It must have bubbled up inside Christian Bale real good and hot for him to lose his shit like this. TMZ broke the story (hate to link to them, but this is spicy stuff).
Apparently “Terminator Salvation” D.P. Shane Hurlbut wasn’t being sensitive enough to Bale’s acting process, walking around and being somewhat distracting off camera during a scene between Bale and Bryce Dallas Howard, and Bale went off like a friggin’ fireworks display.
The best part is when he sounds like he’s literally going to get up and go beat the living hell out of Hurlbut toward the end of the tape. I can’t really hear what’s going on in the background, but judging from Bale’s reaction, Hurlbut must have been stating his case a little too much for the actor’s taste, or perhaps he was egging him on in some way, I can’t tell. But jeez, talk about a testy moment. My guess is the “Shut the f— up, Bruce” comment is aimed at 1st A.D. Bruce Franklin (the toughest job on any film set). This incident happened just before his London arrest, apparently, but the audio just made it out today.
After Bale’s recent legal troubles, something like this is bound to add to the gathering snowball that paints him as a hot head, a loose cannon, whatever. I’ve met him a couple of times, and he’s certainly a serious fellow. But he’s also got a sense of humor buried in there that is quite hysterical. Then again, you can always sense he could quite easily be on the verge of snapping like a twig and going atomic on someone’s ass.
I hope Hurlbut made it out alive.
Comments
54 responses to “Christian Bale flips out on the set of ‘Terminator Salvation’”
Now I’m officially excited to see Terminator Salvation.
I guess it’s a hard transition from going to Mann and Spinotti to McG and Shane Hurlburt. Perhaps Bale should stick with the Nolan bros as much as he can.
Perhaps Bale is a dick.
I’d love to hear that audio in ‘bat’ language. ‘Why you wanna kill..er…ruin my scene??????’
That sorta made me laugh.
He is not the hero the hero that Gotham needs. Or deserves.
Victoria: NICE! That’s exacly what I was thinking.
I think Shaney Boy got the point. I can see how that would be annoying.
Apologies for the double hero…
As much as I love Bale as an actor and want everything to be dandy with him… that’s one entertaining mp3!
Bale may be in the right for all I know, but whatever the case, that kind of tantrum is unacceptable. Embarrassing for all concerned.
I would have never thought of it before, but Christian Bale is now my first choice for my upcoming college basketball biopic CHAIR THROWER: THE BOBBY KNIGHT STORY.
Just gotta write the script now.
This is old news, isn’t it? I believe this came up around the same time he was arrested. He obviously went through a rough patch, there…
hey , where did his British accent go? ;-)
If it’s old news why is it just being reported today? First I’ve ever heard of it.
Oh, I see. It is considerably old, but today is the first time the audio has leaked out.
I laughed at Victoria’s comment.
I love Bale, but I even admit that was way over the top. He should be ashamed of that.
Bale is a fucking badass!
Boy that movie must suck donkey balls. Embarassing stuff though, I am stunned.
While his outrage was a bit excessive and uncalled for, I can imagine that any environment with McG at the helm is probably very unprofessional and that would honestly get on my nerves too. As an actor, I can attest to how annoying it is for crew to just be waltzing around and being a huge distraction. It takes a lot of focus to act on sets like that of huge summer blockbusters because there is so much going on in terms of the crew always messing with something and it usually takes HOURS to set up one shot. After waiting around for hours for the crew to finally finish up what they were doing so you can finally get to work, only to have the crew continue to be distracting and messing around with stuff everyone thought was ready to go, I think anyone’s patience would be pretty damn thin. I think Bale had gotten used to really efficient and professional environments working with Nolan, Pfister, Mann, and Spinotti, only to be shoved into a summer blockbuster being helmed by a terrible director and DP, who in all honesty aren’t the most professional people out there and clearly don’t have any respect for the acting process. That’s why McG pisses me off so much. Filmmaking may be an art, but its also hard work. Everyone has to be respectful of the work process of every person on set otherwise things will definitely fall apart. It’s a team effort, and everyone has work to do. It’s utterly disrespectful to get in the way of someone else’s work because you assume your job must be FAR more important.
I like Christian Bale and I don’t care to listen to this tape. I get the gist of it perfectly from everyone’s comments. I would be too embarrassed to listen to a moment in Bale’s life when he’s very, very on edge and trying to do his job. Leave the dude alone, he’s still cool in my book.
I would hope it’s somewhat old audio; otherwise, wouldn’t they be coming down to crunch time on the release? This one’s coming out in mid-May, right?
Bale’s behavior, while unprofessional, is hilarious. Good for McG, though, standing up for…no one in this thing. Shouldn’t he be a tad more assertive?
Hey Josh … yes, it’s coming up mid-May, meaning that the advertising onslaught should start … soon.
This means big splash ads on Oscar night, followed by fast-food tie-ins, guest spots on Oprah, and a rock song composed especially for T4.
Methinks Bale himself may have complied with this, knowing it would be for the greater good … of box office.
