The Hilarious Reason Why Christian Bale Did His Batman Movie Interviews Without His Real Accent

Christian Bale reinvented the Dark Knight with "Batman Begins" back in 2005, playing what was arguably the most nuanced, multi-layered version of the character yet seen on the big screen. He also gave us his now infamous Batman growl, etching the phrase "Swear to me!" into the memories of an entire generation. It seems his commitment to the character's vocals also extended beyond the set, with Bale conducting interviews in an American accent rather than his regular British one so as not to confuse audiences who might have thought the new Batman was from Blighty.

Almost two decades later, "The Dark Knight" is somehow better than you remember. But while that 2008 sequel might get all the praise, "Batman Begins" remains the best of the "Dark Knight" trilogy. Not to take anything away from Heath Ledger's enduringly brilliant performance as the Joker in the follow-up, but "Batman Begins" melded the very best of Batman's own history and iconography with Christopher Nolan's directorial flair to create something that felt entirely fresh.

It helped, of course, that Christian Bale brought an entirely new energy to the role of Bruce Wayne/Batman. With "Batman Begins" we saw the playboy Bruce persona put to use for the first time, alongside a real exploration of the character's grief and just what it means to be Batman — a symbol, incorruptible, everlasting. Bale clearly took the job seriously, not only in his portrayal. The actor is known for his commitment to roles, and in this case, he carried that with him into the press tour for "Batman Begins," where he maintained his American accent out of respect for Batman's origins.

During an interview with Blackfilm.com to promote "Batman Begins," Christian Bale was asked about using his accent in the interview itself and replied by explaining that he wanted to preserve the American-ness of the Dark Knight. "I just feel that Batman is such an American character," he said, "that in representing him in doing the interviews I don't want to be sounding English because that would be peculiar. I would expect people to be saying, 'What the hell is going on? Why do we have an English Batman?'"

Christopher Nolan's Dark Knight trilogy seemed to prompt quite a bit of accent-related confusion. Tom Hardy famously gave us one of his best weird accents as Bane in 2012's "The Dark Knight Rises," prompting some controversy when test audiences claimed to be unable to understand what on earth he was saying. Elsewhere, Michael Caine's Alfred Pennyworth delivered several monologues in which he seemed to embrace his unmistakably clipped Cockney pronunciation to the extent that it verged on parody.

Vocal controversies aside, there's no arguing with the reputation of Nolan's movies. Though it has to be said that Bale is expecting audiences not to understand that actors can affect accents other than their own seems sort of silly.