In addition to starring in David O. Russell’s 2013 film “American Hustle,” Christian Bale says he has also served as a “mediator” between the director and co-star Amy Adams.
Bale, 48, told GQ in a cover published Wednesday that the reports claiming he intervened on behalf of Adams during production were true.
“I did what I thought was appropriate, Irv’s style,” he explained, referring to his character in the dramatization of FBI Operation Abscam in the late 1970s and early 1980s.
“If I have any idea where it’s coming from, I tend to try to be a mediator,” he continued. “It’s just in my nature, to try to say, ‘Hey, come on, let’s sit down and figure that out. There has to be a way to make all of this work.’”
During the Sony Pictures hack in 2014, an email appeared between journalist Jonathan Alter and his brother-in-law, then-Sony CEO Michael Lynton, in which the former alleged that Russell, 64, “was so abusing” Adams on the film set.
“His assault and insane behavior is extreme even by Hollywood standards,” Alter wrote to Lynton.
Adams, 48, addressed the claim in 2016, describing Russell’s work ethic as “mania.” In an interview with British GQ, the actress recalled that the director “screamed” at her and made her cry almost daily.
“He was hard on me, that’s for sure. It was a lot,” she said at the time. “I was really broken on set.”
Despite what happened behind the scenes, Bale said he doesn’t look back on the project with tarnished eyes.
“You’re dealing with two such incredible talents there,” he told GQ for the magazine’s November cover.
“Look, if I feel like we’ve come close to something – and you’re only getting anywhere close to achieving it; our imaginations are too incredible to ever quite get there – but if you’re even close comes, and if you work with people with the crazy creative talent of Amy or David, there will be problems, but they are phenomenal.”
He added: “You also have to remember that it was also the nature of the characters. Right? Those characters weren’t people who balk at anything, were they?”