Other people praise him! (...continued...)

This is mainly a reply to fsdas who asked what was discussed in the piece of a DP/30 interview with Finn Wittrock, originally posted here (in the previous thread about other people praising CB) by thorn_in_my_tongue, this one:

https://youtu.be/XjWaebL7ejw?t=20m51s


nathandrakewashere: I don't think Poland was judging at all, he clearly likes CB a lot and also had very good experiences with him personally. It was a throwaway line, and possibly also referred to Gosling's more comedic work as they were talking about their work just before that. And in any case Poland immediately continues by telling how lovely and funny CB was when he interviewed him.

fsdas: I didn't write every filler word ('like' etc.) or everything about Gosling etc. but I tried to get the main conversation otherwise. Some sentences are partial/unfinished since they were (as in any normal conversation). If anything is unclear feel free to ask.



I very much agree with what they're both saying about basically everything - CB, Gosling, their similarities in many ways (the choices they've made in what they want to do and what they don't want to do and be), the "blowup" and everything about it both specifically and in general terms.


**********


David Poland: Is there someone who has an ideal career as far as you're concerned?
Finn Wittrock: Getting to know Christian Bale a little bit was really cool and thinking about... his career... is pretty awesome. He's a very respected actor, Oscar nominated. He was Batman, but you don't look at him and think "That's Batman!", necessarily, you know, you think of all the other great roles he's done as well. - He's also in the best Batmans there are. - But also... he's able to be in The Big Short and also in those big... [Exodus: Gods and Kings], and... he's able to do really mainstream and really artistic movies and be respected at both ways, so...
DP: Box office and not.
FW: Yeah, box office and not.
DP: He's such an intense actor.
FW: Yeah.
DP: I assume you never saw him on The Big Short?
FW: No. He was in, for like two weeks, in the office, before we ever got there. But I talked to the guy who he played... Michael Burry is his name. He really is considered... guys in finance are, like "Michael Burry!", he's on the pedestal, and... He said that Christian... they just sat down for hours, and he's like "I've never had someone look at me that hard." [laughs] They just had a conversation and Christian Bale never took his eyes off him. And then they never spoke again and he just went off and did it - and nails him, so...
DP: What's interesting is that Christian had early on - well, not really early on when he was doing Empire Of The Sun, but as he became a young man he was kind of stuck in the good looking guy thing for a while...
FW: Right.
DP: ...before he...
FW: Broke it off.
DP: ...found a way to break into these much more serious roles.
FW: Yeah. That's true.
DP: Whether he was starving himself for [The Machinist] or whatever, he really found both places in a kind of interesting way, but it seems like a challenge for a handsome young man like yourself to do that.
FW: It's hard to complain, because whenever you complain you sound like a real a55hole, but I do lose a lot of roles because of the way I look, you know, roles I really want and think are really interesting, but they're like "we can't have that guy be the nerdy best friend" - They don't know how nerdy I really am... but that really does happen and... not just have to be the leading man all the time, yeah it's a challenge.
DP: I think 'nerdy best friend' is kinda like the way people break out.
FW: [laughs] You do one good 'nerdy best friend' role and you're good.

[discussion about Ryan Gosling - both agree he has intentionally taken himself out of the good-looking-leading-man category, and that it's that other stuff what he's really interested in - they mention his roles in movies like Lars And The Real Girl and Half Nelson as examples - and that he could be a bigger star if he chose to and was interested in that, but it's "a burden he does not want" like DP puts it. FW notes Gosling's spray tan and wig in The Big Short as also part of image change and breaking out of the good looking guy thing.]

DP: He's like Christian with a bigger sense of humor.
FW: [laughs] Yeah... I'd say...
DP: Christian, I did an interview, and people were, like [in suspicious mumbling voice:] "ooo, what's he gonna say" - And he was completely great...
FW: He's so funny.
DP: ...and straightforward and funny and charming. As long as you're not fking with him he seems very happy.
FW: Yeah.
DP: When you poke at him he gets pissed off, but I guess it should be normal, right?
FW: Yeah... I was at awards show and he was the funniest, most irreverent... so...
But I heard also about that... [hesitates]... I guess it's okay to say... That big blowup that was on the internet, you know? Like... actually the guy he was yelling at had it coming. People were like... "That guy... I've wanted to say that to that guy before." He [=CB] just [FW snaps fingers] blew the fuse, but, you know, it's hard, you only get one side of it when you see what he's yelling, but you don't see what provoked it, and it could be, like, saying something legitimate.
DP: Well, stuff happens on sets...
FW: Yeah.
DP: ...and in some ways when a little piece of it comes out it can look ridiculous and terrible and absurd...
FW: Right.
DP: ...and it's really unfair...
FW: Yeah.
DP: ...even the guy who had it coming, it's unfair to him, too.
FW: Yeah, it is.
DP: It's just not... It's the one time you see Christian Bale on the set and it's not representative of everything.
FW: Definitely not. People on our movie only had good things to say about him.
DP: And even with David O. Russell and Tomlin...
FW: Yeah, that.
DP: I mean, David is a little nuts, but Lily has forgiven him.
FW: Yeah, yeah, they're okay.
DP: People keep bringing it up again, but they're okay with it.
FW: What happens on the set really should stay on the set. And there is often a heightened level of intensity that taken out of context looks crazy, but when you're there, you have to make a movie, you have to make your day, you have this huge operation, this machine has to be in place and people lose it sometimes, it's understandable, you know, it's an intensive environment.

I could've sworn bale says the more people give him *beep* the happier he gets as noted in the esquire 2010 interview. He likes it when people poke fun at him. Hell he even liked the Kevin and bean show and commented how he laughed when they would make fun of Bale's outburst

Yes, that's true. He doesn't seem to mind people making fun of him, he has a very self-deprecating sense of humour, too, and constantly makes fun of himself as well. I think Poland means other kind of poking entirely, too intrusive stuff, for instance.

very nice interview. I totally agree about the blowup, nobody knows the context and it seems that rumors that the guy was not behaving well on set were not false and he had it coming. thank you so much shuntanux the work of translating the interview. It was very kind.

You're welcome.

It's not really rumors, since several industry people have commented on the incident, at the time and later - people who were there and people who have talked to people who were there, (and even right after the leak there were also industry people who weren't there, and hadn't yet had a chance to talk about it to anyone who was, either, but had a pro-CB stance anyway since they had worked on movie sets and understood that side).

A lot of it supports what Wittrock is saying. It sounds like he talked about it to someone, and after hesitating briefly he decides he's not breaking any confidences by saying what he said he had been told. And indeed he didn't, since he didn't say who said it, plus it's known anyway. People in the industry seemed to have the case clear right away. It's only media and a lot of the general audience that insist on the one-sided view and continued bashing of CB over it. Since they're still at it, it's good that the industry people haven't stopped telling their view, either - to both colleagues and occasionally the media (and via media the general audience).

I've also heard from a friend of mine who has taken DP classes from Shane Hurlburt is a jerk. In fact my friend also thinks Shane deserved that

Seriously? Interesting. If that's really the case then why did it still have such a negative effect on your opinion of Bale?

Anyway, Hurlbut got an apology very soon after, and later public praise for his work (from Bale) and tons of sympathy (from most general audience and media), so he shouldn't have that much to complain, that's for sure.

Although he deserved the shaming, Bale obviously has a temper problem. 3 minutes of going on and on is a lot and him "being in character" is beyond bs.