“The Dark Knight” marks a first for Bale: a sequel. Known for his intense performances in movies like “American Psycho,” the 34-year-old Welsh actor had never performed a role for a second time.
“I’ve never had the opportunity to return to a role a second time,” he tells Super. “It’s actually wonderful to return to a role. You know the back story, you know it inside out. I spent seven months as Bruce Wayne.”
It also marks a return to a comfortably intelligent working relationship he had with director Nolan, having worked together in “Batman Begins” and “The Prestige.” In fact, Bale also resumed working with several crewmembers for the fourth or fifth time, in some cases.
Plus, he was sure it would be a good movie. “Chris would never bother to make a second movie if it wasn’t superior to the first one. He’s one of the finest moviemakers around.”
Seeking challenging roles is a natural inclination for Bale, who will soon take up the role of John Connor in 2009’s “Terminator Salvation.”
It’s the size of the role, not the budget of the movie, he says. “I get as much thrill working on a small independent movie as I do Batman or Terminator like I’m doing now.”
Bale says he wants to work in all genres save one: romantic comedy. “I think it’s an oxymoron,” he explains. “I never really found any of them funny.”
Unlike with “Batman Begins,” Bale was already in shape when shooting began on “Knight,” but he opted to go for a leaner look that fit with the new sleeker bat suit. No stranger to physical demands—he lost over 60 pounds for “The Machinist” and performed balletic fight scenes in “Equilibrium”—Bale says he simply exercised until the point of exhaustion sometimes to prepare for this movie.
There are deeper themes in the movie that Bale appreciates. “When we see civilization and societies breaking down into anarchy and chaos, we need to hope citizens can stand up and rectify it,” he says of the need for heroes.
And while he demurs to speak about his own activities, it is well known that Bale lends his time to many causes such as Greenpeace and the World Wildlife Fund.
Shooting in Hong Kong was fun for him. “I had a wonderful time there. I like getting lost in new cities, and that’s what my wife and I did many times, just walk off in the night, get lost and try to find our way back.”
With wife Sibi Blazic, he has a daughter named Emmaline who, he notes, actually believes he is Batman. “She wants to bring the Joker to her birthday party. She’s going to have an unfortunate day when she realizes that I’m not really Batman.”
Maggie Gyllenhaal (Rachel Dawes)
It could not have been easy stepping into a role that had been played by someone else. But Gyllenhaal, 30, isn’t your typical actress.
Aside from the fact that she studied literature at Columbia University and is sister to actor Jake, she also made a name for herself in quirky roles in “Secretary” and “Stranger than Fiction.” She says she didn’t feel pressured when she took over the role of the Gotham Assistant District Attorney after Katie Holmes.
“I’m a fan of Katie Holmes. I think she’s a lovely actress and I thought she was great in the previous movie,” she says. “But I felt it wouldn’t do anyone any good if I tried to imitate her; I think I’d be awful at that. I’d never want to do a role in a movie where I don’t feel free, so I really had to think of her as a new woman in this movie.”
That woman, Rachel Dawes, finds herself between two men in a city that seems to have lost its mind, and Gyllenhaal wanted Dawes to react to that.
“I wanted her to be a real, whole woman with a mind, to be smart and feisty,” she explains. “I wanted her to care as much as the men in the movie do about honor and changing the world for the better.”
That beefed-up role also meant new experiences for Gyllenhaal, as she had her share of action scenes, something she dealt with surprisingly well.
“It’s about doing stunts and a little bit of CGI, although Chris doesn’t like doing that,” she says. “It was so funny to shoot, where you’re pretending to be falling, but the rest of the stuff was pretty real. It was a little bit hard but fun.”
A great source of joy in her life is Ramona, her daughter with fellow actor Peter Sarsgaard.
“If you haven’t had a child it’s incredibly difficult to convey what it’s like to have a baby,” she says. “My daughter is 20 months old, so I’ve been a mom for a while now and it’s changed everything in my life. I never knew I could work so hard or have so much patience or just be so blown away by love.”
Similarly, Gyllenhaal, whose past work was mostly in dramatic and ensemble roles, has embraced her first big action movie with poise.
“It didn’t feel all that different, although it is on some level an action movie and the circumstances are larger than life,” she says. “I think it was important for Chris that everybody in the movie play all the scenes as truthfully as possible.”
