Christian Bale is winning well-deserved plaudit worldwide for his latest celluloid transformation, starring as Dick Cheney in the movie Vice.
The Welsh-born star is well known known for his method acting. The 44-year-old actor has continuously shown his dedication to his job by committing wholeheartedly to the weight restrictions of the various roles. One of his most dramatic moves was dropping a whopping 70lbs for his lead role in The Machinist in 2004, where he played an insomniac who suffered so severely from the sleeping disorder that it took a toll on his weight.
14 years later, he’s at it again with a shocking weight change, only this time – he’s put on the pounds, piling on an additional 42lbs to thoroughly look the part of the longtime Republican operative who wound up as George W Bush’s controversial Vice President.
The film explores Dick’s role during the tumultuous Bush presidency and how he ended up becoming one of the most powerful men in the world.
At the time of his weight loss for ‘The Machinist,’ Bale, who shot to fame as a schoolboy in Steven Spielberg’s Empire of the Son, told The Guardian: “It’s an amazing experience doing that.”
After losing lots of weight for one role, only to put it on for another, he explained that the feeling of fully dedicating himself to a role is incredible.
“You’ve got to give everything to every role that you do,” says the shape-shifting actor, who won a supporting actor Oscar after getting scary skinny to play drug-addicted trainer Dicky in “The Fighter.”
For “Vice,” Bale worked at thinking and speaking in Cheney’s measured and thoughtful way, in case McKay called upon him to improvise. “I certainly did the research.”
One thing Bale did not do, however, was sit down with Cheney himself.
“I was advised against (talking to Cheney) for all sorts of legal reasons,” Bale says. “He’s a tough cookie, very thick-skinned. I would have enjoyed meeting him, even if he just insulted me.”
