Huckleberries Online

M&M: Christian Bale’s Hissy Fit

Posted by DFO

Feb. 4, 2009 5:30 p.m. • 25 comments

Not I spend much time reading the gossip mags, but I did happen to stumble over an online phenomenon concerning “Dark Knight” star Christian Bale that intrigued me. First, go to TMZ.com and scroll down to the post “Bale vs. Director – Best Freak Out.” You’ll hear audio of Bale throwing a hissy fit last July on the set of “Terminator Salvation.” His target was cinematographer Shane Hurlbut, who committed the onset sin of crossing Bale’s sight line during a scene. Then scroll below to see the YouTube video that music producer Lucian Piane created, using Bale’s tantrum as the base of a dance-music mix/Dan Webster, Movies & More. More here.

Question: Is your enjoyment of an actor’s performance affected by public meltdown’s like this?

25 comments on this post so far. Add yours!

hhuseland on February 04 at 6:38 p.m.
If I attended movies anymore, yes it would. If you consider that motion pictures are forms of escapism and make believe, finding a character in the movie that is cast as a “good guy,” to be a jerk destroys the image.

In my day, when you went to the movies in a kinder genteler world, Debbie Reynolds, Jimmie Stewart, etc. were all people we looked up to when they were playing roles or not. This isn[t true at all anymore. You have to look hard to find a hot actor or actress that isn’t screwing up by the numbers.
MamaJD on February 04 at 7:13 p.m.
The bigger question is how many of us would have liked to have yelled at a co-worker in a similar fashion for doing something stupid in the workplace? Good for him — he said what was on his mind despite being entirely innapropriate.

The next role for Bale? I hope it’s playing Blago.
Sisyphus on February 04 at 7:23 p.m.
“Is your enjoyment of an actor’s performance affected by public meltdown’s like this?”—if they’re really good it doesn’t matter, you should be caught up in his performance of the role. But that audio certainly taints my opinion of Christian Bale. I would never dream of yelling anything like that to a colleague or co-worker, no matter how badly they screwed up. In fact he seemed abnormally angry like it might be artificially induced. The mix was cool, though.
JamesBond on February 04 at 7:56 p.m.
I’m mixed on this one. I have certainly seen people do things in the workplace that merited a good beatdown, but I also grew to believe during my career in management that it was almost always wrong to call out someone in front of other people. In fact, I don’t recall ever doing that, but I do recall quite profoundly calling a couple people into my office and shutting the door to discuss things. If you embarrass someone like this in front of others, it is generally a career killer in that workplace. So, decisions like that should be made very carefully.
MamaJD on February 04 at 8:23 p.m.
It’s certainly not right and it’s not cool. But I can’t say that I haven’t said some of those same words silently to myself about someone else here or there.

I suspect this is a scheme to promote a movie. The tirade happened last summer. Why leak it now? Why Bale so silent when the PC thing would be to issue a statement using words we have come to expect in a situation like this? Something stinks in the scenario.
Joker on February 04 at 8:40 p.m.
Actors are very important people. They have every right to belittle the unwashed masses. We’re talking about Batman. He’s a stud.
thawtfulreader on February 04 at 10:02 p.m.
“…but I also grew to believe during my career in management that it was almost always wrong to call out someone in front of other people.”

-JB

Exactly. And that (bad) practice is taught to be avoided in Mgt. 101, but it’s odd to see how often it happens, at all levels.

I was eating at one of the restaurants of a local fast food chain recently, everything was fine with my food and service, but the manager of the joint was just going off on two of his employees about something they did wrong, right in front of me and several other customers. Really. Bad. Form. Really. Bad. Management. I sent an email to the chain’s CEO about it, and received a very courteous reply. I’m much more unlikely to return to that restaurant if that manager is still there, or hasn’t changed his ways.

You simply don’t motivate people to do the right job by berating them in front of customers, or other employees, nor to you engender customer return visits by doing that. Duh.
Nick_Adams on February 04 at 10:13 p.m.
Bale’s outburst is unacceptable. MamaJD and others have pointed that out, in spades, from a purely management perspective.

I don’t care. If he keeps making good movies, it won’t affect me. I’m a liberal, but I’ll still watch any John Wayne movie that comes on my TV. The Duke was an ardent Republican and certitified right-winger, but I couldn’t care less when I’m watching him stare down Richard Boone in “Big Jake”. The man brought it.
kateforkathleen on February 04 at 11:28 p.m.
Despair.com (the folks who make the demotivators posters and other office survival tools for the snarky) came out with a t-shirt yesterday that says: “Christian Bale and I are done professionally” yesterday. Here is a link: http://site.despair.com/christianbale/

While I was mildly interested in the news item about Bale yesterday, I was fascinated by the fact that something could be said one day, then leaked to TMZ, and then you could walk into your local coffee shop and see a t-shirt making reference to that incident 2-3 days later on some caffeine addicted smart ass.

Might not be what Marshall McLuhan had in mind when he coined the term global village, but I think this counts.
scootermom on February 05 at 7:45 a.m.
Can’t say I was ever a Christian Bales fan.

However, I don’t watch movies anymore with Tom Cruise or Mel Gibson. Knowing what jerks they are in real life has poisoned my ability to see them as characters in movies.
Sisyphus on February 05 at 8:23 a.m.
Thanks for the link Kate. I’d seen many of those in the form of an email. I ran across this one that is sooooo perfect for us.

http://despair.com/blogging.html

“Never before have so many people with so little to say said so much to so few”
Sisyphus on February 05 at 8:51 a.m.
Wasn’t Bale arrested on the eve of the release of the new Batman for assaulting his mother and sister?
Kage_Mann on February 05 at 9:07 a.m.
“Never before have so many people with so little to say said so much to so few”

For some reason I’m thinking that Winston Churchill said something similar?
Cabbage Boy on February 05 at 9:28 a.m.
That should be the motto and theme for the blogfest.

Thanks Sis.
toadman on February 05 at 9:31 a.m.
Bale is a big fat baby. Somebody call the WAAAAHMbulance.
moscow_minidoka on February 05 at 10:14 a.m.
Doesn’t bother me at all. Despite what some people might think, acting is hard work. The lighting guy would have known not to walk across Bale’s line of vision.

The tantrum would be unprofessional in an office setting, or anywhere else the rest of us work - but on a movie set? It’s part of the work. So who cares? It’s part of the creative process - ever listened to bootlegs of bands like the Beatles rehearsing or working in the studio? Creative people are always griping at each other, and some of them even (gasp!) use adult language to vent their frustrations.

At least Bale didn’t call him a “dirty Sanchez.”
Incognito on February 05 at 1:40 p.m.
I don’t care who you are or WHO YOU THINK YOU ARE ,you shouldn’t act that way period. Prima Donna!

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D.F. Oliveria is a columnist and blogger for The Spokesman-Review. Huckleberries Online was judged the best 2008 Idaho newspaper blog by the Idaho Press Club. And the best 2007 news blog in the Pacific Northwest by the Society for Professional Journalist. Print Huckleberries is a past winner of the Herb Caen Memorial Column contest by the National Association of Newspaper Columnists. The Readership Institute of Northwestern University cited this blog as a good example of online community journalism.