Over the last few months you might have noticed that Christian Bale has put on quite a few pounds. There’s a good reason for that, though, as the Oscar winning actor is set to take on the role of the former Vice President of the United States Dick Cheney in Adam McKay’s upcoming take on his life.
Usually I would refer to such a film as biopic, but when I sat down with Christian Bale on Tuesday he insisted that it’s not that at all. At first Bale talked me through how he was first approached for the part of Cheney.
“So Adam contacts me. We’ve worked together on ‘The Big Short,’ and he mentions it,” at this point Bale suddenly lets out a huge smile, which I immediately comment on. “Because I said, ‘For what role?’ He goes, ‘For Cheney. Just read it’.”
“In reading it I understood it’s not a traditional biopic. If it were I probably wouldn’t have done it,” Bale admitted, before then explaining that the combination of the “crazy” script and the sheer ridiculousness of him playing Cheney convinced him to sign up.
“But the way that he has put it together. I said, ‘Yeah, this is nice and crazy. I could see maybe that I could pull it off.’ And it was that nice challenge, of like, ‘Oh! Bloody hell. You serious? Me play Dick Cheney? Alright, I want to give that a shot.’ There’s always that desire for career suicide.”
I then asked Bale about his weight gain, to which he responded, “It was integral to Cheney because look at the gentleman. I actually had to find a pivot point. A central point through which they could find the Cheney age that they were going for that day.”
Bale had one more bit of information regarding the film, too, revealing that its current title of “Backseat” is only a “working” one. “That will not be what you see in the theaters next year.”
Whatever its called, the film has an all star cast that also includes Amy Adams, Steve Carell, Bill Pullman, Sam Rockwell, Alison Pill, and Tyler Perry. We’re still not exactly sure when the Dick Cheney sort of biopic will be with us, but it’s likely to be towards the end of 2018 so it can have an awards season push.
In the meantime, make sure you check out Christian Bale’s performance in “Hostiles,” which is released into New York cinemas on December 22, and will extend across the country over the next few weeks.
