Christian Bale: Leader of the Resistance
Bruce Wayne slips in and out of shadows with little chance of detection. John Connor of “Terminator Salvation” eludes the all-knowing electronic eyes of the Skynet killing machines. But Christian Bale cannot get in and out of Bartlesville without someone noticing.
In October, Bale sightings caused a stir in Bartlesville when a barista at a local Starbucks served the “Terminator Salvation” star a grande chai latte. When The Oklahoman asked Bale why he visited the town, the 35-year-old actor grinned widely.
“What do you mean?” Bale asked. “That’s offensive to Bartlesville. Who doesn’t want to go there? Are you from Bartlesville?”
Once he ascertained that this reporter was from Oklahoma and not a foot soldier in a TMZ.com-deployed army of Midwestern paparazzi, Bale offered slightly more information.
“I was there… for … doing a little bit of location scouting and getting ideas for something that… might … happen,” he said.
There would be no more elaboration, but Bale carefully chooses what he does and what he says these days. “Terminator Salvation” director McG said Bale was his immediate choice to play John Connor, humanity’s savior in the battle against treacherous technology. Bale was not so easily swayed.
“When people look at the franchise mythology and think that it’s over, you’ve got to come back with something that knocks people out,” Bale said. “I didn’t think it was there, but that was not just me — it was everybody. I felt like the franchise was done, so when I first got sent it, I didn’t have any interest. Then I sort of got a creeping idea that there was something good that could be told here. And if that was going to happen, then absolutely.”
After copious script doctoring and assurance that a fourth chapter in the saga was worth telling, Bale signed on. “Terminator Salvation” dramatically shifts away from both the darkly humorous tone and time-traveling conceit of the first three films, spending its entire time in the foreboding wasteland of California in 2018, when John Connor is rallying humanity’s resistance fighters in a great push against the machines’ genocidal war.
Bale said the film met his expectations, but he won’t fully know its impact until millions of moviegoers agree to sit in the dark and see it communally. It is that kind of experience.
“I saw a few different variations, like any movie goes through, but ultimately the last one I saw, I felt satisfied,” he said. “The public will decide — this is not a movie that you watch as a personal, two o’clock in the morning viewing. It’s not something which is gazing into the human soul and speaking to you in that way. It’s a movie that’s meant to be watched with a lot of different people, where you get that common energy. Movies like this … it’s a lot like sports. That’s what I loved about seeing ‘T2,’ and I thought we had a chance here.”
Although Bale is guarded with his answers and cagey about future projects, that protective armor makes sense. Since “The Dark Knight” became the biggest hit of 2008, Bale was in the news for allegedly assaulting his mother and sister in London. Then in February, audio surfaced of Bale lashing out at “Terminator Salvation” director of photography Shane Hurlbut. He acknowledged the effect that Internet-based scandal reporting has on his life, but Bale said he keeps such parajournalism at a distance.
“My life is much happier when I ignore that,” Bale said. “As for other people, it’s their choice. If they want to embrace that, they’re probably going to sacrifice enjoyment of the movies. But it’s their choice. If that’s what they love looking at … I don’t get it. It is what it is.”
So, information is parceled out as needed. The Internet Movie Database includes something called “Untitled Batman Project” in Bale’s 2011 filmography, but Bale will neither confirm nor deny that he will be wearing “Dark Knight” gear in the near future.
“After making a number of blunders, I’ve learned that I don’t answer that question until (director) Christopher Nolan answers that question,” he said.
And after that question is answered, perhaps the mysteries of Bartlesville will be revealed.
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