Christian Bale: 'I was asked to do a romantic comedy. I thought they’d lost their minds'

The actor, famous for playing brooding, damaged men, is back playing, well, a brooding, damaged man in the gritty western Hostiles. He talks about why the film industry has to change, balding up to play Dick Cheney – and why he will never, ever, do a romcomThe interview’s first surprise is that a chubby, grungy figure is occupying the Beverly Hills hotel sofa reserved for Christian Bale. The impostor sports a shaved head, heavy paunch, worn black T-shirt and khaki camouflage trousers. He looks like a bouncer, maybe, or a resting football hooligan, but certainly not the man who pops up on lists of the sexiest stars alive. But Bale it is, sunk into the seat, inhabiting his latest physical transformation. “I ate a lot of pies,” he says.The actor is well known for going to extremes – gorging, starving, bodybuilding – which reshape his physique from Olympian to emaciated to portly and back. He has just done it again, packing on the pounds and going near-bald to play Dick Cheney. At the age of 43, these transformations are not getting easier. “I’ve got to stop doing it. I suspect it’s going to take longer to get this off,” he says, indicating the belly. Continue reading…
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