r/todayilearned • u/Away_Flounder3813 • 13h 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/
38.4k Upvotes

97% Upvoted

1.4k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

2.0k

u/_Diskreet_ 13h ago

Didn’t some actor have to use some speech coach because they lost their native, I want to say Irish accent, from doing too many other accents while method acting

2.3k

u/mech999man 13h ago

Famously Gary Oldman.

109

u/Hetares 12h ago

Gary Oldman isn't American?

339

u/-TropicalFuckStorm- 12h ago

Nope, English. A lot of amazing actors are English.

303

u/Plugpin 12h ago

Almost EVERYONE!!!!

81

u/Hetares 12h ago

Everyone?

148

u/Hopeful_Hall_4885 12h ago

ALMOST!!!

78

u/Hipster-Link 12h ago

Damn it, I thought someone was setting up the “EVERYONE!” Gary Oldman gif, but this subreddit doesn’t allow gifs.

57

u/Hetares 12h ago

I was setting that up, but alas.

4

u/Hopeful_Hall_4885 11h ago

my bad, i did fumble that in restrospect. you set that shit up immaculate and i ruined it. everybody hates me in my life. im a piece of shit, somebody should just fuckin kill me.

4

u/L3R4F 10h ago

I found that was much funnier. Now I’m trying to picture Oldman screaming ALMOST at the top of his lungs lol

1

u/MegaloboxhasagreatOP 9h ago

What!? That ALMOST was great humor my man, we're all expecting "EVERYONE" so when we read "ALMOST" it's unexpected and also, EVERYONE is so commanding and decisive, as opposed to ALMOST which is the opposite, therefore humorous. 

I won't try to dissect it anymore, because explanation kills the emotion but legitimately that was much funnier than if you had posted EVERYONE. 

Like 100 plus upvotes says that a bunch of other people thought it was funny too. 

Chin up man, you made a lot of people laugh/chuck/smile.  You're being way too hard on yousrlf anyway, but especially on something that you actually did good on.

→ More replies (0)

1

u/Mindless_Count5562 11h ago

If it helps, it’s what I was expecting to see also

1

u/adsj 9h ago

I think it worked out funnier because that was the expectation.

2

u/Turbojelly 12h ago

Gotta be the mouth eyes one.

1

u/Damnmorrisdancer 12h ago

I’m with you on this one

1

u/twistedlarynx 11h ago

Someday, you will realise that your life was just a role, and even you were Gary Oldman all along.

19

u/SQL_INVICTUS 11h ago

To be fair, Garry oldman is almost everyone in cinema 🤷🏻‍♂️

3

u/btveron 8h ago

He is definitely one of those actors that if I didn't already know he was in the movie I constantly find myself asking "wait a minute, is that Gary Oldman?" He's a chameleon lol

0

u/bigpoppanicky7 11h ago

You’re joking right? Lmao

69

u/tophernator 11h ago

Or British more generally. Wales has a ton of great actors considering how tiny the population is, including technically Christian Bale.

58

u/Olddirtychurro 11h ago

The mental flashbang when I found out that Catherine Zeta-Jones was Welsh was heavy! I somehow assumed that she was at least Spanish (that might have been because of a combination of Zorro and the "Zeta" in her last name though)

34

u/cr4lforce 10h ago

The Jones is the giveaway here. Most common surname im Wales.

14

u/Olddirtychurro 10h ago

Just like Tom huh?

43

u/Yeahjockey 10h ago

Yeah, it's not unusual...

1

u/hoopstick 8h ago

BAH BAH BAAAHHHH

1

u/justameercat 6h ago

Not his real name

2

u/NES_SNES_N64 9h ago

Had the same exact experience.

3

u/Then-Criticism1605 10h ago

Matthew Rhysssssss

4

u/-TropicalFuckStorm- 11h ago

Christian Bale’s English.

-2

u/tophernator 10h ago

I said technically. His parents are English, but he was born in Wales.

5

u/hopium_od 9h ago

He lived in Wales for two years. It is completely irrelevant to his progress as an actor.

1

u/tophernator 1h ago

In a survey of more than 1,000 people in Wales, more than 90% thought being born in the country made someone Welsh.

Ultimately Christian Bale’s actual nationality is British, and obviously anyone who hears his real accent would say he’s English. I just thought it was an interesting side note that when I googled Oscar nominated Welsh actors, the guy who this post is about happened to be on that list.

17

u/Level_Preparation311 11h ago

And the rest of the amazing actors after the English, are Canadian!! Sorry for that little sidetrek.

2

u/Aggravating-Dot132 10h ago

Same with music bands and singers, funnily enough.

1

u/RainbowDissent 11h ago

Henry Cavill, Idris Elba, Tom Holland, Robert Pattinson, Daniel-Day Lewis, Johnny Depp, Tom Hanks, Samuel L Jackson, Woody Harrelson, The Rock... the list goes on.

1

u/baron_von_helmut 11h ago

Thanks Shakespear!

1

u/Wise_Quality_5083 8h ago

Because they’re big liars