Christian Bale: The Reluctant Movie Star
克里斯蒂安.贝尔：不愿当明星的演员

By Jenelle Riley 译 / 阿诺

Christian Bale has an intensity that seeps into performances which leave fans awestruck. His passion for his craft, however, does not include self-promotion. With a pair of compelling perfs to tubthump, the excruciatingly private star now has to do his least favorite thing: face the media.

Christian Bale is the reluctant movie star.

Despite being regarded as one of the best actors of his generation, the enigmatic 39-year-old Brit has no interest in fame. His dashing, tall, dark, and handsome looks are often concealed by the unattractive physical appearances and appurtenances of the characters he portrays. In an era when many of his contemporaries take to social media to connect with fans, he chooses to fly beneath the radar, straining to keep details of his personal life private and relying strictly on gut rather than a career strategy when picking roles. He is notoriously press shy, which has no doubt made these past few days of nonstop stumping for his upcoming movies, Out of the Furnace and American Hustle, more an excruciating journey than a joy ride. Yet Bale has succumbed to the revved-up PR-machine pressure that accompanies the annual high-octane awards season, in large part because he's a rebel with a cause.

Like other nonconformist, iconoclastic actors such as Sean Penn and Joaquin Phoenix, Bale eschews playing the Hollywood celebrity game and doesn't care about how he is perceived publicly, wanting his work to speak for itself.

"He's not warm and cuddly like George Clooney, but I don't think he cares about cultivating that image," says veteran Hollywood publicist Howard Bragman, vice chair of Reputation.com. "He cares about the craft—and good for him."

Bale's bold creative choices and unwavering commitment to roles have been well documented, as have the chameleon-like physical transformations he's undertaken for characters, which render him practically unrecognizable from film to film.

He lost 63 pounds for his role in The Machinist and a similar amount for The Fighter. For his recent turn in American Hustle, he gained nearly 50 pounds. In preparation for that role, Bale became obsessed with taking on the squat appearance of Melvin Weinberg, the real-life conman with a horrible combover, who inspired his character Irving Rosenfeld, in the fictionalized retelling of the Abscam scandal.

Bale also wanted his co-star, Bradley Cooper, who plays an FBI agent in the film, to tower over him. "I would hunker down and physically try to make myself much shorter than Bradley, and communicate how Irv resented that," notes Bale, whose physical appearance, along with big, blinking eyes behind tinted sunglasses, earned him the affectionate nickname the Badger.

Cooper, who confesses to being a longtime fan of Bale from afar, says, "It's usually hard to meet your heroes; there's a fear they won't live up to your hopes. But he far exceeded my expectations. He's giving and natural, and someone who loves to laugh."

To hear his peers tell it, despite all his intensity both on-and off-screen, Bale is actually humorous in real life.

贝尔在电影《斗士》中的角色

Amy Adams, who played his adversary in The Fighter and is his lover in American Hustle, echoes this sentiment. Asked what would surprise people most about Bale, she responds without hesitation: "He's funny. Really, really funny."

贝尔在电影《美国骗局》中的角色

So, to crib the Joker's line from Bale's biggest hit, "Why so serious?" Bale admits to some confusion about his persona. "I tend to stay in character between scenes … to be rather serious on set, but here's why, and I think people will find it surprising. I'm one of the worst 'corpses' on a movie set, which means you can't keep a straight face. You start to get the giggles and you can't stop. I never want to step out of a scene and be objective, because as soon as I do, I find it hilarious."

Bale says he not only considers "nearly every scene I do really funny," but "I find what I do for a living really funny. I mean, acting is kind of a hilarious thing for a grown man to call a job."

Bale's wit is also laced with a kind of endearing self-deprecation.

"I'm a giant dumbass," Bale says—more than once during this interview—when asked about how he chooses roles and defines his career strategy: "I have no clues, no plans, no giant scheme."

