The Musings Of An Opinionated Sod [Help Me Grow!]

I used to like Christian Bale but this has made me think he’s a wanker.

Talk about over reaction and yet no one stands up to him and tells him a twat. Except the sound recordist who obviously thinks leaking this is some form of justice.

You say he’s a 35 year old man dressed as a bat but he acts like a 5 year old.

this must have been recorded at the set of american psycho.

I actually know Christian and this clip is painting him in an unnecessarily bad light.

Haven’t we all had days where we could have conducted ourselves slightly better? Christian wouldn’t deny that he is a very serious and intense actor but I can testify he is a man of great integrity and decency.

I know this didn’t originate from you or Age, but it is very unfortunate that he will become known for this outburst rather than his talent.

Lee, good points taken. And I don’t deny he’s a great actor. In fact, I’ve enjoyed nearly everything he’s been in, and think the Terminator movie will be awesome. But having a bad day or not, that kind of tantrum is completely unprofessional. He could of handled it much better by speaking directly to the lead producer or director instead of making a scene in front of god knows how many people on a big set like that.

As for his talent, I’m sure this will all blow over (every novelty web moment eventually does) and then everyone will continue to enjoy his films. I guess for now, he’s just gotta accept the backlash from this brain-snap.

He does come across as unnecessarily harsh (without the full picture), but give the guy a break! He’s having a bad day. Sometimes, good people do bad things…happens all the time. At least I hope that’s the case or I would consider myself to be a really bad father.

In all his rage, he does actually give the light guy credit for being a nice guy (separating who he is from what he did), which he wouldn’t if he was a prick.

Perhaps I’m just siding with Christian because I frequently feel I’m surrounded by people who remind me of that light guy, but I’m willing to give him the benefit of the doubt and am inclined to think he apologised after. Wouldn’t you?

Putting aside the reasons behind Christian’s outburst … and accepting we all can lose our rag at times … if anyone ever spoke to me like that in a work situation – regardless of what I did – I would want to smash their faces in and I know you would feel the same Freddie.

OK, so he said “you’re a nice guy but …” however he then follows that statement up by threatening to kick the guys “fucking ass” so I would give him no credit at all.

We all work with the odd idiot – or are that idiot – but if we went around reacting like that, we’d end up lonely, broke and unemployed.

Being ‘blunt’ and being ‘vicious’ are very different things and to react like that tends to mean you are either surrounded by “yes men” or are under immense pressure.

Whilst I understand the huge amounts of money at risk in a Hollywood movie – Christian is getting paid more money for 6 months work than most people could dream about in a lifetime – so bad day or not, it’s a shit reaction and I would suggest he spends more time with Lee than his PR entourage.

it is a very grey area indeed, the talent vs tolerance discussion.

while everybody will say what everybody here has been saying, the bottom line is that the bottom line (self preservation) still overrules most in reality.

Just look at whistleblowers and their treatment (kiwi/oz grump crowe as the tabacco canary comes to mind).

plus there is the whole “stop snitching” mentality that is still very ingrained in the human mind.

You speak up and you end up lonely, broke and unemployed as well Rob.

so you are a dick, you lose, you stand up to dicks you lose more often.

it’s also a culture/nurture and education issue. why do children hear, “stop being a taddle tale”? either it is good to tell on matters you find bad all the time or it is not. so as kids we learn that sometimes you shut up and sometimes you don’t. and the implicit message most of the time is: “when in doubt shut up”.

If parents don’t instill a sense of fair and justice in kids, they will never learn as adults.

Rob, you were one of the lucky ones (from what I know about your folks). count your blessings.

P.S. Michael Caine carried Batman, we all know that

I’m just impressed at his levels of anger. After 2 minutes, you think it’s going to stop. But no – it keeps on and on.

It’s just a storm in a teacup. Would I do it? Probably not. Do I think any less of him? Not really, i’ll still go to his films.

NB: This is bookended by saying that it’s acting, and not like a ‘real job’ in my eyes – far more emotion and prima donnas flying about. Christ, if that happened to someone at my work, i’d be the first to lose all respect for them.

Thanks Pete … career limiting move #12.

I actually don’t know what you are trying to say Niko. Don’t get me wrong, I appreciate the sentiment and I am well aware how lucky I am to have been blessed with parents who encouraged me to speak up whenever I felt something should/had to be said – but I don’t get what your conclusion is. Is it we’re all fucked whatever happens or that we should all keep our mouths shut because what will be will be? I don’t get it.

And Mr M, I don’t think you can compare the rubbish I write on this blog to Christian Bale’s tanty.

I know some of the things I’ve written have offended people but apart from the odd Jeremy Beadle post [which was wrong and I which I apologised for because I realised I was way out of line] it has been because someone hasn’t liked my – believe it or not – semi thoughtout viewpoint rather than me character assasinating a person simply because my ego had me believe my viewpoint was the only one that mattered.

Anyway I think Will sums up the really amazing part of the whole episode … he can stay at peak anger for longer than almost any other person I’ve ever known/heard about … and given I work with Andy, that is quite extroidinary.

teach kids to stand up no matter what…

Of course, the most important thing about the whole episode is this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YTihsJQHt48

Pure GOLD. 🙂

will – that is fucking gold. and, as mentioned a few times on age’s blog, what the fuck is it with his accent?

as usual, i’ve got my jaded, suspicious hat on and expecting it to be PR for the movie… which, for the first time ever, i hope it is. how shit would it be to be on set after that – justified or not. ew.

billy – that’s not good enough. sorry, come back and do that again.

http://kroq-data.com/wah/wah/audio/?a=1129