3. He Put On Too Much Weight For Batman Begins Straight After
Next up for Bale after finishing up on The Machinist was the role that has come to define him that of Bruce Wayne in the Batman reboot, which would radically alter perceptions of what could be achieved in the comic book genre. However, having slimmed down to such an extent that he was unable to even climb a flight of stairs, there were concerns that Bale would struggle to put enough weight back on in time for the start of shooting on Batman Begins. Christopher Nolan spoke with his lead actor and asked him to put on as much weight as possible, which is exactly what Bale did:
I overdid it because I was enjoying gorging. I was ignoring advice about taking it slowly because my stomach had shrunk, and I should just go with soups. I was straight into pizza and ice cream and eating five meals in a sitting. My stomach expanded really quickly. I got very sick during that time but I enjoyed getting sick. I didn't mind it at all.
Bales gorging saw his weight rise to 220 pounds, which was far heavier than Nolan or anyone involved in the production envisaged and big enough to temporarily earn him the nickname Fatman. The actor then had to lose another 30 pounds over the course of two months to achieve the ideal physique, thus completing the most remarkable series of physical transformations ever attempted by any actor.
I watch movies and I watch sport. I also watch movies about sport, and if there were a sport about movies I'd watch that too. The internet was the closest thing I could find.