Born in Pembrokeshire, Wales, Bale, whose father, David, was a commercial pilot and entrepreneur, rarely stayed put as a child, traveling with his family to various countries, including Portugal, England, and the U.S.

When Bale was a child, one of his sisters became involved in local recitals, which Bale says was the impetus for him to start performing. "I would be hanging around waiting for her to finish, and some people said, 'Do you want to join in?' I eventually found myself doing school plays, suddenly getting asked to go and audition for actual professional plays—and amazingly I got a couple of them." That included a 1984 West End production of The Nerd, alongside Rowan Atkinson. Soon after, Steven Spielberg cast him as the star of his 1987 war drama Empire of the Sun, a role he played at age 13.

The actor, who turns 40 in January, continues to surprise audiences even after 27 years of making movies. Just when he was pegged as the arthouse guy from independent films like American Psycho and The Machinist, he signed on to play Batman. After teaming with esteemed auteurs like Werner Herzog for Rescue Dawn and Terrence Malick for The New World, he took on director McG's action sequel Terminator Salvation.

"I like to keep people guessing," Bale says.

His performances in Out of the Furnace and American Hustle couldn't be more different.

贝尔在电影《逃出熔炉》中的角色

Furnace director Scott Cooper describes Bale's character in that film as "a very good man who is beset on all sides by relentless fate," a dark and quiet soul who stands to lose everything he loves. In American Hustle, Bale's conman is larger than life, a colorful spirit that writer-director David O. Russell says "loves food, loves people, loves jokes, and is a true people person."

Bale is famous for disappearing into his characters so completely when shooting a movie that he often throws his co-workers and filmmakers off guard.

Cooper says that after Bale signed on to play Russell Baze, a steel worker in a dying Pennsylvania town who tries to rescue his Iraq veteran brother (Casey Affleck) from tragedy in Out of the Furnace, he never saw the real Bale. "He arrived on the set as Russell Baze, and it wasn't until I saw him at my home weeks later that Christian Bale emerged."

Russell, who has now worked with Bale on two movies, The Fighter and American Hustle, says Bale's extraordinary physical alternations are one thing, his complete ingestion of a character quite another.

"Christian underwent a deep soul transformation for this part," Russell says about the actor's role in his latest movie. "It's in his eyes, how he becomes this person."

Agrees Adams, "Yes, he brings that same intensity to the character. But he also brings an amazing vulnerability and sincerity and humor. It's a side of him I don't think people have ever seen before."

Although many in the press and industry often refer to Bale as a great Method actor, he in fact had no formal training in the arts other than "a class at the YMCA when I was 10 or 11 where we pretended to be a fried egg."

The thesp says that from time to time he considers giving up acting, though his close pals always bring him back to reality.

"My friends quietly remind me that I left school at 16, and I'm not qualified to do shit."

Besides, Bale says that he has finally found a happy medium between his work and his home life in L.A. with his wife and their 8-year-old daughter.

"In some ways, you've got to enjoy the insanity," he says, adding, "And I do remove myself as much as possible. If I'm not working, I really have nothing to do with it—I'm not hanging out and mixing with film people. Not that I have anything against film people, they're some of the best people around and some of the worst people around, just like in any business … they just gesticulate a little bit more."

克里斯蒂安·贝尔具有一种张力，这种张力渗透进他的表演，令影迷们赞叹不已。不过，他对自己职业的热爱并不包含自我推销的成分。由于有两部备受瞩目的作品需要宣传，这位极为注重隐私的明星如今不得不做他最不喜欢的事：面对媒体。

