Over the past two months, we’ve seen a lot of pictures coming out from the set of The Fighter, the true story of boxer-turned-trainer-turned-crackhead Dicky Eklund. Christian Bale plays Eklund, and Mark Wahlberg costars as “Irish” Micky Ward, Eklund’s half-brother. Apparently, Bale and Wahlberg have become quite close on the set – close enough that Mark is really, really worried about Christian Bale’s weight loss. The photos coming out of the set are not flattering for Bale – he is playing a crackhead, after all. Bale is rather famous for his extreme “method” acting, and his habit of taking on extremes when preparing a character. His habit seems to be to take a role where he has to loose an extreme amount of weight, then he takes on a role where he has to really buff up. Mark Wahlberg is trying to convince Bale that he can’t keep doing this to his body:
“You gotta eat man. You’re messing with your health!” Mark Wahlberg made that desperate plea to co-star Christian Bale when Bale continued to starve himself after dropping more than 40 pounds for their film “The Fighter” sources say.
“Christian is a method actor,” a Hollywood insider told the Enquirer. “If a role calls for him to look like a drug dealer, or he has to play someone who hasn’t slept in a year, he’ll go without food to look the part.”
“But the danger comes after he takes off that weight, and then eats everything in sight to put it back on for the next role. That kind of yo-yo dieting can be deadly. Mark and Christian are friends, and Mark is concerned about him.”
[Christian] looks scarily skeletal for his role as a boxer-turned-trainer who’s nearly KO’s by drugs and crime in “The Fighter”.
“It’s crazy. Christian has been living on fruit and water. He’s emaciated,” the source said. “Besides eating practically nothing, he exercises a lot to keep the weight off.
Wahlberg – a health fanatic who worked himself into great shape to play a champion boxer in “The Fighter” – has begged Bale to stop dieting, said the source.
“Mark feels Christian is taking the whole ‘in character’ thing too far. He’s afraid Christian is getting Karen Carpenter-thin, and he’s worried about his heart,” the source divulged.
“He wants Christian to realize that acting is a job, and it’s not worth risking your health.”
[From the National Enquirer, print edition, August 31 2009]
I totally agree with Mark “Say Hello To Your Mutha” Wahlberg, if this report is true. I’m kind of beyond expressing my appreciation for Bale’s extreme physical transformations. If it was just once, for a role that was incredible and groundbreaking, and a story that needed to be told, perhaps I would appreciate it more. But Bale seems to consistently choose parts that allow him to engage in a eating disorder while calling it “art”. It’s not healthy, physically or psychologically. And Bale is doing real, permanent damage to his body – I don’t buy that Bale keeps loosing this weight with the help and approval of nutritionists and doctors. I think he’s doing it without any advice at all. I hope film producers are taking note, and reconsidering Bale for certain roles that they know will only feed his eating disorder.
Christian Bale and Mark Wahlberg are shown on set in Boston on 7/27, 7/28 and 7/29/09. Credit: Fame Pictures
Ridiculous. Mark needs to mind his own business. If it were a woman he wouldn’t be saying these things. Women do this all the time, why is that not an issue?
I doubt the voracity of the story, but if it is true, well I guess Wahlberg is just trying to be a good pal.
Christian is hardly too think here. Look at this arms and legs they are not showing signs of him being emaciated. He’s wearing baggy, ill fitted clothes to further the illusion.
His face always looks similar to that, and he had makeup on (he definitely thinner compared to batman, but he’s not heading to the Machinist territory).
Being a crack-addict may call for an emaciated look, but it doesn’t call for a stick thin anorexic.
Do you really think Mark would say something like this to Christian where a untrustworthy person who’d go the tabloids could here them.
Also the media (and some stupid actors) completely misrepresents what method acting is.
Finally Christian hardly chooses roles that require weight loss. He did the machinist that’s it (until now, which isn’t too extreme), and then had to get in shape for Batman. He was in good shape for American Psycho, but getting fit isn’t ‘choosing’ those types of roles.
I really don’t mind gossip and bullshit when it’s around the kind of people who relish it, and it’s on gossip type topics (breakups, etc). But it really pisses me off when it’s about people who are serious about their work, and on a topic that cheap rag mags should stay out of – actual films, not red carpet bullshit.
Every person in the Hollywood knows that Bale and Day-Lewis are the most extreme method actors working; producers, directors, actors know what type of guy they’ll be working with.
Bale’s hardcore weight loss IS unhealthy — I don’t think you can shed that much weight in any healthy way, but I think saying he has an eating disorder is unfounded and premature. If you look at him during any other time he wasn’t filming The Fighter or The Machinist, he actually looks quite healthy. He is a thin guy naturally, but no more so than a lot of Hollywood actors. I think saying CB has an eating disorder is akin to saying Renee Zellweger has an eating disorder everytime she gains and loses weight for Bridget Jones.
It all depends on the personality of the actor who’s changing their body so extremely. No one really said anything about Tom Hank’s mental health when he lost weight for Philadelphia and Castaway. Yet Colin Farrell lost a lot of weight for Triage last year, and a lot of people suspected he was on drugs again rather than simply prepping for a role OR that he turned to drugs again to shed the weight.
in clear, Bale is under diet (water/fruit/sport) but when i want to lose weight,i do the same thing.
