Christian Bale: I was ‘mediator’ between Amy Adams and ‘American Hustle’ director
In addition to starring in David O. Russell’s 2013 movie “American Hustle,” Christian Bale says he served as a “mediator” between the director and co-star Amy Adams.
Bale, 48, told GQ in a cover story published Wednesday that reports claiming he intervened on Adams’ behalf during production were true.
“I did what I felt was appropriate, in very Irv style,” he explained, referencing his character in the dramatization of the FBI’s Abscam sting operation in the late 1970s and early 1980s.
“If I can have some sense of understanding of where it’s coming from, then I do tend to attempt to be a mediator,” he went on. “That’s just in my nature, to try to say, ‘Hey, come on, let’s go and sit down and figure that out. There’s gotta be a way of making this all work.'”
An email emerged during the 2014 Sony Pictures hack between journalist Jonathan Alter and his brother-in-law, then-Sony CEO Michael Lynton, in which the former claimed Russell, 64, “so abused” Adams on the film’s set.
“His abuse and lunatic behaviour are extreme even by Hollywood standards,” Alter wrote to Lynton.
Adams, 48, addressed the claim in 2016, describing Russell’s work ethic as “mania.” In an interview with British GQ, the actress recalled the director “yelling” at her and making her cry almost daily.
“He was hard on me, that’s for sure. It was a lot,” she said at the time. “I was really just devastated on set.”
Despite what went on behind the scenes, Bale said he doesn’t look back on the project with tainted eyes.
“You’re dealing with two such incredible talents there,” he told GQ for the magazine’s November cover story.
“Look, if I feel like we got anywhere close — and you only ever get somewhere close to achieving; our imagination is too incredible to ever entirely achieve it — but if you get anywhere close to it, and when you’re working with people of the crazy creative talent of Amy or of David, there are gonna be upsets. But they are f–king phenomenal.”
He added, “Also, you got to remember, it was the nature of the characters as well. Right? Those characters were not people who back down from anything, right?”