20 Things You Didn't Know About Batman Begins
19. Christian Bale Was The First Actor Christopher Nolan Met With And He Was Basically Batman Already
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Nolan and his producer/wife Emma Thomas had lunch with Bale while the actor was preparing for his role in The Machinist, for which he lost insane amounts of weight; Thomas literally told Nolan after the meeting that she had been able to see Bales ribs through his T-shirt. That degree of discipline, particularly physically, was something that Bale would manifest throughout the whole shoot, going from super thin Trevor Reznick to super buff Batman in a crazily short amount of time (Check out this clip where at about 15 minutes Bale starts talking about his obsession with/dedication to the weight loss in The Machinist in a way that smacks of the almost crazy dedication of Bruce Wayne). In The Art and Making of the Dark Knight Trilogy, Nolan said that Bale had a fire in the eyes that made you believe that this was an ordinary man who could make himself extraordinary, simply through self-discipline. (As to Bruce Waynes anger issues, Ill let you insert your own stay out of his eyeline! jokes here)