Christian Bale reveals shock toll of weight changes

Batman star Christian Bale says his extreme weight changes for roles have left "my mortality staring me in the face".

The 44-year-old piled on the kilos to play former United States Vice President Dick Cheney in Vice.

He had previously gone through extreme weight gain for American Hustle and The Big Short, slimmed down to less than 56 kilos for The Machinist and bulked up to play Batman in the Dark Knight trilogy of films.

He told the Sunday Times's Culture magazine: "I can't keep doing it. I really can't. My mortality is staring me in the face."

He was also stunned when Gary Oldman told him he gained no weight to play Winston Churchill in Darkest Hour.

Bale said: "By this time I'm 20lb (nine kilos) in. I said, 'Wait — none?' I felt like such a t*t, but I thought: I'm on this road; I'm going to keep going."

He added that he feels sorry for his wife, the model Sibi Blazic, who has to put up with his changes, saying: "No matter what happens, my wife's seen it," but said his new look found a fan in his son Joseph, four.

He said: "My son loved the tummy. He would just bounce up and down on that a lot and headbutt it and bounce off it and fall to the floor."

Asked if he would play other politicians, such as Boris Johnson, he said his wife would veto the role.

"She'd say: 'No, we're not having that one. He's not coming in the house.'"