From his bulked-up Batman to The Machinist’s emaciated protagonist, Christian Bale’s transformative performances never fail to surprise – and his latest turn is one of his biggest reinventions yet. In Vice, from The Big Short director Adam McKay, he’s playing American politician Dick Cheney, a key player in the George W Bush administration. For the role, he piled on several extra pounds and donned some serious prosthetics to get under Cheney’s skin – and the results are pretty astonishing. Here’s an exclusive new image from the film, as seen in the new issue of Empire.
We’re not the only ones impressed by Bale’s near-unrecognisable appearance – McKay himself told Empire about his reaction to seeing the actor all suited up. “I’ll never forget the day when the [prosthetic] make-up started to work,” he said in the new issue. “He put it on for a test. He’d gained the weight and was wearing the suit and he did the Cheney walk. I got chills. He wasn’t just playing this guy – he summoned him.”
Read more about Vice and Christian Bale’s extraordinary role in the January 2019 issue of Empire, available now on newsstands and online. Vice hits UK cinemas on 25 January 2019.
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