5/7/2009 - Christian Bale Freak Out

In light of today's news about the arrest of Kiefer Sutherland for his alleged head-butt of a fashion designer, I wanted to give my take on another celebrity freak out: the now infamous audio of Christian Bale yelling at the director of photography on the set of Terminator: Salvation. These two incidents have much in common with each other in that the two actors are known to play badasses on the screen and are in some way bringing their on-screen personas to real life. Headbutting an annoying fashion designer is something Jack Bauer would really do (if you caught him in a good mood). Kiefer should really be cheered instead of being put in handcuffs.

As for Christian Bale... well, he IS Batman, after all. He's somebody who is badass enough to play both the Dark Knight AND John Connor, the savior of mankind against the Terminators. I haven't seen American Psycho, but I've heard that character makes Bruce Wayne look tame. As you can imagine, he is not somebody to be messed with. So when the DP was walking into Christian's shot, I can't say that he deserved to be berated with excessive profanity, but he should have known what was coming. When you hear the audio, it's actually kind of scary to hear, especially when you can imagine Christian at his most disturbed state.

What totally turns the perception of the audio, however, is some video of a fan recreation of the event. The audio is intact, and even the context may be the same, but for some reason, what may have been scary before is hilarious now: