Christian Bale is a great actor, there’s no doubt about that. But perhaps his performances are best remembered for the insane physical transformations he goes through. Daniel Day-Lewis may have spent a night in jail for a role, but Christian Bale ate nothing but tuna and apple for “The Machinist” and then went and literally became Batman. Well, it appears he’s either getting tired of leaving NBC’s “The Biggest Loser” in shame with his quicker and more radical weight losses, or it’s taking a toll on him. Bale says he’s finally done making dramatic weight changes for roles.
As reported by Entertainment Weekly, in this weekend’s “CBS Sunday Morning” episode, Academy Award-winning Christian Bale announced the end of his career as a human chameleon. “I keep saying I’m done with it,” Bale tells CBS Sunday Morning. “I really think I’m done with it, yeah.”
Of course, Bale’s incredible transformations began in 2004 when he got down to 120 pounds for his role in “The Machinist.” Since then he bulked up for “Batman Begins” by gaining 100 pounds, then lost 30 for “The Fighter,” gained another 43 for “American Hustle” and returned to his original weight for “The Big Short.” Most recently, Bale went from playing Dick Cheney in “Vice” where he had to gain 40 pounds for the role by stuffing himself with pies before then losing 70 to play racer Ken Miles in the upcoming “Ford v Ferrari.”
But these transformations come at a cost. In 2014 it was reported that Bale had suffered a herniated disc after gaining 43 pounds for his role in “American Hustle” where he portrayed overweight conman, Irving Rosenfeld. Most recently, he ironically pulled out of Michael Mann’s planned Enzo Ferrari biopic citing health concerns over the weight gain he needed to achieve to play the role in time for the shoot.
Now that Bale is stepping down from dramatic weight changes, who’s going to step up and give us incredible transformations?