Christian Bale Needs To Get Back To His Roots

When Christian Bale had his outburst on the set of Terminator Salvation, I kind of shrugged my shoulders and mumbled "that's about right". Bale has been doing all of these major studio movies lately and it seems like a far cry from what he had always stated he wanted to do. Bale was supposed to do one or two studio films and then go straight back to doing quality independent films that showcased his acting and ability.

This might be hard to understand for people that get caught up in the new movies that come out these days, but there's a difference between a real actor and a movie star. Although Bruce Willis is a good actor and huge movie star, he's not a student of the craft of acting. He's not going to gain or lose 50 pounds for a role. He's not going to live the life of a certain type of character for 6 months in preparation for an upcoming movie. He's charming, funny and great at what he does. Christian Bale, however, is a student of acting. He wants to become the character and live their life while filming. He has no problem gaining or losing weight and diving into the role in order to give the most realistic portrayal possible.

So when he went off on his tirade to the cinematographer, I actually understood it. In that situation, someone was making it difficult for Bale to do his job and he takes his job very seriously. I could even see his intensity in the new movie trailers for Terminator, and then when I wrote the movie review for it, I mentioned how good of a job he did.

But these are not the kind of movies he should be doing. Bale is an extremely talented actor that commands the screen. He needs a role he dive into and John Connor is not that role. He needs to play some strung-out junky trying to get his life right or something like that. He deserves a meaty, Oscar worthy role.

And he definitely shouldn't be playing second fiddle to other actors. He's an A-lister now and he doesn't need to be second billing to actors like Russell Crowe (3:10 to Yuma) or Johnny Depp (Public Enemies). If he's going to insist on doing these major Hollywood films, he needs to be the star. I just don't understand the logic with some of his choices. He doesn't seem happy doing blockbusters, but makes questionable decisions when he does them. From now on, Bale should follow the Clooney rule; do one blockbuster, do two smaller films. That's how you make the money and fine tune your craft.