  Christian Bale stars as John Connor in Warner Bros. Pictures' action/sci-fi feature Terminator Salvation.
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LOS ANGELES - He’s far from an indestructible, unflappable terminator. But Christian Bale, whose on-set tirade became an Internet sensation thanks to a leaked audio clip, says he can take the abuse.
“Call me an a-hole. I’m all right. That’s fine. If that’s what you think of me, then that’s your right to think that of me,” he says while promoting Terminator Salvation, in which he assumes the role of battle-scarred future soldier/saviour John Connor. “People can label me whatever they want to label me. That’s their prerogative.”
The sequel opens a minute after midnight on Thursday (essentially late Wednesday night).
The foul-mouthed meltdown - in which Bale profanely berated the movie’s director of photography when he crossed into the actor’s line of sight during a scene — marked the second time in less than a year that dark clouds have loomed over the Batman star. Last summer Bale’s mother and sister alleged the 35-year-old actor assaulted them during an altercation in London. Police questioned Bale and investigated, but chose not to charge him. Bale has publicly expressed his regret over his Terminator rant.
The two incidents have made him, at the height of his professional appeal, a target for the prevailing TMZ culture of celebrity evisceration.
“I don’t know what gossipy stuff is going on. My life is much happier when I ignore that,” he says. “As for other people, that’s their choice. If they want to embrace that, then they’re going to sacrifice enjoyment in the movies. I really believe that. But it’s their choice, if that’s what they love looking at. I don’t get it, but it is what it is.”
Regardless, the adjective most frequently applied — incorrectly or not — to Bale these days is “intense.” And while he may say he doesn’t care what people call him, his fellow cast members do, well aware of the negative connotation “intense” implies in Hollywood-speak.
“I find Christian extremely passionate and dedicated. People call him ‘intense.’ I hate that f---ing word,” says Sam Worthington, who co-stars as a death-row inmate named Marcus in the film. “He turns up, does his job and it’s all about the story and the character. To work with a guy like that is actually a privilege.”
Echoes Moon Bloodgood: “I had nothing but a great experience with him. He was light, he was warm, he was funny. ... He made us laugh.”
Says Bryce Dallas Howard, who plays Connor’s wife, “Intense implies intimidation, and (Bale’s) not an intimidating guy. He’s just incredibly focused and methodical and dedicated ... He reminds me of my grandfather, actually. He’s very grounded and a genuine gentleman.”
For Bale, of course, Terminator represents the second Hollywood franchise he’s now shouldering, following last year’s
$1-billion-grossing Batman outing The Dark Knight. Not surprisingly, he initially balked when Terminator Salvation director McG (Charlie’s Angels) approached him to star.
“Initially our collaboration was just me saying, ‘No, I don’t want to do the movie,’” Bale says. “I felt like the franchise was done, so when I first got sent the script, I didn’t have any interest. Then I got a creeping idea that there really was something good that could be told here.”
He eventually took what he calls “a leap of faith,” working with McG and a number of screenwriters (including The Dark Knight’s Jonathan Nolan) to shape the script.
“Movies like this are much like sports. It’s that feeling of a common excitement throughout the theatre. That’s what I loved about seeing T2 and I felt like we might have a chance here of having maybe revived this.”
As for franchise fatigue, Bale adds, “I didn’t go straight into it. I did (the coming July release) Public Enemies in between the two ... I like mixing it up. I like doing The Dark Knight and Batman Begins, and doing The Machinist and Public Enemies, and then doing Terminator. I enjoy that mix.”
So much so that he even embraces Arnold Schwarzenegger’s signature line of dialogue ¬— “I’ll be back” — for a pivotal moment in the story. (California’s governor himself only makes a brief cameo via some climactic digital effects.)
“(Nolan) called me up and said, ‘Christian, I’ve got this idea and I want to run it by you,’ ” Bale says. “I thought, ‘You know what? Let’s try it. We can always cut it out.’ My aim was to attempt to have it be such a logical answer to what I was asked that, hopefully, people don’t go, ‘What’s he doing an Arnie impression for?’ I didn’t ever want it to come across as an impression. I just wanted it to be something where, ideally for me, a few seconds later, people who know the other movies go, ‘Wait a second — he just said the same line.’ That way, I felt comfortable.”
But what about 'Batman'?
LOS ANGELES — The Terminator, we know, will be back. But what about Batman?
While a Terminator Salvation sequel might be in theatres as soon as 2011 — assuming the film is a hit — it remains a question mark when the Caped Crusader will return, despite the phenomenal success of 2008’s The Dark Knight.
Director Christopher Nolan, for one, is currently prepping the secretive science-fiction thriller Inception with Leonardo DiCaprio for a 2010 bow. That probably means no new Batman until 2012.
And Bale, who is tight-lipped about what he’d like to see happen in another Terminator, is just as reticent to discuss when he might be putting the cape back on.
“You know,” he says with a smile, “after making a number of blunders, I’ve learned that I do not answer that question until Chris Nolan has answered that question.”
kevin.williamson@sunmedia.ca
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