f13.net

Linky (http://www.tmz.com/2009/02/02/bale-went-ballistic/) to recording of his hissy fit on set. Prepare to hear "fucking" used a lot and in very funny places.

We don't know the context of the tirade.  Sure, he sounds like a douche.  But none of us were there to see how badly the other guy was being a dumbass. 

He actually said the shit that goes through my head when dealing with people on a daily basis.  I'm not seeing the issue here.  More people need to be called out on their stupidity like that. 

Society would collapse within an hour if we all treated idiot fuckers like we pleased.

Yep, pretty much. We all deal with people who make mistakes and piss us off. The question in this clip was how many times this guy had done something stupid. I'm willing to believe you don't go absolutely top-dawg insane over a guy making one mistake. I would have to think this was repeated behavior and the straw that broke the back.

It sounds a lot like he was finally at his wits end and plain lost it.  It happens sometimes, not that that makes it all okay.

Wow, lots of man-crushing on Bale here.  My reaction is exactly the opposite:  he's a raging spoiled douche (see: mother/sister assault) with severe anger issues.  Him and Russell Crowe and Tugger should team up. 

Not man-crushing in this instance, just sounded a lot like somebody who bottled up some stress for too long and I can understand that sort of thing happening, even if it's a shitty thing to do.  Actors spend a very long amount of time during production on location/on a set, and if everything just seems to go wrong one day, anybody involved might find themselves suddenly lashing out at somebody who just happens to annoy/frustrate them at the moment, and it doesn't even have to have a reason behind it.

Nice to hear him in his normal voice i.e. with the accent. :)

Big who cares.

I don't really give a damn if he beats up everyone on the set so long as the movies are good. Even if he's a dick, what does that really matter to me? I don't hang out with him, I watch his movies.

EDIT:  Also, listening to the rant it sounds like the same guy had done this at least one other time.

EDIT #2:  If I had his money and position this is how I would talk to about 85% of everyone I meet.

This is like the same thing that happened to Alec Baldwin.  I don't really like Baldwin, but I still think people went overboard in condemning him, considering some of the epic chew outs I've received from my Dad.  They were a hell of a lot less polite than what Baldwin delivered.

And of course, now we're apparently ready to tar and feather Michael Phelps for doing a bong hit.  We've got a sick, celebrity obsessed culture, and we need to knock it the fuck off.  Maybe something like a vocal "No Logo" movement towards celebrity bullshit.

I found the audio deeply disturbing.

Seriously, those trans-Atlantic accents just weird me the fuck out. Trans-Pacific ones are no better.

Yeah.

This.

If there's one thing Americans love to do more than putting celebrities way up high on pedestals, it's finding an excuse to knock them off and watch them fall.

Would anybody notice the difference?  :why_so_serious:

Yes.  I'd be in movies.

I'd like to second being weirded out by the trans-atlantic accent. Friend of mine went to work for Novell (I think) about a year ago and on a recent meeting I found has also begun to develop one. There are plenty of mixed accents I can deal with but that one's just odd.

What the fuck is up with that? If anything, you'd think it would show that you can smoke weed casually and still win a fucking fistful of golds at the goddamned Olympics.

People are fucking idiots, so I fully support any tirading. In fact, we need more. Too many people sleeping through their days that need a little shaking the fuck up. McCain got almost half the american vote, ffs.  :why_so_serious:

People in the US are slowly losing the capacity for analytical thought.  With the information age, people are more willing to blindly accept things that they are told from a likeable source.  I see this behavior in college students all the time.  They use the wikipedia as an expert source and fail to ever question obvious errors they find in textbooks. 

Idiocracy, here we come! 

And President.

If I was Michael Phelps, I'd probably say "Yeah, I smoked pot AND won a zillion gold medals. And Obama? Smoked and is fucking President of the USA. Guess what? You can smoke pot and still do shit with your life.".

On the other hand, I'd also stand to lose a few zillion dollars -- so....perhaps not.

You know what?  I'm going to have to go along and agree with this post, because it seems to make some kind of sense and also because I like the tone and quality in which it was delivered. 

 :grin:

I figured Bale would be an asshole just from the way he looks. And let's face it, he's working on the set with McG. I want to kick McG in the nuts repeatedly for Charlie's Angels alone.

As for Phelps - who fucking cares if he takes a bong hit or fifty? Americans are such fucking idiotic prigs.

Conan made a good point last night about not letting someone with the lung capacity of a dolphin hit your bong.

Talk about Bogarting a joint.

