With Ben Affleck (and his unfortunate back tattoo) now set to occupy the biggest screens across the nation as Batman for years to come, former Dark KnightChristian Bale is speaking out on his experience as the troubled hero. Bale, currently starring in Terrence Malick’s Knight of Cups as an embattled Hollywood screenwriter, seems to believe his take on the two sides of Bruce Wayne ultimately fell short of his own expectations and below the bar set by his Dark Knight co-star Heath Ledger.
"I didn’t quite manage what I hoped I would through the trilogy," Bale said in a recent Yahoo interview, quoted by the Guardian. "Chris (Nolan) did, but my own sense of self is like, 'I didn’t quite nail it.'" According to Bale, Batman should always stand as this "very, very dark, messed up character." However, Bale admits, he wasn’t quite able to get there after seeing what Ledger had done with his take on the Joker.
"Heath turned up," Bale remembers of the late actor's Oscar-winning performance, "and just kind of completely ruined all my plans." However, for anyone impatiently waiting for Bale to simply slide back into the Batsuit in a future entry of the unstoppable franchise, don't hold your breath. "I’ve got nothing else to offer it," he tells Yahoo. "We did our thing."
Don't look back in anger, Christian Bale. Both The Dark Knight and The Dark Knight Risesstand tall in their legacy.