Superstar Christian Bale said he had to end up isolating himself from Chris Rock on the set of their latest movie because it was too hard to stay in character for his part with the comedian cracking him up.
The 48-year-old actor — known for his method acting — said Rock is “so bloody funny” that he simply couldn’t stay in character for the movie because of Rock’s great storytelling, IndieWire reported in a piece published Monday.
“I remember his first day, I was excited to meet him, I’m a big fan of his standup,” Bale shared. “Then he arrives, and he’s doing some things … David [O. Russell] told him to tell me some stories that I didn’t know he was gonna tell me, which is the way David works often. And I was loving it.”
“But Chris is so bloody funny and I found that I couldn’t act, because I was just becoming Christian laughing at Chris Rock,” he added. “So I had to go to him, I went, ‘Mate, I love talking to you, and we have mutual friends, but I can’t do it anymore.'”
“‘Because David didn’t ask me to make this film so he could just watch me giggle,'” “The Dark Knight” star continued. “‘He wants me to be Burt and I’m forgetting how to be Burt.'”
Can a man be too funny? For Christian Bale, the answer is yes. https://t.co/AO5UlKxZBw
— Variety (@Variety) September 27, 2022
The “Batman Begins” star said he doesn’t blame the 57-year-old comedian/actor and shared that sometimes he has to isolate from people in order to do his job right.
“I often meet these incredible people, but I isolate myself,” Bale shared. “Because if I get to know people too much, I find I just don’t believe what I’m doing in the scene.”
In June, the “American Psycho” star hinted that he just might be willing to don the cape once more to play the famed Caped Crusader.
“Occasionally people say to me, ‘Oh, I hear you were approached and offered all this,'” Bale shared about a potential return to the role. “And I’m like, ‘That’s news to me. No one’s ever said that.'”
“I had a pact with Chris Nolan,” he added of the filmmaker’s trilogy he was part of. “We said, ‘Hey, look. Let’s make three films, if we’re lucky enough to get to do that. And then let’s walk away. Let’s not linger too long.’ In my mind, it would be something if Chris Nolan ever said to himself, ‘You know what, I’ve got another story to tell.’ And if he wished to tell that story with me, I’d be in.”
“Amsterdam” hits theaters on Friday, October 7.