demiurgent (
demiurgent) wrote2009-02-04 04:35 pm
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On long, involved movie rants.
So, I finally got around to listening to the Christian Bale rantfest that's... um... 'news.' For those who haven't, essentially Bale and his costar were playing an intensely emotional scene, and the director of production -- who'd been warned to not cross onto the set and make light adjustments while rolling before -- walked into Bale's field of vision and broke his concentration. Bale went apeshit on the guy. Many examples of 'fuck' and 'amateur' were thrown around.
This is now... apparently... some kind of controversy.
I dunno, man. I've been in a lot of theater. In the middle of rehearsals -- much less when it goes up -- what you're doing becomes disproportionately important to you. I've heard probably forty explosive rants of that kind over the last twenty five years. There is, to use the theater aphorism, a reason they call it drama.
People are coming down on Bale for 'taking it out on a coworker.' Only this isn't the office. This is a creative endeavor. Actors are napalm at the best of times -- get them worked up for a highly emotional scene and you're lucky no one gets knifed. This is just how it goes. This is how it goes in penny-ante community theater productions that less than a hundred people will ever see -- are you telling me it's going to be way more mellow when you're shooting a movie that's expected to make hundreds of millions of dollars?
It's just theater. Everyone's embarrassed for about two hours and there's whispering for a day and then you move on. Being a prima donna is walking off the set and not coming back. Blowing up at a DP is news?
Oh, wait. He's a big star. That makes it news, because we can 'tsk' at his potty mouth. Fucking cultural puritanism.
This is now... apparently... some kind of controversy.
I dunno, man. I've been in a lot of theater. In the middle of rehearsals -- much less when it goes up -- what you're doing becomes disproportionately important to you. I've heard probably forty explosive rants of that kind over the last twenty five years. There is, to use the theater aphorism, a reason they call it drama.
People are coming down on Bale for 'taking it out on a coworker.' Only this isn't the office. This is a creative endeavor. Actors are napalm at the best of times -- get them worked up for a highly emotional scene and you're lucky no one gets knifed. This is just how it goes. This is how it goes in penny-ante community theater productions that less than a hundred people will ever see -- are you telling me it's going to be way more mellow when you're shooting a movie that's expected to make hundreds of millions of dollars?
It's just theater. Everyone's embarrassed for about two hours and there's whispering for a day and then you move on. Being a prima donna is walking off the set and not coming back. Blowing up at a DP is news?
Oh, wait. He's a big star. That makes it news, because we can 'tsk' at his potty mouth. Fucking cultural puritanism.
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Also, couple of interesting points. One, yeah, blow ups on set happen, everything emotionally charged and such, but he apparently went on about it for quite some time. When you start lashing out at the director for trying to reign things in? Not so good. I'd love to hear the alternate universe version of this were Cameron still directing the franchise. Bale would be a *goddamn grease spot* right now. :D
The other thing which really makes this interesting? This apparently happened a few days before the whole deal where Bale was briefly accused of assaulting his own mother.
There's on-set energy? And then there's anger management issues. ;)
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As for the mother thing -- I hadn't heard about it, but checking briefly... there's a difference between assault and verbal assault, with charges dismissed. I don't condone verbal assault, mind. :)
I totally concur, by the by, about Cameron. Cameron would have nailed him with a fire extinguisher, then given him a verbal superplex followed by a verbal elbow off the top rope. :)
None of which make any of this news ;).