Christian Bale goes NUTS!

**rasskul** Sat Feb 07, 2009 1:38 am

In July 2008, it was reported that Bale had an angry tirade on the set of Terminator Salvation, while filming in New Mexico.[53] In February 2009, audio of the incident was released.[54][55] The tirade was directed at Shane Hurlbut, director of photography for the film, and was triggered by Hurlbut stepping on to the set across Bale's line of sight during a scene.[56][57][53] The recording is of a highly agitated Bale directing profanities at Hurlbut, threatening him, and finally threatening to quit the film if Hurlbut repeated his offence without being fired for it.[56] It was reported that Warner film executives sent the tape to the insurer of the film in case Bale decided to quit the movie.[58] In an interview with E! Online, assistant director and producer of Terminator Salvation, Bruce Franklin, said it was an isolated incident. "If you are working in a very intense scene and someone takes you out of your groove...It was the most emotional scene in the movie," said Franklin. "And for him to get stopped in the middle of it. He is very intensely involved in his character. He didn't walk around like that all day long. It was just a moment and it passed."[59]

Actors Whoopi Goldberg and Terry Crews,[60][61] directors Darren Aronofsky[62] and Ron Howard, as well as Ain't It Cool News website creator Harry Knowles[63] have also publicly defended Bale's actions. Lucian Piane, a composer and music producer with the Internet alias RevaLucian, recorded "Bale Out", a comedic techno remix of Bale's verbal rant, which received more than 200,000 hits on MySpace and YouTube in one day.[64] Stephen Colbert parodied the incident on the 4 February 2009 episode of The Colbert Report, in which guest Steve Martin repeatedly walked in front of the camera and was berated by Colbert.[65]

After remaining silent for most of the week, Bale gave a public apology on the morning of 6 February 2009, on radio station KROQ. He stated that the outburst was "unexcusable" and that it was caused by the day's shooting intensity.[66] Bale said he "acted like a punk", and that he and Hurlbut talked after the incident and "resolved this completely".[67] Bale acknowledged that the two worked together for several hours after the incident, and "at least a month after that". He noted, "I've seen a rough cut of the movie and he has done a wonderful job. It looks fantastic."[67]