I was going to leave this topic alone, but since every post I put up that involves Bale, Terminator or Batman turns into a discussion about his verbally abusive explosion, I thought I would throw my own two cents on the pile and give you a place to talk about it.
First off, in case you were under a rock for the last few days, here’s the story.
Gossip Mongers TMZ shared:
You may remember that Christian Bale went nuts on the set of “Terminator Salvation” a few months back, threatening to stop production and beat some serious ass.
The incident was audiotaped, and it’s amazing. It happened on the set after a director of photography accidentally ruined a scene by walking onto the set. Bale lost it, screaming, yelling and threatening to quit if the bosses didn’t fire the dude.
Now let me start off with the notions being thrown around that I do agree with.
Professionalism Bale going off on this guy is clearly unprofessional. Did he have the right to be upset? Yes! Was he validated in calling him out on his blunder. Of course. He points out rather bluntly, but still accurate that the Director of Photography, Shane Hurlbut interfered in the shot. Now Bale had to redo the shot, not because he messed it up, but that someone who should have known better messed it up.
It was unprofessional of Hurlburt to ruin the shot, but it was just as unprofessional to take the offense to this level. He makes it sound like this is the first time anyone has ever messed up a shot before. I am sure there are countless times when a boom mike is present, or someone else forgets their lines, or any number of other goofs made on set that mess up a shot. But he goes off on the guy like he was just told the last 16 days of shooting was done with a camera with no battery.
But this is why I didn’t post about it Yes, this was all the big buzz in the last couple days. And I love a good story about a celebrity goofing up, or making fun of a celebrity just as much as anyone else. But this just seemed to be blown out of proportion in the media as well.
Every website posting about this is talking about Bale like he is out of control and a menace to society. Yes, its known that the guy is pretty intense, but this is what directors seem to love him for. And this incident did happen around the same time that he had a domestic dispute with his mother and sister which had the police involved, so that just made this even more gossip rich news.
But in reality all we have here is one incident of an actor getting angry on set and losing his kittens in a fit of rage. I am not defending him, but If the story had been how Bale beat Hurlburt to a pulp then it would have been about rage crossing the line. That would have been a different story.
Rage is a spiraling emotion. It needs to feed. Bale might have a temper, and this might have been the thing that set him off, but I listened to the clip. He is just in blind rage. He didn’t hit anyone, he was just venting. The problem for Bale’s momentary madness was that no one else was escalating the situation, which only escalated Bale, but that is what Rage wants. It wants a reaction to satisfy its lust for conflict. It wants someone to cry, or fight back or SOMETHING. Sounds to me that he wasn’t getting that so he tries harder. You here bits of Hurlburt saying he is sorry and Bale continues to berate him saying he didn’t think he was sorry. Then he calls for the guy’s job and demands he leave the set etc. But he just yells. He isnt assaulting anyone physically (despite threatening to or gesturing), and he isn’t destroying set pieces and going all Hulk Smash. He is just yelling.
Everyone else seems to be in a state of shock and rightfully doesn’t get into it with Bale. Those who voice concerns that he should calm down are met with more rage. He is not thinking clearly, and to hear someone tell him to calm down translates into simple opposition – not logic.
I am sure later on cooler minds prevailed and everyone calmed down, apologies and reality set in and they went back to the business of making movies. I heard no stories saying “.. that was the last of Hurlburt’s career” so I am sure it was nothing but an isolated conflict. Hurlburt kept doing his thing, Bale kept doing his too. Life goes on.
So in short, it was no big deal. They managed to catch him with his pants down and we got to hear it all online.
Guess celebrities are humans after all.
