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[[quoteright:285:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/christian_bale.jpeg]]
[[caption-width-right:285:"So you fancy my acting prowess, huh?\\
[[MemeticMutation OH, GOOD FOR YOU!!]]"]]

->''"There are moments of real sort of hatred for [acting] and thinking that it's the most pitiful, funny, ridiculous profession that you could ever pick. And it feels like anything but art; it feels as far from art as you could possibly get. And then there are other moments where you go, 'I love it! There’s all tha crap that goes with it. Holy shit! I love it as well.'"''

[[Literature/AmericanPsycho Impressive. Very nice. Let's see Paul Allen's trope page.]]

Christian Charles Philip Bale (born 30 January 1974) is an actor born in Wales, of English extraction, and a naturalized citizen of the USA since 2014.

Bale is a former child star turned very versatile leading man, with a reputation for taking any role that challenged him. While his most famous role prior to the ''Franchise/{{Batman}}'' films was as Patrick Bateman in ''Film/AmericanPsycho'', he's also known for being willing to [[DyeingForYourArt radically transform his body]] for a role. He lost 63 pounds for ''Film/TheMachinist'', immediately gained it back and then some (100) to play everyone's favorite masked vigilante in ''Film/BatmanBegins'', then went skeletal again to star in ''Rescue Dawn'', then gained it back for ''Film/TheDarkKnight'', then lost it again to star in ''Film/TheFighter''. And then made ''Film/TheDarkKnightRises''. And then put on 43 pounds to play an overweight man in ''Film/AmericanHustle''. Then he gained even more weight to play former US Vice-President UsefulNotes/DickCheney in ''[[Film/Vice2018 Vice]]'' with terrifying accuracy.

If you ever needed someone to play both [[Creator/LaurelAndHardy Laurel AND Hardy]] in the same movie, this is the actor you'd turn to.

Case in point: he was cast as President UsefulNotes/GeorgeWBush in ''Film/{{W}}'' in 2008 (though he dropped out in pre-production), and went on to play Vice President Dick Cheney in ''Vice'' a decade later. That's right--Bale very nearly played ''both'' of [[https://static.politico.com/dims4/default/69bb9e5/2147483647/resize/1160x/quality/90/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fs3-origin-images.politico.com%2F2013%2F11%2F21%2Fbush-cheney-ap061215030224-1.jpg these guys]].

Although Bale strives to keep details of his personal life away from the public eye, he's not immune to some controversy. In 2008, he was charged for verbal assault on his mother and sister, but he denied the allegations and the charges were dropped on the grounds of lack of evidence. On February 2009, an audio recording of Christian's lengthy tirade on the set of ''Film/TerminatorSalvation'', in which he verbally assaulted Director of Photography Shane Hurlburt for wandering about the set during the shooting of a pivotal scene one time too many, was leaked online. Following the leak, Christian issued a public apology, saying that his actions were "inexcusable" and that he "acted like a punk"; prior to the leak, Bale and Hurlburt talked out their problems almost immediately after the incident. The rant was turned into various [[VoiceClipSong dance mixes]], such as [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AcSUonLW4t4 "Bale Out"]] (with an obligatory cameo by Music/BarbraStreisand), which is quite an earworm even by Bale's admission.

Bale has been married to former model Sibi Blažić since 2000. They have a daughter and a son.

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!!Notable Roles:

