David O. Russell’s next film, Amsterdam, has a stacked cast with Christian Bale, Chris Rock, Margot Robbie, John David Washington, Rami Malek, Robert De Niro, Taylor Swift, and more. In an interview with IndieWire, Bale found Rock to be so funny he could hardly act.
Christian Bale revealed that he was a “big fan” of Chris Rock and his standup, so meeting him on the Amsterdam set was a big deal for him. The director even had the comedian tell the former Batman actor stories without his knowledge, which led to a lot of fun. The problem came when he could not stop laughing at the comedian’s jokes and stories.
“But Chris is so bloody funny and I found that I couldn’t act, because I was just becoming Christian laughing at Chris Rock. So I had to go to him, I went, ‘Mate, I love talking to you, and we have mutual friends, but I can’t do it anymore. Because David didn’t ask me to make this film so he could watch me giggle. He wants me to be Burt, and I’m forgetting how to be Burt.”
Christian Bale couldn’t stop laughing on Amsterdam because of Chris Rock
Everyone has a different process, as Chris Rock and Christian Bale on Amsterdam had different processes to get into character to finish the film. For the American Psycho actor, he isolates himself from his cast, or else he doesn’t “believe” what he is doing as the character and in the scene.
Having laughing fits on the set of Amsterdam is not a first for Christian Bale. Early in the summer, in an interview with Access, as he was promoting Thor: Love and Thunder, he found everyone to be so funny that it took him out of being the villainous Gorr the God Butcher. He is such a “giggler” that “once someone gets me laughing, [I’m] not a very good actor at stopping doing that.”
Christian Bale is one of three leads in Amsterdam. With Robbie and David Washington, the trio of friends gets caught up in a murder mystery as they go from witnesses to suspects. It will be the first film from the director since 2015’s Joy.
You can see how this story, which is based on true events, unfolds with its star-studded roster in theaters on October 7.