Christian Bale Jokes He Only Gets Roles If Leonardo DiCaprio Already ‘Passed on It Beforehand’
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Several Christian Bale movies were almost Leonardo DiCaprio-led projects.
The Amsterdam actor, 48, told GQ that in Hollywood, “any role that anybody gets, it’s only because [Dicaprio has] passed on it beforehand.”
“It doesn’t matter what anyone tells you. It doesn’t matter how friendly you are with the directors. All those people that I’ve worked with multiple times, they all offered every one of those roles to him first,” said Bale. “I had one of those people actually tell me that. So, thank you, Leo, because literally, he gets to choose everything he does. And good for him, he’s phenomenal.”
Bale, who noted that it’s “not just me” who takes second fiddle to DiCaprio, 47, said he doesn’t take it personal.
“Do you know how grateful I am to get any damn thing? I mean, I can’t do what he does,” he said. “I wouldn’t want the exposure that he has either. And he does it magnificently. But I would suspect that almost everybody of similar age to him in Hollywood owes their careers to him passing on whatever project it is.”
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The Dark Knight alum also told GQ that he decidedly does not consider himself a leading man.
“I’ve never considered myself a leading man. It’s just boring. You don’t get the good parts,” said Bale. “Even if I play a lead, I pretend I’m playing like, you know, the fourth, fifth character down, because you get more freedom.”
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Bale also recounted making this year’s Thor: Love and Thunder and how his first foray into acting in front of lots of green screens was not his favorite style of working.
“That’s the first time I’ve done that. I mean, the definition of it is monotony,” he said. “You’ve got good people. You’ve got other actors who are far more experienced at it than me. Can you differentiate one day from the next? No. Absolutely not. You have no idea what to do. I couldn’t even differentiate one stage from the next. They kept saying, ‘You’re on Stage 3.’ Well, it’s like, ‘Which one is that?’ ‘The blue one.’ They’re like, ‘Yeah. But you’re on Stage 7.’ ‘Which one is that?’ ‘The blue one.’ I was like, ‘Uh, where?’ “
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