Q:
Is your version of the Batman story more character driven [like
Burton’s Batman] or action driven [a la the Shumacher travesties]?
Christian Bale: We’re doing a prequel, so it’s very
much looking at Bruce Wayne and how he came
to
invent and create this character and how he became this nutcase
that runs around dressed as a bat.
Q:
Can you talk about what it feels like to step into the cape and
cowl? Does it feel cool? Do you feel grumpy all of the time?
CB:
The first couple of times, it was great because it helps you
get how to play it. I always had a question…I always found
it kind of laughable that a guy thinks he’s going to be
scary walking around dressed like a bat. I’d laugh at
him. I’d look at him and say, ‘What kind of nutcase
are you? Get out of my face?’ I really thought how can
you really take that to a point, where he has to sincerely have
this rage and this focus on this despising of criminals and
his promise that he makes to his parents to rid the city of
[the criminals]. In a way, what I saw it as, is that it’s
very difficult in life to make a promise to yourself, and then
really keep that clarity of thought that you may have had at
that lucid moment, and maintain that intensity. Adopting this
different persona helps him maintain that intensity. In donning
the suit, I also felt like he couldn’t be anything but
a creature, that I no longer wanted to
present
this as Bruce Wayne dressed as a bat. He becomes a different
creature himself. Partly out of the necessity of disguise, but
also out of his own necessity an attempt to keep himself sane
in his own life. I felt like if I didn’t play it this
one certain way, I’d just feel like an idiot standing
in a bat suit the whole time.
Q: Do you feel like you brought something fresh to the character?
CB: I do, [laughs] but so often you hear actors say that, and
then you say, ‘I’m going to go check that out’,
and then you look at it, and you say, ‘What did you really
do? Did you actually do anything different?’ I do feel
that, but we’ll have to wait and see if I managed it.
If I didn’t do it, than there’ll be somebody else
in there when number two comes around.