Christian Bale is one of the most prolific actors working today. He has had iconic roles that range from a Wall Street killer in American Psycho, to the cunning former Vice President in Vice, to the Caped Crusader himself in Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy. You’d think at this point in his career, Bale would have his pick at any role he may want. However, it turns out that isn’t the case, as most of his roles are offered to fellow transformative actor Leonardo DiCaprio first.
In a recent interview with GQ, the Ford vs Ferrari actor reflected on his career, and how he picks what roles he will take on. He surprisingly revealed that DiCaprio is often offered various film roles before they're eventually given to Bale. This also apparently isn’t unique to him, who also claims that almost every role in Hollywood is offered to the Wolf of Wall Street actor before anyone else. Bale details:
Oh, dude. It’s not just me. Look, to this day, any role that anybody gets, it’s only because he’s passed on it beforehand. It doesn’t matter what anyone tells you. It doesn’t matter how friendly you are with the directors. All those people that I’ve worked with multiple times, they all offered every one of those roles to him first. Right? I had one of those people actually tell me that. So, thank you, Leo, because literally, he gets to choose everything he does. And good for him, he’s phenomenal.
Well it’s great to hear that there are no hard feelings between these two. Bale seems grateful for the roles he has gotten to play because DiCaprio has passed on them. He clearly respects DiCaprio as an actor, even if his selection seems to go through The Revenant actor first. If this speaks to anything, it's to how in-demand of an actor DiCaprio is. The movie star is famously very selective about what projects he takes on and only seems to work with the best of the best when it comes to directors. DiCaprio tends to elevate every project he’s in, so it’s not surprising everyone in Hollywood wants him to star in their movies.
This isn’t to say Christian Bale isn’t just as talented. He seems to fit the mold of whatever character he chooses to portray. He has transformed his body several times to play roles in movies like American Hustle and The Machinist, and won an Oscar for his unrecognizable performance in The Fighter. He and DiCaprio also have similar collaborators in directors like Adam McKay, Christopher Nolan, and Steven Spielberg. Maybe one of these days the two superstars will co-star in a film together. That would possibly be the film of the century, as long as DiCaprio doesn’t pass on it first.
It may be a while before the possibility of these two collaborating could come to fruition, as both actors have a lot of exciting projects coming down the pike. Bale has been announced to lead a film about a pastor drug-running for a Mexican cartel called The Church of Living Dangerously. In addition, DiCaprio stars in the Martin Scorsese crime film Killers of the Flower Moon, which is set to premiere at the Cannes Film Festival next year.
You can catch Christian Bale in The Pale Blue Eye, which will be available with a Netflix subscription on December 23rd. In addition, DiCaprio fans can watch his latest project, Don’t Look Up, which is also streaming on the platform. For more information on films coming to theaters and streaming later this year, make sure to check out our 2022 movie release schedule.
