Movies

Christian Bale Reveals the Problem With Being 'Too Interested' in His 'Hostiles' Character (Exclusive)

By John Boone‍ 9:00 AM PDT, April 24, 2018

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Above all others, there is one question about acting that continues to stump Christian Bale: What made you want to play this part? "It's a feeling more than anything. I always find that I struggle to explain it," he says in this exclusive Hostiles bonus featurette. "I try to make myself sound intelligent and I usually fail at that."

In the gritty Western, Bale plays Army Captain Joseph Blocker, who reluctantly agrees to escort a dying Cheyenne war chief and his family back to their tribal land. "It's just a gut feeling that here's something you want to get obsessed with and you can see that you're going to be really interested in it throughout the duration and filming," he explains.

Bale, however, understands that he may dive too deeply into discovering a character. "I know I get too interested in everything about the character," he admits. "And I realize that not everything is interesting to everybody. That's why I desperately need a director to guide me and go, 'That's really not interesting, Christian. This is! Go in that direction instead.'"

Hostiles' special features include a three-part documentary that looks at the making of the movie, titled, "A Journey of the Soul." That doc is split up into three featurettes: "Provenance," Removing the Blinds" and "Don't Look Back," which include additional interviews with, among others, co-star Rosamund Pike and writer-director Scott Cooper.

"I wrote this particular film for Christian Bale, who is not only one of my closest friends, but I think one of the best actors of his generation or any generation," Cooper explains in the above clip. "When you write for someone like Christian Bale and together you create, hopefully, an indelible character, you take it from this blueprint stage and then each and every day you enrich it and you give it life and you give it blood."