The Christian Bale apology followed a series of events and exchanges
during rehearsals on the set of a new movie, Terminator: Salvation. Bale was obviously angered by
interruptions (for the second time) by a member of the movies lighting
crew.
Below is a slide show with audio of the whole episode (Warning,
contains very strong language) followed by a portion of the transcript of his statements
with the profanity removed:
Christian Bale: "Am I going to walk around and rip your ------- lights down, in
the middle of a scene? Then why the ---- are you walking right through? Ah-da-da-dah,
like this in the background. What the ---- is it with you? What don't
you ------- understand? You got any ------- idea about, hey, it's
------- distracting having somebody walking up behind Bryce in the
middle of the ------- scene? Give me a ------- answer! What don't you
get about it?"
Shane Hurlbut: "I was looking at the light."
Bale: "Ohhhhh, goooood for you. And how was it? I hope it was -------
good, because it's useless now, isn't it?"
Hurlbut: "OK".
Bale: "----- sake man, you're amateur. McG, you got ------- something
to say to this prick?"
Director Joseph 'McG' McGinty Nichol: "I didn't see it
happen."
Bale: "Well, somebody should be ------- watching and keeping
an eye on him."
McG: "Fair enough."
Bale: "It's the second time that he doesn't give a ---- about
what is going on in front of the camera, all right? I'm trying to
------- do a scene here, and I am going "Why the ---- is Shane
walking in there? What is he doing there?" Do you understand my mind
is not in the scene if you're doing that?"
Hurlbut: "I absolutely apologise. I'm sorry, I did not mean
anything by it."
Bale: "Stay off the ------- set man. For ----- sake. Alright,
let's go again."
McG: "Let's just take a minute."
Bale: "Let's not take a ------- minute, let's go again."
Bale: "I'm going to ------- kick your ------- ass if you don't shut up for a
second! All right?"
Bale: "I'm going to go... Do you want me to ------- go trash your lights?
Do you want me to ------- trash 'em? Then why are you trashing my scene?"
Hurlbut: "I'm not trying to trash your scene."
Bale: "You are trashing my scene!"
Hurlbut: "Christian, I was only..."
Bale: "You do it one more ------- time and I ain't walking
on this set if you're still hired. I'm ------- serious. You're a
nice guy. You're a nice guy, but that don't ------- cut it when
you're ------- around like this on set."
The Christian Bale Apology
The Christian Bale apology stated:
"It's been a miserable week for me. I know I have a potty mouth,
everybody knows that now. I have no confusion whatsoever. I was out of
order beyond belief, I was way out of order.
I acted like a punk, I regret that and there is nobody that has
heard that tape that has been hit harder by it [than me]. I make no
excuses for it, it is inexcusable and I hope that is absolutely clear."
Apology Evaluation
Evaluating the Christian Bale apology is a tough one, because the very
same, simply worded apology could have been issued by Bale to cover any one
of the 'dozens' of insults this poor crew member had to endure (in front of
his co-workers), all for simply stepping into Bale's line of vision.
So it's more than a little difficult for the PA team to accept this
particular apology as sufficient, credible or heartfelt -- it is also heard
to believe it would have been delivered had the tirade not been recorded.
It certainly covers some of the right elements but it just doesn't seem
to amount to enough of an apology to cover the extensive collection of
relentless and unending expletives. One could just imagine what this poor
guy must have thought about how this exchange made him look to his family.