Just sayin’ …
I love that Bale is still in character. Now THAT’s acting!!!!!!
as The Rock would say…
“Know your role, and shut your mouth!”
Bale’s a little bitch.
great actor, but he acted like a total douchebag…
I don’t give a crap about how big a star he is, NO ONE has the right to talk to anyone like that.
and if the working environment was unprofessional, well, so was throwing a little temper tantrum like a 6 year-old.
Most of my respect for him is gone, he’s such a diva. Plus, what about his charges of assaulting his mum and sis? True or not, only someone of his character could have that stuff circulating about him. And he’s always been a bitch on a set. Talented or not, his cool factor goes way down due to being on par with Russell Crowe for doucheyness!
All three of them are to blame, but I put the majority of the blame on McG. A director should have his/her set under control, and just saying “fair enough” makes it seem like he really doesn’t give a shit.
Never knew how full of himself he was.
Nice little outburst…but Bale still has miles to go to catch up with Klaus Kinski. Now there was a man who could pitch a REAL fit.
Andrew,
His mother and sister are drug addicts and he has been estranged from them for years. They were trying to shake him down for money. They assaulted him. He yelled at them (probably similar to the tirade on the Terminator set) and they called the cops on him. He was not charged with anything.
Meanwhile, there is now a techno dance remix on YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YTihsJQHt48
Bale is right in this situation. A film set needs to be a proper environment for craftsmanship, not some tech party in which the DP can talk a tonne while a scene is going. That’s an ass move. “Quiet on the set!”
Bale keeps whatever accent he’s doing in the movie the whole time on set. Now this might sound like an odd comparison, and it is, but Hugh Laurie does it on the set of House too. It just helps a lot. I’m sure lots of people do that when they are using a different accent.
Although Bale definitely is at partial fault here, I’m just saying it’s more the DP and McG. But Bale could’ve probably kept his cool a little better. Much better. But still. Ass move DP, ass move.
I love all the apologist fanboys trying to write this off as McG’s fault. Face it, bad environment or not this type of tantrum is clearly from a man who has issues that need to be worked out, and is unacceptable. He’s only contributing to making the environment worse by throwing such a fit. Don’t apologize for someone being a dick just because they happened to play Batman (not to even go into how he was the weak link in the entire TDK film), he doesn’t deserve that kind of pedestal if he’s going to be a dick.
It’s a viral marketing campaign for T4!
truthfully, if I were as talented as Christian Bale and surrounded by subpar “actors” like Common, Bryce Dallas Howard, and Sam Worthington AND being directed by a hack of McG’s calibre, I might be wanting to rip off a DP’s head too…but…we all have our bad days right?
[…] Recent Comments Kyle on: Christian Bale flips out on the set of ‘Terminator Salvation’ […]
It was unaccpetable when Klaus Kinski did it, it was unacceptable when David O. Russell did it and it is unacceptable when Bale does it, regardless of any of their talent or the quality of the productions surrounding them.
What a drama queen.
“The best part is when he sounds like he’s literally going to get up and go beat the living hell out of Hurlbut toward the end of the tape.”
Gee Kris Tapley, is this the way you really think? Saying “the best part” is when an actor threatens violence against someone? Getting all giddy on your blog when an actor displays this kind of unprofessional conduct?
Even if the work environment was less than professional, there was no excuse at all for Bale to threaten violence against his co-workers.
klaus kinski is still the champion of this stuff
if bale does it four or five more times and hatches a plan to kill christopher nolan then we can talk about passing the torch
Glenn: Oy, give me a break. Didn’t realize you were so precious. I got a kick out of the tape (while thinking Bale was being a big baby, mind you). Sue me.
I love Bale, but this is unacceptable, and hilarious, all at the same time. The funniest part is when he starts refering to McG as McG. You just can’t say that name without finding it funny.
Sam Worthington isn’t a hack. How can you call him that if you haven’t seen a commercial film he’s been in. Wait a couple years until he’s the biggest actor on the planet, then judge him.
Also, James Mangold must be a saint for dealing with Russell Crowe and Christian Bale at the same time.
the guy is human, if I was an actor and the DP was distracting me, threatening to ruin the shot and the moment, I would have yelled at him too. Bale is honest and doesn’t take shit from people…I respect that. Enough of the fake hollywood people.
If you have the misfortune of seeing “Rogue”, you’ll know what I mean…
perhaps it was a little too much. but i perfectly understand his anger at having a take blown because the guy was walking through his sight line during a take. it could have been an hour to set up that scene, to have christian be in the right emotional state to do the scene etc. and he seems to indicate midrant that it happened more than once.
[…] you’ve paid attention the last 24 hours, you’re well aware of the Christian Bale F-bomb tirade. And if you haven’t made yourself familiar with the techno remix of same, do yourself a […]
Joe Pesci is proud today
Kyle: You’re picking on the guy for one film? Worthington is really good in “Somersault” … does that balance out, then? Like Bob said, give the guy a chance to develop.
And Bryce Dallas Howard is a pretty promising talent, if you ask me.
I honestly can’t blame him for blowing up, he’s just trying to get the ****ing scene done right