Christian Bale: War Hero

TeenHollywood.com, July 5th, 2007

Despite his great body of work, beginning when he was just a boy starring in Spielberg's Empire of the Sun in 1987, Welsh-born actor Christian Bale is now firmly stamped in our memories as the latest, darkest and maybe hunkiest Batman!  Next summer he'll appear in The Dark Knight, the sequel to the popular Batman Begins and we recently saw him as a brilliant magician opposite Hugh Jackman in The Prestige. This 4th of July, get ready to see Christian display some serious acting chops in Rescue Dawn.

"Dawn" is based on the true story of German-born Dieter Dengler who, in the 1960's, came to America to be a test pilot; joining the military to live his dream. Whoops, here comes the Vietnam War and on Dieter's first mission, he's shot down and captured by Vietcong guerrillas! Rescue Dawn details the flier's brave, sometimes cocky and just plain resourceful struggle to rally fellow prisoners who are living in horrible conditions and, ultimately, escape to face a grueling trek to rescue and survival.

If you are bored with history lessons about the Vietnam War, then get ready to buck up, get real and go see this film because it will make you understand what soldiers in the jungle were up against and you'll root for Christian and his fellow prisoner played by a very different, dramatic Steve Zahn, to survive!  We sat down with Christian a while back and noticed that all the Batman black must be claiming a bit of his personal wardrobe. He's in black tee and dark gray slacks. Christian is a master of accents and, many times, we're not sure which one he'll use when he's interviewed.  Today, it's his "real" one; the charming lilt of Welsh as he talks about going a little crazy in the jungle and playing a very strange kind of hero. Oh, and a little about reprising his role as Batman too!

TeenHollywood: When you saw this script and you know it's going to be hell in the jungle; humid and miserable, why do you say, 'count me in'?
 
Christian: Because I like going to hell and back [Laughs]. I knew that
Werner [Herzog] would be a good guy [director] to take us there. How many times will I get to do this kind of crazy s**t? So it's something that I
wanted to take advantage of. Actually that was a big appeal to me,
doing that kind of thing. I like testing myself and seeing how far you can go.
 
TeenHollywood: How much of the horrible things you go through in the film are real?  Like that looked like a real snake you tangle with in the river.

Christian: On yeah. You are swimming in a snake-infested river and when you are wrestling with a snake it's not a pretend snake. You are wrestling with a real snake. That is what had become my real life. I really did do that. You are doing it unless it's a stunt guy doing it or if it's special FX. The acting is always fake, but what you physically do is for real.
 
TeenHollywood:  So, wasn't there a snake wrangler guy there at least? Was the snake venomous?
 
Christian: The snake wranglers were the local kids. The snake did have some pretty good fangs on him and I got it in the shoulder, but no, he wasn't venomous. These snakes, for the local kids were no big deal. They would see one of those and they would run straight after it, grab it by the tail, whip it around, smash its head and then they would cook it and eat it. That's often what they would have for dinner, and like everyone says it tastes like chicken, that's what they said too. They actually called it Chicken Snake. [For the scene], one of the local kids went and caught the snake and then put it into position and the snake started going and then I just kind of ran in on it and grappled with it.
 
TeenHollywood:  Better you than me! So, you did almost all of your own stunts?  
 
Christian: Well, look, you put yourself in my position. You're in Thailand,
you've got these crazy Thai chopper pilots who are willing to do anything and they're saying that they're all set up with a stunt guy and I'm there and I said, 'Why can't I do it?' They said, 'Well, the helicopter is going to come in. He's going to stumble out into the rapids and you'd be falling over in there and you've got to grab a rope, you've got to hold on once they winch you up. You have to hold onto the railing and they're going to go over a cliff and they're really low over the trees. Do you want to be doing that?' I was like,
'F**k yes I want to be doing that. I'm not letting anyone else do
that.'
 
TeenHollywood: Where did you draw the line there, action boy? And, doesn't your agent or the insurance guy say 'no' at some point?

