Christian Bale Once Fell Asleep Filming A Batman Begins Scene
It's no secret that Christian Bale takes his roles seriously. So seriously, that he'll commit to massive weight changes to help get into character — a practice he said he's finished with as of 2019. The actor famously shed almost all his body fat to play the sleep-deprived 121-pound protagonist of "The Machinist" before bulking up to 240 pounds to take on the role of the Dark Knight in 2005's "Batman Begins." Since then he's fluctuated in weight with every role he's taken. Bale once again packed on the pounds to play Dick Cheney in 2018's "Vice," then immediately dropped 40 pounds to play British racing driver Ken Miles in "Ford v Ferrari" — prompting his co-star Matt Damon to praise his "monk-like discipline."
And his commitment to roles extends beyond weight fluctuations. For 2022's "Amsterdam," Bale became a bit of a stalker after seeing a man on the street whose movements he wanted to mimic for his role as injured war vet Burt Berendsen. Even back in 2000, when Bale was preparing for what became a breakout role in "American Psycho," the actor's commitment to becoming Patrick Bateman bordered on obsession.
Taking all that into account, then, it's not all that surprising to hear that he was once exhausted enough to actually fall asleep on set while shooting "Batman Begins."
Taking a Bat-nap
In 2005, Christopher Nolan successfully rebooted the Batman franchise following the disaster that was 1997's "Batman & Robin." In the interim, there had been multiple unrealized attempts to revitalize the series, including a script entitled "Batman: DarKnight" that would have been completely different from "Batman & Robin." And even though Warner Bros. developed that particular project for two years, the studio ultimately decided on a hard reset, allowing Nolan to tell his grounded Batman origin story.
But rebooting Batman would prove quite tough. While filming in Iceland, Christian Bale and Liam Neeson had to fight on a frozen lake that kept threatening to crack. Elsewhere, the production shot in 75 mph winds for one sequence, and built entire Gotham City sets at Shepperton Studios and in an airship hangar. Though it was worth it in the end, the "Batman Begins" shoot was by no means easy.
Meanwhile, Bale wasn't having the easiest time either. Having rebuilt his body after "The Machinist," he was asked by Christopher Nolan to shed 40 pounds to better fit the director's vision of Batman/Bruce Wayne. Couple that with the intense training he underwent for the role, and you could understand if he might have been feeling the strain a bit. Which is probably why he dropped off during a scene with Morgan Freeman and Michael Caine. As Bale told Uproxx:
"In the scene, I was meant to be waking up, so I laid down and just fell asleep. And I didn't hear 'action.' So, Michael and Morgan were talking, and I was supposed to join in. I woke up with Michael Caine poking me in the ribs and going, 'Look at that! He's bloody fallen asleep, hasn't he? He's bloody fallen asleep!'"
Bale isn't the first actor to fall asleep on set
While it might be unusual, actors falling asleep on set isn't unheard of. Adam Sandler told Conan how when he and Norm Macdonald were filming 1994's "Billy Madison," Sandler delivered a line and waited for Macdonald's reply but there was "a little bit of a delay." After a few seconds, it became obvious that Macdonald had passed out, which he attributes to taking the role of "drunk" a little too seriously.
Elsewhere, during a press conference for the 2021 comedy "New Year's Eve," Hilary Swank revealed that during her scene with Robert DeNiro, the veteran star dozed off:
"He was laying there and he saw me, and then he shut his eyes, and I was thinking, 'Wow, he's giving it to me. We're connected here. We are connected. Me and DeNiro are method.' I started getting a little emotional [...] The next thing I know, he's like, 'Anyone got that coffee?' I was like, 'Oh, my god, he was sleeping!' I thought he was going deep for me. The truth is, he'd been in that bed all day and he took a nap."
This kind of thing is probably a lot more common than you might think. After all, it's not like filming schedules are designed to give all the actors the best night's sleep they could possibly have. But whereas Macdonald was hung over and DeNiro was, y'know, really old, Bale was just seemingly knackered. Considering getting into character is such a grueling process for the actor, coupled with his Batman training and what must have been some serious pressure to pull off the role of Bruce Wayne/Batman, I say Michael Caine should have let the poor man sleep.