Christian Bale’s Batman Voice Explained [Video]

At this point in time, I imagine Christian Bale as that guy doing a happy two-step shuffle in the back of a bar, after just coming out of the bathroom to see the girlfriend he’s been trying to dump for a year now is flirting with a new guy. In fact, that’s pretty much the scene I picture while watching the video above, which has the Dark Knight Trilogy star talking about everything from Ben Affleck as the new Batman to the meaning behind the recent Bat-Kid event in San Francisco, which pretty much fed the world that dose of hope required to get through another week.

However, in addition to acting like a gleeful ex-boyfriend, Bale also seemed ready to just finish the entire cultural debate about his now-iconic (for better or worse) “Batman voice.” It’s been endlessly debated, criticized, and the parodies may never stop (which of us hasn’t sent a ‘Batman voice’ video message by this point?), but while out promoting his new film Out of the Furnace, Bale explained – pretty much once and for all – where and how his choice in Batman voice was conceived.

…And I get it. I do. Behind all the former pretense of creating different psychologies and distinct characters in the Bruce Wayne/Batman personas, it really boils down to a man trying to compensate for the insecurity of wearing another man’s ill-fitted silly costume. It’s hilarious to hear Bale describe his wife’s initial reaction to his Batman voice (husbands, we all got it the same!) and really this video as a whole just helps to deflate this whole issue – which has been buzzing in the zeitgeist for nearly a decade now.

Now we look to the future, which is all about Batman vs. Superman and Ben Affleck’s take on Batman. We’ve heard it’s going to be a more weary, semi-retired Bruce Wayne (possibly with an army of drones) and that he may have a former sidekick and love interest in his life. Those are nice expansive plot details, but in terms of the choices that Affleck will have to make once he IS in that costume? That will be the big point that finally, inevitably, pushes us all into the new paradigm of a changed Batman.

…By that point, you will probably look and see Christian Bale in a back booth of that bar, happily toasting you from afar.

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Out of the Furnace will be in theaters on December 6, 2013.

Batman vs. Superman will be in theaters on July 17, 2015.