Bale Talks About Bulking Up

Christian Bale talked to SciFi Wire about gaining weight for his lead role in Batman Begins.

“I finished The Machinist in July [2003], and then we started filming on this at the end of February [2004],” Bale said. “I did have a lot of work to do. Just because, … you know, it’s one of those parts that you have to be in decent shape for. Visually, but also … just dealing with being in that suit for 12 hours a day. [I was] eating, just eating like crazy, just trying to put on pounds and pounds and pounds. I actually went ? way overboard. By the time I arrived in England, you know, [director] Chris [Nolan] kind of looked at me in shock and kind of went, ‘God, you’re like some grizzly bear.’ Because I arrived with long hair and a beard and stuff , and I was, like, filling up the hallway. I had actually, by that time, … put on exactly 100 pounds from the day of finishing The Machinist to arriving in January in England. And it was not very healthy. It wasn’t a healthy way to go. I could lift a lot of weights, but you ask me to run across the room, and I would have been exhausted. So when I got here, that’s when I had to really start leaning out and doing a lot of running and all of that stuff, and got my weight way back up.”

Interesting stuff, its amazing what some actors will do for a role. I hear Doug Jones is getting surgically implanted gills for the upcoming Hellboy 2…just kidding.