Ok Kevin, it's time to write this week's column. Ok, I'll just head to the office, fire up the ol' laptop, and pound out a quick 500-word piece on the February film season. I guess all I need is... HEY! HEY WHAT THE FUCK MAN? WHO'S THAT GUY MOVING BEHIND THE LIGHTS OVER THERE? I'M TRYING TO WRITE AN ARTICLE HERE! I'M GOING TO KICK YOUR...
Undoubtedly, most of you have heard about Christian Bale's blowup on the set of the upcoming movie Terminator Salvation."" If you have not, please forgive the inside joke I made in the last paragraph. For the uninformed, here is a concise summary of what happened: Bale tries to do a scene, the DP (director of photography) moves around in front of the lights, Bale loses it, cusses him out for four minutes straight and refuses to work until the schmuck is fired.
Bale's blowup is not the first to move from the set of a film or television show and make its rounds on the Internet. Some tirades are unsurprising: Did anyone think that Bill O'Reilly was a fine upstanding citizen before his ""WE'LL DO IT LIVE!"" rant on the set of his former show ""Inside Edition""? Did anyone think Chris Berman was the nicest guy at ESPN before his ""THAT IS SO GODDAMN RUDE"" diatribe against an associate producer on the set of ""Monday Night Football""?
Both O'Reilly and Berman are larger-than-life personalities whose outbursts are about as surprising as seeing a leaked video of Simon Cowell telling his chef that his dinner is ""awful, just awful."" O'Reilly has an entire book dedicated to his anger (Al Franken's ""Lies and the Lying Liars that tell them: A fair and Balanced Look at the Left""), while Berman has an Internet catchphrase and several blogs named after a supposed pickup line he used in ""I'm with you, leather."" Whether or not Bale will reach their MHP (Most Hated Personalities) status remains to be seen.
Other times, however, celebrities seem to get more sympathy. Director David O. Russell, for example, had a ridiculous blowup on the set of ""I [heart] Huckabees"" in which he cussed Lily Tomlin out while throwing objects around the room for a good five minutes. Yet Russell is portrayed not as a blowhard bully, but rather as a perfectionist director, an auteur who requires a standard of excellence. Tomlin later commented on how she loved working with Russell, and wouldn't change her experience for the world.
So far, the reaction to Bale's blowup has been mixed. The initial wave of commentary was negative, painting Bale as an egotistical movie star whose self-worth had swelled during his dizzying rise to stardom. Others pointed to the domestic assault allegations against Bale from his wife and daughter during the release of ""The Dark Knight"" which were quickly resolved and never mentioned again.
Others, including Harry Knowles of Ain't It Cool News, have defended Bale, saying the DP was an inexperienced hack who was acting unprofessionally. He calls the DP, Shane Halbut, ""a pretty unrepentant light tweaker."" He says Bale was involved in a very emotional scene with costar Bryce Howard, and he had warned the DP multiple times. Whether this is true or not, it seems that many have moved to the pro-Bale camp.
One thing that is certain is that Bale is a good actor. In a way, things like this should not matter to the public, as long as the finished product is a work of art. Yet stars like Robert Downey Jr. and Russell Crowe, brilliant as they may be, have a proverbial asterisk next to their name because of their boorish behavior on and off the set. Whether Bale's outbursts will be a continued pattern is yet to be seen, but for now all we can do is sit back and enjoy the ""Christian Bale freakout techno remix!!!1!"" videos that will undoubtedly clog YouTube for the next month or so.
Think Kevin should lay off Bale and give the man some freaking credit for ""The Dark Knight,"" ""Equilibrium,"" ""The Machinist"" and all the other badass stuff he's done? Email him at kevslane@gmail.com.
