Christian Bale Says If He Keeps Gaining and Losing Weight for Roles He'll 'Die'

Christian Bale has gained and lost weight for many of his movies.

His most famous transformations were for The Machinist and Vice.

But he now says he's over the up-and-down with his weight—here's why.

Christian Bale is known for being an amazing actor, having a Welsh accent, and of course, the amazing lengths he'll go to when he's filming a movie. Bale has gained, lost, and then gained weight again in preparation for many roles, but it seems like those days are over for the actor.

At the Ford vs Ferrari premiere, Bale told an E! News correspondent that age is part of why he's given up on his dramatic body transformations. "I've become a little bit more boring now, because I'm older and I feel like if I keep doing what I've done in the past I'm going to die. So, I'd prefer not to die," Bale explained with a laugh.

It's actually pretty easy to see why Bale is over changing his physique for a role. For his role in American Psycho, released in 2000, Bale got lean and muscular with a diet that he called the most restrictive of his career.

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For 2004's psychological thriller The Machinist, Bale reportedly lost 60 pounds, bringing his weight all the way down to 120 pounds. The actor subsisted only on "water, an apple, and one cup of coffee per day."

Bale portrayed Batman in all three Christopher Nolan films in 2005, 2008, and 2012, and he gained weight and put on muscle to play the superhero. In 2010's The Fighter, Bale played a boxer-turned-drug addict, and he again lost a sizeable amount of weight. That role earned him an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor.

2013's American Hustle saw Bale gain an amazing 43 pounds. "I ate lots of doughnuts, a whole lot of cheeseburgers and whatever I could get my hands on. I literally ate anything that came my way," he told People after filming wrapped. "I was about 185 and went up to 228. I'm still working it off."

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One of Bale's most shocking transformations came just last year with 2018's Vice. Bale shaved his head, bleached his eyebrows, and gained 40 pounds in order to play former Vice President Dick Cheney. As Vanity Fair reports, he also focused on "special exercises that would thicken his neck." #dedication.

Temi Adebowale Temi Adebowale is the Editorial Assistant at Men's Health.