Re: Bayle

Yeah, everyone has their moments of blind rage.  Anyone can sound like a complete prick if everything they said was recorded thoughout a month and then selectively filtered to an audience, too.  Reality shows make bank on this and turn people into characters.

Re: Phelps

He's a 'hero' an 'icon' and a 'man of influence'  We're raised in a culture where such definitions are given to flawless people, so we rail and moan and tear them down when they become human or show the slightest flaw.  This is why Clinton was stupid enough to lie under oath, making an indiscretion he should have said "Yep, I did. She spat.. my bad." to into a real reason for an impeachment - lying under oath.  Fucking idiots both.

  If you're going to do shit you don't want to get found out then make sure your 'buddy' isn't photographing it, or is swallowing the load.  The Phelps outcry is two parts.  One the folks who hate weed on principle and two those of us who say "it's illegal, don't do that shit and brag about it, asshat." The folks pissed about flaunting the law are probably the loudest.

Then there's the segment of the population who just want to kick the ass of the douchebag who'd sell out his 'friend.' 
Critical thinking is "too hard" to teach.  It's easier to get people to memorize a list of facts and figures to spit out onto scantron sheets and you can have the middle 50% of intellects do it for middling pay.  Lack of critical thinking skills in the education curriculum is why we continue to fail and fall behind every year in math and science and you know it.

I seriously don't see how this is news. If you recorded where I work you would hear far more amusing cussing and swearing at and about just about anybody or anything.

Nobody gives a shit about your fellow employees unless they were being filmed by MTV or some other reality-show producing network (and even then it would only matter as a ratings grab for that fanbase). A hugely successful actor going off the deep-end, however, is 100% pure cocaine for our culture. For anyone that cares to see this behavior from the film industry elite, I'm sure they creamed their pants after finishing the audio clip.

In the middle of a group meeting I read this and lol'd.

Civil disobedience. I was a huge supporter of CD before I got into a position that I could lose just because some conservatives got their panties bunched up (ie: my name appears in the paper for a violation involving pot). So I abstain these days, unwillingly. But that's kinda why I wish Phelps would stand up and say something like Morat20 said. Thor knows the NORML lobby is so ineffective as to be laughable.

Most people thought I was scandalous when I was younger, because I always had some great pot on me, and I would smoke it in public. Not around kids or anywhere irresponsible, but smoking a joint outside city hall? Why the fuck not? Be smart about the laws and it's a minor violation, a parking ticket. Which I found hilariously funny because a) I was never arrested for marijuana and b) who gets bent out of shape over parking tickets?

Flaunting bad legislation is at the core of american values. Want some tea?

If it's CD for CD's sake or to push an issue, you'll probably get a section of that authoritarian population to consider your viewpoint.  You might even get some of them to back you.  When you come out and apologize afterwards saying, "my bad, I was wrong," you're an asshat breaking the law and being an idiot about breaking it. 

I do not disagree with that.

I think the real lesson for Bale here is "Don't insult the director of photography on your film, because he WILL leak the tape".

Bale's rant remixed (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YTihsJQHt48)

This was stuck in my head for a good part of the day.

That would be a sweet, sweet hour.

Actors should be able to emote well.  Its part of the job.  Bale should put this recording on his resume.

Anyway, Kinski (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yITx7txr-7M) has the best on camera tirade.

There is a reason Hertzog filmed Kinski at gunpoint during Aguirre.

That is the soundtrack to the end of Bale's major role career. It doesn't matter how much a useless cunt the DP was. Not one bit. Coupled with the allegations that he assaulted his mom and sister last summer, he'll likely not work on anything important in Hollywood again. He just pulled a Crowe.

If by a "Crowe", you mean he will continue to find substantial and starring roles in major motion pictures while having the image of sometimes being difficult to work with, I agree with that statement.

http://www.aintitcool.com/node/39984

Yeah, I saw that.  I take anything I read from aicn with a big block of salt, but I think it does help illuminate the mystery of why anybody would blow up like that without trying to be an asshole.  We might find it silly and absurd, but the event described there, were it to have actually happened that way, would be like somebody continually trying to tune their piano during a rehearsal/recording session.  In either case it's unnecessary interference that could have waited.

I hope that Knowles really did talk to someone who happened to be on the set that day and isn't just pulling that shit out of his arse (because, despite what he says about "Only because I found some details out, do we know it was in the midst of a scene between him and Bryce Howard" it's pretty clear from the recording that's what the case was. Something to do with Bale saying “...it’s fucking distracting having someone walking up behind Bryce in the middle of the fucking scene...")

