Christian Bale & Johnny Depp Had To Be Kept Separate During Public Enemies

Universal

Sometimes, to strike the right adversarial or simply awkward dynamic between cast members, you've got to, in the words of The Offspring, keep 'em separated.

Andy Muschietti did this with the kids and Bill Skarsgård while shooting "It," and the young actors responded with genuine terror in their scenes with Pennywise the killer clown. And sometimes the actors remain distant from their co-stars by going method and staying in character throughout the shoot. Daniel Day-Lewis is famous for this, going so far as to speak as Abraham Lincoln when texting with Sally Field during the making of Steven Spielberg's "Lincoln."

Christian Bale is known for going to similar extremes when getting into character. How extreme? Prior to shooting Brad Anderson's 2004 thriller "The Machinist," he dropped a startling 62 pounds to give his character the emaciated look the script called for.

The Oscar-winning actor also took a page out of Day-Lewis' book while shooting Michael Mann's "Public Enemies." Cast as federal lawman Melvin Purvis, Bale thought it would be best if he kept his distance from the actor playing his character's moving target, John Dillinger. And this is how Bale shared a poster with Depp without ever speaking to his co-star on set.

Universal

In a 2009 interview with Wales Online, Bale discussed his process with regards to making "Public Enemies." Since Purvis didn't share a scene with Dillinger until the end of the movie (after the latter has been mortally wounded), it was easy for Bale to opt out of ever speaking with his superstar foil. As he told WO, "I didn't want to talk unless it was while we were doing a scene, I enjoy it that way."

Again, this was easy for Bale because of the way Mann chose to tell the story and shoot the film. Per Bale in an interview with Collider, "[T]he nature of the way that we worked together was very similar to the way of the story. Purvis only that one time caught up with him. Pretty much I only caught up with Johnny that one time. If I was working he wasn't."

Fortunately for Bale and Mann (and everyone else involved in the making of the movie, Depp vibed with Bale's process – which meant the two stars never really conversed during the shoot. As Bale told WO, "I guess I'll have to wait and get to know Johnny Depp some other day."

Did his approach help the film? Though "Public Enemies" is one of Mann's weakest efforts (marred by his decision to shoot the film digitally before the cameras were up to snuff, which, visually, gives the film a bizarre live-sports quality), Bale and Depp deliver terrific performances as the hunter and the hunted. Their paths have yet to cross on-screen since then, so it's possible they're still perfect strangers.