Christian Bale has explained that almost all of the roles he has held as an actor were first passed down by Leonardo DiCaprio. Bale has had an illustrious career with unforgettable performances as Batman in The Dark Knight trilogy, Irving Rosenfeld in American crowds, and more. The public is also excited to see him as a lanky New Yorker in Amsterdam. Both he and DiCaprio will be remembered as generational talents and two of the greatest leading men of their time.
Bale and DiCaprio have a lot in common, both from a casting and demographic perspective. The two have been in show business since early adolescence, delivering impressive performances throughout the late ’80s and early ’90s. Their careers bowed to stardom around the same time, with DiCaprio finding true fame a bit for Bale. Their appearances are no different, and they were even born in the same year, 1974. With so many similarities between the two actors, DiCaprio almost starred in american psychopathnow widely regarded as one of Bale’s most iconic performances.
In a cover interview with GQBale explained that many of the roles he accepted were initially offered to DiCaprio, who plays first on all the major protagonists. And Bale isn’t the only one standing in line behind DiCaprio. He says all of Hollywood’s top talent is waiting for the actor to pass on an interesting script. Bale added that he never made the casting decisions that favored DiCaprio as a minus. Read Bale’s full comments below:
See, to this day, every role someone gets is only because he passed it on beforehand. It doesn’t matter what anyone tells you. It doesn’t matter how friendly you are with the directors. All those people I worked with multiple times, they all offered him all those roles first. Right? I had one of those people tell me that. So, thank you, Leo, because he literally gets to choose anything he does. And good for him, he’s phenomenal.
Do you know how grateful I am to get something? I mean, I can’t do what he does. I wouldn’t want the exposure he has either. And he does that brilliantly. But I suspect almost everyone the same age as him in Hollywood owes their career to him, no matter what project it is.
Why Christian Bale’s roles are so perfect for him
With nearly a 40-year career to his name, Bale has showcased his range with academic roles as the noble straight man, the psychopathic killer and everything in between. Bale’s performance as Patrick Bateman in american psychopath was his breakthrough role as a leading man, and he had to take a lower salary to get the spot. Bale’s then-low profile added to the visceral feel of the carnage Patrick Bateman inflicted, while DiCaprio’s star power may have taken the audience out of the story’s world. It worked in more ways than one, like Bale’s performance in american psychopath played a part in being cast as Batman just a few years later.
While scripts can be filtered by DiCaprio, the two actors have different tastes in roles. Bale recently made his second appearance in a superhero franchise as Gorr the God Butcher in Thor: Love and Thunder. On the other hand, DiCaprio advised young star Timothée Chalamet to avoid comic book movies and acted coy in interviews when asked if he would ever don a spandex hero suit or play opposite a villain. Perhaps due to the fact that they often wanted to play the same roles, Bale and DiCaprio collaborated on only one feature, but didn’t share the screen: DiCaprio produced 2013’s Out of the oven starring Baal in the lead. Audiences would be clamoring to see the two titans of 21st century film appear together, but it has yet to happen.
Source: GQ