克里斯蒂安·贝尔是个不愿当明星的演员。

虽然他被视为同一代人中最优秀的演员之一，但这位谜一般的39岁（编注：英文原文刊发于2013年）的英国人对名气却没有兴趣。他扮演的角色那缺乏吸引力的外形和装备常常掩盖了他本人高大、黝黑、英俊潇洒的外表。在许多同时代的人纷纷借助社交网络与影迷交流的当下，他却选择远离公众的视线，尽力保护个人生活细节的隐私，并在选择角色时完全依靠直觉而非出于对职业规划的考量。他是出了名的怕见媒体，因此过去几天来为了即将上映的新片《逃出熔炉》和《美国骗局》马不停蹄地做宣传，对他而言无疑更多的是一次非常痛苦而非愉快的旅程。不过，随着一年一度令人兴奋的颁奖季的来临，贝尔还是屈服于摩拳擦掌的公关部门的压力，这在很大程度上是因为他并不是个无故反叛的人。

和西恩·潘、杰昆·菲尼克斯这些特立独行、打破传统的演员一样，贝尔也不肯按照好莱坞明星的游戏规则行事。他不在乎公众怎么看他，只想用作品说话。

“他不像乔治·克鲁尼那样和蔼可亲，不过我想他也无意树立那种形象，”好莱坞资深公关专家、Reputation网站的副总裁霍华德·布拉格曼表示，“他在乎的是演技——这对他有好处。”

有许多作品见证了贝尔大胆的创新性选择和对角色的不懈付出，这些作品也记录了他为角色所做出的变色龙一样的外形改变， 这使他在每部影片中几乎都让人难以辨认。

为了《机械师》中的角色，他减重63磅；为了出演《斗士》，他也减去了大致相同的重量；为了出演新片《美国骗局》，他增重近50磅。这部电影改编自阿布斯堪姆计划，其中贝尔的角色欧文·罗森菲尔德的灵感来自现实中留着难看的“地方支援中央”发型的骗子梅尔文·温伯格。在准备这个角色时，贝尔像着了魔似的让自己的体型尽量贴近梅尔文·温伯格那矮胖的身材。

贝尔还希望与他共同主演本片、在片中饰演联邦调查局探员的布莱德利·库珀看上去比他高。“我会蹲低身子，设法让自己在个头上比布莱德利矮很多，并表现出欧文对此有多么不满。”贝尔说。他的体型以及浅色太阳镜后闪烁的大眼睛为他赢得了一个亲切的昵称——“獾”。

库珀坦言自己是贝尔多年的影迷，只是两人相隔甚远，他说：“与自己的偶像见面通常很困难，你会担心他们没有你希望的那么好。但他远远超出了我的预期。他乐于付出、毫不做作，还很爱笑。”

据他的同辈人说，尽管贝尔在银幕内外都有强大的气场，但现实生活中的他其实很幽默。

在《斗士》中扮演他的敌对方并在《美国骗局》中扮演他的情人的艾米·亚当斯也同意这种观点。当被问到贝尔最令人意外的一点是什么时，她毫不犹豫地回答道：“他非常风趣，真的非常风趣。”

那么，借用贝尔最热门的影片中“小丑”的一句台词：“干吗这么严肃呢？”贝尔承认自己展现在外人面前的性格有点混乱。“我在拍摄间隙往往会停留在角色里……在片场相当严肃，不过，这样做的原因我觉得大家都想不到。我在电影片场是最绷不住的那种人，就是说很难板着脸不笑。一旦笑起来就停不下来。我从来不想在一场戏结束后就出戏，就变得客观，因为一这么做我就会觉得很好笑。”

贝尔说他不仅认为“几乎我演的每一场戏都很滑稽”，而且“我觉得自己的工作本身就很好笑。我是说，对一个成年人而言，把表演称为工作是件非常滑稽的事”。

贝尔的风趣中还夹杂着一种讨人喜欢的自嘲。

“我是个大白痴，”在被问到他如何选择角色、如何确定自己的职业规划时贝尔说，这句话他在采访中说了不止一次，“没有头绪，没有计划，也没有长远规划。”

