You might recall back in 2014 that footballer Michael Owen famously disclosed (for reasons still yet to be discerned) the fact he had only seen eight films during his 34 years on earth. Strange, yes, especially as he went on to reveal that Seabiscuit constituted 12.5% of his cinema viewing history. But Michael Owen is not a voting member of the Academy nor one of the biggest actors in the world (not yet, anyway), which is why we were rather surprised to discover he has a kindred spirit in Christian Bale.
The actor, who played Batman in Christopher Nolan's Dark Knight trilogy, has outed himself as one of the few remaining people not to see Matt Reeves' new flick about the caped crusader.
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Robert Pattinson's Nirvana-inspired, eye-liner wearing take on the Batman was one that seemed to riff on the mood of Nolan's series of films, and his own take on the superhero felt like it shared some of the moody DNA that Bale's had. A natural question, then, is what Bale makes of his successor's work in Gotham, and on the red carpet at the premiere for Thor: Love and Thunder last night Bale was asked just that.
“I still haven't seen it, I will see it," he told Variety, adding when he heard the gasp of surprise, “Listen mate, it's amazing how few films I see. Every director I work with, I've seen a couple of films and they're always looking at me going, ‘are you kidding?’. I like to really savour films and I don't want too many. But I certainly will.”
The Oscar-winner also that he and Pattinson had bumped into one another and spoken about the role – including the crucial intel of how to go to the toilet in the Batsuit – ahead of Pattinson getting the keys to the Batmobile.
Perhaps it isn't so strange that Bale hasn't rushed to see someone else take on a part that made up such a big part of his career. If actors are strange about watching themselves on screen then it perhaps is stranger still to see someone else doing a version of you. Still, we like to think that somewhere in Chester, Michael Owen is firing up Twitter to remind his followers that he liked to savour films long before Christian Bale.
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