Physical Devotion to One's Craft
I was perusing through some stories over at Slashfilm (a routine occurrence for me) and I came across something interesting. To those of you who consider yourself fervent fans of Christian Bale, take a look at the elaborate image below.
A guy by the name of Matt Ellerbrock took the time to design a mosaic-style image, in order to visually illustrate the abundant physical transformations of Christian Bale's dynamic film career. It has become something of Hollywood legend whenever an actor undergoes an immense physical transformation, (De Niro in Raging Bull, for instance) but Bale takes the routine a step further. In order to impeccably match the look of his diverse character roles, Bale exhibits a true perfectionist approach. Personally, I am a big Bale fan so this image immediately aroused my interest. I was always aware of the depths of Bale's physical alterations, but this picture encapsulates that process—of steadfast devotion to his work—like no other. Kudos Mr. Ellerbrock.
*For a link to the original story, check out this link from Slashfilm
Bale keeps going up and down it’s crazy. He looked good in American Psycho then lost so much for the machinist then beefed up for begins like crazy then right back down for Rescue Dawn. Back to normal for TDK and now this for the fighter. It’s unhealthy but I salute him for his dedication and there are not many actor can do this.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the comment!
ReplyDeleteIt is truly an exercise of death defying proportions to undergo the extreme weight alterations that Bale has voluntarily subjected himself to over his career (and really, the last ten years).
I remember reading a story one time about Matt Damon's extreme weight loss for Courage Under Fire. He lost upwards of 50 lbs to realistically play the role of a crack addict (similar to Bale here huh), and wound up suffering from dizzy spells, hot flashes and had to take a medication to curb the damage done to his adrenal gland.
Your right. Such dramatic feats of physical transformation are hazardous to one's health. But Bale is all about providing a fully engrossing character portrayal; and not many can actors can make that same claim.