It’s hard to imagine someone as extraordinarily method as Christian Bale breaking character. After all, we’re talking about a thespian whose weight routinely fluctuates in dramatic fashion – often to the detriment of his own health – and possesses the uncanny ability to sweat on cue. During the production of David O. Russell’s Amsterdam, however, all it took to unravel the acting tour de force that is Christian Bale was career funny man Chris Rock.
“I remember his first day, I was excited to meet him, I’m a big fan of his stand-up,” Christian Bale recently told IndieWire.
“Then he arrives, and he’s doing some things… David [O. Russell] told him to tell me some stories that I didn’t know he was gonna tell me, which is the way David works often. And I was loving it.”
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But the burgeoning friendship would soon hinder Bale’s ability to shift into the mindset required to put on a performance befitting of his Academy Award-winning reputation.
“Chris is so bloody funny and I found that I couldn’t act, because I was just becoming Christian Bale laughing at Chris Rock. So I had to go to him, I went, ‘Mate, I love talking to you, and we have mutual friends, but I can’t do it anymore.'”
“Because David didn’t ask me to make this film so he could just watch me giggle. He wants me to be Burt, and I’m forgetting how to be Burt.”
“I often meet these incredible people, but I isolate myself. Because if I get to know people too much, I find I just don’t believe what I’m doing in the scene.”
A consummate professional, through and through.
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Featuring an impressive ensemble cast, Amsterdam follows the story of three friends – a doctor named Burt Berendsen (Christian Bale), a nurse named Valerie Voze (Margot Robbie), and an attorney named Harold Woodsman (John David Washington) – who meet in Belgium and soon become the prime suspects in a murder circa the 1930s. According to Deadline, it boasts the “rock-and-roll absurdist vibe and high jinks” of Russell’s American Hustle.” Which isn’t the worse comparison to draw.
In addition to the aforementioned trio anchoring this star-studded affair and Chris Rock himself, other cast members include the following:
- Rami Malek
- Zoe Saldaña
- Robert De Niro
- Mike Myers
- Timothy Olyphant
- Michael Shannon
- Anya Taylor-Joy
- Andrea Riseborough
- Matthias Schoenaerts
- Alessandro Nivola
- Taylor Swift
- Leland Orser
- Sean Avery
David O. Russell’s Amsterdam movie starring Christian Bale, Margot Robbie, and John David Washington has locked in a revised release date of October 6th, 2022 – check out the trailer above.
