… give Bale a break.
by Sturdy
I know I’m only two weeks late on this, but now that the hoopla surrounding Bale’s outburst on the set of T4 has died down, I think we can calmly assess the situation and hopefully shed some perspective on the rant. Every site from AICN to the Wall Street Journal has made excuses for the him and Bale himself has apologized profusely for the outburst. We have a tendency to put actors on pedestals and worship them because they can convince us they’re a superhero for two hours, but they’re just regular people.
But before I begin, lets get a few things straight. First, I am not a Christian Bale lover like a lot of people. I think the guy is a fine actor, but that’s about it. I don’t have a blind support for him or anything like that. Second, cussing someone out is never cool. We’ve all done it, but doing it in public and in front of a crowd isn’t cool, especially when you know the other person can’t do anything about it. And by that I mean that Shane Hurlbut couldn’t do or say anything without committing career suicide. If he had argued back, Bale would’ve walked and he would have been fired. If he had jacked him across the face, he would have been fired and never hired again. So going off like that on a powerless victim is just not cool.
The jury is still out on this for me…
However, that doesn’t change the fact that the media has blown this thing out of proportion and some people are defending it because it was Christian Bale and not the dude cutting your grass. I’m just a regular guy that has nothing to do with making movies and I’ve only been on one movie set my entire life. But oddly enough, I had a similar experience on that set. I was watching them film a scene and two famous actors were leaning against a wall, talking during the scene. Well, I was on the side watching (I was there on a set visit) and the set was very open and relaxed, so I decided to walk over to the other side to get a better view of the actors. As I walked across the scene (behind the camera, in their line of sight), the unit publicist pulled me aside and was laughing her ass off. When I asked why, she said that I had no idea how close I came to getting yelled at. I was lucky because the two actors were young and cool as hell, but according to her, if it had been anyone else, it would have been horrible. Because one of the most important rules on a movie set is that you never, never, ever walk in an actor’s line of sight. Now if a regular schmoe like me knows that, shouldn’t a director of photography know that?
Bruce Wayne would never talk to someone like that
So imagine you’re hard at work doing whatever it is you do for a living and then imagine someone obstructs you from doing your job in whatever manner you can relate. You’d be mad wouldn’t you? You probably wouldn’t cuss the person out, but there’d be a part of you that would want to. That’s how I look at the situation. Hurlbut broke a very simple rule with an abnormally intense actor and he should have known better. Again, not an excuse to get cussed out, but it needs to be remembered while we’re throwing trash at Bale.
But he would!
From what I can gather, it wasn’t the first time it had happened. There are a lot of other details we don’t know about the incident, but I’d guess that this kind of thing happens all the time, on virtually ever movie set. Even though it’s better than most jobs, acting is still a job and some actors take it very seriously, just like some of us take our jobs way too seriously. So give Bale the benefit of the doubt. Maybe he had a bad day or was tired, or was frustrated or whatever. However, if he ever does or says anything like that to you, make sure you give him a right-cross to remind him not to do it again.