Christian Bale has opened up about the intense physical and emotional demands behind his transformation into Frankenstein’s monster during The bride!revealing that the process pushed him to adopt some unusual coping methods just to get through the day.
In an interview with Entertainment WeeklyThe actor said he spent six hours a day in the makeup chair while working on the film, a reinvention of the 1935 classic. Bride of Frankenstein Directed by Maggie Gyllenhaal.
Bale stars alongside Jessie Buckley, who plays the Bride and spent about an hour and a half doing makeup for her own transformation.
Reflecting on the grueling routine, Bale admitted that the long hours of forced stillness took a toll on him.
“I would scream like crazy every day. Just to [release the] desperation, all that restraint you have to show when you’re sitting still for so long,” he said, explaining how he avoided “going crazy” during the process.
Those screams, however, were carefully timed.
Bale said he avoided doing so on the way to work, fearing it could distract him behind the wheel, and ruled out yelling alone because it could be easily misinterpreted.
Instead, what started as a private release gradually became a shared ritual on set.
“Oh man, I’m telling you, the whole team got involved at the end because people heard us screaming,” Bale said.
“We would open the doors and gradually, a bit like the bridal revolution, some people would say, ‘Can we do that too?’ And then at the end, there were like 30 people listening to us and running to the makeup trailer to be a part of it and scream too.”
The role adds another extreme chapter to Bale’s long history of physical transformations.
Over the years, he has become known for radically altering his body for characters, from bulking up with a strict high-protein diet to American psycho to lose 60 pounds in four months to reach 120 pounds per The mechanist.
For that film, his daily intake supposedly consisted of “water, an apple, and a cup of coffee a day.”
Not long after, Bale went in the opposite direction, gaining about 100 pounds of muscle in just six months to play Bruce Wayne in Christopher Nolan’s film. batman beginscementing its reputation for total physical commitment.
The bride! will be released in theaters on March 6, distributed by Warner Bros.
