little.” Some crew members were somewhat more candid. They came in and were like: ‘What movie are we doing here? Fatman?!'”