Web goes psycho over Christian Bale going psycho

The leaked audio of Christian Bale's four-minute furious rant, in which he managed to fit in the word "fuck" 35 times, is the web's biggest hit this week. The American Psycho star erupted into the unending onslaught of insults, aimed at one of the set's directors, while shooting for Terminator 4. Even in the land of stars, the verbal assault has caused outrage. But on the inside of the industry, a producer tells us that it's nothing unusual.

Although it happened last July, the audio recording of Bale's outburst didn't reach public ears until this week, when it was leaked by celebrity gossip website TMZ. It turns out the incident happened just days before the Hollywood actor was arrested for allegedly pushing his mother (the charges were later dropped). The victim of the verbal assault was cinematographer Shane Hurlbut, who apparently fiddled with some lights on set when Bale was trying to act out an important scene. In response, Hurlbut received a four minute offensive from Bale, who finished by saying "seriously man, you and me, we're fucking done professionally".

Contributors

Butch Kaplan

The 35 fucks in full

"I know the guy who pissed him off"

Butch Kaplan has worked as a Hollywood producer for over twenty years. His most recent films are "Babylon A.D.", "The Assassination of Richard Nixon" and "The Patriot".

This was nothing that we haven't seen before, and in this case, the actor was completely right. I know the guy who pissed him off, and I'm not surprised to hear what happened. He's what we call in the industry a 'tweaker'. It's people who are very insecure about what they're doing that they constantly need to 'tweak' things.

A lot of actors have a hard time getting into the place of the character. You're trying to make it real, you're having a really deep moment, and then there's this guy, tweaking the lights. It's as if he's saying 'what I'm doing is more important than what you're doing - it's all about the lighting'. What Bale said was rude, but what Hurlbut did was so disrespectful. And the funny thing about this, is that Bale was more right than 95% of actors who pull this stuff. Not only actors, but producers, directors. Sometimes they even get into punch-ups, and most of the time they at least storm off set and refuse to come out of their trailer. The people who act up the most actually have the most power; a little tantrum earns you respect here.

However in this case it wasn't a power trip, it was a true explosion of frustration. A case of 'I'm trying to do my job and you're totally screwing me over'."

Butch Kaplan

United States
Hollywood film producer

Webusers inspired by the rant

Amongst other Bale-rant memorabilia created since the sound bite emerged on Monday (including a soundboard for listening to the rant in any order you wish, a song which is sure to hit the clubs by the weekend, and a t-shirt "for those who shan't be working together with him again"), here are some of the best results: