Source:
Pathe Date: 14th August, 2006 Posted by:
Paul Heath
Life
couldn't be better for Christian Bale, after all he IS Batman, and he gets to
return as the Dark Knight in the sequel to BATMAN BEGINS in 2008, which has already
been confirmed as actually being called THE DARK KNIGHT.
This
month sees Bale take on HARSH TIMES, an urban LA-set drama by David Ayer, who
wrote the script for Training Day. Bale plays Jim Davis, an ex-Army Ranger with
dreams of joining the LAPD. When he’s rejected, he begins to unravel, taking
his friend Mike (Freddy Rodriguez) with him for a walk on the wilder side of the
city.
Q: How did
Harsh Times come about?
BALE:
I read it back in 2002. I met with Dave and we sat for about five hours –
lots of Bloody Marys were drunk! At the time I think it was with a studio, and
he was being told who he could cast and I wasn’t on that list. So that was
how it was left, and then I was making Batman and I’d always kept Harsh Times
on my radar, wanting to know if it picked up again. Dave had been – I don’t
want to put words in his mouth – disillusioned by the experience with the
studio and had taken it away. He always planned on making it but he realised he
had to do it himself and be the boss. I just gave him a call while I was doing
Batman, and said, ‘What’s going on with it?’ I was thinking that
maybe if it was now with a studio they’d give the nod for me. I didn’t
have to worry about that, because Dave was doing it independently…
Q:
Was the intimacy of Harsh Times, compared to something like Batman Begins, one
of the main attractions?
A:
I wanted to do Harsh Times way before Batman, but it was antithesis of filming
Batman. It was just right in that moment.
Q:
Do you see any relationships to Harsh Times and David’s earlier film Training
Day?
A: I
can’t remember the whole time-line but of course there’s a relationship
there…I think he wrote Harsh Times first and had always kept in his pocket
as something he wanted to save for himself later. I think that whilst the backdrop
of LA, the two-hander structure and it being set on the move, is all similar,
for myself – though I loved Training Day – Harsh Times somehow hooked
me more. Like Dave said, Harsh Times is like a piece of his soul.
Q:
Did David Ayer have many similar experiences to those shown in Harsh Times?
A:
Yeah, it’s based upon his own experiences. I started with Jim as being Dave,
and then took it to another place myself. But that was always the foundation –
Dave himself. It was pretty nice having the research material right there directing
you!
Q: Do
you see the similarity of Harsh Times to John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men
– notably with the ending?
A:
Absolutely, yeah. Though it wasn’t something Dave mentioned until I mentioned
it. He had always known it, always thought it, but it was a little too literary
for Dave to discuss! He’s much like Jim. There’s an awful lot underneath
the surface there that he doesn’t often reveal. Part of that, in the atmosphere
we were working in, discussing something as literary as Of Mice and Men just wasn’t
really appropriate at the time.
Q:
What do you think the film says about LA?
A:
Well, LA is a hell of a city. It’s really just a lot of neighbourhoods that
happen to be next to each other. So many different lifestyles all playing out
right alongside each other. It’s not an LA that I see every day…well,
that’s not true. You see it every day. I don’t live in it at all. But
it’s right there…
Q:
So how was that experience on The Prestige, given it’s by Chris Nolan, your
director on Batman Begins?
A:
Chris didn’t want anything to be the same as Batman. He wanted to be able
to spin on a dime with The Prestige. To have that feeling in the movie, and in
the way that we made it. Making a movie like Batman is like being the captain
of a tanker, an ocean liner. It’s got incredible force, but you try turning
that bugger around and it takes hours to do so! And it’s nice working with
people that you know well. It really cuts time down.
Q:
You’re also in Todd Haynes’ Bob Dylan film, I’m Not There…do
you have more fun than your character did in Velvet Goldmine?
A:
Well, it’s a Todd Haynes movie…I don’t really know what I’m
going to be doing.
Q:
Are you a Dylan fan?
A:
I’ve found through starting to put pieces together on this project…I’ve
found that I am. I never really was. I never really looked or listened too much.
It was always there – a foundation of modern music. For me, Dylan, The Beatles…too
many people said I should listen, I should like. And it makes you go ‘Forget
it’ but I’m definitely finding that I am.
HARSH
TIMES opens in the UK on Friday 18th August and the US on September 8th.
