Christian Bale Reveals The Unlikely Reason Leonardo DiCaprio Is Responsible For His Success In Hollywood
I can't imagine Leonardo DiCaprio as Patrick Bateman.
Andrea Raffin / Denis Makarenko / Shutterstock Christian Bale is one of Hollywood’s stalwarts, and although his roles over the years have given him international fame and fortune, he claims there’s only one reason he was able to land them.
After securing his first acting role when he was 13 — playing Jim in Steven Spielberg’s “Empire of the Sun” — the “Batman Begins” actor quickly learned the most important Hollywood dynamic that would set a precedent for the rest of his career.
Christian Bale claims that Leonardo DiCaprio passing on roles is the only reason he gets any.
During an interview with GQ, Zach Baron mentioned that “The Wolf of Wall Street” actor Leonardo DiCaprio was cast ahead of him before his landmark performance in “American Psycho,” and that the only reason Bale got the part was that he passed it up.
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“I’ve seen it reported that you lost at least five roles to DiCaprio in the ’90s, including Titanic,” Baron said, acknowledging DiCaprio’s popularity in Hollywood at the time and pointing out similarities in the roles both actors play.
DiCaprio, only ten months Bale’s junior, has been Hollywood’s leading man for a long time.
“Oh, dude. It’s not just me,” Bale responds. “Look, to this day, any role that anybody gets, it’s only because he’s passed on it beforehand.”
Bale believes that the only reason any male actor around his age gets any roles is because DiCaprio passed on the part beforehand, claiming that many people “owe their careers to him.”
“It doesn’t matter what anyone tells you. It doesn’t matter how friendly you are with the directors,” he continues.
“All those people that I’ve worked with multiple times, they all offered every one of those roles to him first.”
Bale reveals that he was actually told this by “one of those people,” and truly believes that DiCaprio gets the first choice when it comes to any popular project.
He clarifies that he’s not upset about it either and that he’s actually happy for DiCaprio, adding that “he’s phenomenal.”
“Do you know how grateful I am to get any d--n thing?” Bale asks. “I mean, I can’t do what he does. I wouldn’t want the exposure that he has either. And he does it magnificently.”
The reason that Bale started acting in the first place was that his family needed money, so he claims he’s happy with any opportunity that presents itself.
Christian Bale also detailed why he never really wanted to be an actor in the first place.
During other parts of the interview, Bale reveals that he felt forced into acting due to his family situation, and while he has grown to like the job, he wouldn’t be entirely opposed to never doing it again.
“[My father’s] influence is the reason why I never felt like, ‘S--t, I need to have a safety net,’” Bale said. “Oh, no work? Potentially no work forever? All good. Hey, it’s all going to be all right.”
This line of thinking is what leads Bale to play roles that allow him to be someone else — roles like Patrick Bateman and Gorr from “Thor: Love and Thunder.”
It’s also why he can’t be like most leading men, like DiCaprio, who play these charismatic roles.
He claims that he’s tired of watching actors that do everything for their fans, like playing likable roles and characters, and wants more actors to perform for themselves.
“I want people who do it for themselves. I don’t want to watch people who are doing it for me,” he says. “I wanna know that this is everything to you. Like, be intense about it, go for it, do it for yourself.”
With three movies under his belt for 2022 — “Amsterdam” and “The Pale Blue Eye” alongside Thor — Bale is content with the fact that he’s currently not working although his next project has already been announced.
Isaac Serna-Diez is an Assistant Editor who focuses on entertainment and news, social justice, and politics. Since graduating from Rutgers University, he spends most of his free time gaming or playing Quadball. Keep up with his rants about current events on his Twitter.