* Jim Graham, ''Film/EmpireOfTheSun'' (1987)
* Jum Jum, ''Mio in the Land of Faraway'' (1987)
* Boy, ''Film/{{Henry V|1989}}'' (1989)
* Jim Hawkins, ''[[Film/TreasureIsland1990 Treasure Island]]'', (1990)
* Jack Kelly, ''Film/{{Newsies}}'' (1992, [[OldShame though apparently he'd rather forget about it...]])
* Thomas Berger ''Film/SwingKids'' (1993)
* Laurie, ''Film/{{Little Women|1994}}'' (1994)
* Thomas, ''WesternAnimation/{{Pocahontas}}'' (1995)
* Arthur Stuart, ''Film/VelvetGoldmine'' (1998)
* UsefulNotes/{{Jesus}}, ''Mary Mother of Jesus'' (1999)
* Walter Wade Jr., ''Film/{{Shaft|2000}}'' (2000)
* Patrick Bateman, ''Film/AmericanPsycho'' (2000)
* Quinn, ''Film/ReignOfFire'' (2002)
* John Preston, ''Film/{{Equilibrium}}'' (2002)
* Howl, ''Anime/HowlsMovingCastle'' (Originally released in Japan in 2004, 2005 English Dub)
* Trevor Reznik, ''Film/TheMachinist'' (2004)
* John Rolfe, ''Film/{{The New World|2005}}'' (2005) (the 2nd film about Pocahontas he's appeared in!)
* Bruce Wayne/Batman, ''Film/TheDarkKnightTrilogy''
** ''Film/BatmanBegins'' (2005) and the video game adaptation
** ''Film/TheDarkKnight'' (2008)
** ''Film/TheDarkKnightRises'' (2012)
* Alfred Borden [[spoiler:[[ActingForTwo and Fallon]]]], ''Film/ThePrestige'' (2006)
* Jim Luther Davis, ''Film/HarshTimes'' (2006)
* Dieter Dengler, ''Rescue Dawn'' (2007)
* Jack Rollins/Pastor John, ''Film/ImNotThere'' (2007)
* Dan Evans, ''[[Film/ThreeTenToYuma2007 3:10 to Yuma]]'' (2007)
* [[TheOtherDarrin John Connor]], ''Film/TerminatorSalvation'' (2009)
* Melvin Purvis, ''Film/PublicEnemies'' (2009)
* Dick Eklund, ''Film/TheFighter'' (2010) (for which he won an UsefulNotes/AcademyAward)
* John Miller, ''Film/FlowersOfWar'' (2011)
* Russell Baze, ''Film/OutOfTheFurnace'' (2013)
* Irving Rosenfield, ''Film/AmericanHustle'' (2013)
* Moses, ''Film/ExodusGodsAndKings'' (2014)
* Rick, ''Knight of Cups'' (2015)
* Michael Burry, ''Film/TheBigShort'' (2015)
* Christopher "Chris" Myers, ''Film/ThePromise'' (2016)
* Capt. Joseph J. Blocker, ''Film/{{Hostiles}}'' (2017)
* UsefulNotes/DickCheney, ''[[Film/Vice2018 Vice]]'' (2018)
* Bagheera, ''Film/{{Mowgli}}'' (2018)
* Ken Miles, ''Film/FordVFerrari'' (2019)
* Gorr the God Butcher, ''Film/ThorLoveAndThunder'' (2022)
* Burt Berdensen, ''Film/{{Amsterdam|2022}}'' (2022)
* Augustus Landor, ''Film/ThePaleBlueEye'' (2022)
* Shoichi Maki, ''Anime/TheBoyAndTheHeron'' (2023, English Dub)

