Christian Bale has a bit of a reputation. He's a serious actor. He's intense. And sometimes that intensity has gotten him into trouble. This includes what went down on the Terminator: Salvation set. Ultimately, Christian's actions doomed the possibility of a direct sequel to that series. Even still, people want to work with him. He can't be all that bad. And most importantly... Christian Bale is one of the best actors of his generation.
So, there's no wonder why Steve Carell was nervous to work with him in 2015's The Big Short, a brilliant ensemble film about the behind-the-scenes of the 2007 financial crash of the housing market. The project was filled with massive names including Ryan Gosling, Brad Pitt, Marisa Tomei, Margot Robbie, Melissa Leo, and Succession's Jeremy Strong.
But Steve was mostly concerned about Christian...
Even big stars can be nervous to work with other major celebrities. Ironically, Timothee Chalamet was terribly nervous to work with Steve Carell himself on Beautiful Boy. So, even The Office's Michael Scott strikes terror in some people's eyes.
But Christian Bale is Batman... and you don't get much more intimidating than The Dark Knight.
However, Steve Carell was more specific about why he was so on-edge to work with the Batman Begins star...
It All Came Out In An Interview
While being interviewed by Good Morning America on ABC News, Steve Carell revealed that he (as well as some of the other actors) were a tad nervous about coming onto the set with Christian there. Actually, they were even intimidated coming on after he was there.
Before Steve started on the movie, he would call director Adam McKay and asked him how the early part of the shoot was going. And all Adam would do was praise Christian Bale and just say how amazing of a job he was doing.
"I'd call Adam and ask 'how's it going?'..." Steve told George. "And he'd go, 'oh my god, Christian Bale is incredible.' And I'm back in L.A. going 'Oh, oh no'. I mean, I'm in a movie with Christian Bale, are you kidding me?"
"You know, everyone had that reaction," director Adam McKay cut in during the interview which also featured Christian Bale and Ryan Gosling. "Because the first two weeks were all Christian. And the crew and all of us fell in love with Christian. Stupidly, I would tell these guys that."
Adam went on to say that he would tell Steve and Ryan that Christian was so "grounded and specific and so collaborative. He just looks beautiful." Basically, it was everything another actor wouldn't want to hear if they were remotely insecure about acting opposite a titan like The Fighter star.
This is especially true for Steve since the last movie he did with Adam McKay was Anchorman... which definitely had a different vibe and sense of expectations than The Big Short.
Christian Put A Lot Of Effort Into His Character
Not unlike every single role Christian Bale has ever done, he put a ton of work into breathing life into the real-life character he played in The Big Short. That would be Michael Burry, an eccentric hedge fund manager that discovered that the American housing market was utterly unstable. Michael found a way to defy experts and create a credit default swap market that allowed him to bet against market-based mortgage securities... this made him a ton of money.
"Mike was very understanding for the need for license," Christian told the interviewer about how he breathed life into his character. "I was very surprised about how understanding he was of that. You want to stay absolutely truthful to him because he is such a fascinating character."
All of this kind of talk is clearly part of why Steve Carell was so nervous about coming onto the set. Christian Bale is a heavy hitter and that means Steve needed to step up his game to be able to play in the same ring as him.
There's no doubt that Steve channeled some of these feelings into the tense, frustrated, and fiery character of Mark Baum, another character based on a real-life person wrapped up in the massive financial turmoil of 2007/2008. Most critics, including at Indie Wire and The Guardian praised Steve's performance even though the film itself wasn't for everyone. It still managed to be nominated for a couple of Academy Awards though. It only managed to win one, however. That was for Best Adapted Screenplay.
Regardless, it definitely appears as though everything worked out for Steve Carell in the end. Nowadays, he's typically featured in more serious roles alongside some other incredible actors like Christian Bale.
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