From Rebecca Murray,
Your Guide to Hollywood Movies.
FREE Newsletter. Sign Up Now!

“Batman Begins” star Christian Bale made a special appearance at the 2005 WonderCon in San Francisco. Speaking before a packed crowd of “Batman” fanatics, Bale seemed focused on assuring the fans he knows the importance of his role in breathing new life into Batman on the big screen, and that he tackled the part with the utmost seriousness.

In addition to answering questions regarding stunt work, fighting, and getting to tool around in the Batmobile in “Batman Begins,” Bale told the fans he and director Christopher Nolan were committed to giving audiences what they deserve but haven’t received in past “Batman” incarnations. The fans were overwhelmingly positive about the new approach to “Batman” on film and after getting to see new clips (including a little bit of the backstory and a scene with Scarecrow facing off with Batman), the mood of the crowd overall was definitely upbeat and positive.

Prior to answering probing “Batman Begins” questions from devoted Bale and/or ”Batman” fans, the star of “Batman Begins” sat down with a small group of journalists to discuss the heavily anticipated rebirth of the “Batman” movie franchise.

CHRISTIAN BALE ON "BATMAN BEGINS:

How did Christopher Nolan help to shepherd you through "Batman Begins?"
Christopher’s really the reason I wanted to do it. I had first read a graphic novel - I’m not a comic book fan at all, I never have been - but had, I kind of forget how I actually ended up getting this, but somehow I got offered “Asylum” and read it and was really intrigued by it because it was nothing like it seemed in the "Batman" TV series, nothing like it seemed in the "Batman" movies either. I thought it was so much more interesting. I read "Batman Year One" and like the "Dark Victory" and stuff, and I thought, “This is good stuff. There’s a really great character here. The way that they play it is fantastic. Why has there never been a movie done?”

I had heard that Darren Aronofsky was planning on doing a version, which fell apart for reasons I’m not sure why. But then Chris Nolan comes on board, another really interesting director, somebody who [with] just the fact that they asked him to do it meant that they didn’t want the same thing we’d seen before, which is what I was interested in, creating something completely new.

We just had our first conversation and really Chris very much wanted to focus on those graphic novels, on "Batman Year One," on "The Long Halloween," etc. And he seemed to just like what I was coming up with, you know? It was a long shoot but it was very rare that we kind of actually stopped and had to work something out because it was going terribly wrong. He usually enjoyed sitting back and seeing what I was going to come up with. And, you know, generally we communicated enough beforehand that he liked it, that he enjoyed it throughout.

The main thing he had to guide me on was just about the physicality because I was coming into the part being extremely scrawny and skinny and he was just kind of terrified that I wasn’t going to be able to look believable playing the Dark Knight, but we got that worked out.

Have you seen a rough cut of the film yet?
Well, I’ve been told I’d get shot or something if I said that (laughing). But yeah, no, I expect very good things.

Does it look like how you thought it would look like?
Yes. I’m not sure how much I should go into…

You can tell us anything. All of it.
First of all, it is obviously the genesis and it’s not referring to any of the other movies. It’s not a prequel. It’s not a sequel. None of that. It’s just the beginning. We weren’t referring to any of the other movies whatsoever. It’s far more human than any of the others.

You know, we’re taking advantage of using the great story of how he came to invent Batman so [it's] his early days, the beginnings of Bruce Wayne. A very large part of the movie is taken up with that before you even see any ears at all. But then also I think that one very big difference, at least in my eyes, is just the way that we chose to portray the Batman himself. Just because I realized that the TV series was a spoof on what the original Bob Kane intentions had been. I never felt that I’d seen it adequately done in any of the other movies either, in that I really attempted to become a different creature that just kind of ceases to be human at that point. And frankly I had to do that out of necessity just because I felt like an idiot when I was just standing in the Batsuit and being a guy. You just can’t. You can’t hang out in that suit. You have to be in control. You have to be focused.

Page 2: Christian Bale on Obsessive Characters and His Approach to Batman versus His Approach to Playing Bruce Wayne