Christian Bale Calls Thor: Love and Thunder Filming Monotonous, Had “No Idea What to Do”

Christian Bale has had a long and exciting career in Hollywood, but he’s best known for playing Batman in Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy. This year, the Academy Award-winning actor made his long-awaited return to the world of comic book films when he played Gorr the God Butcher in Thor: Love and Thunder. The movie currently stands at a 64% critics score on Rotten Tomatoes, making it the lowest-rated Thor film. While Marvel fans were mixed on the movie, it sounds like Bale had a few issues of his own. 

“That’s the first time I’ve done that,” Bale told GQ when asked about green-screen acting. “I mean, the definition of it is monotony. You’ve got good people. You’ve got other actors who are far more experienced at it than me. Can you differentiate one day from the next? No. Absolutely not. You have no idea what to do. I couldn’t even differentiate one stage from the next. They kept saying, ‘You’re on Stage Three.’ Well, it’s like, ‘Which one is that?’ ‘The blue one.’ They’re like, ‘Yeah. But you’re on Stage Seven.’ ‘Which one is that?’ ‘The blue one.’ I was like, ‘Uh, where?’”

When asked about the possibility of playing it method on a Marvel set, he explained, “That would’ve been a pitiful attempt to do that. As I’m trying to get help getting the fangs in and out and explaining I’ve broken a nail, or I’m tripping over the tunic.” 

“I was like, ‘This looks like an intriguing character; I might be able to do something with this, who knows?’ And I’d liked Ragnarok,” Bale added when asked what drew him to Gorr. “I took my son to see Ragnarok. He was climbing like a monkey all across [the seats] and then he was like, ‘Oh, I’ve had enough now, let’s get on.’ I was like, ‘No, no, no. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait.’ I was just like, ‘I want to finish it.’”

Why Does Gorr Look Different From the Comics in Thor: Love and Thunder? 

Gorr’s long-awaited live-action debut in Thor: Love and Thunder caused a mixed reaction from fans due to the character’s updated look. While the character played by Bale was still a part of a nearly-extinct alien race, Gorr did not have the flowing tendrils or a noseless face from the comics. He also did not wear his signature black hood from the comics. Recently, Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige explained the changes, saying they did not want Bale to get lost in the makeup or CGI.

“Gorr the God Butcher has an awesome look in the comics. We wanted to tap into that,” the producer said in a behind-the-scenes Thor: Love and Thunder documentary on Disney+. “But had we done exactly that translation, we would’ve lost all of Christian. So we made the decision early on that we didn’t want him to be a motion capture character. There are incredible ways of doing that, but with this particular actor in this particular character, Taika really believed, rightfully so, that we could achieve that with makeup.”

Thor: Love and Thunder is now streaming on Disney+.