I find it difficult to watch Christian Bale act because it always seems to me as if he’s “talking around” his teeth, as if they are dentures or some kind of dental prosthetic. I get the feeling he’s not comfortable with his own teeth.
Anyone else? What might be going on here?
Maybe he’s trying very hard not to be a British actress.
I know what you mean - there’s a bit of a trope that tough guys have to talk without opening their mouths - but I can live with that better than with the English actress thing Where Every Word Must Be the Size of an Orange. (What’sername did it in the first Harry Potter, then seemed to grow or be coached out of it.)
I think you mean actor, not actress.
I think Amateur Barbarian meant “actress.” I understand the stereotype being referred to.
But I’m surprised no one else has commented on the teeth issue. I really can’t watch Bale act because he seems so dammed uncomfortable with speaking.
Because he’s the Goddamn Batman!
You are not alone. There’s definitely something going on with his teeth. Usually, when I notice dentures on someone, it seems to be uncomfortable at the roof of the mouth or the front of the teeth. With Bale, it seems to be at the sides.
I think he’s a fine actor, but the teeth thing is really distracting much of the time.
To me it looks like he’s trying to talk around his native accent. Take a look at this video where he’s speaking with his normal accent and he speaks very naturally.
[quote=“Jane_Elliot, post:7, topic:718139”]
To me it looks like he’s trying to talk around his native accent. Take a look at this video where he’s speaking with his normal accent and he speaks very naturally.
[/QUOTE]You may be right. I thought I could still detect a bit of the impediment, especially with his S’s, but it’s definitely much less pronounced in this clip.
Yeah I don’t think it goes away in that clip. Actually he sounds a bit drunk.
He definitely had his teeth capped or had veneers placed on some of his front teeth which maybe made them bulky and he prob had to relearn how to talk with them, also in at least one picture I googled he looked to have his wisdom teeth so maybe the guy just doesn’t have a lot of room leftover to move his tongue around, between that and trying to hide his accent it does seem like it might make speaking normally kind of a pain in the ass.
I’ve always assumed he’s suppressing a speech impediment.
Yeah, I find it really distracting when he does American accents. He was fine in American Psycho but after watching him in Harsh Times and Terminator: Salvation it becomes a distraction. Which is one more reason why I like The Prestige so much because he seems much more comfortable and natural in the film because he’s using his natural accent.
Oh yeah, I don’t think he had anything done with his teeth. Watch interviews of him when he was a kid promoting Empire of the Sun and he sounds the same. It’s the American accent that does it.
He definitely had them capped or had veneers done, I don’t really think it would effect his speaking though, was just throwing out ideas. And it really only looks like it was his outer incisors honestly to just even things out in the front.
Scroll down a little there is a before and after
http://summer-teeth.blogspot.com/2006_05_01_archive.html?m=1
I’ve always noticed (or assumed anyway)that they’re capped. I would also agree that his sometimes odd mouth movements are related to his speaking in an accent different from his natural one.
On a side note, I don’t know why but just looking at the thread title has been cracking me up ever since Acsenray started it. Coincidently, when I was at the dentist yesterday having a consult about my impending implants, he asked me if I’d consider putting crowns on my front teeth. “What, and have a mouth full of chicklets like Christian Bale? No thanks.” He had neither a clue what I was talking about nor why I was laughing so hard.
Now you wanna talk about someone talking around their chicklets, I can barely stand to look at, or even worse, *listen *to Matthew Mcconaughey anymore.
[QUOTE=WOOKINPANUB]
On a side note, I don’t know why but just looking at the thread title has been cracking me up ever since Acsenray started it.
[/QUOTE]
I also crack up when I read my thread title because I’m thinking of this —
I’m no dentist but have an uncanny (and annoying) knack for noticing things like this even though I wish I didn’t. He seems to have some sort of bite condition. The accent thing is annoying too, but I think a lot of us are talking about the way his mouth physically moves. It seems like he may not be able to competely bite down and close his top and bottom teeth completely…as if this molars are taller than his front teeth. He then overcompensates his mouth movement elsewhere (the way his lips move when he says certain words) so that it still sounds fairly normal. There’s a sports TV personality named Frank Isola who is the exact same way. YouTube both and compare the two!
I thought it was generally known that he was the great grandchild of Mr. Ed and, similar to that illustrious star, is generally coerced into speaking through the use of peanut butter and carrots (don’t ask where they put the carrots). 
It is possible he could have apertognathia, also known as an open bite. Its the most rare malocclusion of the teeth but it does happen, in googling pictures of him, he never shows hit bottom teeth when he smiles that I could find. Google photos of Michelle Obama and she appears to have one too. People like this are usually “tongue thrusters” and every time they swallow they push their tongue forward through their teeth and over time the bite opens up and they get an overjet.
I know about this because I had the same problem and had to have all my wisdom teeth removed, braces, and two jaw surgeries to correct the problem, but oh man was it worth it to me, now I can bite all the way through my sandwiches again!
He did have extensive dental work done before he filmed American Psycho. If you look at his teeth in Newsies, they are much different. also, they are very visible in the beginning of “THe Big Short”, notice his front top teeth are very square and different color than the rest.
http://www.aceshowbiz.com/images/wennpic/christian-bale-uk-premiere-the-dark-knight-rises-03.jpg
