Christian Bale – On acting

Acting is a big part of Christian Bale’s life and even Christian magazines acknowledge this fact. GQ magazine gives us an expert on what he thinks of acting:

You once said that if you didn’t commit the way you do, acting wouldn’t feel like a “job.” Was that the kind of winking acknowledgment movie stars make about the absurdity of making millions to, you know, dress up in a cape? Or was it something more earnest—that you need to endure not just to play a role correctly but to test yourself?
Definitely the second one. Look, I was doing that long before I could ever have had any guilt about getting paid. I learned a long time ago that if I don’t commit completely, I’m not very…content. And yeah, it’s bizarre but true: The easier the role, the more they pay you for it. I’m into a realm now where it doesn’t matter what you do, you don’t deserve to get paid that. It’s fair, because if you’re not, someone else is gettin’ it—and they didn’t do what you did for it. But do you deserve it? Hell no.

You once described what you did for The Machinist—starving off a third of your body—as “calming.” Can you elaborate?
I guess you just sort of have to focus on other…pleasures than food. So you focus on things of the mind. It really is almost mind control. And I found that very calming. Usually, you’re getting nervous energy from what you’re taking into your body. Since I wasn’t putting anything in, I was left in a low-energy state. I didn’t even have the energy to sleep much at all, if that doesn’t sound too strange. But that absence of energy was replaced with an ability to focus in a very slow and steady way for hours and hours. Physically, I was incredibly relaxed—I really didn’t have a choice—but mentally very acute. It was very nice to be in that state while it lasted. My family enjoyed that one as well, after they got over the horror of looking at me.