The longer it went on, the more his real accent slipped through. I couldn’t even remember if he was an American or not until I heard that and then checked.
So says the non-actor.
Pretty much sums my opinion of it up.
I can understand an actor getting upset if they are ‘in the zone’ and something distracts them. They take their art seriously - they have to in order to be good actors.
However, going on a tirade for four minutes is a bit excessive, IMHO. I mean, thats just a LONG time. For as much as he was saying he wanted to get back to shooting a scene, he’s extending the whole thing just so he can yell and demean someone who made a mistake.
And I’m also wondering what type of scene within a Terminator movie can be so emotionally engrossing to require that degree of concentration. Its the Terminator, for chrissakes - whatever scene was being filmed will be followed by rockets, bombs and general mayhem anyway.
Right. Actually, I have acted. On stage. If you can’t do the same thing a 100 times you suck. Someone misses their cue, cover. There’s a hundred people in the audience.
If you’re doing film and someone fucks up your little scene and you can’t reproduce it, you’re an asshole. The general “you” of course.
I take it this way:
We all get pissed and want to rip someones face off when they are disruptive at the movies. Whispering, texting, finding their seat after the movie started, etc.
Well this guy did the same thing, being disruptive, but not during the showing of the movie, BUT THE ACTUAL FILMING OF IT!
Thank you Bale for dressing someone down who deserved it. Someone oblivious to what’s going on around them even after being told multiple time to KNOCK IT THE FUCK OFF!!
If there are any actors out there who can reproduce any scene at will, no matter what the emotional content, I’d honestly love to know about them. That strikes me as a really incredible skill.
So a DP likes fiddling with his lights in a scene, which (IMO) understandably screws Bale up. He’s been asked not to do it before. He does it again, in a big scene. He gets chewed out.
Massive yawn.
I’ll assume you’ve never seen a stage play, much less a Broadway production.
Nope. If so many people can do it why do I read about actors preparing so much for a scene?
I’m afraid you’ve lost me, and have no idea what you are saying.
This is what I was wondering. I guess the issue I would have is the sheer length of the diatribe. 25 less “fuck you’s” wouldn’t have lessened the impact of of the message if it was a screwup that had happened before.
It depends on how the threat was made. If someone said something blustery from across the room, my response would be different than if they made that threat two inches from my face.
I’m pretty sure I’ve read several times of actors (damned if I can remember who, presumably someone famous) having to prepare for scenes, getting themselves in the right state emotionally or whatever. I’d just find it really surprising if anyone can conjure up/fake any emotions they want on command. Not disputing it is though, I don’t know much about acting.
Regardless though, the guy was distracting him. I can certainly understand distraction. The guy was walking around fiddling with lights in Bale’s eyesight, and had been asked to not do so before. Maybe he learned his lesson this time.
Sampiro, surely it doesn’t really matter why it takes Bale out of the scene? I mean, he’s the star actor, and he asked this guy before to stop doing it. Doesn’t seem a terribly unreasonable request.
If he’s done this repeatedly, his job is tenuous.
Bale overreacted. The threats are uncalled for. Still, I don’t think Bale was completely out of line and if he’s emotionally charged for the scene, I’m willing to cut him some slack on his reaction.
I think he sounded like a complete and total dick. It’s completely unprofessional, and the fact that he’s an actor cuts no ice with me. I don’t care if it was the eleventy-hundredth time the guy screwed up the scene; there are ways to deal with any person, and any issue, without becoming a screaming raving asshole who doesn’t shut up even after getting an apology.
One HUGE difference between stage and film acting you’re just glossing right over–in a stage play there’s a bigass gap between any actor’s face and the nearest spectator. Film actors have the cameras up on their faces so tight we can see their pores and ANY wibble or inconsistency in expression will show up like a turd in the punchbowl. Stage actors–on stage an old person can convincingly portray a very young one and vice versa and blackface can be convincing because the distance from the audience is so very forgiving. Not the same thing when the camera’s focussed about five inches off your face, and then projected twenty feet high just a few yards away.
Also in a stage play, if you fuck up one performance maybe a few people in THAT one audience will even notice–a film is forever and everybody can freeze the frame on the DVD and replay the scene in ultra slow motion for eternity so any fuckup and imperfection is there forever for all to see. You don’t have multiple performances to hone the performances–you get one try to get it right. Stage actors, acting the way they do on stage look like retards on film from the mugging and huge gestures that’re meant to play to the nosebleeds–film actors have to convey all that motion and emotion in tiny, intense and focused microexpressions and hypercontrolled vocalizations and if an actor is in the zone and gets jarred out of it, it might take several takes (at umpty megabucks a minute) to get it back or it might not happen at all–the film will still be made but it will be flawed, and the actor will have to know that forever. Stage actors seldom see their own performances, film actors get reminded constantly.
