TV presenter 'embarrassed' after walking past Christian Bale without recognising him following actor's weight gain

Christian Bale is quite the shapeshifter on the film scene and is well known for his incredible ability to completely transform his appearance for his roles.

But he's so good at it that sometimes people can walk right past the Oscar-winning actor without recognising him - even when they are just about to sit down and interview him.

To be fair, unless you're keeping well up to date with the Equilibrium star's upcoming schedule and who he is gearing up to play, it can be hard to guess what on earth he is going to look like.

He shed 60 pounds when starring in the 2004 thriller The Machinist as a gaunt industrial worker, taking him down to a frightening 120 pounds.

Bale then bulked back up for Batman Begins the following year, while having to revive his strong superhero look and muscles for the sequels The Dark Knight and The Dark Knight Rises in 2008 and 2012 respectively.

He also slimmed down for Rescue Dawn (2006) and The Fighter (2010), before piling on the pounds again in 2013 to play a chunky con artist in American Hustle, tipping the scales to 228 pounds.

But the cinematic legend really proved his dedication to his work while shooting Vice in 2018, where he took on the role of former Vice President Dick Cheney.

He revealed he had been shovelling pies down his gullet to hit his goal weight for the film and to look more like the politician who served under George W. Bush and was a key player in US foreign policy.

Annapurna Pictures

As well as drastically upping his calorie intake to gain another 40 pounds, Bale also shaved his head and dyed his eyebrows to mirror Cheney's memorable appearance.

Wigs and facial prosthetics also helped, but he wasn't donning them when Gayle King - a host on the US breakfast show CBS Mornings - managed to completely bypass him backstage shortly before she interviewed him in 2017.

They were discussing his Wild West drama Hostiles, however, the presenters were more preoccupied with his altered appearance for Vice, which left them struggling to pick Bale out of a crowd.

King confessed: "I'm embarrassed, I walked in the green room and ran right past you and I said, 'Where's Christian Bale? I thought he was here!'

"And they went, 'He is there, in the black and white check shirt'. And I had to go back like, 'Oh, hi Christian Bale!'"

Bale saw the funny side of King's mistake and admitted he did 'look a little bit different' as he had put on 'quite a lot of weight' and changed his hairstyle.

CBS

The American Psycho actor laughed: "It wasn't just for fun that I decided to shave my head, bleach my eyebrows and put on 40lbs. I was playing Mr Dick Cheney in a film which we wrapped last week.

"This [pointing to face] is a canvas, by which these superb makeup artists create Cheney."

Bale explained that he had decided to increase his body mass 'in a smart way' for the role, after yo-yoing between little and large without a lot of consideration for his health over the years.

He continued: "I've lost weight, I've gained weight, I never went to a nutritionist in my life. It was the first time that I said, 'You know what, I better really do this the right way'.

"In the past when losing weight I went, 'Ah! I'll just smoke and drink whiskey and never eat anything.' And it works!

"But I'm in my mid 40's now and I thought just eating cream puffs non-stop, it's not going to be good for my ticker."

King then joked that she knew of a great program called 'Weight Watchers' which she 'highly recommended' for Bale.

Maybe he ended up taking her up on her offer, as he then went on to drop to 155 pounds shortly afterwards while starring as Ken Miles in Ford v Ferrari.