In a new Guardian profile, interviewer Rory Carroll asked big tough manly man actor Christian Bale whether he would ever consider starring in a romantic comedy. Yet while Bale will do a lot of things for his craft — eat live maggots, lose 60 pounds, gain 100 pounds, pretend to be Middle-Eastern — it turns out that starring in a funny love-story is where the actor draws the line. Or as Bale responded dismissively: “Have you ever enjoyed a romantic comedy?”
When Carroll demurred that he liked Harry Met Sally, Bale went on:
“That’s going back quite a ways, isn’t it? You’re hard pressed. I was asked to do a romantic comedy recently and I thought they’d lost their minds. Cats have those insane half hours every evening. I think it must have been that for the production company. I don’t know why anyone would ever offer me a romantic comedy. I find American Psycho very funny.”
To be fair, we know Bale likes to take on macho roles where he undergoes dramatic physical transformations. But who’s to say he couldn’t do that in the form of a rom-com? Like, say, a gender-flipped Shallow Hal, where instead of wearing a prosthetic, he actually gains and loses 100 pounds over the course of the shoot? And what if the romantic lead (Bale) also happens to be a tough-talking ex-con on the run from a grizzled law-man (also played by an unrecognizable Christian Bale), and then he happens to fall in love? And also the script is penned by Brett Easton Ellis?
Christian: please consider this for your next project.