Going back to the future

Christian Bale is quick to pay tribute to Arnold Schwarzenegger. Photo / Supplied

For Christian Bale, the Terminator movies are a very American kind of adrenaline rush. The Welsh-born actor was only 17 when he moved to Los Angeles to live with his father and further a fledgling acting career.

No sooner did he step off the plane than he decided to check out Terminator 2: Judgment Day at the multiplex. "It was opening weekend and I couldn't hear a damn thing that was said in the movie because everyone was screaming so much," Bale says. "So, it was my introduction to American audiences but also to a movie that just seemed to make everybody crazy in a way I enjoyed and appreciated."

Cut to 18 years later when Bale, 35 and riding a wave of success - thanks to turns in Batman Begins and The Dark Knight - was offered a role in Terminator Salvation, the fourth in the mega-successful series.

"At first, the idea of doing another Terminator didn't seem to be smart to me," says Bale, adding that reviving the Batman movies didn't seem smart either. "But I came to believe that there were some potentially good stories here and that I'd like to see Terminator revived."

The film, set in post-apocalyptic America, 2018 (14 years after the last film), features an army of Terminators who roam the globe killing or collecting humans hiding in the desolate cities and deserts, setting the scene for the rise of John Connor (Bale) to head the resistance in the long-predicted battle between men and machines. The cast includes Helena Bonham Carter, Moon Bloodgood, Anton Yelchin and Bryce Dallas Howard.

When Bale was approached by director McG (Joseph McGinty Nichol, Charlie's Angels ), he was offered the role of Marcus Wright (played by Australian Sam Worthington), a mystery man whose only memory is of being on death row.

Arnold Schwarzenegger was the big draw of the first three Terminator movies. The 1984 original, directed by James Cameron, featured Arnie as a monosyllabic bad guy, the T-800.

By Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991), also directed by Cameron, the T-800 was re-programmed as a hero to combat the even more deadly T-1000 (Robert Patrick). In Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines (2003), helmed by Jonathan Mostow, Kristanna Loken was the title destroyer. Until recently, one of T4's most closely guarded secrets was a cameo by Schwarzenegger. The California governor never set foot on the New Mexico set, thanks to a computer programme which animated footage of him left over from the previous films.

Regardless of Schwarzenegger's easy pay day, Bale counts himself a mammoth fan of the one-time action superstar. "I think it's always admirable when you're the originator," says Bale. "Of course, Arnold has had many imitators and we've sort of moved on now from the 80s and those big, beefy action guys - but he was the first, so hats off to him.

"You look at what that guy has achieved and it's phenomenal. I get a big thrill out of seeing the scene where Connor faces off against the original T-800."

Less thrilling for Bale was becoming an internet sensation after a T4 tirade was leaked to TMZ.com. On the audio clip Bale can be heard screaming at director of photography Shane Hurlbut for walking through his sightline during a shot. Bale's tantrum was mocked on an episode of animated comedy Family Guy and remixed as a club song.

Bale's cast-mates insist that the outburst isn't typical. Co-star Anton Yelchin says: "People don't know how sets work, so it gets blown out of proportion. Christian loves his daughter [4-year-old Emmeline], loves his wife [Sibi Blazic] and loves his job. That encapsulates how he lives his life."

A few years ago, Bale would have seemed like an unlikely pick for superstardom. At 13 he aced the starring role in Steven Spielberg's Empire of the Sun, but a decade later he seemed content to star in indie under-achiever movies, which included Velvet Goldmine, Laurel Canyon and The Machinist.

It wasn't until Christopher Nolan tapped Bale as the Caped Crusader in Batman Begins that the actor's career as an A-lister took wing. The movie's 2008 follow-up - The Dark Knight - netted US$997 million ($1.5 billion) at the box office and surpassed Star Wars to become the second highest-grossing film of all time (Titanic holds the top spot with US$1.8 billion).

Bale is proud of The Dark Knight and its ability to exist on two levels at once - as popcorn entertainment and as a movie willing to probe the nature of evil.

"With Dark Knight Chris managed to delve into uncomfortable ethical questions but at the same time, you can just see the movie as a pure entertainment spectacle. That's Chris' talent - being able to balance and juggle."

Bale will next be seen in Public Enemies, out here July 30, Michael Mann's gangster thriller about Depression-era outlaw John Dillinger (Johnny Depp) and his crew, including Baby Face Nelson (Stephen Graham) and Alvin Karpis (Giovanni Ribisi).

Bale plays FBI agent Melvin Purvis, the man who spent much of his career trailing the outlaw across the country.

Stepping back into time to Prohibition-era Chicago was a blast for Bale. He studied vintage newsreels of Purvis, paid a visit to the FBI agent's son in South Carolina, and insisted on using only vintage weapons.

"It's just a wonderful period in every way but especially in terms of the clothing, the cars and the guns," Bale says. "This was the last dying breath of guns that seemed to have some sort of character to them. I liked to smell my gun after shooting it - and I kind of enjoyed carrying it around with me."

Bale also enjoyed facing off with Depp even though the two shared only two short sequences on film.

"I think that Johnny is a superb actor," says Bale. "What I like so much about him is that there's nobody else like him. We don't know each other in the slightest. I met him at the script read-through where we chatted for five or 10 minutes.

"I had two scenes with him, one in which he was in a jail cell and another in which we were about 200ft away from each other. He was a silhouette in a window that I was shooting at. And then I was behind a tree and he was shooting at me. That was the closest we got to each other that evening."

Bale has yet to select his follow-up to Public Enemies but, unlike Depp, he's never tempted to lighten up and shoot a comedy.

"Hey, look, Terminator is a lighter movie, don't you think? It's not Apocalypse Now. I mean, we intend for people to have a good fun ride," says Bale. "I call that a lighter film. No matter how gray and dark you might want to make it, it's essentially a movie to have fun to. Watch it with a crowd."

* Terminator Salvation is in cinemas now.