10 Actors Who Tried Like Hell To Win An Oscar (But Failed)

It seems likely Christian Bale smelled Oscar gold on the horizon when he signed on for 2004's The Machinist, and went to shocking extremes for a film which, in all honesty, really didn't warrant such an approach.

Bale notoriously dropped weight to dangerous levels, allegedly eating little more than an apple a day, for his role as Trevor Reznik, a factory machinist suffering from long-term insomnia which has taken its toll on him mentally and physically.

Eager to be true to writer Scott Kosar's script, Bale dropped a shocking 62 pounds; although it has since been suggested that Reznik's scripted physical measurements were those of the Kosar himself, who at 5 ft 6 is somewhat shorter than the 6 ft Bale. As such, Bale had no reason to go so drastically thin.

Without this shocking physical transformation on Bale's part, it's dubious that director Brad Anderson's would be all that well remembered, as it's a fairly run-of-the-mill twist-based psychological thriller the likes of which were commonplace around the turn of the century.

Either way, The Academy overlooked The Machinist; Bale wound up getting his first nomination, and win, as Best Supporting Actor in 2011's The Fighter.