Hollywood has been a witness to many great talents who have delivered a series of highly acclaimed performances over the time. However, it would be a grueling task to find an actor who is extremely obsessed with perfection and keeps pushing his body limits to peculiar extremities so that he could perfect his roles. One such actor is Christian Bale who has been hailed as the master of body transformation in Hollywood.
The talented British actor bagged the Golden Globe Award in 2011 for his remarkable performance as a former boxer in the biographical sports drama, The Fighter. Bale further extended the radius of his talent to bring life to the character of Irving Rosenfeld in the dark-comedy crime movie, American Hustle, as he gained a massive weight of 40 lbs of pure fat for the role.
However, that is not the first time that Bale has challenged his body beyond expectations. He is entitled to a series of sudden body transformations which have startled his fans and colleagues equally. One can say that Christian Bale comes in every shape and size, that too, packed with an acting finesse. Let’s check out some of the most unbelievable yet rather genuine transformations that Bale’s body has managed to achieve.
Newsies, 1992
In the year 1992, a 17-year old boy made an appearance on the screen as Jack Cowboy Kelly in the movie, Newsies. The guy was none other than Christian Bale. At that time, no one had wondered what sort of a perfectionist this guy would turn out to be.
Velvet Goldmine, 1998
This one can be considered as one of the most subtle of Bale’s physical transformations as he appeared as a charming man.
American Psycho, 2000
For this role, Bale had a no make-up look as he wanted to portray a hardcore murderer because the requirement of this character in the movie was to depict a killer, Patrick Bateman. This needed a well-sculpted body and Bale worked extremely hard for almost 3 hours a day for 6 days per week, under the guidance of a personal trainer, to achieve the look.
The Machinist, 2004
This is one of the most infamous transformations done by Bale with his body. He had to play the role of a patient named Trevor Reznik who suffers from insomnia in the movie, The Machinist. As insomniacs tend to lose a great deal of weight, Bale had to lose all his hard-built muscles in a very short period of time. For this, he adopted a very strict and harsh diet, which won’t be an easy task to follow for anyone else in the place. He stuck to a single can of tuna fish or apple, black coffee, and water.
That regime was followed by him for 4 long months. Meanwhile, he also sweated out in the gym to speed up the weight loss process. As a result, he lost a whopping 63 lbs, which dropped his body weight down to 121 lbs. However, it was not a healthy step and Bale’s health was at stake as such a diet is only allowed and prescribed to excessively obese people.
Batman Begins, 2005
Immediately after shooting for The Machinist, Christian was again asked by director Christopher Nolan to gain a physique that would suit the character of Batman. For that, he had only a few months. So, Bale started consuming a very high carb diet and resumed his rigorous 3-hour gym training sessions which helped him gain 60 lbs, which eventually added another 39 lbs to his body while he was busy shooting for the film.
Rescue Dawn, 2006
By this time, Bale has become a pro in fluctuating body weight and he could do almost anything with his body weight and time was just another unit for him. He faced no problem in shedding some pounds to get fit for this role and the rest was taken care of by the make-up team.
The Fighter, 2012
In this movie, Christian Bale had to play an addicted former boxer, Dicky Eklund. In order to shed some pounds to get fit for this role, Bale made a commitment to his cardio workouts and long-running schedules.
American Hustle, 2014
Finally, Bale got a chance to divulge extensively in his food cravings because in this movie he had to play a con artist with a positively round body. Therefore, to achieve this body figure, he indulged in excessive junk-food like cheeseburgers and gained 40 lbs.
Exodus:Â Gods and Kings, 2014
As everyone would like to agree, Moses cannot be seen with flab, hence, the role in Exodus: Gods and Kings again put Christian into the weight loss mode and this time, he slimmed down to a great extent as compared to his character in American Hustle.
So, whether it is about adding massive pounds to his body or losing a staggering amount, Bale knows what should be done in order to make his every character rise up to perfection.
