Former Vice President Dick Cheney lived up to his reputation as one of the surliest politicians around with a savage critique of Christian Bale’s on-screen portrayal of him.
“Strangely enough it was through my son’s school,” Christian told Yahoo! Entertainment, when describing how he found out about Cheney’s reaction.
“One of the mums was at a party that [Cheney] was at, and she said, ‘Oh, I’m going to be seeing Christian tomorrow, you have anything to say to him?’ And he said, ‘Tell him he’s a dick.’”
Christian added: “I went, ’Oh, at least he’s got a sense of humour’. And she said, ‘No, there was no humour to it whatsoever.’”
Christian made Cheney appear utterly unlikeable in the 2018 film Vice, for which he won a Golden Globe for Best Actor in a Drama, and was nominated for an Oscar for Best Actor, but lost out to Rami Malek for Bohemian Rhapsody.
The actor admitted he’s not actually sure Cheney even saw the film, but it could be that he just viewed the actor’s Golden Globe acceptance speech.
When accepting the award, Christian told the star-studded audience: “Thank you to Satan for giving me inspiration on how to play this role.”
Vice divided critics upon its release last year, although Christian’s performance won critical acclaim, as did his co-star Amy Adams’, who played Cheney’s wife Lynne.
For his next role, Christian will appear opposite Matt Damon in the new film Le Mans ’66, which hits UK cinemas later this month.