Christian Bale has played boxers, serial killers, superheroes, and most recently, a world-weary Army captain in the dark western “Hostiles.” But the one thing the Oscar-winning actor says he won’t do is a romantic comedy.
“I was asked to do a romantic comedy recently and I thought they’d lost their minds,” Bale said in an interview with The Guardian. “Cats have those insane half hours every evening. I think it must have been that for the production company. I don’t know why anyone would ever offer me a romantic comedy. I find ‘American Psycho’ very funny.”
While many people may have been disturbed by Bale’s portrayal of the chainsaw-wielding Patrick Bateman in the 2000 adaptation, Bale says he was laughing out loud when he first read the Bret Easton Ellis novel that inspired his breakout film. “I’d no idea people saw it as anything other than satire,” he confessed.
As for his latest role, Bale says he was engrossed by the script of “Hostiles” and his character, Capt. Joe Blocker. Joe is an Army captain who survived the bloody battles between American settlers and Comanche natives after the latter slaughtered his family. Holding racist feelings against Native Americans, the captain is assigned on his last job to escort a group of Cheyenne to their ancestral home to bury their dying chief, played by Wes Studi. Bale said he was amazed by Blocker’s arduous journey, in which he is forced to recognize the humanity of the group he hates.
“It was a gut feeling of reading it, wanting to read it again and thinking: there’s really something here that I can obsess with for a number of months,” he said. “It’s an incredible story of American history from the point of view of a man who is absolutely consumed with bigotry and hatred, finding his way back to being human.”
“Hostiles” is in select cities now and in theaters nationwide Jan. 19.