'Dark Knight' Q&A: Christian Bale

Christian Bale as Bruce Wayne in "The Dark Knight" (Credit: Warner Bros.)

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Christian Bale is known for making bold choices as an actor.

He’s shed massive amounts of weight for roles (“The Machinist,” “Rescue Dawn”), played a narcissistic serial killer (“American Psycho”) and even danced on screen more than once (“Swing Kids,” “Newsies”). But he was never considered a major star until “Batman Begins” made over $300 million worldwide and reminded Hollywood how advantageous it can be to have a great actor at the center of a blockbuster property. [See also: Daniel Craig in “Casino Royale,” Johnny Depp in “Pirates of the Caribbean” and Robert Downey Jr. in “Iron Man.”]

Now Bale is back, with the rest of the key players from “Batman Begins,” for the bigger, better follow-up “The Dark Knight.” Metromix spoke with Bale about playing a tortured superhero, working with the late Heath Ledger, what we might expect from a third Bat outing and another little franchise he’s involved with called “Terminator.”

There’s a scene in this movie where Batman stands on top of Chicago’s Sears tower, and I understand you actually did that. What was that like?
Fantastic. That was not a stunt, but that was an experience. There was no way they were going to put me up there on a line and plummet 110 stories. I had a cable, I could have fallen a short way and then banged against the side and been pulled up again. But when am I going to get an opportunity to stand on the top of Sears tower—looking down and out over Chicago?

Do you think we’re seeing a darker version of Batman and Bruce Wayne in “The Dark Knight”?
I don’t know about darker, he’s more mature. It’s always the dark knight with Batman, he’s never a white knight. Bats are not associated with anything angelic, they’re associated with the devil, with hell, and that’s his whole point. He wants to overcome his own fears and use those fears against his opponents. He has this extreme shadow side…this rage and this desire for revenge but countered by his inherited philanthropy and altruism from his parents, which he wants to be true to as well.

And in this movie he has a dark mirror image with the Joker.
[Batman] is provoked more than ever by the Joker into the temptation of breaking his one cardinal rule: that he will not kill. And with the Joker, you have the arrival of the ultimate freak. He is a very intelligent character. Cleary Batman has a dilemma…if he can break his one cardinal rule and potentially save many more lives. What is the right choice to make?

Were you surprised by the way Heath Ledger played the Joker?
I worked on a movie with Heath called “I’m Not There,” about a year before, and I had spoken with him before we started Batman. I had spoken with [the director] Chris [Nolan] about Heath’s idea and the collaboration on how the Joker was going to be portrayed, so I knew we were getting this very different portrayal. The tone of our movie, our Gotham, is not in any way looking for caricatures. We’re not looking for actors to kind of be giving a nod and a wink to the audience and showing how much the actor is enjoying portraying this character. We want people to stay underneath it and disappear inside of the role.

I can’t help but be impressed beyond belief with what [Heath] did because it’s such an iconic villain. I have no idea, if Chris chooses to make a third movie, how he is going to include and make a better villain than what [Heath] came up with.

Are you talking at all about a third Batman film and would you be up for it?
I think that will very much depend on Chris and that will really be his decision.

Are there any ideas yet that you can reveal?
I’m thinking in a very casual manner. Chris certainly needs to finish this one completely. I don’t know, but maybe he wants to go make something else. We did “The Prestige” in between [“Batman Begins” and “Dark Knight”], maybe he needs to take a break from it. I cannot speak for him about whether he has any interest in returning for a third. Clearly I would hope that he would, I find that [“Dark Knight”] has a very intriguing ending. I like the idea of the challenge of the third. There have been a number of sequels which have surpassed the original movie, but with my limited movie knowledge, I can’t think of many times the third in the trilogy has ended up being the best of the three movies.

And now you’re working on the fourth “Terminator” movie, “Terminator: Salvation.” What should audiences expect from that?
Let’s compare it to “Batman Begins.” With “Batman Begins,” we’re reinventing and breathing new life into the story line. The difference, of course, is with “Batman Begins” we’re giving an origin story, and we’re actually separating ourselves from the previous movies and we’re not giving concessions to recognizing them whatsoever. “Terminator” you have to recognize the mythology that has gone ahead of it, the first one and second one and mmm [shakes his hand side to side as if to say “maybe”]…the third one. We’ve had an opportunity and I believe a responsibility to do the same thing in terms of reinvention, revitalizing, breathing new life [into “Terminator”], otherwise there is no point in making it. And so that is my aim and anything less will fail it.

Once you’ve had success with a franchise like Batman does it make it easier to land jobs like “Terminator,” do studios think you have a pre-sold audience now?
I don’t believe I ever have a pre-sold audience waiting for me. I don’t buy that for a second ever. I feel like I have to prove myself for the first time, every time I make a movie.