(Credits: Far Out / YouTube Still)
Mon 2 February 2026 18:27, UK
The best artists are those who don’t limit their inspirations, taking influence from the most unsuspecting places and combining them into something much greater.
That’s what Christian Bale has done, looking at some incredibly polar opposite stars and holding them close, allowing them to shape him into the icon that he has always longed to be.
The actor made his debut as a child, appearing in the likes of Steven Spielberg’s Empire of the Sun and the musical Newsies before appearing in various movies to modest success. It was American Psycho that really cemented his status in Hollywood, though, which had him playing the cold killer Patrick Bateman with a delightfully dark and humorous edge. He was always going to be a hard character to pull off, but Bale couldn’t have been more perfectly cast, even if the studio had its doubts about the British star.
Since then, he has appeared in everything from donning a cape for the Dark Knight series to American Hustle, Vice, and Ford v Ferrari, garnering acclaim for his versatility across genres and his ability to shapeshift into disparate characters, regardless of whether it required him to lose a staggering amount of weight or pile it on. While he is best known for his more dramatic parts, American Psycho really demonstrated just how well-equipped Bale could be with satire and comedy, the kind that hides behind darker material and requires real nuance to master.
It’s unsurprising, then, that one of Bale’s acting heroes is a classic British comedic genius in the form of Rowan Atkinson, best known for playing the Mr Hulot-inspired Mr Bean, with the pair having worked together when the former was a child, and he was deeply inspired by the actor.
“One of [my] first jobs ever was with Rowan Atkinson, and I think I look at him as the template. He was playing… The Nerd, it was called, by Larry Shue. He would come out, we’d say hello, but he didn’t really socialise. None of us knew him, it was before he did Mr Bean. And he would just become this character, but before he went on stage,” he told GQ.
He further explained his learning curve, “I would just watch him; I would see him becoming a character. I was mesmerised. And then he just stayed in character for the whole night. And it wasn’t until the whole thing was finished that he invited me to say hello, and that I actually spoke to him for the first time. It dawned on me that this was my learning phase. I went, ‘Oh, that’s how it’s done then, is it? OK, great’.”
Then there’s his other hero, Hollywood giant Robert Duvall, star of The Godfather and Apocalypse Now, whom Bale starred alongside in Newsies, and then, decades later, they reunited onscreen for Pale Blue Eye. He’s quite the contrast to Mr Bean, but his influence on the young actor was just as important.
Bale once revealed, “I did a film, and I worked with Robert Duvall, who’s one of my favourite actors, I think an awful lot of people’s favourite actor”. Getting to work with one of his favourite performers surely helped to inspire the young actor to greatness, with Bale also standing as a one-time Oscar winner and repeat nominee like his idol.
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