Christian Bale is certainly living up to the idea that he lives long enough being the hero only to see himself become the villain. And after playing Batman for an entire trilogy, the actor is now playing the tragic villain Gorr the God Butcher in “Thor: Love and Thunder.”
In “Thor: Love and Thunder,” Gorr and his daughter are the last two survivors of a barren planet without water or sustenance. Though the golden gods they pray to do not help, their faith remained unshaken. That is until Gorr discovers that the gods his people prayed to existed but chose not to help them. Anger by their apathy, Gorr kills his people’s god with the all-powerful Necrosword. He then vows to kill all the other gods, including those on New Asgard.
That’s It LA joined their fellow journalists at the “Thor: Love and Thunder” virtual press conference to talk to Bale about his new role as the tragic villain on a vengeful mission.
Bale had a few thoughts on why Marvel Studios approached him for the role of Gorr. “I think in Gorr, they look for an actor, polar opposites, someone not relatable, a bit of a loner, creepy, that no one no one wants to be around. And nobody wants to see his ass, Bale said. “And so I think they went yeah, ‘we found that in Bale.’”
All joking aside, playing the villain is new territory for Bale, who is best known for playing Bruce Wayne, aka The Batman, in “The Dark Knight Trilogy.” But he immediately recognized why so many people like the bad guy. “Look, 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,” Bale continued. “You know, everyone is fascinated with bad guys immediately. The beauty of it is that Taika can make it bloody hilarious and then really moving as well in this story.”
So, what makes Gorr so fascinating in “Thor: Love and Thunder” is that while the character is fantastical, there is still an element of truth in losing faith that makes the tragic villain more human. “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, you know, and he is a monster, and he is a butcher, but is possibly a little understanding of why he came to be,” Bale said.
As to what Chris Hemsworth, who plays Thor again, thought of Gorr as “Thor: Love and Thunder’s” antagonist, it’s his favorite in the entire MCU, and he says he’s loved everyone he’s worked with. “This was particularly special and had a lot to do with what Christian said before. There’s an empathetic quality. There’s a vulnerability, you kind of find yourself going, ‘what he’s doing is wrong, but I get the sort of the motivation behind it,’” Hemsworth said. “And every time we work with someone, a different character that brings different things out, and that was the case here. And Christian did an incredible job.”
“Thor: Love and Thunder” opens in theaters on July 8, 2022.
