The Very Personal Reason Why Christian Bale Loves To Work On Movies

Christian Bale is one of Hollywood's most committed leading actors. Throughout his decorated career spanning multiple genres, Bale has worked tirelessly both physically and technically to bring what seems like perfection to all of his roles.

Of course, everyone can point to Bale's drastic 63-pound weight loss to play the paranoid, hallucinating insomniac Trevor Reznik in "The Machinist." According to the Los Angeles Times, Bale went from 184 to 121 pounds, surpassing his nutritionist's suggested weight of 145 pounds, all because the script called for a character who looked skeletal. And immediately after that, he had to gain all the weight back and amass muscle to play Bruce Wayne in "Batman Begins," jumping up to 220 pounds (via Esquire).

However, while very impressive, physical transformations are not the only evidence of Bale's dedication to his roles. For "The Fighter," Bale had to nail down an impression of an existing, living person in former boxer and trainer Dicky Eklund. Accordingly, Eklund has a very idiosyncratic means of communicating that involves fast-paced speech patterns, a strong regional accent, and highly distinctive mannerisms. Per The New York Times, Bale visited Eklund in his hometown of Lowell, Massachusetts, and took copious notes, and recorded their conversations for him to study and become Eklund.

Thankfully, all his hard work and dedication to his craft have resulted in widespread acclaim and multiple awards to hang on his shelf. However, it begs the question of why he does what he does for the films he's in.

When discussing his role in the "Machinist" with the Los Angeles Times, Bale had a very simple reason for the extreme weight loss: he liked the script and he wanted to do it, saying, "I recognize a lot of people would just say, 'What was the point? It's just a movie.' Which I can't really disagree with, but I decided that it was one that I wanted to do this for." While seemingly a very straightforward reason, most of us probably still don't understand. Thankfully, he's given us a bit more clarification.

While promoting his newest flick "Amsterdam," for which he also fulfills the role of producer, Bale sat down for an interview with The Hollywood Reporter. Accordingly, Bale doesn't like to watch movies, so THR asked if he can't enjoy them because of his extensive knowledge of the film industry, dating back to when he was a child, landing his breakout role in Steven Spielberg's "Empire of the Sun" at the age of 13.

Bale explained that while he can certainly enjoy a movie, he prefers making movies and learning about people. "I love making films, and I really love being able to get obsessive and really study people. I'm absolutely clueless when it comes to people. I always read people wrong," Bale intimated. "My friends and family say that I'm the worst judge of character. I don't read the room right, ever, and because of that, I'm eternally fascinated in trying to figure people out."