Christian Bale Says His Years of Weight Fluctuation Are Over
Christian Bale’s stars in the new film ‘Ford V Ferrari’ alongside actor Matt Damon. The film hit theaters this weekend. Bale is known for committing to his film roles, especially when it comes to its physicality.
Over the years, Bale has drastically fluctuated between weight for his roles, to a point where people have expressed concern. He recently had to drop 70 pounds after his role as Vice President Dick Chaney in ‘Vice’ for the role of Ken Miles in his latest film.
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In an interview with ‘CBS Sunday Morning’, Bale says this is the last time he will drop or add weight for a role.
“I keep saying I’m done with it. I really think I’m done with it, yeah,” said Bale in the interview.
Bale has had some notable roles that have won him an Oscar. Some of these roles, you have to do a double-take to realize its really Christian Bale. Let’s take a look back at Bale’s ability to physically transform for his character.
Back in the 2,000, Bale played the notorious Patrick Bateman in the drama/slasher film ‘American Psycho’. Bateman was on the lean muscular side so Bale had to conform to a rigorous diet.
He told ‘Train Mag’ back in 2017, “my role for American Psycho was my most restrictive diet-wise. There were no cheat meals. It was all lean protein. No sugars, good fats and low carbs.”
Bale felt he had to achieve a certain look for Bateman seeing as the character was narcissistic and highly superficial.
His next role is his most physically altering to date and the role most people talk about. For his role as Trevor Reznik in ‘The Machinist’ (2004), he had to lose a total of 60 pounds. By the time of filming, he was only 120 pounds.
To achieve the body weight, Bale stuck to a diet that isn’t recommended. Sticking to a diet of water, an apple and a cup of coffee a day got him to all skin-and-bones.
Not soon after wrapping production on ‘The Machinist’ he had to again gain weight for his role in ‘Batman Begins’ (2005). For Batman, he had to have a muscular and more filled out physique.
Now being able to eat freely, Bale went a little stir crazy eating pizza and ice cream. He was back to eating what he wanted and a full five meals a day. He even gained too much weight than director Christopher Nolan preferred and cut down 20 pounds.
In 2018, Bale had another film role he had to gain weight for in ‘Vice’. Playing former Vice President Dick Cheney, Bale had to gain roughly 40 pounds. Bale was so unrecognizable in the films first trailer, that people didn’t even realize it was him.
He had a diet of pies and supposedly did some neck exercises to beef up to look as convincing as possible. It seems like these drastic body transformation for Bale are now a thing of the past.
