Christian Bale called into KROQ this morning to apologise for going nuclear…and to explain himself too. It’s hard to be objective when his accent is so sexy.
Sigh.
We will try. Shall we rate his apology?
As far as celebrity contrition goes this one sits pretty high on the scale. He seems very, very sincere. Well, he’s a great actor. And if he’s acting, he’s dedicated every talented molecule to this performance because it sounds super authentic.
“It’s been a miserable week for me. I know I have a pottymouth, everybody knows that now. I understand this is live so don’t worry, I will behave. The thing I really want to stress is that I have no confusion whatsoever. I was out of order beyond belief. I was way out of order. I acted like a punk. I regret that and there is nobody that has heard that tape that has hit harder by it than me. I make no excuses for it. It is inexcusable and I hope that is absolutely clear, you know?
One thing that has really disturbed me throughout this is because I’m not familiar or comfortable yet with this notion of being a movie star. I’m an actor and I’m don’t quite know how to handle the movie star thing and the thing that disturbs me so much is that I’ve heard a lot of people saying that I seem to think I’m better than anybody else and nothing could be farther from the truth. I’m a lucky – I don’t want to swear – I’m a lucky SOB. I never forget that and that is why I put so much into what I do and I care so much about it and why sometimes that enthusiasm just goes awry, you know and please…if anybody ever sees that I think I’m better than anybody else, stick a fork in my backside, turn me over, I will be done. That is not me, you know?”
Bale then goes on to address the length of the rant…because, really, this is what was most damaging. Not so much that he snapped, but that he kept going, and going, and going. For the length of a bible he kept going.
He explains that in the movie he plays John Connor who, like his mother Sarah Connor, of Terminator mythology, is naturally a little crazy. Bale says he was fully immersed in character, he was tapping into some of that lunacy, and so when something set him off, he was half John half Christian, blurring “fact and fiction”, unable to separate one from the other, and therefore, as an artist, he was out of control.
Oh the metaphysical…So difficult to support, equally difficult to discount.
Given how people have described Christian Bale in the past however, and illustrated by how he tortured his own body in The Machinist, this seems believable enough, as eyerolling as it might be to us mortal non-thespians….
He’s so method, he really does become his part.
OK so far, we’re all good.
But then, to me anyway, Christian Bale went a little Michael Phelps.
It’s one thing to say sorry, it’s another to bend over. And you will hear it – he pleads to the listeners to go see his movie. He begs them not to turn away from the movie as a result of his f-ck up. I’m thinking the sales pitch was over the top…
Then again, maybe it’s just me. I’m an unsympathetic bitch to begin with. This is true.
Overall?
A solid B+.
So has he won you over? Has he restored your quiver? Listen to the entire clip here.
Now I’m not a Bale apologist by any stretch. It was totally out of line what he did. In a regular (functional) workplace, that would have resulted in some serious consequences. And embarrassing a man in front of his colleagues, dressing him down, no matter what he did, no matter how incompetent he is, shows a lack of respect and compassion, a LACK OF RESPECT AND COMPASSION, that still disappoints me no matter how lovely he sounds when he speaks. Like he couldn’t have pulled the dude aside and addressed it later on???
However, to take this incident and go back and make new assumptions about the alleged beat-down of his mother and sister (which is what many are suggesting) for which he has been completely exonerated…I think this is a stretch. A major leap.
As always, would love to read your thoughts.
Finally…
Because it’s become entirely too serious now…
Tracy Jordan loses his mind. Seriously, why don’t more people watch 30 Rock? Last night, Kenneth’s reaction to Tracy playing Arthur Ashe almost killed me.
Tracy freaks out
File photo from Wenn.com
