An actor famous for playing disturbed, difficult characters has been cast as the brilliant a––hole of big tech capitalism, Steve Jobs.
Christian Bale, the Oscar-winning actor behind the Dark Knight with a throat disorder, will play the reality-distorting Apple cofounder in a new Jobs biopic, screenwriter Aaron Sorkin confirmed to Bloomberg Television.
Well, yeah.
Whether playing overprivileged white men with a penchant for violence (Bruce Wayne, American Psycho‘s Patrick Bateman) or a svelte workaholic with delusions of grandeur (The Machinist), Bale has the chops to play a fruitarian with a habit of parking in handicapped-only spaces.
Bale was selected from Hollywood’s rich stable of male talent for his ability to say words, according Sorkin, whose script is based Walter Isaacson’s Jobs-authorized biography.
“He has more words to say in this movie than most people have in three movies combined,” Sorkin said.
One need only listen to Bale’s 2009 expletive-filled takedown of a Terminator Salvation crewmember to know how masterfully he’d say words—be he storming into meetings to declare attendees “f––king d––kless a––holes” or simply cussing out a Whole Foods employee for no apparent reason.
(This remix of those words below is NSFW.)
Given Bale’s infamous immersive method acting, he shouldn’t take long to look the part either—all of the part.
Bale wanted to weigh in at 99 pounds for his role in The Machinist. (The fillmakers forced him to stop at a skeletal 120 pounds.) That should let him play the sadly diminished Jobs who fought pancreatic cancer in his later years.
Ashton Kutcher, who played Jobs in a competing biopic project which flopped when it came out last year, landed in a hospital after attempting Jobs’s all-fruit regime.
“I was like doubled over in pain,” Kutcher told USA Today in 2013. “My pancreas levels were completely out of whack. It was really terrifying … considering everything.”
See also: Apple Really Needs To Get It Together
Expect Bale to avoid any time off filming by removing his own pancreas before starting his method diet. (He’ll put it back in later—if he needs it for another role.)
Bale’s portrayal of Steve Jobs will be so masterful, Apple may offer him a job. And given the current state of the company, it probably should.
Lead image courtesy of Lionsgate Films