贝尔出生在威尔士的彭布罗克郡，父亲戴维是一位民用飞机驾驶员和企业家。贝尔小时候很少在一处地方久待，跟随家人去过葡萄牙、英格兰和美国等很多国家。

贝尔小时候，他的一个姐姐曾参与当地的朗诵会，据贝尔说，那促使他走上了表演之路。“我会在附近闲逛，等她表演结束。有人问我：‘想不想加入进来？’最终我在学校参加了戏剧演出，又突然接到通知，让我去参加真正专业的戏剧演出面试——我居然还得到过几个角色。”这其中就包括1984年在伦敦西区上演的话剧《讨厌鬼》，与罗温·艾金森同台。不久之后，贝尔被史蒂文·斯皮尔伯格选中主演其1987年上映的战争影片《太阳帝国》，那年贝尔才13岁。

这位1月份就迈入40岁的演员甚至在从影27年后仍不断为观众带来惊喜。就在他因为出演《美国精神病人》和《机械师》等独立电影而被归于艺术片演员之列时，他却签约出演了蝙蝠侠。在与备受尊崇的导演维尔纳·赫尔佐格及特伦斯·马利克分别合作了《重见天日》和《新世界》之后，他又接拍了导演McG的动作片续集《终结者2018》。

“我喜欢让人捉摸不透。”贝尔说。

他在《逃出熔炉》和《美国骗局》中的表演简直有天壤之别。

《逃出熔炉》的导演斯科特·库珀将贝尔在片中的角色描述为“一个处处遭受无情命运捉弄的大好人”，一个阴郁沉默、终将失去一切所爱的人。而在《美国骗局》中，贝尔饰演的骗子则是一个不同凡响、富有趣味的人。影片的编剧兼导演大卫·O·拉塞尔形容他“喜爱美食、喜爱交际、喜欢说笑，是一个真正善于和人打交道的人”。

在拍电影时，贝尔会完全融入他的角色中，常常会令与他共事的演员和导演猝不及防。这一点是出了名的。

库珀说，自从贝尔签约出演拉塞尔·贝兹——《逃出熔炉》中宾夕法尼亚凋敝小镇上的钢铁工人，试图把从伊拉克退伍归来的弟弟（凯西·阿弗莱克饰）从不幸中解救出来——之后，他就再也没看到贝尔以真实面貌示人。“他来片场的时候就是拉塞尔·贝兹，直到几周后我在自己家见到他，克里斯蒂安·贝尔才出现。”

已经同贝尔合作过《斗士》和《美国骗局》两部影片的拉塞尔表示，贝尔非凡的外形改变能力固然是一方面，他对角色的透彻理解则是另一回事。

“克里斯蒂安为这个角色经历了灵魂深处的转变，”拉塞尔谈到贝尔在他最新的影片中饰演的角色时说，“从他的眼睛就能看出来，他是怎样变成了这个人物。”

亚当斯对此表示赞同：“是的，他将一贯的张力带入了这个角色，但他还表现出了令人惊叹的脆弱、真诚和幽默。我觉得他的这一面是人们以前从未见过的。”

虽然许多媒体和电影界人士经常将贝尔称为伟大的体验派演员，但他其实并未受过电影艺术方面的专业训练，除了“在10岁或11岁时在基督教青年会上过一课，课上大家装作自己是一枚煎蛋”。

这位演员表示，他有时会考虑不再演戏，不过他的好友们总是会把他带回现实。

“我的朋友们悄悄提醒我说，我16岁就离开了学校，其他工作都做不了。”

此外，贝尔表示，他终于在工作和家庭生活之间找到了平衡，他现在和妻子及八岁的女儿一起住在洛杉矶。

“某种程度上，你必须享受这种疯狂，”他说，又补充道，“我的确会尽量从中抽身。不工作的时候， 我真的和电影毫无瓜葛——我不会和圈内人交际往来。这并不是说我对电影圈的人有什么意见，他们中有好有坏，就像从事任何行业的人一样……他们只是说话时手势更多一些罢了。”