Christian Bale is a versatile actor who is always up for changing his accent or physical appearance, depending on the role, as he does with Vice. The actor — beloved for playing Batman in Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight trilogy and starring in memorable films like American Psycho and American Hustle — transformed his physique to play former Vice President Dick Cheney. Bale gained weight for the role and underwent an entire process to emulate Cheney for the film, which followed the politician during his vice presidential tenure alongside former President George W. Bush.
For many of his past films, Bale has been known to alter his appearance to fit whatever role he played at the time. For The Machinist, the actor lost 60 pounds; for Batman Begins and its sequels, Bale gained weight and muscle to play Gotham City’s haunted vigilante. Vice, the biopic from director Adam McKay, saw Bale portraying the real-life Dick Cheney, and he underwent yet another physical transformation for the role, one that included wigs, facial prosthetics, eyebrow bleaching, weight gain, and more. Unlike previous roles, however, Bale did things a bit differently for Vice when it came to adding pounds to his frame.
Christian Bale Gained 40 Pounds To Play Dick Cheney
To play Dick Cheney, Bale gained 40 pounds for the role. Bale says he had fun gaining weight to play the ex-vice president, and mostly ate pies to achieve his goal weight for the film. By the time Vice had its theatrical premiere, Bale had already lost most of the weight he had gained for the biopic. His weight loss coincided with his next role as Ken Miles in Ford v Ferrari. Bale has spent much of his career oscillating between one body type to another to play a range of characters, gaining weight not only for Vice but for American Hustle, where he went from 185 pounds to 228 pounds.
In 2010, he slimmed down for The Fighter, so the weight fluctuations have always been a part of Bale’s role preparation. However, as Bale has aged, he’s found it harder to shed the weight he’s gained for his films. Following American Hustle, Bale struggled to lose the weight he’d put on to play Irving Rosenfeld, whereas had he been in his 20s, he thinks he’d have returned to his regular weight much more quickly (via People). After having to lose 70 pounds after Vice for Ford v Ferrari, Bale vowed that he was done with losing and gaining weight to play characters in any of his future films.
How Bale’s Transformation Was Different For Vice
While Bale’s weight gain for Vice was on par with what he did for previous roles, the way the actor went about achieving his goal weight to play Dick Cheney was different. For the biopic, Bale actually sought out a doctor and a nutritionist to help him in this particular endeavor. Prior to Vice, Bale went about gaining and losing weight on his own, but the actor realized that may not have been the best way to go about it, especially considering the fluctuations. Gaining the 40 pounds to play the ex-vice president in Vice, Bale had help and achieved his goal weight in the “healthiest manner” (via Men’s Journal).