Even if it's not, he puts into words pretty much what my thoughts were. It doesn't matter if you're the DP or the director, unless you've got a real reason to be pissing around with lights during a scene then you leave it until between takes.  Even from Bale's tirade he makes it clear that this is the second time during that particular scene that the DP was wandering around and implies that it's happened several times before.

Personally I'm a little taken aback (but not entirely surprised) by McG's attitude as director. It doesn't sound like he's got any control and isn't about to step in.  Mind you, I think the Bruce that did try to step in was Bruce Franklin, one of the associate producers and it didn't sound like he was having too much luck in assuaging Bale either so McG was probably sensible in staying out of it.

And then there's that time when indians asked Hertzog if he wanted Kinski killed.

Guys, he's Welsh.

Get some fucking perspective.

What's your fucking point you fucking prick? I'll kick your fucking ass unless you give me a damn good answer.

You and me? We're fucking through.

 :why_so_serious:

I think you made my point !

From what little I've experienced of being on video sets (and this wasn't even a multi-million dollar movie), you don't move around on set too much at all during filming. You don't make sounds if the director says not to. And you sure as FUCK don't mess with the lights DURING A SCENE. That's amateur hour shit. I still think Bale is probably an asshole, but he was justified in reaming the guy out.

McG is a tool, so he likely did nothing to help the situation at all.

Harry Knowles is an even bigger tool, and his nob-slobbery knows no bounds. Of course, he's right about one thing. It ain't fucking news, certainly not worthy of the coverage it's gotten on TV.

Speaking of Herzog,  here is a post from the First AD on Rescue Dawn about Bale that is pretty interesting. (http://open.salon.com/content.php?cid=99060)

This is a great movie BTW if you want a rental.

I second that emotion.  Rescue Dawn is great and I had forgotten that Herzog directed both Kinski and Bale. 

No coincidence that, I am sure.

That was a pretty interesting read, thanks.

And yeah, Rescue Dawn is a really good movie, I think you can actually get it pretty cheaply on blu-ray right now.

He didn't but I'll retract what I said about him earlier. It turns out that Bruce Franklin, as well as being Associate Producer, was 1st AD. It was his job to run the set and his job to sort out problems and not McGs. He did step in to tray and mediate between Bale and Hurlbut but not very successfully.  Probably because he did nothing to stop the situation from happening in the first place. I was talking to a director friend last night and she said that in the same situation she would have probably taken the McG route too and not gotten involved.

That Harry Knapp piece is great. Thanks for the link. Haven't got around to watching the film yet but it's on the list.

I wonder if it's the guy Bale scolded who leaked this? I'm with the  majority on this one: the more I find out the more my feeling becomes "I'd have cussed him out too."

The thing is the DP should have just gone, "I'm so sorry - it won't happen again" and let Bale cool off. There is a point where Bale is cooling and the DP does something that just gets Bale going again when a "sorry" would have calmed the situation.

I don't think it's some deal of "pampered movie star" exactly. I mean, in what way is Bale really a typical movie star? I never noticed him to be someone who does a bunch of "celebrity" type of shit. He's just an egotistical artist - which is a bit different. There are painters and photographers, with a lower profile than him, who act the same way. Photographers can especially be the biggest dicks, because they're fucking OCD about shooting conditions and light.

To top it off, yeah, he probably is a dick in general. Like most people are. Most people should be nicer, including him. What else is new, eh?

Uh, kind of ironic that I talk about OCD and lighting... Since this was this other guy's problem, from what I understand?

Every indication is that Bale is a hardcore actor who works very hard at conveying tone and subtext, but isn't a diva (no demands for peanut M&M's with all the green ones removed, or the biggest trailer, and other such nonsense).  He was genuinely pissed off because it was a difficult scene and the DP was standing behind the other actor fucking with lights, and apparently not for the first time.  The DP is probably the one who either made the tape available or arranged for it, and it's backfiring on him as everyone who has worked with Bale comes out and says "Damn straight he ripped you a new asshole, and you deserved it."

--Dave

Bale vs O'Reilly (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gbz6-7c_7Hk)

Not to mention, he's been doing it since he was a kid. And not cameo appearances on Blossom. He was in everything from Henry V to starring in war epics and shit. "For fucksake you amateur!!" starts to sound like an understandable insult if you take his professionalism into context. :grin:

My paternal grandparents were from Wales. Is ther some sort of sterotype I'm not living up to?

Also, this (http://site.despair.com/christianbale/).

