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Christian Bale Tirade & Terminator Salvaging. Today in Film Bloggery 02/03/09

Christopher Campbell
By Christopher Campbell posted 9 months ago
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I found it unnecessary yesterday to be the billionth blogger to link to the Christian Bale tirade, but today I want to roundup some of the damage control, both direct and indirect, that should hopefully water down the seemed significance of yet another recording of yet another actor having yet another bad day. Because when big media like the Daily News finds it newsworthy and gets poll results from readers believing it to be more “bad attitude” than “bad day,” it’s necessary to spin the positive and concentrate on what we should be concentrating on: the actual movie being made.

  • So, first direct your attention to some cool Terminator Salvation images recently published by Wired, and specifically focus on the image of the “Hydrobot” (thanks to I Watch Stuff for spotlighting it). Is this some kind of special tribute to two of James Cameron’s other great films? And should we be on the lookout during the film for sinking ships and flying Piranhabots?
  • Nikki Finke has updated her initial post with a quote from an unnamed source: “Christian and the DP are all good now. It happened. It was one isolated event. He regrets that he lost his temper.”
  • 1st AD Bruce Franklin, who was somewhat involved in the incident, also defends Bale to E! News as simply having had a bad day: “He is so dedicated to the craft. I think someone is begging to make some noise about this, but I don’t think it’s fair. The art of acting is not paint by numbers, it’s an art form.”
  • Similarly Terminator Salvation costar Terry Crews comes to Bale’s defense on Hollyscoop: “He is a class act! He is one of the greatest actors ever. You can catch anyone on a bad day.”
  • Heckler Spray’s Stuart Heritage believes that after last year’s arrest coinciding with the release of The Dark Knight, this rant is merely Bale’s latest means of film promotion: “Christian Bale’s next movie is the Michael Mann film Public Enemies. Lord alone knows how he’s going to promote that one, but we’d wager that it’ll involve a tank of petrol, a lighter, a box of puppies and some sort of tribal dancing.”
  • Rope of Silicon highlights both Herzog’s Fitzcarraldo and the David O. Russell/Lily Tomlin incident as proof that blow-ups like this are not uncommon.
  • Cinematical’s Scott Weinberg and William Goss have made a parody audio that shows just how common such work-related tirades can be. Yes, even bloggers have bad days.
  • Of course, others are using this as an opportunity to show how perfect their own sets are. On The Today Show this morning, Matt Lauer and friends shared a similar incident involving a wandering crew member that didn’t result in bad behavior. Watch the better-than-thou display here.
  • Finally, the best way to positively spin a negative story such as this? Dance remix! Check it out after the jump.

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  • Wiswod said

    Mr, Christopher Campbell

    No one deserves to be treated like that, and the only reason Bale got away with it is because he’s the star of the movie.

    Suppose the rant was directed towards your mother, father, sister or wife, would you have still defended bale? I’m guessing not.

    Everyone makes mistakes, but the most important thing no one is has mentioned in any of their articles is;

    Did Christian Bale ever apologize to the crew member???

    .

  • Christopher Campbell said

    You are right, nobody deserves to be treated that way, but it is not uncommon, is the point.

    And I’m sure Bale apologized if they were really on good terms after the isolated episode.

  • ian said

    I have a hunch that this is a marketing ploy…

  • The Playlist said

    God, Goss is so unfunny.

  • William Goss said

    Sorry if my saying “Newsie?” was so terribly unfunny to you.

  • coffee said

    I honestly can’t blame him for blowing up, he’s just trying to get the ****ing scene done right