Among the many roles in his career one of the most infamous for Christian Bale is The Machinist, thanks to the extraordinary amount of weight he lost to play Trevor. Bale's breakout performance was American Psycho, which cemented him as a name to watch out for in Hollywood. Bale was so committed to the role of Patrick Bateman that when Leonardo DiCaprio briefly replaced him, he turned down other work, certain DiCaprio would drop out, and he'd be asked back.

Christian Bale was being heavily touted as either the new James Bond or Batman during this era, but after a run of movies he felt personally dissatisfied with, he took some time out before returning with the 2004 thriller The Machinist — and images of Christian Bale in the movie almost defy belief. Bale played Trevor Reznik in The Machinist, a character who suffers from chronic insomnia. The Machinist was an excellent showcase for Christian Bale as a performer, but what shocked many was his physical transformation.

How Much Weight Christian Bale Lost And How He Did It

Christian Bale Lost 62 Pounds For The Machinist

Trevor was supposed to be emaciated from his insomnia, but while director Brad Anderson intended to portray this with baggy clothes and make-up, Christian Bale's total commitment to the role saw him dieting for months before production. His diet was said to consist of an apple, water, and coffee daily, in addition to the odd whiskey. He also smoked a lot, resulting in the Christian Bale weight loss for The Machinist equaling 62 pounds — or four and a half stone — in weight.

Christian Bale was 120 pounds while shooting The Machinist, and the stark visual contrast to his regular body size borders on harrowing. The Machinist is a great movie in its own right, but it's undeniable the visual alarm caused by seeing Christian Bale skinny to such a degree is the reason it's still so widely discussed almost two decades since its release.

Is Bale’s The Machinist Diet Dangerous?

Christian Bale Took Incredible Risks To Film The Machinist

Yes, Christian Bale's The Machinist diet is incredibly dangerous for the body and shouldn't be recreated or attempted. If Bale was eating only an apple, water, and coffee, that means the actor only consumed roughly 100 calories per day. The average recommended caloric intake for a day depends on age, sex, and health needs, but generally sits around 2,000 calories, meaning that Bale only ate about 5% of the standard.

While Bale achieved this wild transformation under the supervision of a professional, the actor took his weight loss measures to the absolute extreme, and plenty of complications can result from rapid weight loss like the Christian Bale weight loss.

First, cutting out food groups can result in nutritional deficiencies. These can lead to side effects like hair loss, compromised immune systems, and weakened bones. Another thing that can happen is that one's metabolism will slow down rather than speed up, as the body recognizes extreme calorie restriction as a catalyst for starvation mode. Rapid weight loss can also result in loss of muscle, dehydration, headaches, and irritability. The best way to lose weight is slowly over time, with a healthy diet and plenty of movement.

What Filming The Machinist Was Like For Christian Bale

The Machinist Pushed Christian Bale To His Physical And Mental Limits

In the years since the 2004 release of The Machinist, Christian Bale has grown candid about what it was like transforming his body for the movie, and his experiences filming it. Suffice to say it was an incredibly draining undertaking, but one that had unforeseen side effects. In particular, Bale noted that extreme fasting had an almost meditative effect on his emotional state.

Speaking to The Guardian in 2018, Bale revealed:

"It’s an amazing experience doing that. When you’re so skinny that you can hardly walk up a flight of stairs … you’re, like, this being of pure thought. It’s like you’ve abandoned your body. That’s the most Zen-like state I’ve ever been in my life. Two hours sleep, reading a book for 10 hours straight without stopping … unbelievable. You couldn’t rile me up. No rollercoaster of emotions."

However, he went on to add that this peacefulness quickly ended when he'd inevitably have to eat.

Why Christian Bale's Machinist Transformation Was Important To The Movie

The Dangerous Weight Loss Made Trevor Reznik An Iconic Character

2004's The Machinist has become a cult classic psychological thriller in the two decades since its release, and the prolonged success of Brad Anderson's movie can largely be attributed to Christian Bale's weight loss. While The Machinist would by no means be a bad movie had Bale not lost so much weight, it also wouldn't have become such a talking point either.

Trevor doesn't appear to belong to the waking world, and this creates an eerie parallel between his appearance and the way he experiences reality due to his extreme sleep deprivation.