Add in the fact that Christian Bale is a VERY dedicated, disciplined, focused and driven actor who takes his craft extremely seriously. This is the guy who went against specific medical advice to lose a dangerous amount of weight in order to more convincingly play a role, then had to bulk up forty+ pounds and buff out in a very short period of time to play his next role. This attitude and work ethic is what makes him a high profile, in demand actor–because he can SELL a role and make a movie work. He gets a lot of money because of that. He is, by all accounts a consummate professional with a solid body of work behind him. This is not a guy you want to casually fuck with when he’s working and you really don’t want to do it more than once.
Bottom line is that DP’s are a dozen in a dime bag and pretty much interchangeable. No multimillion dollar movie ever tanked because it had a bad DP, but lots of movies have tanked because the actors either didn’t deliver or weren’t pushed into delivering their best performances. The guy’s lucky he still has a job and he had the bitch-out coming.
This, sort of.
Bale’s real mistake here? Chewing out the DP, instead of the director, who failed to control the DP. If the DP is wandering around and failing to be a professional, it’s ultimately the director’s fault.
The director is McG.
Make of that what you will.
I can think of at least one differing account, linked in this thread…
What truly saddens me is the idea that this DP’s career may have been seriously damaged for the equivalent of Bale blowing a line & having to start over. How many times does that happen before the DP gets to scream at him for several friggin minutes.
This isn’t that big of a deal in the grand scheme of things, but Bale definitely deserves at least as much flack as his coworker. If you can excuse his unprofessionalism, you can excuse the DP’s.
It’s not an unreasonable request at all. I can even understand stopping the scene and yelling “Would you STOP FUCKING DOING THAT!” perhaps. But four minutes of ‘fucking _____ and fucking____’, threats of violence, and a total hissy fit- that was “terribly unreasonable”. This is Terminator IV- most of his scenes are probably going to involve green screens. If he can’t get into character without everything perfect then he needs to learn.
And as mentioned upthread, Terminator IV is probably a $200 million movie- at very least $100 million- they’re not going to give the Director of Photography job to a recent graduate from the University of Ohio Film School (not knocking that institution) or even to a “graduated head of his class from UCLA” guy- this is a MAJOR “spare no expenses when it comes to the way the picture looks” project, so this guy is probably at the top of his craft, has been on big budget movies, and knows what he’s doing. There’s a very good chance he had a reason to be there, and I’m pretty sure he wasn’t just admiring Bale’s technique.
And anyone who’s ever been on stage knows that you can see the faces of people in the audience, people going to the restroom, tech crew behind the scenes, etc… Distraction is something you just have to get the hell over. The great surprise is that Bale’s an excellent actor; this makes me wonder if he has a drug problem or is just plain psycho.
Snipped for length.
This is what I came in here to say. I can also say that as a non-professional actor, my directors don’t put up with monkey business even during rehearsals. Making faces, ambling through someone’s sight line, walking across the stage, having a loud conversation… heck, even someone texting is acting inappropriately. Conversations should be taken outside. And we don’t even get PAID. Nor is this a bunch of stuck-up bastards: the troupe is very friendly and is, in fact, at least half made up of people who were good friends from before the troupe even started.
But we take our acting seriously. We have to; we’re doing Shakespeare. Is Terminator IV Shakespeare? Why no, no it isn’t, but it’s a sign of an actor’s dedication that they’re not going to sleepwalk through even a fluff role. Wouldn’t you notice if, during a closeup, the actor’s eyes flicked even slightly to the side over his love interest’s shoulder? A movie would use a subtle sign like a tiny movement of the eye to indicate the character has just noticed someone breaking into his car, so we’d probably notice it without the exaggeration needed in theatrical acting. If I see something unexpectedly moving behind the person I’m talking to I might well check that, even unconsciously. And if that screws things up… more expensive time, more expensive film, one more stinking time I have to recite the same lines. It might as well be someone blowing an airhorn.
Should he have gone all shouty? Was it appropriate? No. Was it understandable? Could be. Do I care either way? No. I don’t think I’ll be working alongside Christian Bale anytime soon and if I do, I’ll endeavor not to be a screwup.
Consider this:
If the DP was a woman no one would be defending Bale’s actions. Well, some people probably would but I’m sure they’d be in the minority.
Or what if it was a woman actor in Bale’s place. How many people honestly think she wouldn’t be dismissed as a bitch/diva.
I’ve never gone off the handle like that. It’s horrible behaviour and it reflects poorly on Bale.