Christian Bale Didn't Want 'Fighter' Weight Loss To Go 'Too Far'

Given his penchant for undergoing dramatic physical changes, it's almost expected that Christian Bale alter his body in some way for each new movie role. The "Dark Knight" star's commitment to his craft even inspired Eminem to slim down for a music video (which Bale strongly advised him to reconsider).

Bale's Golden Globe-nominated role in "The Fighter" is no different. In order to fully embody real-life former boxer Dicky Eklund, Bale dropped serious weight to look and feel the part. When MTV News caught up with the actor recently, we asked him if anything in particular inspired him to seek out such demanding roles.

"I have no goal of seeing if I can become invisible one day, eat so little that I disappear," Bale joked. " ... I didn't take this job because I went, 'Oh, there's a physical transformation needed.' I always go, 'Damn! There's a physical transformation needed!' " he admitted. "Again, I just didn't recognize that. I just liked the character and then realized, 'Oh, crap, he's a welterweight.' "

Bale was then faced with yet another weight loss.

"I'm a good 60 pounds heavier than a welterweight. I can't lose that much weight, because I wouldn't be able to box and train and everything," he explained. "I didn't look at numbers, I didn't look at scale, I just went down to what looked like might be the right body type for Dicky and the way that he fights as well.

"I couldn't go too far," Bale added. "Because if I went too far, I'd be able to play the crackhead side, but then after jail, he got clean mentally and physically, and he's always wiry, he's always lean, but I had to be able to show that. So we needed makeup to help me out a great deal with that."

Check out everything we've got on "The Fighter."

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