Bale loses it on T4 set

[BatmAngelus]

I've seen a picture from the incident in Chicago (or a different incident) of Bale flipping the bird at the camera.  Don't know where to find it, but I think I saw it at the SHH boards.

As someone mentioned, there's the irony that he is calling another man an amateur and unprofessional when he is not being a professional at all.
Did you notice that the director McG barely gets a word in?  It's a bit frightening.  He's the director.  He should be the one controlling the situation.  If anything, he should be telling the DP not to walk across the scene again. Obviously since it's only audio, we can't see if McG was doing something physically (I suspect he may have been one of the people trying to hold Bale back at that one part of the clip), but he could have said more.

I agree with you, Doc, that the "he just had a bad day" excuse coming from certain people, as well as from producer Bruce Franklin, just doesn't cut it, in terms of the amount of verbal abuse Bale let out.  

I can understand an actor being frustrated by having a good scene ruined and having a bad day, but I can't sympathize with someone who goes on and on with threats and F-bombs and delaying a reshoot of the scene by making the situation worse.

[DocLathropBrown]

From what I heard, the DP was walking behind the light set ups IN the background, which means the only thing that ruined the take was Bale stopping to complain about the guy moving behind the camera. In other words, he ruined his own damn take.

Seriously, the DP would have become a DP if he was so stupid, it's simply got to be that Bale overreacted. The guy simply couldn't be stupid enough to ruin the take by being in the way of the camera or the lights. I refuse to believe it. And combined with the prior evidence of Bale's dickery, I would certainly believe that he flipped out over nothing more than the guy posing a slight distraction to Bale while he was acting.

[BatmAngelus]

Yes, that is a good point.
No matter what, the professional and adult way to handle it would have been to tell the guy calmly not to do that because it distracts him.  That's all that could've happened to remedy a rather minor problem.

[Paul (ral)]

I suspect Bale was not doing too well in the scene (under-performing) and his ego wouldn't allow himself to take the blame so he jumped on someone else.

A word of warning - if you ever get to see Bale in a theatre production don't go to the toilet...he might flip out at you moving in front of him!

[Grissom]

LOL, good one raleagh 

[Dark Knight Detective]

I wouldn't even know where to look! But I kind of mislabelled it, he didn't really "blow up" at the fan, but he had been in the bat suit all day, working hard in Chicago and at the end of the day on the way back to his trailer, a fan bugged him for an autograph (or picture, forget which), and Bale either just snidely said "**** off" (or words to the effect) or gave him a mini-lecture. It was something like that. I remember it because a lot of people were questioning that move as this was prior to BB coming out, it was before Bale could do no wrong in the eyes of many people.

Now, I'm not one that can't separate incidents. The fan shouldn't have needled him, really (but inversely, he didn't need to be a dick, he could have respectfully told the guy he didn't feel good and didn't want to be bothered), and the paparazzi he lectured a couple months ago deserved it.

Y'know, had the guy he was yelling at actually been doing what he did on purpose? Then it would be justified. But you can hear on the clip, the guy isn't even "talking back" to Bale. He's just taking it, apoligizing, and Bale's still being a douchebag. Letting his ego fly, as if he's too good to act past a guy being in his line of sight during filming.

Every Nolanite's "he just had a bad day" excuse is bullsh*t. The way he lost it bespeaks of what kind of person he really is. I've had bad days of hard work and gotten mad before, I never lost it in the way he did. The way he lost it reveals that he thinks higher of himself than others, and doesn't respect the guy, maybe not even any of the crew. Even at his worst, Keaton would probably lecture the guy, but in the end, Keats wouldn't devalue and humiliate the man. He'd probably apoligize after he was done, though still having made the point the guy is causing problems.

Bale really is just a big angry Welshman. You can tell, he's just an angry guy, period. And with all of his success, his ego's been inflated and now he's evolved into a douchebag.

Y'know, it seems like a silly no-brainer for me to say it, but I don't like Christian Bale. Seriously, I may have prefurred Michael Keaton's Batman, but I still respected Bale and his version. Not any more. I just can't respect a performance from a douchebag. And now it makes sense why I didn't like his performance best.

[fanboy gushing] Literally, the answer just fell into my lap. I never felt for Bale's Wayne. Never felt sorry for him or looked up to him, like I do with the Batman character. It wasn't just in how the films were written, but it's because Bale is a douchebag, and it shows in his performance. Not like it's obvious, but that's what's missing from it. The empathy, the sadness, the compassion and the tragedy. The humanity and the admirable nature. Bale doesn't even have it in any fiber of his being, and Keaton does in-spades. He's not my favorite actor just because I grew up with him as Batman, but because of what kind of person he is.

I've searched and read so many interviews about Keaton, and snippets and all kinds of little things. Seeked out interviews and the like, I seriously know what kind of person he is. And he is all of the things that Bale is not, and THAT's why his Batman/Bruce Wayne is so much better. I mean, really. Your heart could sink for Keaton's Batman when you see him brooding. Bale? Not so much. It just ain't there. But above the role of Batman, you can see what kind of person Keaton is in the roles he takes, what tickles his fancy. Even his comedies bespeak of a very friendly guy, as opposed to some comics who are really dicks (Bill Murray, supposedly).

Really, I can't tell you how many little candid pieces I've read on Keaton. There was a Michael Keaton fansite years ago that had a ton of 'em (and I think the site's finally offline, now), even throughout the mid 90s, on movies of his that slipped through the cracks. I remember one day I was literally reading for hours. I indentify with him not only because he's one of the best actors of our generation, but because he's a brilliant, worthwhile human being. And really, you can see it in him with every interview, every role, and every candid moment. Keaton is the real deal.

I don't think there's ever been more potent proof of who's more suited to to the role, between the TMZ clip of Keaton I posted above, and the tape of Bale being a douchebag. Would Bruce Wayne or Batman have done what Bale did, or what Keaton did?

The answer should be quite obvious [/fanboy gushing]

Great post DocLathropBrown. Some might find it unnecessary (I get that, too), but something like Bale's immature behavior is something you definitely rip into. I could never imagine Michael Keaton getting mad in such a moronic way. If it were to happen, then the apocalypse is indeed on its way.

[Batmoney]

I don't think something like this should define Bale permanently, but I certainly think he better be damned ashamed of himself for it. I mean seriously, can you be any more hypocritical then to scream at the top of your lungs about "f*cking professionalism".

[DocLathropBrown]

It defines him for me, as I said, the kind of outburst he gave speaks of what kind of person he really is. Nice people don't explode the way he did. They might get mad, but nowhere near THAT mad, and nice people don't get mad over such a relative nothing like that.

And I was never impressed by his acting skills in the first place, TDK only surprised me because he was so much better in it that he was in BB.

[batass4880]

I never liked him. From the first time I saw him in an interview promoting Begins on Charlie Rose. He comes off very cocky when talking about the new Batman movies. He's got this "we're better than those films" and "our films actually get Batman right" attitude and he just plain sucks as Batman IMO.

[Dark Knight Detective]

I never liked him. From the first time I saw him in an interview promoting Begins on Charlie Rose. He comes off very cocky when talking about the new Batman movies. He's got this "we're better than those films" attitude and he just plain sucks as Batman IMO.

Well, he's got a point. The Nolan films are better than the Burton films in lacking a great storyline, artistic expressions, a spectacular Bruce/Batman, a love interest, etc. Just who the hell does this guy think he is?