Without Bale dropping to a mere 120 pounds, The Machinist would simply have been a solid psychological thriller, definitely worth a watch but, at the same time, containing little that would propel it to gaining the cult status The Machinist now enjoys. Bale's weight loss in The Machinist is, in no uncertain , harrowing to look at. It's also an apt metaphor in many ways. Trevor Reznik lives life in a semi-dreamlike state thanks to his aggressive insomnia - and thanks to Bale's weight loss, he also looks like something out of a nightmare.

Trevor doesn't appear to belong to the waking world, and this creates an eerie parallel between his appearance and the way he experiences reality due to his extreme sleep deprivation. This, of course, is also down to Bale's performance and Brad Anderson's direction, but the skeletal appearance of Trevor cements the impact and surreal feeling of the wider movie. It also helps to show how chronic insomnia can absolutely ravage the human body, making The Machinist a much more accurate depiction of the condition than, for example, Fight Club.

The Machinist Was Among Christian Bale’s Most Impressive Transformations

Playing Trevor In The Machinist Showcases Bale's Talent

Christian Bale is no stranger to changing his body shape for roles, but The Machinist remains among his most drastic. Previously, he had to pack on muscle over the course of six months to prepare for Batman Begins, where he put on 100 pounds and then had to shed 20 on Christopher Nolan's instruction. For 2010's The Fighter, the actor portrayed Dicky Eklund, a boxer, and lost 30 pounds for the role.

Bale's weight loss and gain formula has seen the actor shoot up and down in size throughout his career, depending on which characters he's portraying. He lost 55 pounds for the POW drama Rescue Dawn and gained over 40 pounds to play Dick Cheney in Vice. Bale also gained 40 pounds to play Irving Rosenfeld in 2013's American Hustle, previously 185 pounds and moving up to 228 pounds. For the 2019 sports drama Ford v Ferrari, Bale played race car driver Ken Miles and lost 70 pounds, 30 more pounds than the 40 pounds he put on for Vice.

While the actor has had various dietary restrictions to lose and gain weight for previous films, he claims he just didn't eat in preparation for Ford v Ferrari to fit in the race cars. According to the actor, his days of dramatic transformations like The Machinist are likely over, due to the toll they take on his health.

Christian Bale In The Machinist Isn't Hollywood's Only Radical Weight Change

Many Actors Have Lost Or Gained Vast Amounts Of Weight For A Role

Christian Bale's weight loss for The Machinist is certainly drastic, but other actors have also put in the work to gain and lose a substantial amount of weight for their roles. For example, Natalie Portman played Nina, a ballerina, in Black Swan. She lost a whopping 20 pounds for the role, and reportedly trained for up to 8 hours a day, eating next to nothing — to the point she weighed only 98 pounds, meaning she lost over a 6th of her body weight.

Jared Leto had two stunning transformations. He lost over 50 pounds for his part in Dallas Buyers Club and then gained another 70 for his movie Chapter 27. Rapper 50 Cent lost over 50 pounds to play a football player who has cancer in the film Things Fall Apart. Finally, Robert De Niro packed on 60 extra pounds to play Jake LaMotta in his older age for Raging Bull. While Christian Bale in The Machinist has probably the most visible transformation, other actors have gained and lost a lot of weight to play their most famous roles.

Where The Machinist Ranks Among Christian Bale's Best Performances

Bale's Oscar Winning Turn In The Fighter Remains His Best To Date

Christian Bale's commitment for The Machinist helped to deliver an outstanding and riveting performance that might be the most underrated of his career. Bale is hypnotic in the movie with his shocking appearance adding to the surreal nature of the film. However, like many of his dramatic transformations, Bale's acting talents go far beyond the weight loss. He makes Trevor a grounded and layered character even within the nightmare tone of the movie. Bale is able to inject humor and loneliness into the performance which makes it so compelling.

The Machinist certainly ranks among his best performances as an actor, but there are two other performances that truly shine at the top of his career filled with memorable roles. The first is his breakthrough performance in American Psycho. Bale creates a truly complex protagonist, not just because Patrick Bateman is a cold-blooded killer, but because the satirical nature of the movie rests completely on his performance. Bale is able to be chilling at times, but also gives one of his funniest performances.

Bale's talent for comedy is so rooted in his characters that it sometimes gets overlooked, but it is used brilliantly in his performance as Dick Eklund in The Fighter, which stands out as Bale's best performance to date. While the sports movie based on a true story is thrilling, Bale's performance takes things to another level, creating the most interesting character in the story. Dickie is funny yet frustrating. He can be destructive and self-centered as well as loving and ive. Bale carries all of those contradictions perfectly, which led to him winning the Oscar for Best ing Actor.