It's been a busy week for actor Christian Bale, better known to millions as Batman. The Welsh-born performer, 34, has seen the latest film in the Batman series, The Dark Knight, open to record box-office revenues and has been zipping around the world for premieres and interviews, in between working on the new Terminator film, where he plays rebel leader John Connor. But he has also been in the news this week for other reasons. On Tuesday he was a guest of the London police, who questioned him in regard to allegations of assault made by his mother and sister. He was released without charge later in the day and will reportedly return for questioning in September. In this interview, done before the film was released, he talks about the allure of the Bat Suit, the darker side of Bruce Wayne and how he remembers late Heath Ledger, who plays Batman's maniacal arch-nemesis, The Joker.
Are you going to speak as Batman or Christian today, as an Englishman or an American?
I haven't heard myself speak in my own voice for nearly two years. Whenever I'm working on a project I maintain that. I've been doing a character from South Carolina for a while. I'm playing an American now. I just went, 'You know what, I need to sound like myself for a few days. I need a break'.
What was it like to be on top of the Sears Tower filming Batman?
Fantastic. That was not a stunt, but an experience. There was no way they were going to put me up there and allow me to plummet a 110 storeys to the bottom. I had a cable. I could have fallen a short way and then banged against the side and got pulled up again. When am I going to get an opportunity to stand on the Sears Tower, looking out and down on Chicago again? I wanted to take advantage of that.
In a Bat Suit, too. Do you keep them?
I keep the cowls. I don't have room for the whole thing.
How much darker is the character of Bruce Wayne in this movie?
I don't know about darker, I just think he's more mature. It's always the dark knight with Batman. He's never a white knight. Yes, he has altruism. He wants to affect good. But look at him and he looks demonic. Bats aren't associated with anything angelic, but with the devil and with hell. That's his whole point. He wants to overcome his own fears and use those fears against his opponents. He has an extreme shadowed side with great capability and a great love for violence and this rage and desire for revenge, but this is countered by his inherited philanthropy and altruism from his parents, which he wants to uphold and be true to as well.
Were you surprised at how Heath Ledger played the role?
I wasn't surprised by it. I worked on a movie with Heath called I'm Not There about a year before. I had spoken with him before we started Batman and had also spoken with Chris [Nolan] the director about Heath's ideas and their collaboration on how the Joker was going to be portrayed. So I knew we were going to be getting this very different portrayal. Also, the tone of our movies, of our Gotham is not about caricatures. We want people to stay underneath it and disappear inside the role. I can't help but be impressed in what Heath did because it's such an iconic villain. I had no idea how Chris, if he chooses to make a third movie, is going to improve and make a better villain than what Heath came up with.
Would you be up for a third one? You're signed for it.
I think that will very much depend on Chris, it will be his decision.
Have you talked about ideas for it?
In a very casual manner. I don't know, but maybe Chris wants to make something else. We did The Prestige between the other two. So maybe he needs to take a break from Batman. I cannot speak for him about whether he has any interest in returning for a third one or not, but clearly I hope he will. I find it a very intriguing ending and I like the idea of the challenge of the third because there have been a number of sequels that have surpassed the original movie, but with my limited movie knowledge I can't think of many times when the third film in a trilogy ended up the best of all three.
What's your last memory of Heath Ledger from when you last saw him?
There's an awful lot of that which I don't want to talk about publicly, but I wish to God he was sitting here talking. I view this movie as an incredible celebration of his talent. It's absolutely tragic that this is the last complete work he did. I have wonderful memories of working with him.
What about your step into Terminator land?
With Terminator you can compare it to Batman Begins, where we were reinventing and breathing new life into the storyline. The difference however is that with Batman we were giving an origin story and separated ourselves from the previous movies. We're not making any concessions to them whatsoever. With Terminator you have to recognise the mythology that's gone ahead of it. We have a responsibility, I believe, and an opportunity to do the same thing in terms of reinvention and revitalising, breathing new life into it. Otherwise there's no point making it. So that's my aim.
When you get into a movie like this does it put you into the horror fantasy groove where you get offered a lot of this because you've been successful in that genre?
I don't believe that I ever have a pre-sold audience waiting for me. I feel like I'm having to prove myself for the first time every time I make a movie.
Christian Bale
Actor
A martial arts enthusiast and environmental activist, Bale, 34, has often played troubled characters, first playing the brooding superhero Batman in the 2005's Batman Begins.
Starting out as a child actor in Steven Spielberg's 1987 World War II flop Empire of the Sun, he went on to such adult roles as a psychotic investment banker in American Psycho and a rancher who faces down a dangerous outlaw in last year's western, 3:10 to Yuma.
He is now working on Terminator Salvation, a resurrection of the popular franchise, and Killing Pablo, inspired by the true story of Colombian gangster Pablo Escobar's assassination.
An excellent horseman and avid reader, he is married to model Sandra Blazic with whom he has one daughter.