Christian Bale
It’s 2000. Robin is 14, and has just recently become a member of the AL community. She feels a little left out, as she doesn’t really have any animated crushes, but she’s having fun rediscovering her childhood favourites, regardless. She’s just started one of the last animated movies that she really loved, wondering if it’s really quite as good as she used to think it was, when suddenly, a voice like warm honey whispers “Captain John Smith? I’ve heard some amazing stories about him.” Her eyes grow about six sizes, her jaw falls slowly open, and cheezy muzak is heard. A young girl has fallen for her first animated character. And fallen hard.
"An actor should never be larger than the film he's in."
Thomas was just the beginning. Many other head-over-heels crushes were to come and go. He was usurped as Most Swoon-worthy by a wily, dark-haired Spaniard for a time, but he eventually climbed back on top. The reason, though, that I ever noticed this 19-year-old dreamboat was his delicious voice. I soon began adding movie characters to the pages at The Obsession and Thomas was one of the first to be honoured. First, though, I needed the name of the actor who had pilfered my heart. Christian Bale. I was happy.
A year or so passed. I forgot about him without having ever looked into him any further. Kevin Kline, though. There was a man. In snatching up every Kline movie I could get my grubby paws on, I stumbled onto A Midsummer Night’s Dream. The first name in the opening credits sounded vaguely familiar. “Bale…Christian Bale…Where do I know that…Oh! He was…Jake? No! Thomas!” Beautiful, lovely, gorgeous, melodious Thomas. The movie began. My well trained voice chaser's ears alert on their most sacred vigil, I had only my memory of Thomas’ voice to tell me which was the perpetrator. And I totally missed him, as he insisted on using a different accent, something I was NOT prepared for, as screen actors rarely do it. When the end credits rolled, however, I found that Christian was, in fact, Demetrius, the young man I had been staring at throughout the whole film. He had done it again.
"I enjoyed making [Empire of the Sun], but I was shocked when I received all the attention when I got home to Bournemouth. Girls were all over me, boys wanted to fight me and I was being asked to open local fetes when all I wanted to do was ride my BMX bike in the woods. I told my parents I wasn't interested in doing anything again because the attention ruined it."
About six months passed before I saw another of his movies, but I’ve seen several now, so I feel less like I’m rushing in to giving him a page. Mr. Bale has made me squeal in delight in Captain Corelli’s Mandolin as Mandras (and that’s all I’m going to say about that), as Little Women’s Theodore Lawrence (a role which earned a spot in my harem), Quinn of Reign of Fire, and many, many pictures from other movies which I have yet to see. He made me coo with delight as Jum-Jum in The Land of Faraway (again, no more will be said on the topic), James Graham of Empire of the Sun (in which 12 year old Christian holds his own next to John Malcovitch. And does anyone even care that Ben Stiller was in this movie?), Bobby Platt of All the Little Animals, and more pictures. He has also been in American Psycho, Shaft, Velvet Goldmine, Metroland, the 1990 version of Treasure Island, and other movies. His projects for 2002 are Equilibrium, Reign of Fire and Laurel Canyon – I, for one, will be looking for them.
In addition to being an amazing actor (“The 10th Anniversary issue of Entertainment Weekly crowned Christian Bale as one of the Top 8 Most Powerful Cult Figures of the past decade….EW…calls Bale one of the ‘Most Creative People in Entertainment’ after his brilliant turn as the psychopathic yuppie serial killer in American Psycho….Bale received a special citation for Best Performance by a Juvenile Actor from the National Board of Review - an award specially created for his performance in Empire” [Harrison Cheung in Bale’s minibio on IMDb]), a very good looking individual (“…Premier lauded him as one of the ‘Hottest Leading Men Under 30’” [Cheung]), and a master of accents (reportedly having used a different accent for each of his roles [though I’ve heard that both Thomas and his character in Metroland are his real voice…]), Mr. Bale is “an excellent horseman and an avid reader.” He has a marvelous sense of humour (take a look at the quotes on IMDb, as well as the ones in my quote rotator) and somehow managed to avoid the curse of the child actor and actually benefit from the experience. From the interviews I’ve read with him, he is quite modest and private, though one of the things that has leaked out about his personal life is that he has not eaten red meat since reading E.B. White’s Charlotte’s Web. He also promotes a plethora of environmental protection agencies and just generally loves animals. ::sigh::
Equilibrium Gallery Some lovely screenshots from a marvelous movie
Infinite thanks to IMDb, The Official Christian Bale Fan Club, and a page which I currently forget the name of for the pictures and information.
Can you really bring yourself to leave?
~March ’96 issue of Spin
Created April 22, 2002
