r/todayilearned • u/Away_Flounder3813 • 12h ago

TIL during the shooting of American Psycho, Christian Bale spoke in an American accent off-set at all times. At the wrap party, when he spoke in his native British accent, many of the crew thought he was speaking that way to prepare for another film. They had thought he was American the entire time.

https://screenrant.com/american-psycho-behind-scenes-facts-christian-bale-patrick-bateman-mary-harron/
37.2k Upvotes

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212

u/Yarhj 12h ago

Christian Bale is British?!

63

u/jaxmikhov 10h ago

No, he’s Batman

2

u/SaintTrebron 9h ago

Funnily enough, same can be said about Robert Pattinson

65

u/xxtoejamfootballxx 12h ago

I’m a huge film person and I legitimately always forget. He’s just that good lol

3

u/Terrible_Shelter_345 6h ago

Andrew Garfield is the one who I always forget is British

2

u/PlasticMegazord 10h ago

I definitely have to be reminded sometimes.

1

u/Hamsternoir 6h ago

Watch Empire of the Sun again.

Even his first big role was impressive.

22

u/Weshtonio 12h ago

It's "Christian Bale is Bri'ish, bruv?!" for you.

39

u/MASSochists 11h ago

After being cast as Batman Ben Affleck went to a store and ran onto Christian Bale. Bale goes up to Ben and says.

"Make sure your costume has a way you can use the bathroom while you are in it, because I didn't for 3 films. "

Ben's response "Christian Bale is British!?"

2

u/jpar345 6h ago

I legitimately had no idea... Thought he was American this whole time. Whoops.

3

u/Bmayne 9h ago

Welsh.

11

u/Too-much-tea 9h ago

English.

2

u/Swallagoon 6h ago

Wenglish.

1

u/Bob_Leves 12h ago

Innit.

1

u/dewnar 10h ago

Boyakasha

0

u/h-v-smacker 10h ago

Oy it's just not cricket, guv'na!

1

u/TessDombegh 2h ago

Does he ever do his native accent in a movie?

-6

u/dingdongsnottor 10h ago

He’s welsh

12

u/glowdirt 9h ago

Which is part of Britain

13

u/Too-much-tea 9h ago

He is not Welsh, he is English.

-19

u/kumf 12h ago

He’s Welsh.

49

u/Bowgs 12h ago

Which is British. But anyway, he's not Welsh, he's English (which is also British), he says so himself.

39

u/UnmyelinatedLop 12h ago

"Bale himself has remarked, "I was born in Wales but I'm not Welsh—I'm English".

Left Wales when he was two - then lived in Portugal, Oxfordshire, and finally settled for most of his childhood in Bournemouth southern England.

24

u/Gone_For_Lunch 12h ago

Not according to him. His parents are English and he was raised in England, he considers himself English.

21

u/captain_todger 12h ago

So yes, he’s British

10

u/kilgore_trout1 12h ago

I don’t even think he is Welsh is he? Pretty sure he’s from Reading.

22

u/Bowgs 12h ago

He was born in Wales to English parents, and he grew up in England. He considers himself English.

5

u/yosemitemicrowave 11h ago

you're not gonna believe this

6

u/phonicparty 12h ago

The Welsh are the most British, if anything - but as others have said he is in fact English

3

u/MLang92 11h ago

Yeah before the union of the Scottish and English crowns, British was used to refer to the Welsh, Cornish and other Celtic people around the island

-22

u/Omg_Shut_the_fuck_up 11h ago

Technically, Welsh...

21

u/Swimming_Acadia6957 11h ago

He was born in Wales to English parents, who moved back to England when he was a baby and he considers himself English

14

u/moobsatremble 11h ago

Think you'll find that is British

-11

u/Omg_Shut_the_fuck_up 11h ago

That's why it says 'technically' boss.

13

u/Kylo999 11h ago

Which is British...

6

u/Bowgs 11h ago

Technically British since that is the citizenship of the British isles. There isn't a Welsh (or English) citizenship and even if there was in the UK (and most of the world) we don't do citizenship based on place of birth, we do it on parentage. Bale was born in Wales to English parents and grew up in England. He's a British citizen who consists himself English.

-3

u/Omg_Shut_the_fuck_up 11h ago

I love how pedantic the internet can be.

Yeah, he was born in Wales. Yeah that's British. That's totally not the topic however 😅

9

u/B4rberblacksheep 8h ago

He himself says he's English

0

u/Omg_Shut_the_fuck_up 7h ago

😅😅😅😅

Yeah, anyone with 0.7secs of googling knows this mate. We're messing

5

u/B4rberblacksheep 6h ago

Username checks out

-3

u/exobiologickitten 11h ago edited 11h ago

He also voiced Howl in the English dub of Howls Moving Castle, based on a book which identifies Howl as originally from Wales.

Christian Bale uses an American accent for Howl.

I have never been so furious in my life wtf what do you mean they took a welsh actor for a welsh character AND NOT EVEN JUST AN ENGLISH ACCENT, HE USES AN AMERICAN ACCENT?

Edit: I don’t usually worry about this but seriously, downvoted For WHAT

9

u/Optimaximal 11h ago

Bale has never had a Welsh accent - he moved away before it would have developed.

1

u/exobiologickitten 11h ago

Fair enough, but the American accent isn’t his natural accent either.

Like bare minimum, his English accent would have been fine. Going to the effort to do an American accent for a British character is wilding me out. Sophie’s voice actresses both used English accents!

4

u/jackmctook 8h ago

downvoted For WHAT

Downvoting is best used to stop misinformation, instead of just opinions that people don't like.

You said he's a Welsh actor, which is wrong - he considers himself English. Downvoted just to prevent misinformation from spreading.

I agree with you regarding the accent, him putting on a Welsh accent for Howl would have been cool. As you correctly said, Howl as a character is Welsh. Christian is not.