It’s hard to imagine a more perfect embodiment of Bruce Wayne than Christian Bale, but you got the sense he was done with the role after his third Batman movie and pretty glad to hand it over to somebody new. Or was he? In a recent interview for Empire Magazine, Bale admits he was still ready to do another Bat-movie, and that he was as stunned by Ben Affleck’s casting as the rest of the world…
“I’ve got to admit initially, even though I felt that it was the right time to stop, there was always a bit of me going, ‘Oh go on, let’s do another.’ So when I heard there was someone else doing it, there was a moment where I just stopped and stared into nothing for half an hour.”
A part of me is still staring into nothing. Of course Bale is over the sting of being replaced by now, right? Well…
“I’m 40. The fact that I’m jealous of someone else playing Batman…I think I should have gotten over it by now. I haven’t spoken with Ben, but I emailed him offering bits of advice that I learned the hard way. I would imagine he is doing everything he can to avoid anything that I did.”
I hope Affleck opened that email, although it might have got lost amongst all the pictures of Kevin Smith jerking off to the new Batsuit in Ben’s inbox.
Oh, and since the interview this was culled from was, technically, about Exodus: Gods and Kings, Bale even got around to comparing Batman to Moses.
“It’s a little embarrassing to compare Moses to Batman. There are similarities, you know, tragic beginning and then a heroic future. But Moses is a little more violent. I’m sure if there’d been guns around at that time, Bruce Wayne might have had a chance.”
Christian Bale Batman vs. Christian Bale Moses in a gunfight. Make it happen, Hollywood.
Via ComicBookMovie