They say that not all heroes wear capes, and for Christian Bale, in particular, that statement now rings true in more ways than one.
People may love Bale and deem him one of the greats in the acting arena due to his versatility and range, but that’s apparently not the only thing the actor has going for himself. Unwittingly taking inspiration from the very last act of his titular character in Chris Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy, Bale has announced that he’s planning to build 12 foster homes in California, with the hope of keeping siblings in the foster care system together.
Bale gave the credit for this charitable act to his late father. “I grew up with a dad who was always very active and altruistic,” he explained to The Hollywood Reporter. “And we would be headed to protests and shouting at Maggie Thatcher and stuff. As a kid, I didn’t really know what I was doing, but I loved it, and I just admired the hell out of my dad in that way that he went out of his way to care for other people.”
Of course, people can’t help but notice that this makes Bale the real-life Bruce Wayne.
And to think he once portrayed the infamous Patrick Bateman, essentially the antithesis to Bruce Wayne, in American Psycho. You either die a hero…
This can go two ways pic.twitter.com/2P1Oc2Uaqi
— Geo Gaming (@_Geotherma) February 8, 2024
The “best Batman” debate in cinema is almost as old as the character himself, and the occasional if not inevitable remake always ends up complicating matters further. Just a little while ago, when audiences were about to decide who between Ben Affleck and Christian Bale is the better Caped Crusader, another iteration of the character came along bearing the physical likeness of a very particular vampire-slash-burgeoning arthouse star. But now, Bale has made it easy for us to hoist him up as the best actor to have ever donned the mantle of the comic book world’s greatest crime-fighting vigilante.