Batman goes Nutzoid!

this sort of thing is not unique to the film industry. it's not a *magical* place... it's a stressful work environment and people know that sometimes words fly and the best thing for everyone is to let it pass unless it turns violent. cooler heads will eventually prevail. i've seen everywhere from movie sets to board rooms to my HS football team to the dept store loading dock I worked on in high school. welcome to real life.
 
Last edited:
I have to say that I'm pretty shocked to see this is something that many of you are willing to accept or condone. I have a pretty bad temper in many situations, but I have NEVER acted like this on set, nor experienced anything like it with cast or crew. I personally would not want to be part of a production where this type of behavior is allowed.

I haven't been on huge movie sets, so maybe when there's millions of dollars in the production, tempers flare more easily...but it still doesn't excuse the fact that this is outrageous. Christian Bale or not, if someone came at me swinging you can bet I'll be returning the favour with pleasure.

I guess I'm having a difficult time formulating my thoughts into something that everyone will be able to understand. I love movies, I'm passionate about making them and I've been on sets where tempers are short...but a flare up like that, with potential violence is just flat out disgusting.

If that is common on Hollywood sets, I'm content being apart of independant work, thank you very much.

Kegan
 
Again, I blame the director for not taking the helm. I can excuse Bale for being pissed...I can't excuse McG for being a pu(ssy)shover and not nipping the situation in the bud after 4 or 5 seconds. What does this tell everyone else on the set? That Christian Bale is in charge & running the show.
 
Welcome to real life Zak? Seriously? You're cool with people acting like that in "stressful situations"? What happened to professionalism? There's a difference between being angry and wanting to cause physical harm. Christian Bale sounded as if at any second, he was about to let fists fly.
 
I work in the real world. Not on sets, but in rooms where peoples lives are on the line. Talk about stress! I've seen people lose it, but I've never once seen anyone go on a tirade for that long, even over far more serious matters.

This was over a blown scene (in his mind) and you can hear the guy humbly apologize more than once. That and at the 2:42 mark things get really scary. Normal for "Hollywood" or not.
He's lost a lot of credit with me and I'm sure he'll be placed on the asshole list of actors that Director's don't want to work with.

He better hope that his films continue to rake it in.

MAH
 
Zak Forsman said:
that's simply the reality of this business.
Click to expand...


This is going to sound really "Bale" but I think Zak is the only one in this thread who knows what the poo poo he is talking about.

Name actors are volatile, primadonna egomaniacs. It's just the way they are. The more you hang around real sets with real actors, the more you'll see it. How stable would you be if you pretended to be someone else ten hours a day?

It really is the business.

McG did the only thing he could do - be a level headed referee. Bale is the only reason the movie got made, people. If he flared up and blamed McG and Hurlbut, and the studio caught wind of it, McG and Hurlbut would have found themselves out on their ass, fired and replaced. They had to kowtow to Bale.

A DP and a director can be tossed, not one ticket buyer will ever know or care. Bale is essential to the success of the movie, everyone else is expendable.
 
Zak Forsman said:
i'm not saying I approve of it. i'm saying it isn't unique to the film industry.
Click to expand...

You are right, it isn't. I have yet to have a job (and I've had lots of 'em over the decades), where somebody didn't go ballistic about something. It happens. But, when it does, I've never seen anybody locked up, or so microscopically scrutinited, parodied and lambasted. It does not mean it's a pattern of behavior. I'm a nice guy, it doesn't mean I haven't done or said things that I've regretted. There are days when I wonder how i never got killed or arrested (so far, at least)

Nobody on this forum was there, so nobody here knows the context of what happened before or after the incident. You can say things like "never" and "always" pretty easily. But it's a lot more difficult to live them

This behavior is uncool, but it is not the coming of the apocalypse, nor is it unique to movies or actors. It happens everyday, everywhere.

...Cast the first stone...
 
taormina said:
Name actors are volatile, primadonna egomaniacs. It's just the way they are. The more you hang around real sets with real actors, the more you'll see it. How stable would you be if you pretended to be someone else ten hours a day?
Click to expand...
So you are saying that every A list actor would act in exactly the same manner? I'm sure that's just quite the generalization you made.

I'm sure many of them wouldn't have even batted an eye.

Yes, it may be more commonplace in his line of business but that doesn't make it any less wrong.
 
http://www.aintitcool.com/node/39984

Why AICN Doesn't Post Links To Stories Like This Christian Bale thing that's everywhere!


