[quote]roybot wrote:
DJS wrote:
I remember hearing somewhere around the time his second batman movie was coming out that Christian was saying that he considers bulking up to be harder than dieting and that he didn’t want to do it again. This makes sense I guess as you have to work really hard and eat all the time and a lot of planning goes into it. He hated overeating. Meaning forcing himself to eat nonstop when he wasn’t even hungry. You can starve yourself while jerking off on your couch. Building up your body takes a lot more time comitment. Of course I am not downplaying the mental toughness needed to starve yourself for months on end. But that is what I heard somewhere. Wish i had a link or something.
But to say he somehow damaged himself and now can’t put on muscle is a bit rediculous.
I don’t think it’s ridiculous, and I didn’t say that he couldn’t put on muscle at all - I said that I doubt that he can return to the levels of muscularity he had in, say, Equilibrium, for example. As you said, hasn’t (by bodybuilding standards, at least) been ‘that big’ and wouldn’t require a prolonged period of overeating to return to that size - especially with muscle memory to keep things chugging happily along…
Don’t you think that Bale’s Equilibrium physique would’ve been far more fitting than the build he showed up with in TDK? A build, which curiously, he has had in every film since then up until The Fighter.
It wouldn’t require Bale to stuff his face 24/7 in order to make at least some changes in his body from movie to movie. It’s not as if he hasn’t got the time, money, resources and motivation (TDK and Terminator would have been natural roles to pack on some muscle, but he didn’t bother). It makes no sense that Bale has suddenly decided to throw away years of intensive and dedicated prepartion just because he finds bulking difficult. If they pay him enough money, he will do it…
Ask yourself why, in recent years, Bale’s body never changes from movie to movie- it’s not because of studio pressure to stay lean.
If you still doubt that he’s suffered no ill-effects from dieting down to the level of a third-world refugee (not once, but three times), then consider this:
Years before The Machinist, Matt Damon starved himself to play the role of a heroin addict in Courage Under Fire. Even under medical supervision, his doctor warned him that such a radical diet could be potentially life-threatening. Matt Damon did it once, Bale has done it three times. Damon only had to stay at that lower weight for a short time ( he was playing a supporting character), whereas Bale was playing leads at would have to maintain that weight for months at a time).
Muscle memory isn’t going to do jack if you’ve pushed your body to the point of collapse. Nobody is going to come back from that state of enforced, prolonged malnutrition without having compromised their health in some way. And you can’t say that it wouldn’t effect Bale’s ability to regain/ hold on to mass.
If you still don’t buy what I’m saying, then I suggest you take a look at any picture of Bale from TDK onwards. He just doesn’t look health. He has a gaunt and haggard appearance that can’t be chalked up to the natural aging process…
I want or expect to get into a debate about this: I was just offering up an observation based on a few more factors than a single article in which Bale expresses his dislike of bulking up.
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He looked the way he did in TDK because he obviously felt that is what the character needed at that point after a full year of being out all night fighting crime. I would not use that to say anything else as far as what he can possibly do as far as mass gains. Muscle memory doesn’t disappear because someone starved muscle off.
Also, he is 36 years old and you are comparing him to movies done in his early 20’s. People get older and they don’t look the same. That’s life. It will happen to you too and he does not look in any way outside the norm of normal aging, especially if he lost weight for a role.
