Ace in the pack - Christian Bale interview

Christian Bale has been hailed for his brooding reinvention of Batman but insists his portrayal is nothing compared to the unforgettable super villain created by the late Heath Ledger, writes Amy Longsdorf

CHRISTIAN BALE will never forget the first scene he shared with Heath Ledger on the set of The Dark Knight, the sequel to the $371m grossing Batman Begins. Unfolding in an interrogation room from hell, the sequence involved the actors facing off for a tense battle of wits. On one side of the table sat Ledger decked out in the Joker's trademark green and purple outfit, his eyes hollowed out with smudged clown make-up and a slash of red lipstick where his lips used to be. On the other side was Bale, caped and cowled as the Dark Knight.

"It was a great way to start because we were afforded the luxury, for at least part of the scene, of being completely alone inside that room," says 34-year-old Bale. "The cameras were outside and there were mirrors surrounding us. So the two of us were eyeballing each other and any way we looked, we would see reflections of these two freaks just sitting at this table together."

In the movie, the scene awakens Batman to the notion that the Joker is no ordinary villain. The more Batman punishes his nemesis, the more the grinning nutjob grooves on the brutality.

"Of course what the scene reveals is that the Joker is not going to be intimidated with violence," says Bale. "The more Batman beats up on the Joker, the bigger that smile on his face becomes. Batman realises he's just satisfying the Joker with all this violence."

At the same time, Bale received a powerful lesson in the lengths Ledger would go to create an unforgettable supervillain.

"During that scene I was able to see for the first time how Heath was playing the Joker," says Bale. "Heath's commitment was amazing. He received some heavy bangs and bruises – and he loved every second of it. He just adored it and he was egging me on for more. The walls were buckling in from us doing that scene."

Even before Ledger's death last year, The Dark Knight was generating plenty of pre-release buzz. Set in the aftermath of the 2005 film Batman Begins, the Christopher Nolan-directed sequel once again stars Bale as the crime-fighting superhero. Also returning are Michael Caine as butler Alfred, Morgan Freeman as the inventor Lucius Fox and Gary Oldman as Lt Gordon. In addition to Ledger, the new roles include Aaron Eckhart as DA Harvey "Two Face" Dent and Maggie Gyllenhaal as Bruce Wayne's girlfriend Rachel Dawes (played in Batman Begins by Katie Holmes).

After 28-year-old Ledger died last year of an accidental overdose, some pundits began speculating that he had become obsessed with the role of the Joker to the point of staying in character even when the cameras weren't rolling. Christopher Nolan scoffs at such talk. "Of all the actors I've worked with, Heath was one of the easiest, most delightful presences on the set," he says. "He was not evil or dark or intense, when he didn't need to be. He was very kind to everybody around him. That is certainly not the Joker."

Regardless of how he arrived at his performance, Ledger gives an unforgettable turn. A few weeks before the film's release, critics began predicting a possible posthumous Oscar nomination.

Nolan says he was instantly impressed with Ledger's unusual take on the role. "Heath portrays a very human sort of evil," he says. "We needed a human being as well as an iconic presence. Heath spent a lot of time figuring out how the Joker would move and speak. I always pictured that the Joker was cutting through the film the way the shark did in Jaws – and Heath captured that right from the start."

Heath Ledger in his last film

When Ledger was signed on for The Dark Knight, few imagined he could wipe away the memory of Jack Nicholson, who played the same character in Tim Burton's Batman in 1989. But Bale was astounded by what Ledger managed to do with the role. "Heath portrayed the Joker in a way he's never been portrayed before," says the actor. "He's far creepier than anything we've seen in a past. It's a Clockwork Orange-inspired Joker."

Bale has been just as successful at offering up a fresh spin on Batman. With the 2005 film, he was lauded for wiping away memories of such past Bats as Adam West, Michael Keaton, Val Kilmer and George Clooney.

"With these films, I feel like we've gone back to Batman's roots," says Bale. "When I've spoken with friends of creator Bob Kane, they've always told me that Bob meant this to be a very dark character. He always (felt] that Adam West did well but that he was spoofing Batman."