Yes.  How come we can understand you?  You should be so indecipherable that even your typing is unreadable. ;D

The guy wearing the shirt is creepin' me out.

With a name like Angry Bob ?  No, you're living up to it just fine.

Indeed, given past rants, your Welsh heritage has come as no surprise at all.   :why_so_serious:

TBH if I lived in Wales I'd be angry too. And damp.

Welsh accent is by far one of the best, I think! But Christian Bale barely has one.

I, too, am of Welsh heritage.

Which may explain why I heard Bale's rant and my reaction was, "And?"

It is.  I loved listening to this one lady I met talk, but it was odd how she slipped between being perfectly understandable and gibberish.

Bale just starred in the second highest grossing movie of all time. He could have pulled a gun and shot this guy in the face right there on the set and it wouldn't matter to the people making decisions in Hollywood.

Worst mistake in all of this was apologizing for it.  He should have embraced his assholery and let the world know that he is srzs bzns. 

There's no problem here for Bale. If Russell Crowe is still getting work, so will he.

Well, other than 'when does he get out' you mean. 

Shooting someone in the face has to get what.. a month and a half in jail in Hollywoodland, right?

Russell Crowe is one end of the spectrum on that question.  Val Kilmer is the other (Batman too, remember?)

Ultimately, jackassery like that can mean the difference between staying on the scene and falling off.  It isn't necessarily fatal, but it doesn't help. 

I would put Tom Sizemore at the end of the spectrum.  Remember him?  Heidi Fleiss beating, meth smoking, eight hour internet sex tape making, perpetually on probation Tom Sizemore?

Bale got upset because someone was interfering with his ability to do his job, which doesn't even approach 'jackassery' in my mind.

Thanks - I was trying to think of someone who really killed their career. Even Lily Tomlin's war with the director on the set of "I Heart Huckabees" didn't stop her working.

Wesley Snipes was trouble during "Blade 3", but then came his tax issues anyway.

Over time, I'm sure it hurts. As an irregular thing, the crew keep their heads down.

As for Bale being intense: he did "The Mechanic". Yeah, he takes his roles seriously.

Oh, that's a classic. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n4uTGvTFzyQ)  In her defense, that was the reaction I had while watching I Heart Huckabees.

Talk Soup (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yKqj0ZWIc8c) had some fun with the recording this week.

Fixed.

Just with regard to Ironwood's previous comments about the Welsh, I'd just like to say this: 26-13.

At Murrayfield.

(And before you any of you Sais laugh, just remember that you're playing us at home next week. Cymru am byth.)


You live in Yorkshire. It's a lot like Wales except you don't play proper rugby.

Not to mention, he did the Machinist from coming off his usual American Psycho weight, then beefing up even bigger than before for Batman (from 185 lbs to 121 lbs to 220 lbs).

That's what happens when you post while falling asleep. Thanks.

Before you get to pumped about this, let me remind you who your opposition was - the Scottish team. They are currently about as good as the 2007 Wales team (when you probably weren't interested in the sport at all).

Come on Righ, you can do better than that. I'm disappointed.

2007 was a definitely a bad year and cast doubt that 2006's performance was only down to lacking key players through injury. Let's not even talk about the World Cup especially after the 2003 WC when Wales were leading England at half time in the quarter finals. At least the man responsible paid the price in the end after undoing Mike Ruddock's good work.

EDIT: back on topic - Bale apologises (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/7875756.stm)

Still don't think he had anything to apologise for, but then who knows the truth of the matter since none of us have anything to go on except the media reports. And we all know how reliable and committed to the truth the media are  :oh_i_see:

Anyway, all this talk of Christian Bale made me want to watch American Psycho the other night. I'd forgotten what a superb film that was and what a fine performance he put in there. And of course watching the film made me want to read the book again but it doesn't seem to be in the house. Either I lent it to someone or it was one of the ones my ex-wife took :/

His mother is Gloria Steinman.  Of course he is confused and angry.

Bale is a Welsh-born Englishman.

Yeah, but he's lived in Wales the whole time. Welsh born and raised Englishman, which is a bit different. He might as well be Welsh himself.

[edit] scratch that, he moved around a bit when he was younger. But he does live in Wales again.

Basically he's a combination of Welsh and English, that's worse than either on its own :awesome_for_real:

His birth parents are (were) South African. Gloria Steinem later married his dad.

Bale is a pretty cool guy. I agree we should say he's Welsh.

For the Wesley Willis fans out there. All 2 of you.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YFb7fUEbzWk (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YFb7fUEbzWk)