A lot of you would be surprised to learn that one of Christian Bale’s most well-known roles didn’t bring in the enormous earnings we’d imagine would come with it and that he actually made less money than the makeup artists who worked on the movie.
Quite Ironic
Following its Sundance Film Festival premiere, the movie gained a significant cult following, with many admirers praising Bale’s captivating performance as the sociopath Bateman. Although the film gave the actor one of his most recognizable parts, it turns out Bale wasn’t compensated as well as his Hollywood stardom might lead us to believe.
How It Happened
Bale remembered how Leonardo DiCaprio declined the role, which led to him getting it in a recent interview with GQ. Except for the director, he claimed, “nobody wanted me to do it except the director. So they said they would only make it if they could pay me that amount. “I was prepping for it when other people were playing the part. I was still prepping for it. And, you know, it moved on. I lost my mind. But I won it back.””
Bale continued by admitting that he earned “the absolute minimum” for the role and that the makeup artists for the film made more money than he did. “In honesty, the first thing was that I’d taken so long trying to do it, and they had paid me the absolute minimum they were legally allowed to pay me” he continued.
