Christian Bale Reflects On Playing Batman In ‘The Dark Knight’ Trilogy

As fans continue to speculate on Ben Affleck’s future as Batman in the DC Extended Universe, actor Christian Bale is reflecting on his own time in the cape and cowl in Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight trilogy. In an interview with Variety’s Playback podcast, Bale discussed how his role as Batman in the acclaimed film series affected his career and commented on the idea that his performance in American Psycho earned him the top spot on many fan casting lists at the time.

Christian Bale discussed the mixed emotions he has on being propelled into the spotlight after playing Batman in the Dark Knight films:

“Mixed emotions about it. I’m always eternally grateful to Chris. For instance, ‘Rescue Dawn,’ Werner [Herzog] and I had been trying to put that together for a few years. ‘American Psycho,’ Mary Harron and I had been trying to put that together for a few years. No one was interested. Why? Because of me. Chris cast me in Batman and suddenly everyone said, ‘Yeah, alright. We’ll go with him.’ It did change everything. It was the first time I had done a film of that magnitude. That was a real learning curve for me. I wrestled with it for a long time. I still do on occasions. But I’m just learning, hey, accept the good things.”

The Academy Award-winning also shared a behind-the-scenes story on why most of his experience working on the Batman films was spent waiting in a tent:

“At my suggestion I said, ‘no one can ever see me without the cowl on. They cannot. You cannot bust, blow apart that mystery. So we must not.’ So, I’ve got to be in a tent the whole time and seven months later I’m like, ‘oh my god, this was my idea, wasn’t it? I’m still in it.’”

Christian Bale also weighed in on the idea that his role as Patrick Bateman in American Psycho helped him gain the support of fans who hoped to see him cast as the Caped Crusader:

“Well, I guess the true fans always saw that Bruce Wayne had this great darkness to him. There is a philanthropy, obviously, hopeully there but it is something… he’s having a battle, a monster within himself. And so, I suppose that in that respect, Bateman/Batman, they started to see that, ‘well, maybe this guy can do it.’”

Where does Christian Bale rank on your list of actors to portray Batman? Share your thoughts below!

Set within a year after the events of Batman Begins, Batman, Lieutenant James Gordon, and new district attorney Harvey Dent successfully begin to round up the criminals that plague Gotham City until a mysterious and sadistic criminal mastermind known only as the Joker appears in Gotham, creating a new wave of chaos. Batman’s struggle against the Joker becomes deeply personal, forcing him to “confront everything he believes” and improve his technology to stop him. A love triangle develops between Bruce Wayne, Dent and Rachel Dawes.

All three installments of The Dark Knight trilogy are now available on 4K Ultra HD Blu-Ray.

Source: Variety