Knight fall

Zap! Pow! Whammo! Actually the onscreen speech bubbles substituted for sound effects in the classic 1960s Batman TV series couldn’t be more of a distant memory. These days Batman is dark, brooding and complex – and he doesn’t even need to feature his name in the title of his own movies any more.

With 2005’s Batman Begins, Christian Bale and director Christopher Nolan revamped a film franchise long thought dead – butchered at the hands of George Clooney and Arnold Schwarzenegger in 1997’s Batman and Robin. They rebuilt Batman from the ground up, exploring the intricacies of his origin to an extent not seen before, even in the original comic books. Nolan also assembled a team of acting heavyweights – Michael Caine, Morgan Freeman and Gary Oldman – to play the supporting cast, and all of a sudden Batman was cool again.

When the title of this summer’s sequel, The Dark Knight, was announced (which sees the original cast returning along with Heath Ledger in his final role as the villainous Joker), it reinforced the pointy-eared one’s new direction, or – as filmmakers Warner Bros put it – a move as far away as possible from the light-hearted, traditional superhero movie.

His cape and cowl now hanging up ready for the next instalment, Christian Bale is currently filming Terminator 4: Salvation, in which he takes on the role of another well known character, the series’ John Connor. Secretive and intense, Bale is a picture of enthusiasm when he talks about the latest Batman movie.

You’ve had a great working relationship with director Christopher Nolan, from Batman Begins to The Prestige. Do you see that continuing or are you both just enjoying the moment?
I’m just enjoying the moment. I think both of us have this idea that you can’t plan too far ahead in this world. You just have to deal with what you’re doing right now, and who knows if either us will even be in a position to continue to work together on anything else. Chris may want to take a breather from me, but absolutely I would work with him again.

What happens in the new film? Do you explore new territory and find new levels within the Batman character?
Yeah, absolutely. Chris writes the scripts along with his brother. He wouldn’t be interested in doing it if he wasn’t going to explore new depths and places to go to, taking it further. And he has that confidence now, having proven himself with the first one. So it’s a nice thing when you have worked with someone, like I have with Chris, when you know that you can really trust them.

It’s quite a cast that’s been assembled for The Dark Knight.
It is. We’ve got the old crowd of me, and Gary [Oldman] and Morgan [Freeman], and then Heath [Ledger] and Maggie [Gylenhaal] are in there. Everyone really loved it. It’s not about getting in there for a pay cheque. Heath really pursued Chris on this, and they definitely like what he did. Everyone wanted to put their own stamp on the story.

What about training for The Dark Knight?
Well, there are new stunts and things that I had to train for, but again, in kind of the same way that we were untested before, they’ve realised I know my right from my left, and that I have an ability to pick things up quickly.

Has becoming a dad made you think twice about dangerous stuff in movies?
No, not at all. It’s made me want to tell her, ‘Hey, get out there and don’t be timid.’

How much has your life changed since the success of Batman?
Not very much, I have to say. It’s really been surprising how little it has. I went and made the movie in Thailand, and doing Batman made that easier to put the financing together. But other than that I really don’t feel like there’s been much change at all.

Do you and your wife have to deal with a lot of obsessed Batman fans?
No, not really. I’ve never put her in a position where she has to share me with anyone. She’s my wife and that’s it. Of course I appreciate the fans. I’m human. I appreciate people telling me that they like my work and telling me that they think I’m good. That’s great. But I absolutely don’t get bothered by anyone. People are always, so far at least, very respectful. We haven’t had any problems. I was concerned about it before doing Batman, but it hasn’t happened.

You’re a very private person. Have you ever had to go to extreme lengths to maintain your privacy?
Well, to be honest, I don’t feel like that. Sometimes you have to do these things I’ve discovered… I hope for a future where I don’t have to do that, but I’m a realist as well. And certainly I want people to go and see a movie that I’ve worked on. However, you don’t want to become one of these candy asses that you see on the front of magazines all the time. In my view, however, I’m obviously aware of everything that I’ve done publicity wise, I’ve already done way too much. But it’s very nice to hear when people like yourself say that I’m a very private person. I think, ‘Thank God.’

If Bruce Wayne hadn’t become Batman, do you think maybe he would have become American Psycho?
Listen, they’re both bluebloods. They both have issues and everything. But I think Bruce Wayne, he’s got a soul. And that’s the most important difference.

You have a history of gaining and losing weight for a role. How do you do it?
Just eating a lot. I’ve done it too fast, really. The losing weight is fine; the putting the weight back on has felt really unhealthy, just because it has been too compressed, the amount of time. For Batman Begins, for example, it was kind of right down to the line of being ready for playing Batman.

What does your doctor say? Does he ever warn you about your weight?
You know, I don’t really ever tell him.

How important is it to have a franchise character like Batman to go back to, other than one-offs like Rescue Dawn?
Well, I’d be doing things like Rescue Dawn anyway, because it’s not like if I didn’t have the franchise that I would say, ‘No, I can’t make Rescue Dawn.’ What it does allow, though, is that something like Rescue Dawn, Werner [Herzog] and me had been talking about making it for a good two-and-a-half years, and I don’t know, but I doubt that it’s a huge coincidence that we got the financing pretty quick after I did Batman. So it does mean that I can do these things in a much easier fashion, versus other years where, like with American Psycho, that took two years just because they didn’t want me in it.

So certainly it helps with that, but in and of itself I really like what Chris has done, and working with him on Batman, and so I’ll tell you that it’s the only time in my life that I’ve been able to plan in the future, because usually you know what you’re doing for the next two months if you’re lucky, and then after that you’ve got no idea. So I guess having a franchise is the only time that you can actually kind of sit back and say, ‘It’s alright. It’s going to be OK even if nothing else happens. I know that another one of these is going to come along at some point.’ But you don’t even know that actually, because they could dump me in a second if they wanted – but it’s a good bet that we’re going to make another one.