As Batman in The Dark Knight movies, Christian Bale often gets into combat with evil villains, but his most recent scuffle — caught by CNN cameras — was not scripted. Bale, who was in China to promote the film The Flower of War, was met with physical contact from guards on Thursday as they prevented the actor from visiting the home of Chen Guangcheng, a blind Chinese lawyer and women's rights activist who has been under house arrest in China for over a year, The Huffington Post reports.
A CNN crew accompanied Bale along an eight-hour drive to visit Chen in the city of Linyi, where he's been since September 2010. As Bale neared Chen's house, a number of guards stepped out to stop him from entering. Video footage shows Chinese guards shoving Bale back to the crew's vehicle.
Bale's rep said that Chen's story moved Bale deeply and he wanted to take advantage of his time in China. "He's been following the story and he was just really moved by the story and what this man's trying to do and it's impossible [to see him]. And he thought, he was there for work, and he would try and see if he could help. [It was] just really being moved on a personal level and that is what he chose to do," his rep said.
Bale emphasized that it is not his own heroism that should be on display here but that of the local people. "I'm not being brave doing this," he told the CNN crew. "The local people who are standing up to the authorities and insisting on going to visit Chen and his family and getting beaten up for it and my understanding is getting detained for it, I want to support what they're doing."
In The Flowers of War, Bale plays an American mixed up in the infamous Rape of Nanking, a mass murder and rape spree carried out by Japanese soldiers in 1937. Directed by Zhang Yimou, the film — which is China's official entry into the Best Foreign Language Film category and is partially state-funded — opens this month in a qualifying run for the Oscars.
Watch the CNN video here:
Watch the trailer for The Flowers of War here:
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With that headline, I was expecting some rage-filled outburst like that famous one he had a while ago. But this one seems like he was just trying to meet this guy he admired, and was rebuffed.
That's what I expected too. I'm glad he maintained his cool and didn't beat the crap out of those guys. Plus, that new movie looks amazing.
Wow, he still kept his cool after that and I admire it.