Bale looks very very thin but not as emaciated as in “the machinist”.Thanks the make-up and large chlothes.
And several extras on set wrote on Twitter Bale looked better in real
Losing weight for a role and having an actual eating disorder are two very different things. He makes his living acting, so of course he is going to do what it takes to win a role. He is probably miserable and will resume eating as soon as filming is finished. He lost the same amount of weight for The Machinist, and he got back up to his regular weight afterward, then bulked up to play Batman.
I read the whole article only to go “ahh, SNL reference!”
Bale was 200lb for Equilibrium, then went down to about 125lb (on a 6-foot frame) for The Machinist, went up to 220lb to play Batman, shaved 20lb off in a couple of weeks when Chris Nolan said he looked a bit too big, then lost 60lbs to play Dieter Dengler in Rescue Dawn, before going back up to 200lb for The Dark Knight, then losing a load for this new film. That cannot be healthy! Still, it’s interesting to read public comment about a male actor’s weight, when for years it’s been actresses that have had every pound scrutinised.
I think it’s so interesting that Christian Bale, especially along with his Method weight fluctuation, has played several roles where one of the main qualities of the character is vanity or “the image”–Patrick Bateman, Bruce Wayne (twice), even Howl. It, along with the “extreme” Method acting, really reminds me of Marlon Brando, who also more often than not took on extremely masculine, tough roles (Stanley Kowalski and Terry Malloy come to mind) that he played with a notoriously effeminate edge. I’m not saying that Brando was effeminate or that Bale is actually really insecure, but it really makes me wonder about the man behind the role. Thoughts?
It’s becoming too much of a habit for him, not good for his health. And there is a reason it’s called ACTING, if he were to play an amputee would he cut his legs off?!
It’s over the top and un necessary.
For the machinist he went so far the movie was unwatchable: I couldn’t follow the story all I could think was “WHAT DID YOU DO TO YOURSELF?! ARE YOU CRAZY?! DONT YOU HAVE A FAMILY?!”
He had gone manorexic and was eating literally 1 apple a day, it’s not as if his thing was medically supervised and he got proper nutritients and stuff.
(shaking my head)
I don’t think it’s as bad as everyone says it is, and I agree with Ben.
Without seeing him with no shirt on, it’s hard to tell. His arms and legs aren’t emaciated.
He doesn’t look healthy, but makeup artists can do amazing things to make a face look gaunt and horrible.
Christian can act circles around Marky-Mark, that’s all I need to know.
Wah wah wah he’s a grown man and he’s doing a job of work. If he feels like he needs to diet like a mad man to be better at his job of pretending to be someone else then let him. Gracious, women do it all day every day. It’s not really shocking is it?
I don’t think the issue is necessarily that he is too thin right now, but more so the fluctuating gains and losses. Yo-yo dieting is not healthy for anyone, you are likely in many cases, to be healthier staying overweight, because the extreme gains and losses are tough on the heart.
I think he looks like a wonderful crackhead. Isn’t that what he wants?
@moo:
i agree with you!
He actually does not look too thin to me, but of course- and thank god- I don’t know him in person.
What people should be more concerned about is this guys MIND when he loses all nutrition. I think he’s several sheets to the wind, and didn’t play such a great Psycho (on a few movies!) For no reason.
I have to say if for some odd reason, this guy showed up to party at my house… BYE BYE. I’m not sleeping in my bed that night!!!!!
Reads article. Looks at pics and sees plenty of muscle definition in arms and legs. Calls bullshit on this story.
@ldf. It’s true that Bale has played several roles where one of the main qualities of the character is vanity but I don’t think an actor who was all about vanity would take on roles like the Machinest, or Deiter in Rescue Dawn, nor do they play unattractive crackheads as per his current role in The Fighter. And we can all speculate as to the man or woman behind the role but an actor is not the sum of their interviews or photographs or sound-bites any more than you and I would be. So we can never really know.
The National Enquirer. Yeah, really reliable journalistic source.
If you look at the picture posted at the top of the article, compare Christian Bale’s arms to Wahlberg’s. They look about the same size, and that was after “Marky Mark” had to bulk up for the role, not to mention the solid calf muscle that one can see on Bale. As someone already pointed out, yes, he did lose some weight but, not an extreme amount. The baggy clothes, the makeup all contribute to the look. Besides, honestly, I don’t believe that Wahlberg said those things about Bale. It reads like a bunch of tabloid nonsense.
While I think that the sudden weightloss for The Machinist and immediate weight gain for Batman was beyond unhealthy, I’m not convinced it’s the same thing here.
Most of his weightloss is in his face, where people tend to lose weight first anyway and being a man he can probably drop weight quite comfortably without starving himself for weeks. He’s probably doing more cardio to keep the weight down true. But it’s that (spectacular) makeup that’s making him look creepy here. I agree with others – shenanigans.
Are you kidding me?