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!!Tropes invoked by this actor include:
%%As with all Creator/ pages, trivia tropes about the creator specifically are to be posted here, not a Trivia/ page, as they technically are InUniverse in the case of the person's career.
%%However: As with all Creator/ pages, items that could go on a specific work's trivia page go there, not here.
%%* ActionHero: As John Connor and Batman.
* AntiHero: Most of his characters. They're heroes but still very flawed people.
* AwesomeDearBoy: He agreed to play Batman for this very reason.
* ClusterFBomb: His infamous ''Terminator Salvation'' on-set tantrum, where he drops no less than thirty-nine F-bombs and various other profane words within the course of a few minutes.
* {{Corpsing}}: He has admitted that he is a giggly person and has trouble not laughing and thus ruining takes, hence taking the MethodActing approach, which allows him to go in a different headspace altogether. He has said he has ruined a lot of takes while making ''Film/AmericanPsycho'' this way.
* CreatorBacklash: He wasn't happy with how ''Film/TerminatorSalvation'' turned out.
* DoingItForTheArt: He turned down $50 million when he was offered to reprise his role as Batman for ''Film/BatmanVSupermanDawnOfJustice''. He already explained that ''The Dark Knight Rises'' is his last Batman movie and that he's sticking to Creator/ChristopherNolan's vision in keeping the [[Film/TheDarkKnightTrilogy Nolanverse]] closed.
-->'''Bale:''' We were incredibly fortunate to get to make three [Batman films]. That’s enough. Let’s not get greedy.
* DyeingForYourArt: Practically synonymous with this trope, as he frequently gains and drops weight and muscle for the sake of his roles.
* FakeAmerican: Christian usually puts on an American accent if the role calls for it and keeps it while filming and advertising. This is present for both his role as Bruce Wayne/Batman in ''Film/TheDarkKnightTrilogy'', and with a Midwestern accent in ''Film/PublicEnemies''. He didn't drop it during the infamous rant, but towards the end, he has a few OohMeAccentsSlipping moments. Hilariously, he startled the entire crew by reverting to his natural accent as soon as the final scene of ''Film/TheMachinist'' was shot. Creator/BenAffleck claims he didn't know Christian was British until right after he was cast in ''Film/BatmanVSupermanDawnOfJustice'' and bumped into him in LA. It can be very jarring, if you've gotten used to him playing Americans, to see him in something like ''Film/ThePrestige'' where he speaks in a very heavy English accent.
** Played with in his role as UK-born American racer [[Film/FordVFerrari Ken Miles]]: Miles migrated with his family from Birmingham to California, USA, keeping his signature "Brummie" accent; Bale manages to keep Miles' Brummie accent, despite being from Wales.
* FormerChildStar: Averted as he's been far more successful as an adult.
* FrozenFace: Christian is capable of unusually intense stares and untwitching facial expressions, which made his role in ''Equilibrium'' all the more awesome.
* InkSuitActor: As Thomas in ''{{WesternAnimation/Pocahontas}}'', the animators sketched his face while he was recording his lines.
* LargeHam: A few of his notable roles, most famously Patrick Bateman.
* MethodActing: So much so that he keeps his character's accent beyond production and into promotional appearances. He claims that he puts that much work into his roles because he actually has a hard time staying in character and would be constantly holding up production with his corpsing if he didn't focus.
* MrFanservice: When he's in great shape, directors often give him shirtless scenes to show it off.
* OldRetainer: Harrison Cheung was his assistant from the days when he was a child actor, before parting ways with him and writing a tell-all of Bale. One particularly interesting piece is that according to him, it was Harrison that brought up the idea of auditioning for Batman Begins, Bale did not grow up reading comics and was barely familiar with the character.
* OohMeAccentsSlipping: ''Film/ExodusGodsAndKings'' is notable in that it's probably the only time Bale struggled to maintain an accent in a film as an adult, making many ''many'' trips across the Atlantic Ocean throughout the film. Even during the course of a single sentence. Otherwise, he's very good at maintaining the accents he assumes for his characters while on set to the point that crewmembers are shocked when production wraps and he drops back into his natural accent (an English-Welsh blend). He even uses his assumed accents for promotional work so audiences would focus on the project and not his real voice, although he's started easing up on this habit in recent years.
* ProductionPosse: Previously with Creator/ToddHaynes (''Film/VelvetGoldmine'' and ''Film/ImNotThere''), more recently with Creator/ChristopherNolan (''Film/TheDarkKnightTrilogy'' and ''Film/ThePrestige''), Creator/DavidORussell (''Film/TheFighter'' and ''Film/AmericanHustle''), Creator/JamesMangold (''Film/ThreeTenToYuma2007'' and ''Film/FordVFerrari''), Creator/TerrenceMalick (''Film/TheNewWorld2005'' and ''Knight of Cups''), and Creator/AdamMcKay (''Film/TheBigShort'' and ''Film/Vice2018'').
* ShirtlessScene: In ''Film/BatmanBegins'', ''Film/TheDarkKnightRises'', ''Film/{{Equilibrium}}'', ''Literature/AmericanPsycho'', and ''Film/TheMachinist''. Though the last one falls under FanDisservice.
%%* SirSwearsALot: He's got quite a foul mouth in real life.
* StarMakingRole: ''Film/EmpireOfTheSun'' got him some attention, and ''Film/AmericanPsycho'' helped him transition from child star to adult actor. But he didn't become a real A-lister until ''Film/BatmanBegins'' came along.
%%* TallDarkAndHandsome: He stands 6 feet tall.
* WhatCouldHaveBeen:
** He was originally supposed to play UsefulNotes/GeorgeWBush in Creator/OliverStone's ''[[Film/{{W}} W.]]'', but he dropped out at the last minute due to a fear that he wouldn't be able to accurately play the part (quite funnily, he's played Bush's VP, Dick Cheney, in ''Vice'').
** He was originally set to play the lead in ''Film/ToTheWonder'' which would have reunited him with Terrence Malick but he had to drop out and Ben Affleck ([[HilariousInHindsight his successor as Batman]]) replaced him.
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