Christian Bale on playing Gorr the Butcher: ‘Taika made it bloody hilarious and moving’
Oscar-winning actor Christian Bale is making his entry into the Marvel Cinematic Universe with Thor: Love and Thunder. Bale will be playing the main antagonist Gorr the God Butcher in the Taika Waititi directorial.
In a recent virtual press conference, Bale said that it was a ‘pleasure’ playing Gorr.
“Of course, there’s a great pleasure in playing a villain. It’s a lot easier to play a villain than it is to play a hero. Chris had a much tougher job. Everyone is fascinated with bad guys immediately. And then the beauty of it is that Taika can make it bloody hilarious and then really moving as well. And I don’t know if it’s pushing it too much to say sympathy, but certainly you sort of understand maybe why this guy is making awful decisions,” Christian Bale said.
And, Bale’s portrayal has managed to strike the right chord with his co-stars. Chris Hemsworth, who plays the titular role in the film, showered praise on the Oscar-winning star and stated, “There’s so much drama and insanity around Gorr, but Christian Bale managed to pull the focus right into each moment. You can’t take your eyes off him. The character is fascinating because, like all good villains, Gorr has a point. He may not be going about it the right way, but there’s empathy in the script, and Christian brought so many more layers and so much more depth to Gorr.”
Natalie Portman, who plays the Mighty Thor in the movie, was also in awe of Bale and mentioned, “All of us were actually a little scared in Gorr’s presence.”
This is not the first time that Christian Bale will be seen in a negative role, but it’s certainly his first outing as a supervillain. Now only time will tell if the audience embraces his Gorr as they did with previous bad guys of the MCU (read Josh Brolin’s Thanos and Tom Hiddleston’s Loki).