Bale, who has studied the Bob Kane comic books, clearly takes the mythology of the Caped Crusader seriously. Asked to describe his take on the character, the actor offers up a thumbnail sketch rich in psychological detail. "Batman is all about trying to maintain discipline and a sense of order because he has such a temptation for chaos, disruption and violence," says Bale. "He has this great shadow side, born from the pain he suffered after the death of his parents. He has a great need for revenge. His creation of Batman has never been healthy for his personal life. So he has a great capability for violence and he's given himself this one rule, which is that he will not kill. He knows how very easily he could cross that line. He inherited altruism and philanthropy from his parents so he doesn't wish to cross that line. But he's always in conflict with himself about it."

In the first film, Batman battled the Scarecrow, played by Cillian Murphy. But it's the Joker who really seems to get under the Caped Crusader's skin.

"The Joker is the person who has managed to have Batman questioning his own ethics more so than anybody up until now," says Bale. "He's tempting Batman to break his own rules. Batman knows if he could break his own rules, he could possibly prevent the deaths of many other people. The movie asks if he's selfish for holding on to his principles. There's some wonderful ethical questions that come up in The Dark Knight "

Along with the "wonderful ethical questions" are a handful of turbo-charged action sequences. There's a chase scene involving a newly designed Bat-pod, a bloody bank robbery, countless explosions and an eerie sequence of Batman positioned atop Chicago's Sears Tower, the tallest building in the US.

For Bale, The Dark Knight was a much better experience than the first film. Six sequences of the film were shot with IMAX cameras, including the opening six minutes. If that wasn't revolutionary enough, Bale was given a more supple and breathable bat-suit. "It was so much more comfortable," he says. "It didn't give me a migraine every time I put it on. I act angry instead of genuinely feeling the anger. I could breathe much better and it was so much easier for me during the fighting sequences."

An actor since he was a boy – remember him as the 13-year-old star of Steven Spielberg's Empire Of The Sun in 1987? – Welsh-born Bale is renowned for his work ethic. After playing vastly different characters in films such as Velvet Goldmine, American Psycho, Laurel Canyon, Reign Of Fire and Shaft, Bale lost 60 pounds to embody an emaciated insomniac in The Machinist in 1994. Then, in a matter of a few months, he beefed back up for Batman Begins, only to slim down again to play a prisoner of war in Rescue Dawn.

"What we do for a living is completely ridiculous," says Bale. "We call ourselves grown men and yet we're still pretending to be other people for a living. But the more ridiculous I view what I do, the more I love it."

As a young actor, Bale struggled to find fulfilling roles. He can still remember how long he worked to convince the producers of American Psycho that he was the right actor for the starring role of a serial-killing stockbroker. "That movie took two years (to put together] just because they didn't want me in it," he says, with a laugh.

If nothing else, Batman has given Bale a sense of security about his future. "Having a franchise is the only time you can actually kind of sit back and go: 'It's all right. It's going to be okay even if nothing else happens in my career'. I know that, sooner or later, another Batman is going to come along," says the actor who has been married for eight years to former model Sandra "Sibi" Blazic, with whom he has a three-year-old daughter.

Before Batman 3 hits cinemas, Bale is looking to solidify his standing in Hollywood by anchoring yet another film series. In Terminator: Salvation, the third sequel to James Cameron's 1984 action film, he hopes to revive the franchise which made a superstar out of Arnold Schwarzenegger.

"I questioned doing another one of these franchise films," says Bale, who plays John Conner in the movie. "I thought: 'Do I want to do that again?' But what I saw in terms of quality with Batman Begins, I saw again with Terminator.

"Whilst Batman Begins was clearly an origin story – and we were in many ways ignoring the movies that had come before – we don't do that with Terminator. We are staying true to the mythology, certainly to the first two films. That said, there is the opportunity to reinvent and revitalise in Terminator. There wouldn't be a point of making it otherwise."

• The Dark Knight is released July 25

• thedarkknight.warnerbros.com