IT'S CHRISTIAN BALE'S on-screen intensity that makes him so popular with critics and film buffs (take his stirring turn as Trevor Reznik in the psychological thriller The Machinist, where he played a tormented insomniac and had to drop 27kg for the role). He's also a golden boy of the studio system - take his provocative performance as Batman in Batman Begins, which grossed more than US$300 million worldwide (filming of the sequel, The Dark Knight, starts next year).
But despite his fame, Bale hovers just under the Hollywood radar. Everybody knows him, he has countless scripts tossed his way, and, since his Batman role, can command multimillion-dollar pay cheques. But the tabloids leave him alone, and you won't see a photo of him in celebrity magazines, staggering out of an LA nightclub with a babe on his arm.
For Bale, it's all about acting. It's evident in how he doesn't blather on endlessly about his movies in advance, letting the work speak for itself. Even in interviews, he's mildly restrained. 'It comes from personality,' he says, answering a question about how he manages to avoid the media's glare. 'For me, my enjoyment and desire in acting is to be invisible. The characters [in a movie] speak to people, not me.'
Not that Bale isn't grateful for the privileges that come with being a successful actor. 'I'm not being an old bore about it,' he says. 'It's a wonderful thing and I'm happy because, since Batman, I've been offered more roles and I make a nice living out of this. I'm very happy when people enjoy my work - I'm human. I love flattery. I don't reject stardom. It's just that at a certain point it can damage your ability - or at least make it tougher - to fool people into believing the characters you play.
'For me, it's a matter of self-preservation. Everything is very good, much better than I expected. Let's not ruin it by forgetting what my original purpose was, and that was my love of disappearing into characters,' he says.
For his latest project, Bale takes that almost literally. He plays magician Alfred Borden in The Prestige, a tale set in Victorian London about the rivalry between two illusionists. (Hugh Jackman plays his nemesis.) The film's directed by Christopher Nolan, with whom Bale worked in Batman, and also stars Michael Caine - who was also in the Batman movie. The film is made in Nolan's signature shaded style, with a suspenseful dark tone and a heart-thumping score.
