Christian Bale reveals why his fans should never meet him… 17 years after on-set meltdown

Christian Bale has warned his fans not to meet him or they will face 'terrible disappointment.' 

The 52-year-old Oscar winner - who has been promoting his forthcoming film The Bride! - opened up about the topic to Entertainment Tonight during the London premiere of the gothic romance film on Thursday. 

It comes 17 years following his on-set meltdown while filming Terminator Salvation (2009). He had thrown an expletive-filled rant at the director of cinematography who distracted him during an intense scene, which he later publicly apologized for. 

'I'm never cool,' Bale told the outlet. 'Not in those instances. I don't want to meet people I see in films, I don't want to see my heroes.

'I see it in people's eyes when they've watched my movies and loved them and then they meet me and I see their eyes, that terrible disappointment about who I really am.'

The Dark Knight actor added, 'And it's true, what a disappointment. That's me at my best in the movie.'

The star continued, 'Never meet me, and I never want to meet my heroes either because they are heroic in what they do. Give them a break, nobody can be a hero all the time.'

Back in 2009, now-infamous audio went viral which had captured the moment Bale had an outburst on set of Terminator Salvation. 

He had notably lashed out at the director of cinematography Shane Hurlbut for distracting him during a highly intense scene to fix lights on set. 

The actor could be heard saying, 'What the f*** are you doing? Are you a professional or not?

'You're unbelievable, you're un-f***ing-believable. Number of times you're strolling and f***ing around in the background. I've never had a DP behave like this. You don't f***ing understand what it's like working with actors, that's what that is.'

At the time, Hurlbut had tried to explain to the star why he had walked into Bale's view amid the scene. 

But the American Psycho star had continued, 'I'm gonna f***ing kick your f***ing ass. Do you want me to go and trash your lights. Do you want me to go and trash them? Then why are you trashing my scene?'

Bale later publicly apologized during a call to the Los Angeles radio station KROQ and said his behavior and language had been 'inexcusable.' 

'We've all done things we regret or we wish we could change. If you've done something you feel bad about, you have a choice – you can just move on and ignore it, or you can learn a lesson from it.'

The star added, 'The incident was resolved within 30 seconds. But I take full responsibility for it. Absolutely.'

During a past interview with GQ in 2022, Bale was asked if he was 'difficult' on set and the actor replied with, 'No. Not in the slightest. Absolutely not, no.' 

He additionally explained why he prefers to not interact with his co-stars while filming projects. 

'I just have found that there's wonderful actors who chat and get to know each other and hang out and then act wonderfully. And I can't do it. And that's my own limitations with that.' 

Bale further expressed, 'I don't make it into a thing. I just sort of know when I'm going to not be able to separate the person from the character that they're playing.' 

The award-winning actor is known for how he transforms into his characters in films including The Machinist (2004) and The Dark Knight (2008). 

His latest role sees the star portraying Frankenstein's Monster (Frank) in Maggie Gyllenhaal's forthcoming gothic romance The Bride! which hits theaters on March 6.

Other stars that have been cast in the project include Jessie Buckley, Peter Sarsgaard, Annette Bening, Jake Gyllenhaal, Penelope Cruz and Julianne Hough.

The premise is: 'In 1930s Chicago, Frankenstein asks Dr. Euphronius to help create a companion. They give life to a murdered woman as the Bride, sparking romance, police interest, and radical social change,' per IMDB. 

The movie draws inspiration from both Mary Shelley's beloved 1818 novel Frankenstein as well as the 1935 film The Bride Of Frankenstein. 

Bale spent up to six hours getting ready each day as he transformed into the character but the lengthy make-up sessions left him feeling so frustrated, he started screaming to vent his emotions.

The Dark Knight star told Entertainment Weekly: 'I would scream like crazy, every day. Just to [release the] despair, all of that restraint that you have to display when you're sitting still for that long ...

'I didn't want to do it driving into work because I thought I might cause a crash. And I didn't want to do it by myself because I thought everyone would just think I'm going nuts.'

Bale's hair and make-up team started joining in with his screams, with the actor describing it as a 'great bonding experience,' and the group of screamers eventually grew to include more members of the crew.

He added, 'Oh man, I'm telling you, the whole crew got involved by the end, because people would hear us screaming.

'We would open the doors, and gradually, a bit like the Bride's revolution, a few people were going: "Can we do it too?"'

The actor added, 'And then by the end, there were like 30 people who would hear us and run to the make-up trailer to be a part of it and scream as well.'