Gary Oldman (Lt. Jim Gordon)
He’s played everyone from Sex Pistol Sid Vicious to Dracula and Ludwig Van Beethoven, yet Gary Oldman’s favorite roles aren’t the broad, center-stage standouts, but the seething, sardonic roles of Sheldon Runyon in “The Contender,” Drexl Spivey in “True Romance” and Stansfield in Luc Besson’s “Leon The Professional.”
He also has a lot of affection for Lt. Jim Gordon, the role he returns to in this movie.
“I think Gordon is inherently a good man. It’s in his blood. He’s just doing what he has to do,” he explains. “I think it’s very, very dangerous to be a cop. Everyday, they get into a car and answer that call, they’re being heroic. I don’t think Gordon can do anything else.”
The 50-year-old character actor savors the added weight given Gordon in this installment. “Obviously in this one I have more to do and more responsibility as a character. The arc is more emotional and bigger. There’s a relationship dynamic between me and Batman, respect and quiet admiration for each other. If there is a third Batman, it’ll be interesting because the relationship isn’t public but semi-covert.”
He’s also proud of the movie itself. “It’s shockingly good and, compared to the summer movies I’ve seen, I think it’s far superior—and not just because I’m in it.”
The British actor has made a name for himself in offbeat roles. “I’ve always impersonated people ever since I was a kid,” he says. Being in America a long time has enabled him to develop a pretty good American accent. After having done many smaller films, he easily classifies himself as the kind of actor who just happens to be in a big action movie like this.
There are perks to such an experience, and among them is working with great people, as was evidenced with “The Dark Knight’s” tightly-knit cast. “Between takes, we had a lot of fun,” he notes. “I was particularly fond of Aaron Eckhart. We had some laughs, Aaron and I.”
Oldman, who also played Sirius Black, godfather to Harry Potter in the boy wizard’s movie franchise, will soon be seen in Robert Zemeckis’ adaptation of “A Christmas Carol,” out next year.
Of other roles he’d like to sink his teeth into, “I’d like to play Gene Simmons someday,” he says. I’d like to be in a Western and would love to be in comedies.” He’d also like to direct another movie, after his 1997 debut “Nil by Mouth.”
What he is looking for is a change of scenery. “I’ve played a lot of dark characters as well as wacky, strange characters, but I want to do other things. Sirius Black, he’s Harry Potter’s godfather, he’s a good guy. I’m in ‘Christmas Carol’ with Jim Carrey, and then there’s Jim Gordon. I’ve tried to sort of turn the ship around, but it takes a while to convince people. Maybe now, I can start working on a comedy.”
Aaron Eckhart (Harvey Dent/Two-Face)
With his cleft-chinned, blonde, boyish good looks, Eckhart would seem like an odd choice to play a villain. But in Harvey Dent, he actually gets to play both hero and villain, something he exults in.
“I loved the part,” he says to Super. “I read the script and I loved the fact that I could be Harvey Dent and then transform into Harvey Two-Face, and I feel like the audience can see the human side of Harvey Two-Face through Harvey Dent, you know, the altruistic crime fighter, the man who’s in love. It was fun playing Harvey Two-Face, but I have to say I most enjoyed trying to save Gotham City within the confines of the law.”
The 40-year-old California native underwent a cosmetic transformation to play the part of Two-Face.
He says that his Two-Face is very different from Tommy Lee Jones’ Two-Face just as “Knight” and “Batman Forever” go in different directions.
“That’s his Two-Face and I have his material here to work with and I’m going to do it my own way. I also felt because I have Harvey Dent to play, it was a totally different thing.”
Eckhart said reading the comics really helped him into getting into what Harvey is thinking.
Acting since he was 14, Eckhart gained attention in movies such as “Erin Brockovich.” He notes that the only difference between big movies and smaller films is the amount of money, the size of the toys and the time you have to make the movie.
“But the acting experience is the same.”
Growing up, he remembers dressing up as Batman for Halloween and even having the bat pajamas. “It’s every man’s dream to play Batman or Superman or Spider-man. I mean, if somebody drops out of one of those, let’s talk.”
But he knows comic book movies are big right now. “Superheroes are going fast. There’s not too many of them left, so maybe I’ll play a turtle or something.”
A newcomer to the Batman crew, he nonetheless became fast friends with Gary Oldman. “Gary’s dangerous,” he says. “Sometimes, he should not be allowed to come to the set.”
Eckhart, being a huge Oldman fan, was originally nervous when he first met Oldman: “I think he’s one of the greatest actors alive.” The two spent a lot of time together, talking about acting. Oldman can sometimes be too funny, Eckhart says. “When doing scenes together, I would ask him to leave while we did my part so that I can keep a straight face.”
