10 december is Batman-dag ! Dat is de dag waarop The Dark Knight op DVD en Blue Ray wordt uitgebracht. Tijd dus voor een gesprek met Christian Bale die de rol van Bruce Wayne ofte 'Batman' vertolkt in de film...

Was there any doubt for a second that you would be putting on the mask and cape again?

Not in my mind. I don’t know if anybody else had a doubt about that. It’s something to ask Chris, if he had a doubt. I didn’t.

Do you feel you were born to play this part?

That’s pushing it to say I was born to play this part, but I definitely only have an interest in playing Batman the way that Chris Nolan likes to have him portrayed. And I think that this second movie has surpassed the first. It stands as a great movie regardless of genre.

Was the suit was a lot heavier the second time around, or was it more comfortable?

It was much more comfortable. It was heavier but it was actually much more comfortable. There’s like 110 parts to this one. There were three to the original. I can move my head. It was more mobile. With the Keysi Fighting Method that we use as the martial art, the suit actually was compatible with that, whereas in the first one I was having to fight against the suit in order to be able to do the fight sequences. In every way it was more advanced. And, also, I think, more in keeping with images that the military have of future soldiers and their gear.

So, the scene in the film in which Lucius Fox gives Batman the new, improved suit is a bit of art imitating life, right?

Yes, exactly. Obviously the suit has to evolve, but there were certain very personal requests that I’d made and I know Chris had been very adamant as well about. We’ve got to be able to move the head. Batman has never moved his head in any of the movies.

There is real interplay between Batman and The Joker. How did you work out playing what seems like two parts of the same personality?

Yeah, absolutely, there’s a great dynamic. The Joker is just gleeful to come up against Batman because everyone else has been too easy. He’s an intelligent, psychopath. He’s bent on chaos and destruction, and if that means self-destruction, so be it. It’s impossible to leverage him because he’s not looking for anything but living in the moment and living in that anarchy. He’s completely uncompromising, as is Batman. But Batman does have this one rule. He will not kill. But he’s in conflict also with himself about how far and how violent he can be because he does embrace violence to an extreme degree. He has to counter that with the altruism of “do good” and inherit the philanthropy of his parents. But, absolutely, the Joker comes closer than anybody has to provoking Batman to break that one rule.

Did you see the characterization of The Joker develop through rehearsals, or did he spring it on you when it came time to shoot?

Well, I knew that the tone of Chris Nolan’s Gotham was one in which we never wanted to have caricatures and we never wanted to the have the actor kind of peeking through, winking at the audience, and showing, ‘Hey, what a great time. I’m having fun playing this funny, larger-than-life character.’ We wanted to stay serious and dramatic with each of the portrayals of every single character. Heath was wonderful with that. He completely immersed himself. When he was The Joker, he was The Joker throughout. He had absolute commitment to that. He portrayed the character in a way that has not been portrayed before. He has this kind of anarchic, punk, A Clockwork Orange approach to it. Heath has done such a damn good job, and if Chris decides to make third movie, he has set himself a real challenge of how do you up the ante with any villain after Heath’s Joker?

In the film, Rachel says something to the effect of “Bruce Wayne needs Batman.” Do you think that’s the case? Could Bruce Wayne be happy if there was peace in Gotham and he could put away the uniform?

I think that that’s what he believes and he wishes for that. He wishes for Batman to become obsolete. That’s why he sees Harvey Dent as a beacon of hope. Batman should not be necessary. In a good, civilized society, Batman isn’t necessary. So, if an elected official can have integrity and can stamp down on corruption and crack down on crime, then Batman is not necessary and he can return to his life as Bruce Wayne, which has become very void. He’s a lonely man. He has suffered a great deal. The more that he commits to Batman, the more he pays a price in his own personal life. But I do see her point because I think he has an addiction to it as well. While his ideal is to leave this Batman creature behind, I think that it has become an addiction. There’s duality throughout everything. And I love that with Chris’s work. I mean, there really are three sides to Bruce Wayne. But then even with the other characters, like with Alfred, there’s duality there. He is Bruce’s butler, he serves him, but he’s also the transferred father figure and a mentor to him. Clearly there’s a duality, obviously, in a very blatant way with Harvey Dent, Two-face.

The people of Gotham appear to have misgivings turning things over to a vigilante. Is that also reflected in real world events, do you think?

Yeah, but I think when there are questionable motives, as well. Absolutely there’s an argument for Bruce Wayne’s altruism and what he’s trying to do. But there’s also an argument that this is a selfish endeavor of him kind of clearing himself of his own pain and anger through the character of Batman. I think that any good story will generally have a correlation to many events that are going on around the world. I also think that with anything like that, I don’t like for filmmakers to tell people what they see as being the correlation. I think that’s for other people to make up their minds.

The film makes a pretty strong statement against invading the privacy of the general public. What is your take on that?

Chris is clearly the one to ask about this but I think that there is a really fine line of what is the quickest way to solve a problem, much as with Batman questioning his own rule. What is the quickest way to finish The Joker and assure that nobody else dies? Well, it is to kill him. However, he is lowering himself by doing so. But the ethical question of would he not be saving others if he was to break his own rule and at what point do they - the principles - become selfish? Likewise with that, clearly there is an absolute invasion of privacy. But is he able to save lives by invading that privacy? These questions are absolutely typical for America today. I don’t feel like it completely takes a stand because Bruce Wayne very much looks to Alfred and to Lucius as father figures and as mentors. Clearly Lucius is saying to him, ‘You’ve pushed this one too far.’

Was it mentally and physically easier this time around, when you know what you’re getting yourself into?

I think that this movie is more about mind-games than the first. Clearly we didn’t want to be treading water. In the same way, with the movie the character had to evolve, and did so in a very clear fashion. It was physically less demanding because I was not coming from such a place of weakness as I was before the first one. Also, just having more experience with the fighting styles helped. I was able to do all of the fighting sequences myself and it was easier because of the Batsuit. That helps a great deal when you’re doing stunts.