Christian Charles Philip Bale is an English actor, and a recipient of several accolades, including an Academy Award and two Golden Globe Awards. In 2011, he was included by the TIME magazine on its list of the 100 most influential people in the world.
He started his journey in film at age 13 in Steven Spielberg’s 1987 war film Empire of the Sun. Adjusting to fame and his difficulties with attention, Bale appeared in Kenneth Branagh’s 1989 adaptation of Shakespeare’s Henry V (1989) and starred as Jim Hawkins in a TV movie version of Treasure Island (1990).
Bale worked consistently through the 1990s, acting and singing in Newsies (1992), Swing Kids (1993), Little Women (1994), The Portrait of a Lady (1996), The Secret Agent (1996), Metroland (1997), Velvet Goldmine (1998), All the Little Animals (1998), and A Midsummer Night’s Dream (1999).
Here are the 35 greatest Christian Bale quotes on the painful experiences in his life, his career, and his fear of ‘being boring’.
1. “You’re creating a different world and the actor’s job is to be able to convince the audience to enter into that world, whether it be actually something that you recognize from your own life or not.” -Christian Bale
2. “When it comes to films, people often don’t differentiate between the message of a bad central character and the message of the film itself. They are two separate things.” -Christian Bale
3. “It’s the actors who are prepared to make fools of themselves who are usually the ones who come to mean something to the audience.” -Christian Bale
4. “Essentially, I’m untrained, so I just go with my imagination and try to put myself as solidly as I can into the shoes of whatever person I’m going to be playing.” -Christian Bale
5. “An actor should never be larger than the film he’s in.” -Christian Bale
6. “I started my career without fans.” -Christian Bale
7. “I don’t think I’m like any of the characters I’ve played – they’re all really far from who I am.” -Christian Bale
8. I’ve had some painful experiences in my life, but I feel like I’m trivializing them by using them for a scene in a movie. I don’t want to do that. It just makes me feel kind of dirty for having done that.” -Christian Bale
9. “If you’re doing your job properly, you take the risk of feeling slightly foolish and delve in and bring out the emotions.” -Christian Bale
10. “I tend to think you’re fearless when you recognize why you should be scared of things, but do them anyway.” -Christian Bale
11. “I think trying too hard to be sexy is the worst thing in the world a woman can do.” -Christian Bale
12. “The only thing that I’m obsessed with is sleeping, and actually, it is more than an obsession, it is a pleasure.” -Christian Bale
13. “One of the places where we lived when I was growing up had this big wood out the back. And starting when I was about 8, I used to enjoy just walking alone through the wood late. Eleven p.m. Midnight. Later.” -Christian Bale
14. “I have a fear of being boring.” -Christian Bale
15. “It was a great honor to be called a mo-fo by Sam Jackson.” -Christian Bale
16. “It’s got to do with putting yourself in other people’s shoes and seeing how far you can come to truly understand them. I like the empathy that comes from acting.” -Christian Bale
17. “It’s not who I am underneath but what I do that defines me.” -Christian Bale
18. “I find what I do for a living really funny. I mean, acting is kind of a hilarious thing for a grown man to call a job.” -Christian Bale
19. “There are occasions when I’ve pretended to be in a firefight, and then there are people who have really been in a firefight. Clearly it’s absolutely ridiculous, and even disrespectful, to suggest that I understand what that is.” -Christian Bale
20. “And I not only inherited an aversion to the nine-to-five routine, but the sense from my parents that being bored and boring is the worst thing that you can be.” -Christian Bale
21. “I have this theory that, depending on your attitude, your life doesn’t have to become this ridiculous charade that it seems so many people end up living.” -Christian Bale
22. “For me, I think the harder the shoot, the more I feel like I’m enjoying myself.” -Christian Bale
23. “I think mostly it’s the adventure that I will have in making the movie. That’s what I look for.” -Christian Bale
24. “I like being responsible for myself.” -Christian Bale
25. “There’s a level of confidence in the actor you’re working with that really helps a lot. It makes all the difference.” -Christian Bale
26. “It’s about pursuing it rather than waiting to see what comes along.” -Christian Bale
27. “Sometimes the truth isn’t good enough. Sometimes people have got to have their faith rewarded.” -Christian Bale
28. “The art of survival is a story that never ends.” -Christian Bale
29. “I never want to feel that I’m playing it safe.” -Christian Bale
30. “I find something fascinating about the quiet man in the background who has no desire to be the center of attention.” -Christian Bale
31. “I only sound intelligent when there’s a good script writer around.” -Christian Bale
32. “We’re all conning ourselves, one way or another, just to get through life.” -Christian Bale
33. “Being misunderstood is not a bad thing as an actor. I know the truth.” -Christian Bale
34. “Whatever you do, do it completely. Do it more than anybody else would.” -Christian Bale
35. “You have to treat yourself like a mushroom to some degree, in order to keep on discovering things.” -Christian Bale