Christian Bale Addressed Why Some People Wrongly Think He’s American

Bale once said he deliberately tried to convince people he was American, not just through convincing accents in movie roles, but also while speaking to the press off-set. 

The actor was born in the Welsh town of Haverfordwest, Pembrokeshire, but his family eventually settled in England, where he grew up. 

However, speaking to the Press Association back in 2019, he explained how he ‘couldn’t get any work in England’. 

The clip resurfaced on TikTok recently, where many people shared their shock, with one writing: “WHAT HES BRITISH????” 

Someone else said: “No this can’t be.” 

In the interview, Bale explained: “I don’t know what it was about me but nobody would bloody hire me.” 

He said that, while he could get jobs in the US with his own accent, it was ‘always in a sort of billowing sleeve and vest period thing with floppy hair and stuff’. 

Bale continued: “Great, but that’s not what I wanted to do for my whole life. But that was all that kept coming my way, but it was work, and in England it was no work. 

“And so I said I’ve really got to just be able to convince people I’m American.” 

He explained how he had spoken with an American accent during a number of interviews in order to keep up the act, adding that people not knowing much about him is ‘the ideal as an actor’. 

“So it was lovely to see them getting surprised by that,” he said. 

“But what was interesting was a lot of them got it very wrong and they go, ‘listen to his Welsh accent’. 

“Yes, I was born in Wales but I don’t think I’ve got any ring of Welsh in my accent at all.”