Christian: Look, I've done other things where people have to be set on fire
and jump three stories. I'm not doing that. I've got limits. I'll tell
you though, this was fantastic being with the Thai air force guys. We
would take off and they would take out half a tree with them. These
weren't guys who were all about the safety code. They just kind of
plowed their way through the jungle and I doubt that I'm going to get a
chance to do that again. I'm glad that I did it. [The agent?] I don't tell him anything. We don't even tell the producers most of the time. They're not on the set and so they don't need to know, and then the insurance, certainly they don't want to know.
 
TeenHollywood:  I understand the real Dieter died a few years ago so you didn't get to speak to him but what do you think he was like? He's seems almost naïve when he's captured.
 
Christian: I think that he was a peculiar cat in the first place just because of the fact that (when he was a kid) he's bombed by Americans. Bomber planes, these streaks of strafing by the fighter pilots; he looks at that and says, 'I want to do that.' That's not a normal reaction to people who
are actually destroying your home.

So he has this great romantic notion
of the U.S. and this great dream and idealism of what it means to be a
U.S. citizen and what it means to be a pilot as well.

TeenHollywood: Then, he's suddenly sent to war.

Christian: He still maintained that romanticism, and remember, the poor [guy] got shot down on his first mission. So I really think that he had a very unique outlook where he didn't see them as the enemy. He saw them as just other people, which is why he seems like such an unlikely military man, let alone someone who is actually considered a hero. He was just curious. He's tied up. He's been dragged along. He's been beaten. He's still interested in all of it. 'I wonder what they're cooking over there? She's pretty, isn't she? He looks like a nice guy. I could probably have a good conversation with him.' It was just most bizarre outlook on life of absolute optimism and curiosity and interest that kept him going.  He was just wired very differently.

TeenHollywood: Did you talk to Dieter's family?

Christian: Yeah. They came out to the set. He has two sons and a widow and some friends of his, old buddies of his. I spoke with his brother as
well.
 
TeenHollywood:  This film is so intense and Steve Zahn is just naturally funny but he said that you were cracking HIM up on set?
 
Christian: [Laughs] He was cracking me up on the set as well. Look, you're two guys going insane in rice paddy fields barefoot. Your a** is hanging out because you've got these ripped up clothes, you're getting ecstatic over bananas and not knowing how you're getting home because the crew just quit and there are no vans to take you back. There ain't nothing to do, but look at each other and start cracking up. Steve is a very funny guy and we did have a lot of fun. You have to. It's that thing, the most trying times and you start cracking up. It's hilarious. It's all that you can do. It's that or strangle someone.
 
TeenHollywood:  Steve also said that you guys were trading cowboy stories because he just did the prequel to "Lonesome Dove" and you just make 3:10 to Yuma.

Christian: Yeah, it's great! We get to go from the jungles of Thailand to New Mexico shooting guns and riding horses out there and chewing tobacco and not squatting with your spurs on. [Laughs] Everywhere I went, Steve had been there. Everyone had stories about Steve.
 
TeenHollywood:  Okay, let's talk about the new Batman sequel. Is it new enough to keep you interested in returning to the role?  You seem to like to take on very diverse roles.

Christian: I've got [director] Chris Nolan who I'm working with for the third time now and he ain't going to be making a movie if he's not gonna be doing something very different with it which he's achieved in spades. You know obviously there'll be progress. We've got a great cast as well,
and Chris and I work very well together so I know that we're going to be
finding an awful lot to add to it. Before, it was untested. Now the people support us completely too. So we've got all of that extra wall of support behind us to just kind of let rip and take it further.
 
TeenHollywood: Can you talk a little about your training for The Dark Knight? Did you have to train a lot?
 
Christian: There are new things that I'm having to train for but they know that I know my right from my left now. [Laughs] They know that when I walk, the arm swings the right way and everything so there's a little more confidence in me [laughs] about my ability to pick things up quickly.
 
TeenHollywood: We hear that there might be more of Batman being a detective in this new one?
 
Christian: [smiles and takes a long, slow sip of his Perrier water and says
nothing.] So if that's clear enough. I hope that satisfies you. [Laughs]
 
TeenHollywood: Okay, but can you just say if you are looking forward to working with Heath Ledger as The Joker?
 
Christian: Absolutely! Heath is a great choice for it. I like him personally. He's got a real kind of craving for playing that role so I think he's going to do something really very different with it.