8 Method Actors Who Nearly Died Making Famous Movies

8. Christian Bale Gets Dragged By Buffalo For Rescue Dawn

The headline could just as easily have been 'Christian Bale's Entire Career'. But then, everyone knows already about his rapid weight loss for The Machinist, weight gain for Batman Begins, weight loss for Rescue Dawn, weight gain for The Dark Knight, weight loss for The Fighter, and finally enormous weight gain for American Hustle. Health-wise, it goes without saying that Christian Bale probably isn't ever feeling too sharp. Less known is the scene in Werner Herzog's Rescue Dawn in which Bale - playing real-life U.S. Navy air pilot Dieter Dengler, who was shot down over Laos in 1966 and subsequently captured - is tied up to a charging buffalo and dragged behind the thing through a Laotian village. While being kicked by extras playing militia. And as the beast begins to race ever-faster, a struggling Bale looks genuinely in pain. Happily, someone puts a stop to the animal's disobedience. But Herzog's unflinching long take suggests that, if the bull wanted to, it could have easily stampeded and carried Christian Bale away into the jungle forever.