Christian Bale has played some tough guys through the years; from John Connor in the Terminator franchise, a whole host of deadly cowboys in various Westerns, and even spending a large chunk of his career as Batman. Bale clearly doesn’t shy away from a fight in real life either, as he recalled a time when he tried to confront someone who threatened him while making the 2000s movie American Psycho.
The Batman actor truly shot to stardom when he played Patrick Bateman in the iconic movie based on a book by Bret Easton Ellis. The thriller movie was highly controversial due to its source material though, and provoked a heated response from sections of the general public when filming was announced.
In an extensive interview with GQ to discuss his career, Bale recounted an incident where he learned of a threat against him, so he went right into the danger zone and prepared for a showdown.
“I remember somebody warned me, must have been a friend of mine who was crazy early on the internet,” Bale said. “He called me up and said ‘There’s some person and they know where you walk every day and you go down this back alley, and they say they’re going to jump on you and rip your cerebral cortex out of your head. So please don’t go down that alley.'”
“So of course I was like, ‘I’m going down that alley, I wanna see what happens.’ Unfortunately, nothing happened. I kept walking up and down it going ‘Where are they?’ But nothing ever happened,” he added.
Thankfully, it sounds like a case of empty threats and keyboard warriors long before we even knew what internet trolls were. We can’t exactly commend Bale for walking into such a dangerous situation like that, but each to their own.
For a bit of fictional violence and scary psychopaths, check out our list of the best horror movies of all time. Or, take a look at our rundown of the best Marvel villains to see if Bale makes the list.