Christian Bale on the Dialogue and Post-Production Narration in "The New World:” “We were accustomed to that on the set because many times he would say to us, 'Here's the scene. Here's the dialogue.' And we might change it at the last minute, or whatever. But he'd also say, 'If you don't like saying it, don't say it.' And he really meant it. He didn't say it - just say to say it. He really meant that we should do what felt right. 'I don't want you saying any of the lines that I've written if it doesn't feel right.'
Then with the voice-over it was really quite fascinating. He just likes to amass as much interesting [material] as possible, and then unfortunately has to condense it and lose a great deal. But I like very much the way that he worked.”
Christian Bale Hints at What We’ll See in “The Prestige:” Bale reunites with “Batman Begins” director Christopher Nolan for the dramatic movie, “The Prestige,” based on the novel by Christopher Priest. While Bale wouldn’t say what kind of magic tricks he’s studying for the movie, he did reveal a little about the difficulties of making “The Prestige” work.
“I think that there is a great deal that genuine magicians use for television to be able to do tricks that you wouldn't be able to do for the naked eye. And [on one hand] you've got the one-eyed spectator of the camera, which can be a very difficult spectator to convince. On the other hand it does afford opportunities as well, where you can appear to be much better than you actually are.
Something that I love very much about acting is that I see an actor as someone who in a very short amount of time attempts to learn the skills and mannerisms of other people. And so I'm trying my best to actually be able to do as much as possible. But believe me, it takes many hours each and everyday. There's much frustration, but also much satisfaction when it does actually come through and work. I'm working with a couple of really remarkable magicians who are advising on the movie.”
Christian Bale on the Next “Batman” Movie: Asked if he’s going into the second "Batman" movie with more confidence, Bale said he definitely is – but that's a double-edged sword. “We know now that people have supported what we achieved. I have to say though that I always like the idea of not knowing if people are going to like it, and then that gives me a certain drive to improve what I believe is the correct way of bringing the character about. I like the slightly self-destructive notion of like, 'You know what? I'm going to do this regardless and if people don't like it then, well, I'm out. That's it.' I'm kind of enjoying that possibility and that will always be there, but we can't help but recognize that we're probably on slightly safer ground now with the second one. But in doing that there's the great danger of becoming too comfortable.
Obviously with the second one, you have to outdo the first one. You have to keep on moving forward and pressing on and finding new and impressive character points and storylines. But I've got real confidence. I think that Chris is such a smart man and when I did finally get into the game, I would have certain questions about why he was doing something and not quite understanding it. He would explain it to me and it would be like, 'Now that he's said it's so obvious. That really works. Yeah.' So I have great faith in him that he will be pulling something out of the hat that will be even better than the first one.”
