I feel terrible for exploiting the Christian Bale Terminator Salvation rant tape for multiple posts in a matter of hours, but these two items just happened to pop up next to each other in my feed reader, and the convergence was just too much too ignore (and anyway — I’m allowed one “What? It’s meta-criticism of the media coverage!” post every now and then, right?)

First, via FilmDrunk, a jokey video in which “Warner Brother Public Relations Rep Rob Delaney” (previously seen responding to this Harry Potter scandal) condones Bale’s “lesson in professionalism” by tying it to his method: “Christian Bale is a motherfucking tornado of pain and talent. Batman Begins, The Dark Knight, American Psycho. What do these films have in common? They’re all films where Christian Bale plays himself…”

Then, this very long ABC News story, in which therapists, Bale’s former assistant, and an US Weekly editor all strenuously imply that Bale becomes so one with his characters that he was actually probably yelling at the DP in character. “The art of acting is not paint by numbers, it’s an art form,” reminds T4’s assistant director. And “anger expert” Richard Driscoll has high marks for the performance:

Once he started he could very well have gotten into the artistry and the craft of what he was doing…He’s not doing a wussy complaint. He’s doing a full-fledged exemplary headline-news tantrum. He’s reaming this fella out at great length and with extreme passion.

Let’s recap: the internet video suggesting that Bale cannot divorce himself from the violent characters that he plays was trying to be funny. The reported story from the reputable news agency wasn’t.