Empire Magazine has published a rather excellent interview with Christian Bale for Christopher Nolan’s hugely anticipated ‘The Dark Knight Rises.’ In the interview Bale discusses his experience playing Bruce Wayne/Batman opposite Tom Hardy’s merciless, masked villain Bane, revealing that ‘The Dark Knight Rises’ was a much more physical film for him than the two previous installments in Nolan’s Dark Knight saga, “It’s the first time in Chris’ movies that we’ve had an adversary who’s physically superior. Previously it’s always been an intellectual battle and you know what’s going to happen if they meet and it gets to a fistfight….”Tom is phenomenal. He’s an extraordinary actor. If I was a director I would want Tom to be in my movies. He knows his shit. But it’s a funny distance that you have in these movies, literally, by being cocooned by a cowl. I don’t truly feel like I’ve worked with Gary [Oldman], even though we’ve done three movies together. I don’t really feel like I’ve worked with Gary because I’m here in this darkness every time. And likewise with Tom, we’re both behind these masks. He’s feeling that isolation as well. It’s a strange feeling. So we agreed after this we’d like to work with each other on something one day!”
‘The Dark Knight Rises’ is the third and final film in director Christopher Nolan’s much acclaimed Batman trilogy, following ‘Batman Begins’ and ‘The Dark Knight.’ It sees Christian Bale returning to the dual role of Bruce Wayne and Batman alongside series regulars Commissioner Jim Gordon (Gary Oldman), Lucius Fox (Morgan Freeman), and Alfred (Michael Caine). Besides Tom Hardy’s villainous Bane, newcomers to Nolan’s Batman saga in ‘The Dark Knight Rises’ include Anne Hathaway’s mysterious Selina Kyle/Catwoman, Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s John Blake, and Marion Cotillard’s Miranda Tate. In his interview with Empire, Bale provides some insight into his reaction when he was first told that Bane would be the main villain in ‘The Dark Knight Rises,’“I thought it was a great idea. The only time I’ve ever really familiarised myself with the graphic novels was previous to Batman Begins. For inspiration, for understanding what Chris [Nolan] was going for. After that I never picked one up again, because by then we had created our world, so I just referenced that one. So I wasn’t familiar with Bane, you know? I vaguely remembered just a crazy ‘roid-looking guy with a mask. But I just trust and have faith in Chris. Look, this is not going to be an impulsive decision of his, you know? I always kinda suspected he would do a third one. But it was never definite. And I hoped that he would think of it as a challenge, the fact that with most movies, by the time they get to a third one, it’s crap. So I knew he wasn’t gonna mess around with making a poor decision on who the bloody villain was. Then I just went and sat around at Chris’ house and astounded him with how slow a reader I am. I sat and read and he kept walking in going, “You’re kidding me! Still?” And I’m like, “Yeah. Still.” Then lunch… dinner… [laughs]. Then he came in and was like, “That actually took you seven hours”. [laughs]. And I understood at that point.”
Source10 Days
