Going Mano-a-Mano with Christian Bale

We love Christian Bale. He may be politically incorrect; he may be a careless crew member’s worst nightmare. But on the page, in the December issue of Esquire Magazine, he is a more entertaining interview than ten stage managed Hollywood press junkets put together.

Thankfully, writer John H. Richardson is willing to match him jab for jab and share italicized thoughts along the way. After some opening, page one parrying, Richardson opines that Bale’s insistence that the actor’s interviews now be printed only in full Q&A transcript format is a “dick movie-star” move, on par with Tom Cruise.

Responds Bale:

I do love people ripping the sh*t out of me. I don’t know what that’s about, but I love it. The more crap you give me, the happier I get.

As the interview progresses from an unnamed Pacific Ocean adjacent location that could very well be Geoffrey’s in Malibu, Bale starts to warm to Richardson and offers a hint for any future scribe looking to publicize The Fighter: be willing to take the gloves off.  Still, folks in Bale’s native UK may not appreciate this early declaration by the actor: “I’ll be f*cked if I’m ever gonna pick up [Charles] Dickens.”

Here’s wishing the next Oscar host could be Bale.

(Photo courtesy of Esquire.com; copyright Nigel Parry)