Hey folks, Harry here... I'm getting slammed with assloads of people angry at me for not posting the Bale explosion from the set of McG's TERMINATOR: SALVATION. Well, first off - there's a real simple reason. It isn't news. And it certainly isn't cool news. It is a moment in a man's life taken completely out of context and most likely leaked to personally embarrass Christian Bale. Now, I know what a lot of you are thinking... There's no excuse for a temper tantrum like that to ever occur and if you are going to act that way, you deserve to be embarrassed by your own actions.
Except, you want to hear the REALITY behind that clip?
I know this because I happen to be somewhere where someone that was there that day and for the shoot is. And this person isn't a publicist, nor are they invested in Bale's career. They're just someone that thinks it is absolute bullshi* that this moment in Bale's life is being aired and that the real story should get out there.
The DP on TERMINATOR SALVATION, Shane Hurlbut, is a apparently a light tweaker. He's a fairly young DP and likes to fiddle with his lights on set during action, which is a big "NO NO" on most productions unless worked out in advance with performers. But apparently Shane was a pretty unrepentant light tweaker.
The scene in question, was a very emotional and tough scene between Christian Bale and Bryce Howard. A scene that required soul bearing and a deep level of immersive concentration. The sort of scene where everyone on set knows not to get in anyone's eye lines, and definitely not to move lights around while FILMING. You lock that shi* down before the scene starts.
Bale had indeed warned the DP on multiple occasions about messing with lights while the cameras were rolling, and Bale was in the midst of a painful scene with Bryce, what was described to me as being the emotional center of the film and his character for the film.
Now, the reason I know all of this is because the person that was there, felt that it should be made perfectly clear that Christian Bale was the utmost gentleman and cool guy on set. And the DP really was doing something that professional DPs with experience just don't do. Not during a performance.
You don't need me to give you a link, it's all over the internet, I just felt that you should know what really went down - and that this particular outburst did indeed modify the DP's behavior - and for future DPs. poo poo with the lights before and after your actors are acting. Not during.
 
taormina said:
This is going to sound really "Bale" but I think Zak is the only one in this thread who knows what the poo poo he is talking about...
Click to expand...
Because he agrees with you?! I'm just askin'.


Lookit...

A capable director is not going to be fired for being a captain and keeping order. The studio's image is arguably tarnished more now that publicly it it seen that they let an actor with a certain level of "star power" take over their production (and, by default, the following 2 in the planned trilogy).
 
Jim Brennan said:
You are right, it isn't. I have yet to have a job (and I've had lots of 'em over the decades), where somebody didn't go ballistic about something. It happens. But, when it does, I've never seen anybody locked up, or so microscopically scrutinited, parodied and lambasted. It does not mean it's a pattern of behavior. I'm a nice guy, it doesn't mean I haven't done or said things that I've regretted. There are days when I wonder how i never got killed or arrested (so far, at least)

Nobody on this forum was there, so nobody here knows the context of what happened before or after the incident. You can say things like "never" and "always" pretty easily. But it's a lot more difficult to live them

This behavior is uncool, but it is not the coming of the apocalypse, nor is it unique to movies or actors. It happens everyday, everywhere.

...Cast the first stone...
Click to expand...

I completely agree and thought this immediatly. We can assume what happened, maybe even know it, but no one knows the true context of this unless we hear it from someone on set, or even the people involved directly.

I'm not defending Christain, but it can get stressfull on set (come on, we all know that), people lash out (heck I've done that once or twice), and lastly Christain could have been in a specific agitated mind set for his scene.
 
CallaghanFilms said:
Because he agrees with you?! I'm just askin'.


Lookit...

A capable director is not going to be fired for being a captain and keeping order. The studio's image is arguably tarnished more now that publicly it it seen that they let an actor with a certain level of "star power" take over their production (and, by default, the following 2 in the planned trilogy).
Click to expand...

You've got it backwards. The studio's reputation would have been tarnished if Bale had walked off that set, bro.
 
I'm sure that contractually it wouldn't have been quite that simple...


EDIT:

And let’s say for arguments sake that Bale had "walked off" the project...
How would that look for future negotiations? He quit over a moved light? Waaaahh:crybaby:

He's hot after The Dark Knight...he ain’t that hot IMO.
 
Last edited:
Jon Starr said:
I completely agree and thought this immediatly. We can assume what happened, maybe even know it, but no one knows the true context of this unless we hear it from someone on set, or even the people involved directly.

I'm not defending Christain, but it can get stressfull on set (come on, we all know that), people lash out (heck I've done that once or twice), and lastly Christain could have been in a specific agitated mind set for his scene.
Click to expand...

This is where I disagree. There's really no valid excuse for treating someone like that. Sure... blow up, let him know what he did wrong, he apologizes, then move on.

Take a minute and kick the crap out of your trailer if you really need to.

I was raised to not treat people like garbage. He treated him like garbage and it almost got seriously out of control.

For some people this is acceptable behaviour, for others it is not.

Mike
 
i'm on a dozen sets a year documenting the making of these pictures. this is nothing new. i've seen a DP lay into a gaffer with the same ferocity for being stupid. i've seen Christopher Doyle do some crazy shi* on set under the influence. I've seen Bruckheimer and Gore go at it in both passive-aggressive and AGGRESSIVE-aggressive manners. just another day on the job where careers and millions, maybe billions of dollars are invested. i've got the tape in my vault to prove it -- in crystal clear 1080p! haha!
 
CallaghanFilms said:
I'm sure that contractually it wouldn't have been quite that simple...
Click to expand...

No, you're right. He would have walked the hell off that set, and said "sue me" at which point the production would have been totally poo pooed while the studio engaged him in a multi-year legal battle which they may eventually have won while costing them the franchise.

If Bale had walked, every major department head even associated with that outburst would have been canned immediately. Every single one of them.

Bale IS Terminator Salvation. I didn't make it that way, the studio did.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top